Jonathan Davies

I’ve been using Flickr for a few months now and really enjoy it. But, I’ve noticed that there are a couple of trends on how people use it.

Some use Flickr as a way to store ALL of their photos in the cloud - like a backup. Or perhaps as you use it to share pictures with family, perhaps the way it was intended to, where the quality of the image does not matter at all - but the contents of it does. If you have relatives that live across the world, how are you going to show them pictures of your new child, I think we are beyond snail mail at this point.

But lately I have seen Flickr used as a portfolio to showcase people’s best photos - not all of them but the ones that they feel are the best of what they have taken.

Personally I use Flickr to display pretty much any image that I think others, not necessarily friends, would be interested in. I don’t do a lot of editing once taken; I just put them up mostly to show whoever wants to see them. As I previously mentioned, I think that Flickr is primarily geared towards sharing your photographic memories with people you know. Lets face it, most of the tools are designed for that.

While when used as a portfolio it is mainly for critique. Where quite often comments left are about the pictures themselves and not the content.

I think that Flickr remains a healthy community with both types of users, and to tell you the truth I always enjoy looking at the “portfolio” Flickr streams - some of the stuff these guys are capable of is amazing.

How do use Flickr and why?

Recently Scott Bourne and Alex Lindsay have together, started a new podcast called This Week in Photography (TWIP). Since I heard about it on MacBreak Weekly I have really been enjoying the shows. Make sure you check out this podcast if you enjoy photography on any level - they cover it all.

With PMA upon us cameras have been announced right and left and one that has caught my eye especially is the Canon 450D (or XSi). It has a few features that interest me from a brief glance:

3″ Screen with Live View
3.5 frames per second
12.2 Megapixel CMOS sensor (unfortunately it isn’t that big of a sensor)
SD card slot, instead of Compact Flash

So have decided, mainly because I was disappointed with Nikon’s offerings (i.e. the D60) that this is the camera for me.

I plan on getting “everything” I want at once so it will take me a bit longer but I will start off with a complete package.

Here is what I’m looking at getting:

Canon 450D with 18-55mm lens

Canon EF 50mm f1.8 MK2

Canon EF 75-300mm f4/5.6 USM MK3

Lowepro Slingshot 200AW

Sandisk 8Gb Ultra II SD Card

A Tripod (not sure which model yet - any suggestions?)

I am really excited about this camera, and due to my excitement I think I’ll be working very hard for it. I’m hoping to get it just before Easter. However there are a couple of things I’d like to purchase first

Have you got any suggestion? Websites I can visit to learning things? Forums? Tips? Leave a comment telling me.

Photo Credit: cnet.com

I have been in the market for a DSLR for a while and have not yet taken the plunge, mainly for a couple of reasons; one, I don’t need one, all I do want is to learn about them and become more interested in photography and also because my dad very generously allows me to use his D80. However I still want to buy a DSLR for myself.

As for Canon and Nikon I’ve chose to go with Nikon because after using a 400D on several occasions I was not impressed and secondly as my dad has a Nikon, we can swap lenses. I DSLR I was looking at was the D40x, I had heard great review and most comments were that it is a great camera to start with. I was very close to taking the plunge when articles the other week starting appearing of a Nikon D60 appearing in Spring 2008. So I have decided as I am in no rush to hold off and wait.

So far there are very few details, if any and they only piece of “evidence” is that in Japan it has been removed from the site and production appears to have been halted. There are a couple of features that I would be interested in being added to the D60: Live view so when I am in awkward cases where using the view finder would be a pain I can switch to live view. The second would be a lens motor so I am not limited be the amount off lenses I can use; though I do understand that it would increase the size of the camera body, but frankly if I am going to get an SLR then the extra size is part of the package.

Until then…

I am going to get an HD Video camera so I can shoot some video for both myself and YouTube, to be exact a Canon HV20 which I have used and enjoyed, expect a post soon on what made me choose this camera.

QUESTION: Do you shoot with an SLR, if so which brand and why? Leave a comment or use the contact form.

Photo Credit: PMA 

Story Sources: Engadget & The Photography Bay 

Yes it's the triumphant return of Weekly Wallpaper! This week the image is of the view from my house's garden in the early morning.

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I took this photo while walking around the fields by my village.

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Here you go folks - what do you think?

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Here’s the download link