ThingsAmongMany

JPG magazine, the haven for photographers who’re looking for something a little more than Flickr has to offer, has had its fair share of troubles throughout its tenure. Not the least of which were the cloudy circumstances surrounding the departure of founders Derek Powazek and Heather Champ (if you’re not familiar, the story can be found on Powzek’s blog).

Now, to add insult to injury, the current team has announced the closing of the highly lauded magazine:

We’ve spent the last few months trying to make the business behind JPG sustain itself, and we’ve reached the end of the line. We all deeply believe in everything JPG represents, but just weren’t able to raise the money needed to keep JPG alive in these extraordinary economic times. We sought out buyers, spoke with numerous potential investors, and pitched several last-ditch creative efforts, all without success.

Originally scheduled to shutter today, input from the community at large has allowed the team to keep things running for another week or so. There’s also been a huge outcry from the community based at SaveJPG.com. Hopefully the team can work out a means to keep things alive - first thing that comes to mind is shuttering the paper version of the mag and keeping JPG alive on the web. But I’m sure they’ve thought of that.

If you’re a fan and/or member of JPG, get over to SaveJPG.com and show your support. If you’re not yet familiar with it, take a few minutes to read up on JPG and you’ll quickly see why it’s a valuable community that’s well worth the effort of saving.

One day I shot a picture of my lunch. Pretty much out of boredom. I got a chuckle out of it, and that was it… Until I did it again the next day. And the next. Eventually it just became a bit of a “thing”. Now I try to grab a shot of my lunch every day. It’s not something I do for “health” reasons. I’m not trying to track my calories during lunch. I don’t shoot photos of any other meals. And I don’t generally freak out if I miss a day. It’s just something I do for fun (though I do have a couple of ideas on how to extend it that I’d like to pursue later).

I also started a group on Flickr where other people could join in the fun. Of course, the group was just me for quite a while. But then someone else joined. We chatted. It was nice. And suddenly, over the last week we’ve had an influx of about a dozen new members! It’s starting to feel like a real group!

And, to top it off, we’re being featured on Flickr Group Roulette tomorrow. Not familiar with this group? Well, neither was I, but of course I stopped by to check it out when I learned that they’d be borrowing our theme. Basically, they’re a self-portrait per day type group (there are quite a few on Flickr), but they’re different because each day is supposed to follow a theme of some sort. Tomorrow’s theme? You guessed it: “What I Had For Lunch Today”.

Sound interesting? Please, join up, submit your photos, and take part in tomorrow’s theme!