About fotogail / Gail Williams

Hi! Thanks for looking at my pictures!

i owe so much to Flickr... i've become fascinated with photography again, after years of neglect. thanks to photo social networking, i have had some images published, i have organized some cafe shows that arose from a Flickr photo stroll, i have embraced my rekindled obsession, and i've started to dip my toes back into the world of video, which i'd set aside since college. i'm so thankful for the community-building features, savvy staff and smart community members here!

i work at Salon.com managing The WELL and Salon Table Talk online communities. i've been in online community management for over 16 years. it's been refreshing to be free to be at flickr purely as an opinionated customer and community participant. i've taken my shoes off and am having a fabulous time in group visual play here.

i came over with the fotolog.net emigres in fall of 2004, in an interesting "online refugee" transition. part of my earlier profile from those fotolog days rings true:

" i usually use a fairly small midprice digital camera. i take it with me nearly everywhere. this medium has gotten me seeing things again. i miss B&W darkroom work from high school and college years ago, but not enough to do it anymore.

i`m learning about light and composition and form, all over again. i`m also interested in objects, events, humor... times when the photo is weak but the subject matter grabs me: sometimes a shot is only a snap.
"

I've written a few posts about Flickr interestingness, interface and Flickr community over at my infrequent blog, which is often about online community dynamics. I've also posted a lot about Flickr within the conferences on The WELL:
www.well.com/

fotogail - Click that dot to view some of my my 'abstract' photos on Flickriver

FlickRiver is a way to see images on black, much better for many of these shots. I love these toys the community builds for one another.

I'm Female and Taken.

Connectable Dots: online community dynamics, etc.

fotogail's contacts (1,108)

San Francisco Public Library Historical Photos

Preservation Resource Center, Advocacy Department

fotogail's public groups

Garden of Memory Concert Flickr Twitter Beta ☞ Musée de la Peinture Trouvée ☜ Bishop Ca Northern California Beer Community Pick 5 for the Environment Flickr 5.25 Black Cat Club! sfbars SF BEER WEEK Belgian Beer Beer Advocate NOAHsurvey: a Survey of New Orleans Architectural History Your Narnia photo contest NOLA Love Shoe Conversations KPFA Listeners Group Humid City Holiday or Vacation Beers / Drinks I drink Beer Beer Festivals BlogHer Header Photos Quirkee Quirky Photos & Videos Global Political Concensus Pink 2008	Images for the Life on the Line video Homebrewers Anonymous Homebrew Beer Commingling Wicked Reflections form, shape, composition News 21 / The American Dream Fields of flow Landing around The World Ale's What Cures Ya: The Elevation of Beer Apples: An Expedition Into The Heart of Humanity A VIDEO Netsquared New Orleans Jazz Fest All types of transport - JULY COMP OPEN... WET TRANSPORT peace logo Light Sprites everywhere A Magia do Toque / The Magic Touch Send me a letter i ate it... Beginners Video: Tiny Movie Techniques Video Minimalism Abstract Video Flickr Video!

A bit more about fotogail...

Hometown:	northern california
Occupation:	community tending at The WELL & Salon.com
Interests:	photography, video, online community, social networking, hiking, backbacking, travel, geology, humor, baseball, san francisco, original ideas, visual arts, film, collaboration, preserving and honoring nature and the planet
Favorite Books & Authors:	You've got to read Understanding Comics, that's right -- an amazing illustrated book that will teach you about visual vocabulary and also inform you about some of the strange emotional dimensions of online community is "Understanding Comics" by Scott McCloud.
Favorite Movies, Stars & Directors:	i like good documentaries more and more.
Favorite Music & Artists:	Right now I'm listening to: Regina Spektor. But instead of music I'll stay visual and list the fine published photographers who get our imaginations firing, Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Imogen Cunningham, Diane Arbus, Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Henri Cartier-Bresson, many of my friends from fotolog & flickr plus the talented members of the photography conference back at (text-only) well.com.It's not so fashionable to admire Ansel Adams in certain circles, but his dedication to composition and to waiting for the right natural light for the subject matter is obvious when you go shooting, and his passion for the places he photographed in some cases saved those places from being lost forever. The hiker and earth-inhabitant side of me has to care about that even though I find myself shooting a lot of urban fragments that are far from that tradition.

Testimonials

zen says:
"Gail's work doesn't scream at you; it quietly surprises and is the kind of thoughtful photos that, like soft jazz, plays beautifully in the background until some phrase or line perks up your eyes and then you can't stop looking, can't stop wanting that gentle shock that she gives visually. Her awareness is something i admire immensely.

I've happily come to know her photographic landscape generally and enjoy her comments and honest and undemanding friendship quite a lot."

Patrick T Power says:
"Quite simply, Gail's photostream is one of the most enjoyable on flickr. Her eye and attention to detail is amongst the keenest I've yet come across here, and I look forward to her clever, "quick-witted" images, and her vision of her world.

I've never gotten the impression that she spends a lot of time commenting on others' photos, but her quiet presence is an enormous influence on me and (no doubt) others."

bruce grant says:
"to have the kind of eye for visual beauty that gail has would be enough for most artists...

but to combine this with the kind of social/anthropological eye for the nuances of social photoblogging (a term i learned from her)...

...and to combine that analytical understanding of social nuance with real concern and care for the people involved...

and to combine those with the kind of catholicity of taste that embraces urban beauty, natural beauty, and baseball...

and to combine all of those with the passion for social justice -- and the conviction that art can further that passion...

this is rare...exceedingly rare

i'm honored that gail has become my friend

you go, girl"

krazydad / jbum says:
"A caretaker. One of the rare few who takes an active role in the care & feeding of online communities."

D4rkst4r says:
"It has become a daily joy to vicariously see through your eyes and lens !
Such talent should not go uncommented !
Thank you for your sharing !"

poederbach says:
"Actually I don't like to comment on a single photo. It is the whole of your stream that facinates me. I am very sensitive to colours and forms, eventually emotions.
I have been working with pictures for most of my life as a professional, so get bored easily. I envy those who are able to create a new reality using forms and colours.
My other half is the storyteller. Some pictures have a story, you are telling me those stories too. I hope you also let me free in finding out what story the picture itself delivers to me. Watching pictures can be an adventure a journey in to what you present in forms and colours.
Your photostream is facinating, I'll be watching your archive from now on with a different attitude.

Thomas"

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