Follow me on twitter for a chance to win a free print! Details below.
Follow @ipanemic

UPDATE:
Placed up top for your convenience.
I’m giving away two prints. First off, I’m giving away a beautiful 24″ X 16″ print to the 500th person to follow me on Twitter!!! Specifically, the 500th person to follow me on Twitter will receive the previously unreleased Sensuality, no. 372 from the Girls on a Bed series in full 24″ X 16″ glory, stickie-note-signed by me.

The second free print will go to a randomly selected person from the pool of the first 500 people to follow me on Twitter. The print I am giving away is Erotica, no. 515. 24″ X 16″ format and stickie-note-signed. The winner may substitute the selected print with another of their choosing (some limitations apply).

Follow me on Twitter.

Now onto some long reading.
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Recently, I went into my Twitter account and stopped following a bunch of people. I got a message on Facebook from one person I unfollowed on Twitter, inquiring as to why I had done so. I explained. (I don’t know if that person is still following me or not.)

Following my unfollowing of others, some others instantly unfollowed me back, though I couldn’t tell you who. Which is why I hope none of you who I unfollowed took it personally. It was nothing personal at all, really.

I’ve been trying to organize my connections to the outside world, both personal and professional, in ways that are meaningful to me and that don’t riddle me with guilt or overwhelm me with a sense of not doing enough to meet some social media criteria. I only have so much of my life left and don’t want to waste any more of it than I have to.

So let me take this moment to go over the Twitter channel within my social media world, covering how I’ve used it in the past, how I use it now, and what to expect going forward. But even before we get started…. it’s a giveaway!!!!

Free Prints!

I’m giving away two prints. First off, I’m giving away a beautiful 24″ X 16″ print to the 500th person to follow me on Twitter!!! Specifically, the 500th person to follow me on Twitter will receive the previously unreleased Sensuality, no. 372 from the Girls on a Bed series in full 24″ X 16″ glory, stickie-note-signed by me. (A signed stickie-note is really best for numerous reasons. Also, I’ve been told that my handwriting is particularly atrocious, which really makes my accompanying signature a prize in and of itself. Also, while we’re in parentheses, it should be noted for clarity that the above photo is NOT Sensuality, no. 372, but rather a snapshot of a portion of it.)

ADDITIONALLY, once 500 people have followed, I will randomly select one follower to receive a SECOND 24″ X 16″ print, also stickie-note-signed. Which print, you ask? Erotica, no. 515. Again, the owner of this print will be randomly selected once 500 followers has been reached.

So 500th follower on Twitter? Large print. Previously unreleased. Signed. Free.
Plus, Random follower on Twitter: Large Print. Signed. Free.

(I pay for the shipping, too, of course. Please note too, that as with all prints, these images do NOT have watermarks.)

Now that we have that out of the way…

Twitter Yesterday

I was one of the early un-adopters of Twitter, scoffing at the stupidity of it. 140 characters. Whatevs! (Kids used to say, “Whatevs” back then.) Even my porn-star roommate back then thought Twitter was stupid. And she was pretty smart. But then she and I went our separate ways and she started using Twitter, keeping connected to her fans. Then she starts posting to message boards where fans follow her. Next thing I know, I’m reading about her upcoming first anal scene. Did her use of Twitter lead her to doing anal on camera? I can’t say for certain. But it’s certainly worth pondering before diving into social media. Is social media for you?

You might think I’m off-track, but I’m actually not. She had a following, so her professional decision to use Twitter made perfect sense.

My usage of Twitter, however, was personal. And trying to follow what my “friends” were doing on Twitter was just infuriating. I didn’t enjoy it. And what the hell was I supposed to do on Twitter that I wasn’t doing otherwise? Wasn’t I already communicating with the people in my life? Do I really have to do this? Did not like. (Another expression from back in the day. I’m feeling like Casey Kasem hosting a special edition of “That was soooo 5 minutes ago!” Playing all the greatest hits!)

So Twitter irritated me. Befuddled me. I may have deleted my account once or twice. Not sure. I know I at least cleared out my tweets. Stupid, all of it seemed.

Twitter Today

Today, I use Twitter to post blurbs of stuff about my life. They are random, disconnected thoughts. It’s rare that I have a discussion unless I happen to be actually around Twitter at the same time as someone I personally know. And there are VERY few people that I personally know that I follow. I am using other channels for my personal connections. Sometimes, I skim through the posts of the people I follow on Twitter to see what’s going on. People like Lindsay Lohan. Or the Dali Lama. Or What Would Tyler Durden Do. Or something. I don’t know that I want to follow these entities through Twitter necessarily and may change my following habits, but I don’t pay attention much to what people have to say on there. Twitter conversations don’t factor into my daily life. The guaranteed method to catch my attention on Twitter is by addressing me using @ipanemic.

I approach Twitter in the same manner that I approach Flickr. On Flickr, I have almost 10,000 followers. Conversely, there are only just over 400 people who I follow. Even that number represents a virtually impossible amount of people to keep up with. But it’s an adequate amount of mental stimuli for me. And when I see another photographer whose work really catches my eye, I follow them. And sometimes, I evaluate the people I’m following to see if I still see something there. So, on Flickr, if you like my work, investigating the people I follow is probably meaningful. Hopefully, you’ll find that to be true on Twitter as well.

On Twitter recently, on someone’s profile I saw, “Follow me, I follow back.” And their followers and people-following numbers were right around the same. Right around 3,000. I thought, “How completely unmeaningful is that?” So that’s not how I use Twitter. I’m not going to auto-follow you just because you followed me. It’s likely, I will never know you’re following me unless you send me a direct message.

Twitter Tomorrow

Since I got this new smartphone, I’ve been a lot more active in posting to Twitter. Some of those posts have been supplemental third-party posts (like from FourSquare). And some have just been more random posts. I anticipate that I’ll be using it more during shoots to quickly upload candid snapshots. And I’ll take random photos here and there from life.

Also, I think I’ll be doing these giveaways from time to time. I like this notion.

But my usage of Twitter represents little snapshots of my life, either in bite-sized 140 characters or smartphone pics, that won’t be found normally here on ipanemic. They will be instant moments in time, conveyed directly to you. Maybe you’ll want to follow me. Now that you know what to expect, you can check it out for yourself.

And too, don’t forget about the awesome free print!!