Who and where are you?
I'm spending the summer in my hometown: Portland, Oregon working and spending time with my boyfriend of 5 and a half years. I recently returned from West Africa (Accra, Ghana to be specific) where I was doing fieldwork for my PhD. I go to school in London, England and I'll be returning there in October.

Where have you been?
Here's a map of the countries I've visited including Japan, France, Panama, Italy, Sweden, Ireland, England, Wales, Slovenia, Hungary, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Brazil.

Where do the photos on this site originate from? What kind of photography do you do? What kinds of cameras do you use?

• A Konica 35mm camera with manual everything that I inherited from my grandfather. Sadly this camera seems to be permanently broken so I no longer use it
• A Nikon FM2 35mm camera (also manual everything), my newest acquisition on recommendation from my most recent photography teacher. I have a 50mm lens and someday aspire to get a macro lens.
• A Holga camera Holga changed my life, thanks Holga! Holga is a $20 plastic camera that I was introduced to in a photography class. Some of the best examples of my holga work (click for a larger image):

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• Canon PowerShot SD300 - My new digital camera with instant settings. Still can't afford a fancy digital SLR.
• Olympus Camedia digital camera - I don't use this camera as often as my 35mm cameras cause it doesn't have any manual settings.

I don't have time to browse your archives, show me your best stuff? Besides the Holga photos I listed above, the following photos are ones I'm proud of or I think of as unique to Vianya.net:

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Can I decorate my website with your photos without giving you credit?...Um, no.

Can I decorate my website with your photos if I give you credit?...Um, no. If you think you have a good reason ask me via e-mail. A non-profit wanted to use some photos as part of their website and printed material. I said yes on a case by case basis. Some photos that I think make this site quite distinctive and are unique to my aesthetic sense (like the Holga photos) I don't want to see anywhere else (although if you want to pay me I would reconsider). Other images are not as important to me.

Can I link to photos residing on your webserver?...Um, no...this is called bandwidth stealing. Just don't do it. In case you are curious, the following photos/images are the most frequently stolen:

I think these images for whatever reason tend to show up in Google Images searches. I find them linked to without credit on other weblogs, sometimes accompanied by bad, cheesy, angsty poetry. I like Google, but Google Images is sort of evil for this reason.

Why do you go by the name Vianya? Is that your real name? Vianya is a pseudonym. It's just a word I made up. The reason I have a pseudonym goes back to my high school days. As a freshman in high school I used to post my thoughts and opinions in a newsgroup. I was young and trying to figure out my beliefs and it seemed like a good idea at the time. Of course I posted everything under my real name. Now you can just go into Google groups, type in my name and pull up all the stupid things I said as a 15 year old. It?s truly embarrassing. So, although I want to share my thoughts and ideas, I try to keep a certain level of anonymity.

Do you really think you'll be embarrassed by the things you write here? Actually, I'm embarrassed by about half of what I write on here 2 minutes after I publish it and yet I continue to do it.

What makes your weblog different from other weblogs? I make heavy use of my scanner. I scan sketches and photos (non-digital photos). I produce a lot of the photos on this site in the darkroom. This site is really heavy on original content. I don't do much linking to other sites. So it's more of a visual journal than anything else.

Did your mom get married in the backyard in August of 2002? Yes, she did. Isn't it wonderful? See this entry for more information.

Do you have a younger sister? Yes I do, she just turned 21 22 23 24.

Do the two of you look remarkably alike? Yes, in fact we do look remarkably alike although she's a lot shorter than me.

What kinds of tools and services did you use to create this site? If you're thinking of starting your own photoblog I would recommend all of these tools and services. Most services cater to the somewhat technically-proficient.

• domain name registration by Dotster.com, less expensive ($14.95 / year) and less ethically questionable than Network Solutions/Verisign.
• web hosting by phpwebhosting.com, only $9.95 / month for sort of unlimited diskspace (125 megs + more if you ask), unlimited transfers, php scripting, etc. I've been with them for two years and have yet to have any problems.
• weblog software by Moveabletype - I donated $20, but you can use it for free.
• photo manipulation (color adjustment, toning, resizing, image compression) with Paint Shop Pro 7 a less expensive ($99) albeit less powerful alternative to Photoshop.
• and finally...a Sony Vaio the stylish alternative laptop for people who don't use Macs, not because they don't like or respect them, but because they grew up using Macs and then switched over to PCs and then majored in computer science and had no choice and now are much more proficient with the Windows interface. I will never buy a Vaio again, after one year the port that connects the power supply to the computer broke. The warranty expired after 3 months. I now own a Dell 300m which I love. It is very small and stylish and it goes with me everywhere.

Do you want to hear from me? Of course. I love to hear about the people who read my site, unless you're just going to yell out me. Otherwise, I'm open to compliments, thoughts, constructive criticism, whatever. You can use my Contact Form to write to me.

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