Archive for March 22nd, 2008

22 Mar 2008 Bring On The Night
Author: Gail |  Category: Photography, USA  | 2 Comments

crane city

Taken in Alameda, California, the Bay Bridge is off to the left.

I’ve mentioned before how much I like shooting at night, and here’s an example why:

View Large On Black

I love the starburst effect from a narrower aperture (in this case f/29), but it requires using a tripod. I had to borrow Kevin’s tripod for this long exposure (13 seconds). Unfortunately, most point-and-shoots don’t have lenses with that sort of aperture range, the average maximum is around f/8. You’ll have to either borrow a DSLR and a tripod or get a special type of filter on your digicam that will achieve the same effect. I’m sure some of the high-end point-and-shoots (which cost even more than my DSLR) can do something similar in-camera with some post-processing, but I don’t have one of those. In my opinion, if you’re shelling out more than a few hundred dollars for a point-and-shoot, you might as well buy a DSLR and get more value for money. I’d even be glad to show you how to use one, I just don’t think you should waste your money on buying an expensive gadget that can’t do much!

22 Mar 2008 Flickr Easter
Author: Gail |  Category: Other Photogs  | 4 Comments

I eat Flickr
I eat Flickr by fd

How it was made.

22 Mar 2008 Robert Scoble Claims Flickr Isn’t Kid-Friendly?
Author: Gail |  Category: Consumer, Flickr, Linkage, Rants  | 3 Comments

(Disclaimer: at first this might seem like a tech industry post that might put you to sleep, but it’s not really about technology.)

I’m a little slow sometimes. I attended the Flickr Turns 4 birthday party in San Francisco one week ago, and I just realised something out about it today.

Last Saturday Kevin and I had dinner at Metreon before walking over to 111 Minna Gallery, where the party was taking place. Somewhere along the way a couple of people turned a corner and walked in front of us, one of whom looked faintly familiar. Kevin asked me if I knew who Robert Scoble was, and I said yes, but I didn’t follow his blog, I only knew about him. I assumed the teenager walking beside him was his son.

“I’ll bet he’s going to the Flickr party.”

Sure enough, he led us straight there — the spot clearly marked by a bunch of pink and blue balloons.

It only occurred to me today that I didn’t see Scoble inside the party, or at all after that, so I went over to his blog to see if he’d written anything about it.

Lo and behold, he did. In fact, he said a lot of things, most of which centred around his staunch opinion that Flickr had done their users a major disservice by throwing the party at a venue that is 21+.

I RSVP’ed on the Upcoming.org event page, so I already knew that they would ID at the door. It was also covered in the Flickr Turns 4 group, which was advertised on Flickr’s homepage for weeks beforehand. Scoble says he didn’t see any mention of it on his emailed invitation.

After I showed my ID at the door and we went inside, it didn’t occur to me that Scoble and company would likely not be permitted on account of his son being a minor.

After reading the comments and discussion that followed on Scoble’s blog post, I can see how it might look to a parent. Why not make it all ages? Many of the photographers on Flickr, including those who have photos displayed on the walls all over the venue, are under 21 years old.

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