I built Jottings thinking about different types of creators—writers, designers, developers. But one conversation stuck with me. A friend who's a landscape photographer said something that made me rethink the whole platform:
"Instagram used to be my portfolio. Now it's an algorithm that makes photographers disappear."
That conversation—about algorithm risk, algorithmic burnout, and the loss of creative control—led me to realize something important: photographers shouldn't have to choose between visibility and ownership. And Jottings could be the answer.
The Problem with Platform Dependence
Let's be honest. Instagram was incredible for photographers for years. A visual platform built by visual people. But things change. The algorithm got meaner. The engagement dropped. Photographers found themselves spending hours creating beautiful content only to have 15% of their followers see it.
Worse, photographers investing in their Instagram presence aren't building an asset. They're renting shelf space in someone else's mall.
I've seen talented photographers abandon years of work when algorithms shifted, when accounts got suspended for unclear reasons, or when they realized their audience—the thousands of followers—weren't actually theirs.
With Jottings, your photography is yours. Your audience list is yours. Your visual voice isn't filtered through a recommendation engine designed by someone in another state.
How Jottings Works for Photographers
When I designed photo jots in Jottings, I started with a simple question: what do photographers actually need?
Not a cropping tool. Not 47 filters. But a simple, elegant way to share an image with context—the story behind the shot, the location, the technique, the feeling.
Photo jots are image-first. You upload a photograph, and it becomes the focal point. Your caption becomes the supporting narrative, not the main event. The photo dominates the page. Everything else—text, metadata, links—serves the image.
This matters psychologically. When you write a blog post, you're writing content with images attached. When you create a photo jot, you're sharing an image with a story attached. The emphasis is different. The mental model is clearer.
Jottings handles the technical side. Your photos are automatically optimized—resized for web, cached globally across Cloudflare's network. They load fast whether someone's viewing from downtown or a desert camp. The platform handles that headache so you can focus on composition and light.
Alt Text as a Superpower
Here's something most photographers don't think about: alt text is underrated.
For accessibility, yes—alt text matters enormously for people using screen readers. But there's something else. Alt text is SEO gold. It's a way to describe your work precisely. "Sunset over mountains" is photography. "Golden hour light catching the ridgeline of Yosemite's Half Dome" is storytelling. That specificity matters for search, for context, and for helping the right audience find your work.
With Jottings, alt text isn't optional. It's built in. And I'd argue alt text should be the first thing photographers write, not the last thing they begrudgingly add.
It forces clarity. If you can't describe your photo in clear, specific language, maybe it's telling you something about what you were trying to capture.
The Story Behind the Frame
I think the best photography always has a story. But Instagram captions have a weird psychology—they become confessionals instead of narratives. 400 words of deeply personal vulnerability squeezed into a barely-visible text block.
Jottings flips this. Your photo stands large. Your story gets real space. Not a caption. A companion piece.
You can talk about where you were. The technical challenge. The moment you knew you had the shot. The emotion. The memory. You can write 300 words or 1500. The format adapts. The photo never gets smaller to make room for your words.
This is how photographers should be able to share work.
Organizing Your Visual Projects
Over time, photographers accumulate bodies of work. Travel photography. Portraits. Architecture. Experimentation. A messy folder structure on your computer and a jumbled feed on Instagram.
Jottings uses tags to organize visual projects. Each photo jot can be tagged—maybe you use "Iceland 2025" or "Portrait Series" or "Street Candids." Then readers (and you) can explore your work by project. Click the tag, see every related photograph in chronological order. Build narratives across multiple shots.
Tags become a way to curate. You're not just throwing photos into the void and hoping the algorithm picks them up. You're deliberately organizing your work into digestible collections. Collections tell stories differently than random feeds.
Your Custom Domain
If you're a professional photographer, your photography deserves a professional home.
With Jottings, you own a custom domain. Your photography lives at yourdomain.com, not a subdomain of someone else's platform. When a client searches for your work, they find you. When another photographer wants to reference your portfolio, they link to your site. You look like what you are: a professional with a real home on the internet.
Search engines notice. Your domain becomes an asset. Your SEO is yours to build and own.
Start Sharing Your Visual Work
If you're a photographer tired of algorithm roulette, tired of watching engagement plummet, tired of the anxiety that comes with depending on a platform that doesn't depend on you—Jottings is built for you.
Your photography deserves a home. Not a rental. A home.
Start with one photo jot. Write the story. Tag it. See how it feels to own that space. Then share it with your audience the way photographers have always done—through the work itself, and the stories behind it.
Your visual voice deserves independence. Your audience deserves permanence.
Come build your photography microblog. We're waiting to see what you create.