Joshi Daniel on Nine Years of Photoblogging

In his portraits, photographer Joshi Daniel draws out the inner light of his subjects and the stories they hold in their faces. In 2008, he launched Joshi Daniel Photography to share his passion for documenting the people around him. Here, Joshi shares how he’s grown as a photoblogger and what he’s learned along the way.

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How has your photoblog evolved over the years?

I started my photoblog to share the images of people I shoot, and all this time I was able to stick to that. Over the years, I’ve moved from close-up portraits to more wide-angle images, to GoPro images and now to 28mm portraits.

I’ve always tried to keep the design and color palette of my blog minimal, with black and shades of gray tones. Eventually, I started learning CSS customization through trial and error. It was very exciting and I spent days to make the site look the way I wanted. Since 2015, I have been using the Gallery theme.

What kinds of images engage your readers the most?

I am always excited to shoot portraits, and strong portraits and nudes seem to resonate with my readers the most. In 2016, when I had lost my puppy, I posted an image of him. It is not a great picture, but the response I received from that image was warm and lovely and so many readers shared their own stories.

You’ve built a blog readership of over 30,000 followers! What are some ways you’ve grown your audience?

The WordPress.com Reader is a great place to find new blogs and also connect with new followers. Social media also helps promote both new and old blog posts easily.

WordPress.com tip: you can re-share and schedule posts across your social media profiles with the Premium and Business plans.

You also have large followings on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Where does this photoblog fit among all these outlets? What are the benefits of blogging?

I started all these social media accounts initially to promote my photoblog. The blog has always been my primary sharing platform for my serious work and portfolio. Most of my casual photography goes to Instagram. But I have started to upload images of people there, too.

Blogging is an easy way to organize content. Tags and categories keep everything neatly in place, so it is always easy to find older content on the blog. Unlike social media, on a blog you have more freedom with the content you share. So, social media shouldn’t dictate what you should create.

What’s one piece of advice you can give to photographers that are new to blogging?

Here’s a quick resource on image optimization.

I think growth in blogging can be slow and steady unlike on social media. Publishing quality posts, commenting on others’ blogs, and slowly building a community on social media may do the trick. I’d also recommend enhancing images for web use for faster loading pages.

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