OMG: flickr is actually still alive

I have to be honest, I haven't been very active on flickr this past year. Infact, l almost didn't renew my PRO account.  Why? l guess I was finding flickr pretty stale.  The interface hasn't changed much since joined in 2006.  There are still a  lot of really good photographers using flickr but it was pretty painful browsing the UI  to find their work.  I'd typically goto my favorite group load a couple pages & give up.  The new refresh of the groups 'more pictures' UI was something that was sorely needed. Its tiles load  fast and scroll smoothly which makes browsing, even on my tablet much more enjoyable.
 It's nice to know there are still some developers left at flickr, maybe next year my decision to renew will be easier.

Self Assignment:Cowboys

Rifleman, originally uploaded by photogeek21.

A couple weeks ago I did something for the first time. It didn't have anything to do with lighting, technique or post processing. In fact, it had more to do with personal phobia than photography - I asked a total stranger if I could take their portrait. To my releif, they said yes. Actually, everyone I asked was more than happy to pose for me. It was good practice too, since I was on their time, I had to set up quick grab the shot, thank them and let them get back to what they were doing - no time to fart around with different lighting angles and such, just know what I wanted, set up and do it - nerve racking and fun at the same time.

I'd been thinking about a self assignment for a while now so when I saw that there was a cowboy shooting match at my local range, I grabed my camera and lighting bag and headed out the door.

It wasn't all about picture taking either, I truly treated this as an assignment and introduced myself to the match director and made sure he was okay with me strolling through his course of fire. I interviewed several of the competitors to get a bit of insight into their sport. And while I'm far from being a writer, I shared a little of what I learned in my flickr post.

I also sent 5x7 prints to those that posed for me as a token of appreciation for helping me out. Got some great feedback too, One wrote to tell me that when he pull out the picture his wife saw it, grabed it, and said "this one's mine" and has got it on display in her office.

So I guess my first self assignment was a sucess, I got the shot (and didn't get shot), learned quite abit about cowboy shooting, and met some really cool people.