What
TwoEight – taken as a play off of the aperture f/2.8 – is a project which was initially thought of after getting sick and tired of seeing online photography blogs fail to put out conversational methods of sharing knowledge, information, and inspiration to fellow creatives. This isn't going to be a place to learn photography. Sure, we'll share educational videos and posts at times, but for the most part, the writing here at Two Eight is going to assume you already understand a fair share of prior knowledge and are decently well-versed in photography
TwoEight brings an honest, intimate online resource to the analogue and digital photography community. We exist to create a fresh and independent outlook by providing timely, relevant information and inspiration to our industry.
Why
The photography community, both analogue and digital, is full of creative and knowledgeable individuals. Too often when searching online for photography related information, you end up at some big name blogs whose websites look more like a billboard than a place to take in information pertaining to the community. Article after article is pumped out in an effort to get as many page views as possible. We want to change this paradigm. We want to find those creative and knowledgeable individuals the photography community is full of and present them to you.
By doing this, we are creating a unique voice within the online spectrum of photography. Millions of images get shared each day by every means possible; a very large percentage of which are shared online. Our mission is to find the best of those photographs and see the ways in which they were taken, along with the people who took them. In doing so, we hope to inspire you to become the greatest photographer you aspire to be.
How
The "How" part is a bit two-fold. I'll start off with this, though. The voice we aim to bring is one which few other online publications do. Our articles are just as much a dialog as they are a journalistic method of relaying information. We aren't going to stand on a soap-box and tell you how it is; because honestly, we don't always know ourselves. Photography is an art for a reason; it's not a science. Certain methods are, but as a whole, nothing is concrete. Rules are meant to be broken and the greatest in the field do it over and over again.
Here's the first of the two folds. I need you, all of you. If you're a photographer who has something you would like to share, be it an article, a review, or even your own work, I would love to have it featured on the site. I need the community as a whole to contribute to TwoEight and also share it among other photographers. There's nothing more I'd love than to see this grow into an incredible community. However, I can't do it without you.
Second off, this is an experiment as of now. I am currently balancing a large amount of projects and I am unsure of the potential such a site will hold. The stronger of a community we have, the more potential there is for growth. It would be incredible to see this blossom into more than a one-post every day or two publication. Eventually with time I may add more contributors, but starting off, I'm going in alone to keep it consistent. If you are a writer who has plenty of experience in photography, shoot me a message via the contact form and I'll be in contact with you. Hopefully this can flourish, I will do my best to achieve just that.
TwoEight was put together in seven hours, from idea to the website as you see it now, early one morning (or late one night) on February 16th 2013. If it's not perfect, I apologize and will do my best to fix any errors.
Now and Later
Right now this is the rough sketch of what I would like to become the go-to source for independent photography news and inspiration. The site itself is rather bland at the moment, but as time goes on and more content is built up, more features will be added. Eventually I would love to have an online store featuring photography related projects, but until things have carried along for a bit, I'll stick with the basics. If you have any ideas on ways I can improve the site, shoot me a message via the contact form; I will always achieve to reply within 24 hours.
To finish this introductory post, I'd like to thank you for visiting TwoEight. I'm hoping to have much more in store for you in the future. It's only with the help of you, the readers, those endeavors will come to fruition. Thank you for dropping by and have a wonderful weekend!