Photography is a fairly recent hobby of mine. I first got into it about four years ago, when I bought a point-and-shoot digital camera. But, it wasn’t until the summer of 2008 when I began using the photo-sharing website Flickr.
I was hooked right away.
I loved the capabilities of the site, from tagging to creating notes on the images to even recording the location of where I took it.
About a year or so ago, I kind of fell out of photography a bit, partially due to my out-growing my point-and-shoot. But, this past January I decided to take part in the Year in Pictures challenge on Flickr.
The goal is take a photo every day, so you will have a journal of the past year, and–at least for me–see how your skills have developed.
This project pushed me to invest in a DSLR camera, a Canon Rebel T2i, this past March. A DSLR, with its changeable lenses and manual settings, is a whole other animal.
But I’m learning.
And Flickr is helping.
Because your photos store data, called EXIF, Flickr can show just about every dang statistic about your shots. The type of camera, the focal length, the ISO and more. Just click on the More Properties link of a photo, it is all there (unless the Flickr user has it turned off).
A photo I shot at the San Francisco Zoo in April.
And that shot’s EXIF data, displayed on Flickr. Note: this photo was taken with the Sports auto setting.
This allows me to do a bit of studying. I can search out other T2i users, look at their photos, and see which settings they are using to get that shot.
Yes, part of any photo depends on the lighting and the lens, but at least the stored EXIF data points me in the right direction as far as settings.
I’ve been keeping my camera on the M (Manual) setting for this past week and I’m loving the results so far. I didn’t spend all this money just to use the auto settings. I’ll confess that the Sports, Macro and Landscape settings do come in handy sometimes.
Flickr is not only a fun site, but an invaluable learning tool. It is also great way to connect with other photographers, either hobbyists like myself or professionals.
You can also join groups, and submit your photos to “pools,” so that other users can see and comment on them. A photo I submitted to the Great Lakes Urban Exchange (GLUE) pool was their Photo of the Week this past week. Check it out.
This photo was taken with my point-and-shoot and tweaked in Photoshop, using a process called redscale.
If you ever wanted to learn about photography, I highly recommend opening up an account on Flickr. It is a great place to learn and play.
