Zoom-in Online

Every week, I tell myself that this time, I'll do it. I will heed the call, that so faithfully appeared in my inbox. The weekly challenge from one of the first web 2.0-style photography communities: Photo Friday. I've been a member for years and used to submit my contribution on a regular basis.

I should probably describe the concept, which is as simple as they come: Every week, a theme is posted, and it is your job to shoot it and post it on the internet. Once that's done, you submit the link to your photo on the Photo Friday website. Then you wait. The sooner you submit your link, the longer it will be shown - and the more traffic you will get.

When the deadline for submission is reached, voting opens. People check out the different submissions and vote for their favorites. You should too, it's part of the fun and at times extremely inspiring. The most popular submissions recieve a spot on the front page for a week, listed as a noteworthy image.

The beauty of Photo Friday is its simplicity. It's easy and has a double reward for anyone playing along. First, your work will get seen by many, which is nice. But equally important is seeing how other people interpreted the same theme, and hold that up against your own contribution. That's where you might find new ideas. I love that you don't upload your images to the Photo Friday directly, and deal with managing yet another online photo library. Instead, all you need is a link to where ever the shot is published. Whether on a blog, on Flickr or, say, JPG Magazine. As long as visitors don't have to log in to see you work, you're good.

I know I used the past tense before, when talking about submitting to Photo Friday. But that's just because I've been too busy, scatterbrained and otherwise engaged to do it. And every time that e-mail dumps in, I curse myself for missing out. Again. Maybe telling you about it, will be the push I need. Because I really do kind of miss it. Photo Friday rocks.

Rasmus Rasmussen is on loan from iStockphoto, where he is part of the image inspection team.