In almost any profession, it’s important to study the work and history of others. Notable photographs such as the protester in front of the tanks at Tienamen Square or the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima have helped define our history.
Flickr user Balakov has recreated these (along with other historic photos) using Legos:
View his Classics in Lego Flickr set.
*photo used by Creative Commons license.
With a ton of photography resources on the web, it can be frustrating to search for information and end up with a bunch of irrelevant, spam-filled, or product sale pages. I’ve created a custom photography search engine based on Google, but instead of searching every site on the ‘net, it only searches a hand-chosen list of sites focused on photography information.
Head over to the PhotoSiteSearch photography search site to check it out. If you see resources that should be included (but are missing), feel free to drop a note to quality@photositesearch.com with your feedback.
Scott Hanselman is a software developer who has a weekly podcast called Hanselminutes where he dives into a variety of topics. I recently had the opportunity to sit down with him and be the guest on his show. Scott recently purchased a Nikon D40 and had some questions about some technical issues such as exposure, shutter speed, and aperture, so we talked about Digital Photography for Geeks. Topics include DSLR bodies and features, lenses, exposure issues, RAW files, and online photo sharing and editing.
The podcast is about 37 minutes long. Head over to the Hanselminutes web site and you’ll find a variety of ways to listen to the show.
I had a great time talking cameras with Scott and appreciated the opportunity to share our conversation online.
Despite the fact that I sell photos for profit as a business, I post a ton of my work to Flickr, where it’s available to be viewed by a community of millions of users from around the globe. Many photographers won’t use sites such as Flickr due to a fear that folks will use the site to obtain and use their work illegally. It’s a valid concern, but not one that prevents me from sharing online.
I’m a strong believer in copyright and the ownership of one’s work. I’m also a strong believer in giving back to a community, and the reality is that no photographer is truly self-taught. We all look at the works of others and improve our technique from what we see. A diverse, large community of photographers (such as that on Flickr or photo.net) provides a great resource for learning. Regardless of your particular photographic interests, equipment, or locations, there’s likely to be a Flickr group for that topic. A Flickr pro membership is only $25/year and the amount of quality work, discussion, and inspirations make it a great investment for any photographer.
I post my photos to Flickr in order to participate and give back to the photo community. The images are of a resolution which looks great on screen but isn’t of a high enough quality to be used for a large print. Flickr provides a good method to easily organize and share a variety of my work, and my Flickr stream has led to quite a few referrals and photo leads (actually just last night I was contacted by someone about licensing a photo they saw on Flickr).
Could someone steal a photo? Potentially. Do I feel that the benefit of the community and potential sales leads outweighs the risk of someone swiping a low-res image? Yes. Until something changes to tip that balance, you’ll continue to find a bunch of my work on Flickr.
Today I learned of a new website (via Thomas Hawk) that will be of interest to all you photo geeks out there: PhotographyVoter. If you’re familiar with Digg, you’ll instantly “get” PhotographyVoter. Users submit photo-related web links, and other users can then vote for that link as popular. As more users vote, the best links get driven up the homepage.
More folks participating will increase the quality, so if you’re interested in reading about photography, head over there and check it out. And if I ever write something interesting, feel free to submit one of my blog posts over there 
