Digital Camera Bloopers and More

Peekaboo!

I read that the expected sales of digital cameras in 2008 in United States alone was expected to exceed 40 million units. In 2007, 37 million cameras were sold in the America. Digital cameras have created huge numbers of new casual and serious photographers who can take hundreds of pictures a day if desired without being concerned about film and developing costs.

Do you think my butt is too big?

I use Flickr to share my favourite pictures and to browse through photos taken by others. Upwards of one million photos are uploaded daily on Flickr* from four million users around the world, an absolutely mind boggling number of images. There are people who upload every single picture they take to Flickr (and Facebook) with no editing or elimination of poor shots at all. I would estimate that for every 100 pictures I take, perhaps five to ten are worth sharing at the most. Some pictures I keep for personal reference, and every so often I go back and cull the pictures on my computer before I store them on an external device.

Please look at the camera!

There are privacy concerns raised with so many cameras clicking around us all the time. Most of us find the camera a harsh judge of appearance and do not like to see indiscriminate pictures of ourselves, especially as we get older. HP has come out with a camera that offers slimming photo editing options that can make the subject look ten pounds lighter instantly. How about a camera that makes someone look ten years younger?

Those twigs in the foreground are very annoying!

This week I was out on a very cold but beautiful day when I came across a number of less common winter birds. I dropped my walking poles and backpack and stood quietly trying to get pictures while not scaring off the birds. Here are some of my worst shots. I have tried to be selective by not showing all of them. At least these pictures have a bird in them. See if you can identify them and I will post some better pictures at the end of the week .

You are so beautiful! Why won't you pose for me?

* These stats taken from the Flickr blog in 2006. Undoubtedly the numbers are higher now and there are over 3 billion pictures hosted at this site. In the past minute, 5200 pictures were uploaded to Flickr according to information on their home page.

Now for some unabashed bragging, mainly so my parents can say, "She got it from me!"
Every day the top 500 most interesting pictures uploaded to Flickr (out of about 1 million) are featured on Explore. I have had 7 pictures on Explore and am proud of them. Some photographers I have as contacts have had 50 or more pictures on Explore while others who take equally excellent pictures have had none. Go figure! I do not know the formula.

Here is my Explore poster. (click to enlarge) I didn't even know about Explore until someone emailed me to tell me I was on it. Here is link where you can check to see if your Flickr photos have been chosen.