It’s my tradition at year’s end to review the most visited, commented, and liked posts I published all year. It always surprises me which posts get the most attention.
Garrett at rest
But as usual, none of my personal favorite posts made the cut. So here are what I think are my five best posts of 2017. I hope you’ll have another look at them; I really put my heart into them.
- Memories lost, memories created, memories kept – Photographs I made of my sons as they grew up, and how those photograph anchor memories of our times together.
- Knowing when to quit – On learning to recognize when it’s time to move on.
- It’s done its job – This started to be about my lawn tractor, which I sold before I moved this year as I would no longer needed it. But it ended up being about my old house itself, a place to which I had become quite attached.
- What’s the point of blogging if nobody reads what you write? – I wrote a lot this year about blogging as my blog turned 10 years old.
- Learning portraiture – More photographs of my sons, which I made to have portraits of them and to practice portraiture.
Thanks largely to having been widely shared around the Internet, these posts were most read this year:
- Film photography blogs you should follow (freshly updated for 2017) – Thanks to this having been shared on Reddit, this post got a whopping 13,000 visits this year.
- Where can you still get film developed? (Freshly updated for 2017) – Also shared on Reddit, this post earned 5,300 visits.
- Tips for buying vintage film cameras on eBay – I wrote a series of posts about how to evaluate and buy vintage film cameras; this was the first of them.
- The most dangerous highway in Indiana – I was surprised how this post about US 40 was pretty widely shared around Facebook. I guess a lot of Hoosiers have US 40 memories.
- For sale: Michigan Road Toll House – In case you are curious, the little toll house on the Michigan Road in northwest Indianapolis is no longer on the market, but it’s not clear that it sold.
You had the most to say (in the comments) about these posts:
- The whole point of blogging today is to build community – My premise — that if you’re blogging in 2017, you’re not going to become famous at it, so you’d better do it to find your people and build community with them — really resonated with you.
- So… tell me a little about you – It’s become an annual tradition on my blog’s anniversary to ask you to delurk and tell me about you.
- Half century – Thanks for wishing me a happy 50th birthday!
- Film photography blogs you should follow (freshly updated for 2017) – Plenty of you had blogs to add to my list.
- Great 50mm lenses I have known – I’m super pleased this discussion of “nifty fifties” prompted you to share your favorite 50mm lenses.
These posts found people’s itchy Like-clicking finger most often:
- My first book! Exceptional Ordinary: Everyday Photography with the Pentax ME – An announcement of my first book.
- Choosing a place to share your work online and why I stick with WordPress.com – I said a bunch of nice things about WordPress and it appears you agreed.
- The whole point of blogging today is to build community – Not only did you have a lot to say about this post in the comments, a lot of you clicked Like on it too.
- Beginning a new adventure – Lots of likes when I announced I was taking a new job as Director of Engineering at a software startup.
- Do any of your photographs hang in your home? – I shared some of the photos I hang in my home and for whatever reason a lot of you liked the post.
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I have long admired how disciplined and prolific you are, Jim — but also the consistent excellence of your content. Thank you for compiling this list so I can catch up on the posts I missed. Happy new year to you and yours!
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Thank you H, and Happy New Year to you as well!
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Jim this is an excellent idea. This time last year I hadn’t really enough blog views to make these kind of comparisons, but after a great 2017 for photography and blogging I plan to do a similar thing.
It’s like the gear posts on Flickr isn’t it, they seem to get the most views by far, while the photographs we feel are our personal favourites and best work go largely ignored!
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Dan, I love “best of” and “roundup” posts at the end of the year because I’m usually super busy and need a break. These posts are pretty fast and easy to write. I actually wrote this one in early December. There’s an off chance some of the rankings changed in the three weeks between scheduling and going live, but whatever, I don’t care, this is good enough.
Just for amusement’s sake, here’s my first ever annual Greatest Hits post, from 2009. WordPress hadn’t added the Like button yet, so it’s just visits and comments, plus my five favorites. This blog was not primarily about photography then.
https://blog.jimgrey.net/2010/01/04/2009s-greatest-hits/
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I was planning some kind of end of year post, and yours gave me a great way of structuring, so thanks for that.
Interesting how your older posts (from 2009) seems to talk about God and faith more. I haven’t seen so much of that this year, not that I recall anyway.
I’m not a church goer myself (well, only when they’re empty!) but do have a strong interest in the spiritual and faith side of things, and it’s good to read any blog with a little more depth than just gear talk.
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In the blog’s early years I wrote about whatever I wanted. Cameras happened to be one of those subjects.
Here’s my first ever post. If you have time on your hands you can click the forward link at the bottom of each post to see what I was up to in the early days.
https://blog.jimgrey.net/2007/02/07/not-so-instant-gratification/
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I’m curious about what made you want a blog in the first place. For me with 35hunter (though I’ve had blogs before) it was all about writing about my photography journey. What was your original intention?
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I used to write for a living and I missed it. Starting this blog let me scratch that itch. Here’s the story of how the blog evolved: https://blog.jimgrey.net/2014/03/12/reflections-on-seven-years-of-blogging/
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I think I’ve read that post before Jim, but a while ago. Good to read again and see how you started and evolved.
It’s also a reminder that if we keep going with a regular schedule of posting good quality content (and pictures!), we will find our readership grow. I certainly found that in 2017, helped by a healthy boost when you republished your film photography blogs post and kindly feature me amongst many others.
Happy 2018, maybe we both continue to grow and enjoy the journey!
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