There might be a few FH readers still kicking around who remember how it started. I had been collecting images that I liked for awhile in folders and was looking for a way to save them on-line. I wasn't really looking to start a site, certainly not something that would take much time. I had lost images before when my computer crashed or died and I just wanted a place to store my favorite images.
After looking around the net, I decided that the easiest place to quickly upload and keep my images safe was to put them in Yahoo Groups. Yahoo Groups, before the start of Facebook, Tumblr and Pinterest, was the place to be. Without even trying, I started having people join my group, a lot of them. Soon, I had a dozen or so groups, separated by categories such as Male Models, Playgirl Men, Sports Guys and Butt shots. I didn't know it at the time, but these categories would eventually find themselves on FH the blog.
The groups, most of them, are still there I think. Sadly, I don't have access any longer, attempts at retrieving my passwords were unsuccessful, and most have been overtaken with spam porn and links. FH the blog, the original version, was not supposed to be about naked men, art and photography. It was started as sort of an on-line diary, my life, my loves and a big dose of entertainment and media.
Within a few weeks, I regretted some of the stories, and deleted most of the first few stories and replaced them with images from the Yahoo Groups. That's when things really got started. The format was crude at first, I posted any time of the day I wanted to, sometimes 1 or 2 posts a day, sometimes 12 or more. I didn't start the current format of 5 blog pieces in a magazine format until 2009 or 2010.
The two current FH features that were there from the start were birthdays, and pic of the day. The POTD was to set the tone and a way to grab attention. Eventually, it became the cover, of what I consider the magazine format FH is today. The images featured here are some of the first images I used in the fall of 2007 as POTD. Most came from the yahoo group, and as you can see, most are young guys, frat jokes and tons and tons of butts.
Back in 2007, there wasn't a google images search, so finding proper credit wasn't as easy as it is today. I eventually started connecting the POTD to the blogs main feature or story each day and choosing the image became my favorite part of piecing together that day's postings.
If you look back on my POTD's, they are a photo album of some of the best models, photographers and artists of the male form. I try to use the POTD as a way to have viewers want to see more. I don't often use frontals as the POTD, but although I throw one in now and then, they are meant to be a 'teaser' so viewers will want to see more.
This fall, FH turns 10. As it draws closer, I am going to look back on some of my favorite POTD's, these images, are from 2007. I love 'looking back' on FH, I think one of the things that makes it special, is that I don't just focus on men of the moment. There are so many models and images that became super hot for about 10 seconds, then disappeared from everyone's site and pages.
FH is about what I love, both today, and in the past. FH's 10 year will of course be full of new and upcoming models and photographers, but I am also taking a look back, and hoping viewers, and some of my favorite models and photographers, will join me along for the ride.
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