I finally made it through the massive backlog of messages I had due to my failed 'Contact Me' setup. There were a lot of messages to go through and I found some really interesting ones. There were many 'great pictures' type of messages. They are short and sweet but I still like to get them. I also had a bunch from people telling me how inspiring they find ShootTokyo and how often it caused them to start their own site. How cool is that? It is nice to know people like your work and I appreciate people taking the time to send me a message.

A lot of messages from people letting me know they added me to their blogroll or linked to ShootTokyo. I always appreciate when people do that.

I had a few requests from people asking how to set up a blog or how my site is configured. I wrote a post a while ago called Creating ShootTokyo. Give it a read if you are interested in starting your own blog.

There were a few offers to be my apprentice or photography assistant. I am not a professional photographer so I don't need an assistant. I often wish someone would offer to be my website assistant and handle at lot of the administration involved in running ShootTokyo and getting content on here but then this won't be ShootTokyo. I do my own work. I have seen a lot of websites when they get popular do this and set up a site admin, then start doing a guest post now and then eventually there site becomes a site for guest posts. This is ShootTokyo so it will remain me!

There were a few requests for photography lessons. I don't teach photography. I would have to charge more than people would probably be willing to pay for photography lessons from me to make it worth my while. While I don't teach I do host Photowalks. There were many questions about when my next Photowalk is. There were actually a lot of these. I host these about every 3-4 months or so in Tokyo. I post them on ShootTokyo and my Facebook page.

I had a lot of requests to meet up from people in Tokyo or traveling through Tokyo. I sometimes entertain these requests but often there are so many and with my busy family and work schedules it can be difficult. My Photowalks often can be the best way to meet up but you never know until you ask!

There were a bunch of strange advertising requests. Some to post ads for online casinos or discount airlines. The strangest ones want to pay to do blog posts on my blog on topics completely unrelated to photography. Why would I write a blog post on the ROI and scalability of Unified Servers on ShootTokyo?

I had a surprisingly large number of emails asking about ShootTokyo T-Shirts. I am going to make them in Japan so they will be very high quality. They will be fairly priced but they will not be cheap.

There were a bunch of requests to use my photos. If people want to download my photos for personal use right click is enabled to allow you to do that. You can share on social media, use in your school projects, or as wallpaper for your computer. My photos are free to use for non-commercial purposes. For people who want a high resolution copy for printing, I don't give those out but I do sell prints if people want them. True Sense Imaging, the creator of the Leica sensors have them hanging in their lobby. If you have questions here you can find the details of how I license my images.

My favorite type I get go something like this 'I'm a writer for xyz magazine. We are doing an article on blah blah blah. Your images are simply amazing. I would love to use them in my article. In return I'll give you photo credit in the article'. Wow that is really generous of you. You are willing to put my name next to my photo! It is great 'exposure' for someone like me it usually says. I never understood the logic of someone who is producing something for profit expecting someone else to 'donate' their work. Certainly the writer is being paid. The owner of the magazine or website is being paid. Often I get more traffic than the website or magazine contacting me so the 'exposure benefit' would be for them and not me if I mention I was published in their magazine, website, etc. I say no to these 99% of the time.

The 1% where I saw yes is for charity. A few websites who sell products in support of Tabitha Foundation asked me if they could use my images and I will absolutely give them. I have also donated photos in the past to an action that Tabitha ran in Singapore. I had 3 images sell for more than $5,000 USD!

I had a bunch of offers to be paid to write a blog post on some photography related product. I don't do that. The things I talk about I like and I am not being paid to say that. My only exception would be if Leica wants to start giving me equipment for free I will happily take it. I'll even write about it more than I already do. One interesting company offered me something that I can use as a give away for a contest. I like their product so I will probably end up using it for a contest.

There were a million questions on Leica cameras and my gear. I am always happy to answer peoples questions on things like this. I also had a bunch of questions on how much different camera gear costs.

I got a million 'nice pictures please check out my website and let me know what you think'. This is probably going to drive people away from your website not towards it. Building a following for your blog is really hard work. You need to publish high quality content on a regular basis. You need to be visible on social networks or other publish forums where people can find you and find out about you. It is tempting to just spam your link everywhere but it won't have the desired effect you are looking for. Quality content over an extended period of time will.

Many mails offering to redesign my website or from SEO experts letting me know my website is ranking very low and they know why. Just hire them and traffic will start flowing. I think my website design if pretty good so I am going to stick with this.

I even had a few requests to interview me! I'll let you know if those pan out.

The best for last: An invitation to lunch at the Skywalker Ranch! Considering Ronald Regan requested a tour while he was president and was denied I thought that was a pretty cool invite!

Welcome to the world of being a blogger... I have gotten a ton of replies already for many people mostly saying they figured I was busy, thanking me for the reply and some a bit surprised that I took the time to reply to everyone.

OK...onto today's post about Kiyomizu Temple!

Today’s configuration: Leica M6 with various Leica lenses shot on Kodak Ektar film.

Kiyomizudera, literally Pure Water Temple, is one of the most celebrated temples of Japan. It was founded in 780! It is another one of Kyoto's UNESCO World Heritage Sites.