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The internet is not a democracy. When on a persons site, we do not have free speech. These truths admitted, when the users help build up a site, from the idea into a vibrant and useful community, it is sad to see the owner begin to get an ego. I speak in reference to a recent series of events on the WPG Photo forums. The owner of the forums seems to have forgotten that without the users, it would just be another useless collection of bits and bytes.

The Cause
A few months back, a rather vitriolic personality emerged on the forums. Goign by the name Hoopboy, the person was rude, insulting, and downright useless in several entries on the forum. Admitting that on these forums he could rest on his anonymity, Hoopboy continued to insult people on a regular basis, while providing no proof he had any talent at all.

A subject of one of his worse remarks asked the site owner to remove the comment, as it was a violation of the sites own policies and potentially harmful to the the subjects reputation, The person making the complaint was not asking for people's thoughts in the thread, only supplying his thoughts on another persons photograph, in a thread where the original poster was askign for comments.

The Effect
The site owner refused to take down the offending post, at which point the subject of the post stated that he may need to contact his lawyer. The owner, apparently, took this as a threat of legal action against the site and owner, and, in my opinion, over reacted, removing the post, but also the person who filled the complaint. That is right. He banned the user for complaining about a violation of the sites rules.

I then posted my thoughts on the matter, which earned me what I am told now is 'restricted posting' privileges. The site owner must approve all my posts, so he can screen what I say. I suppose criticism is a bad thing for those overly unsure of their own skills. My crime seems to be expressing my opinion, an opinion that the owner did not like, which reflected badly on his leadership and management of the site. I feel I told the truth, and his actions reflected negatively on him. Must just be me... and about a dozen other members of the site.

The Result
I suspect what I have planned next will incur far more wrath of the owner of that site than my recent actions. I also expect it will get me a full on ban at the WPG Photo site. However, I feel people need a place to speak their minds, not a place where they are expected to nod and smile at a person who is wrong, take abuse cause the owner doesn't want to enforce his own rules, all because the owner says so. There is a difference between having the right to express an opinion, and being rude and condescending. Stay tuned for more news in the days and weeks to come.

2 Days. That is all it took to get to 1,000 pictures on my new-to-me Canon Digital Rebel. In a fortuitous turn of events, the day I got my camera was the second, and longest day of the World of Wheels show at the Winnipeg Convention Center. A huge car show, by Winnipeg standards, the show fills 2 floors of the convention center. Between a day and a half inside thew show, and the event that is the departing of the cars that were in the show, I had no problem taking a large number of pictures. The best thing about this? I am still learning!

I have been taking pictures for many years, in many forms. I have been seriously into photography for 3 or 4 years. From a $9.99 film camera from a low cost general goods store, to my first Digital, which lasted all of 3 weeks(though there were some amazing pictures in those 3 weeks), they all served some purpose. The low end film camera for under $10 taught me conservation of images. When you have $5 to your name, and the cheapest roll of film is $2.50, you tend to be careful with what you shoot. The first digital taught me that even though it says digital, it may not be very good, or even remotely usable.

The other purpose they all served, and by they I mean every camera I owned pre 2003, was that they showed me I like taking pictures. In September of 2002, a person I knew offered to buy me a camera. I have no doubt about 2 things. 1. The person would have gone for a top of the line DSLR. 2. I would probably not be into photography now, if I had accepted. There is a difference between enjoying taking pictures, and actually doing it well, no matter if you have a $30 sub 1 MP piece of crap, or a $5,000 Canon 5D.

Yes, at that time I liked taking pictures, but I wasn't good at it. Also, it took me 3 cameras since that day to learn my photographic lessons. My HP Photosmart 320 taught me the 'digital zoom' lesson that all new players in photography must learn: avoid it. While I was shopping for it's replacement, I thought a DSLR was not financially wise, as I would then have to buy a lot of new memory, lenses, batteries, and so many accessories that I would put myself into poverty.

So I got the S3000. Within weeks it was broken in a 'duct tape and pray' kind of way, and that is pretty much what I did. I got something called Tuct Tape, this colorful red tape from Home Depot, and I taped the damage in order to get more use out of it. The camera worked well enough, and did it's job for over 2 years. The flash didn't work in the end, it looked like it had been put through more than a few wringers, but right up to this very day, it still takes pictures. It, and hanging around with a few higher end photographers, taught me that in exchange for the DSLRs cost, comes a far greater customizability, and that puts it far beyond the Fuji S3000.

I spent the last few months being curious of all those I met in photography in the city here, almost all who had a DSLR, and the kinds of pictures they could take with them that my Fuji often missed. That is the other track of my personal photographic evolution. I would never have had these skills in 2002, nor would I have had the contacts and friends to ask the DSLR newbie questions of, like "how, how does work? , "What does this do?" and "How do I get this shot I imagine from the camera I have?".

Now, I feel I am ready. Now my photography can evolve again. I am overjoyed to say that I am now the proud and very happy owner of a used Canon 300D, also known as the Canon Digital Rebel. I know, it's not new, it's not the Rebel XT, the newer model in the series, but I felt that for a variety of reasons, cost, experience, and accessories, that the Rebel was the better, wiser option. I could have bought a Rebel with Kit Lens, but I would have been horribly limited in the extra stuff I could buy.

What I got includes 2 lenses, 3 batteries, UV and polarizing filters, a normal and car charger, camera bag, plus the body itself, wit enough left over for a few used Compact Flash cards from a friend locally. Now I can begin to thrive again, instead of feeling stagnant and held back. I could not thrive anymore on the Fuji. That Fuji, by the way, has found a new, better home with someone without my needs, my desire to be better, to get better. I expect and hope that you will see many new photos in my Gallery very soon. I hope you all see my skills and the product of this art I love progress in the pictures you see there. Cheers!

In a few days I should have possession of a used, but in good working order Canon Digital Rebel, also known as the 300D. The camera is a loaner from a friend who no longer needs it, and comes with enough accessories to mast for a long time, and give me a chance to learn what I want out of my own DSLR. With a Sigma 55-200mm lens, Canon 18-55 kit lens, a wired remote, camera bag, 4 memory cards, 3 batteries, 2 chargers, and more, I definitely think this will do me for awhile, and by the end of it, I will undoubtedly know what I want to do with this level of camera. I can't wait!

What I suspect will be the last pictures I will ever take with my Fuji were taken earlier today. No, it has not finally failed on me, I am actually getting a long term loaner camera from a friend. I have posted the images here if you all want to see them. I will give you more info on the camera and the accessories when I have it in hand, but I hope you will all begin to see better quality pictures in a few weeks, once I have the camera and have the time to learn how to use it. I don't pretend to think I can actually take awesome pics on day 1, but I do hope I can take ok pics within the first few weeks.

Ok, so I drafted this post after about 20 minutes of trying to get my camera to work. It was not getting power. It took about 3 minutes to figure out I had another bad battery compartment on my hands. The camera before this Fuji, the HP Photosmart 320 or some such, had the same issue, where the battery compartment wouldn't close right, and there wasn't enough juice to the camera. I was really worried that my one and only camera, which had had more problems than a Winnipeg demolition crew, was finally, and irreparably broken.

Alas, right after I drafted this post, I went back to it, trying everything I could think of to bring my camera back into operation. After a good long while, and a lot of coaxing and hoping, I finally got the camera to close right. I suspect what happened was hard impact when the battery compartment was in the wrong spot, pushing down the little ridges it is supposed to hook into. I spent about 3 hours trying to raise those ridges again. Now that i have it right, I am gonna leave it, compartment down, for awhile, so I can ensure the ridges stay right.

Finally, after weeks of trying and failing to get things worked out with the Free Press reporter, and just days before the piece goes to the presses, I was able to get a phone interview and a photo shoot in today for the Free Press article, which will be in the Free Press on Saturday, January 28th. The interview went well, we discussed my podcast a bit and the preparations I make for each show, and I was pleased to see that Gabrielle had come prepared with a number of excellent questions and insightful views on podcasting as an art. I hope the article represents the podcasting community well, here and across the net.

Update: Lance, of the Hipbase podcast and who founded the Manitoba Podcasting Association, has posted the text of the article if any of you without access want to read.

The Bears on Broadway, an amazing fundraiser for CancerCare Manitoba, wherein a variety of companies across the province donate a large amount of money to have a Manitoba artist create a uniquely painted or decorated cement bear which is placed along the main business street in Winnipeg, Broadway, is nearly coming to a close. At the end of October, correlating with the end of the Polar Bear migration up near Churchill, the Bears will be removed from their current places of residence, and moved to their permanent homes. I am really hoping I can get some decent pictures of all the 60 or so bears in the collection. Be sure to check out the Gallery for the results!

As always, the WPG Photo meetup was a good one, with plenty of good talk, and great ideas passed around. I grow more jealous and envious of those with decent cameras ever meeting, as I see the shots they can do, and wonder if there will come a day when I will take shots like that. Renee at Kave Coffee Lounge, Broadway and Hargrave in downtown Winnipeg, is a gracious and kind host, often taking time from his work to sit and talk photography with the group.

I am, at this very moment, putting up several pictures of late on DWP, if you are interested in such things. I have begun to use a rather large logo on all my pictures because I am tired of hearing about my images being used on other sites, or the possibility of such. Check out the best of the best album for new stuff, as well as the miscellaneous alb um, Travels near and far, which will soon include the Bears on Broadway gallery. I am not sure how plentiful or what quality you'll find them to be, but I will do my best to keep you all looking at interesting, and well done images.

Imagine you have a top of the line 2005 DSLR camera, and all the equipment you would need to be out in the wilderness for months, a solar powered battery charger for laptop and camera, all the lenses and disk space you could ever hope for, and a desire to explore. Now imagine that you could take all of this back into the founding of this land, back before gas guzzling SUV's, jet fuel burning 747's, and neon signs. Why, you might wonder, am I pondering this. Well, it's this TV mini series. I was watching Nascar the other day, and in the pre race leadup they do a run around the track with a driver and a guest passenger. This race they had Christian Kane, once a regular on Joss Whedon's Angel, and now an actor on a show called Into the West, in the passenger seat.

It's a show about one man and his, and other members of his family's journeys through the taming of the land now known as the USA. Kane plays Abe Wheeler, son of the main character, who leaves home at a young age, joins the Pony Express as a rider until the telegraph puts them out of business, then he moves on to work in building the railroad as it crosses the USA. Knowing how talented Kane is, and always liking a good story, I obtained some of the earlier episodes I missed out on. It is amazing. A work of true art.

The story, while it can get confusing at times, is well told,. and the life of Jacob Wheeler is told amazingly from his early adulthood to his older years. We also see the the travels of his brother in law, Loved by the Buffalo, who has a vision at a young age about the future of his people, and travels for nearly his entire life, hoping to find some proof he is wrong, that his prophecy will not come to pass. It is sad, truly sad, to see the effect that colonization has on the people who were here before the land was called North America, before they were called Indians, and before the loss of their history, language, and their heritage, not to mention way of life and future.

The ideas, though, where interesting. This is the first series I can recall that showed the utter malice and hate that was shown to the people who lived here before the white man first set foot on this continent, the near genocide that was perpetrated, and the hard truths that many still try to forget, ignore, and even deny. I heard stories of a guy who spends all his time vehemently denying the holocaust ever happened. History has nearly forgotten the first such action, the attempted eradication of the people native to this land.

So, you are probably asking, what does this all have to do with photography? Why is the primary category one of pictures and capturing the life and art around us? Like I opened this with, I imagined, as I watched this show, and especially as the episodes drew on and we saw the early days f photography show themselves, what it would be like to have modern technology to capture what the land was like then, back before the sky was littered with sky scrapers, before it became hard to take a picture without a blacktop highway bisecting the shot, before the SUV's, the planes, before technology got in the way. I imagine it must have been truly amazing.

I recall a few months after the events of 9.11 happened, when it was safe to talk about such thing, there was some researchers who made an interesting revelation. In the days after the attack, when there was very few planes in the sky, there was a noticeable, marked change in temperatures and weather in the continental US. The lack of planes affected the weather, thus making it possible to theorize that the fact we had planes, all those planes criss crossing the skies from coast to coast to coast, they have a marked impact on the weather, the environment.

I can't help but imagine being able to photograph this world without technologies downside, but with technologies benefits. I would love dearly the chance to photograph an untouched, and blemished continent. I would love the chance to use a telephoto lens to photograph a native village, before they worried of the army coming in to slaughter them, before the smoke billowing from the trains became the common sight, or even if it were in the picture, it would be an interesting site I think, a real coal or steam powered engine back before the stuff we have now.

Imagine photographing a native hunting arty as they stalk a herd of buffalo, a native wedding ceremony, a day in the life of a native tribe that knew nothing of guns, of cannons, of trains, of the slaughter that would come. That, above all else, would be am amazing experience. Don't you?

The Bears on Broadway is a set of 62 concrete bears placed along Broadway, a street half a block away from my home. There are, though, two bears that are away from the main set. There is bear at Polo Park shopping center, and a bear at the Winnipeg Airport. As it stands, I have one of every bear but those two. I am pretty sure I can get to both easy enough by bus, but the airport one is particularly annoying as it's not on the way to anything I want to go to, unless someone's got a spare plane ticket to somewhere better. So, alas, before the middle of October, I must make a trip to both the airport and the mall. I will be sure to have the best of each bear up at the Bears on Broadway gallery on DWP.

I had the pleasure of getting out today for a big day of photography, and snagged 277 pictures. I wandered along Broadway to Memorial park, and got some great fountain pictures, travelled to the Forks where I got some ok duck pictures, though the water and ground were fairly dirty, so not a lot are likely to turn out, then headed back up Broadway to grab some Bears on Broadway pictures, including this one of the Biker Bear, by far my favourite bear on creativity. I got a few pictures that I have put up at DWP, some in the Best album, others in the extras album. I plan to put my pictures up there from now on, no longer satisfied with having other people host my photos. The only issue I see is that the hosting I have through Mindstorm here, since it's been consolidated, is significantly lower in disk space than I had between all my accounts before. We'll have to see where things go in future. Enjoy.

Today was a pretty good day in all. Headed to the WPG Photo meetup, which replaced the now pay to run meetup.com, and as always it was a good conversation to be had, and good people. The group is growing by leaps and bounds, with more people coming to WPGPhoto.com every day. The only credit I give to the meetup.com people is that they brought a bunch of us together that allowed us to build up from a small basis of very experienced photographers that allowed the community we have now to build up. The site will definitely keep growing, with everyone learning more each day and each meeting.

Dan, of WPGPhoto, and I decided late last night to go to the Birch Ski Area outside of Winnipeg, as I had missed the trip taken out there a few days before. He said we should stop at a old abandoned farm house he had found out that way the day before. We did. We didn't get to the ski area, as we were at the farm house all afternoon. Dan took pictures he wanted inside the house, and I wandered around outside, finding old farm equipment, a pond, and some amazing rural shots. Between solitary ducks, model frogs, and seemingly endless train tracks, we found plenty to take pictures of, but I only wish my camera took CF cards as I would have been able to borrow one from Dan when mine ran out of space with far too many shows left to be taken. I always hate losing shots, but hopefully there will be other trips to this place and others.

A friend once told me that when you get stuck in a rut, sometimes you need to push yourself out by force. I have found myself in just such a rut, and have begun pushing. You see I am a photographer, and have to go walking a lot, but I cannot walk far due to my knee beginning to hurt within a couple of hours. This is an issue, as I have begun to note a definite downtown feel to my photography. A lot of my shots seem to be of specific streets, and of repeated things. The problem is that these sights that I photograph over and over aren't helping me learn and grow as a photographer. Therefore, I plan to take shots with the express goal of what I will do with it in post processing, like a snap will have blurred edges, or an old building will have sepia or black and white done, and so on. Wish me luck!

I just wandered in after the presentation at Don's Photo on Portage Ave. by Manuel Sousa, a new member of the WPGPhoto crew and a well travelled photographer of many disciplines. Manny talked about lighting, about composition, and showed some of the amazing places he has had the pleasure of taking pictures of. He showed before and after shots, and reinforced a belief I have held as long as I was into photography, that if you ask for permission first, you usually lose any chance of getting the shot you want. I admit that lighting only enters my thinking in very specific shots, like sunsets and cloud shots, and my composition follows none of the common rules. Still, I like my shots as I take them, and if I can't enjoy my photography, then there's no use trying.

Wow. While I was right about my equipment being next to nothing compared to the others, even the person with what looked like a Canon Point and Shoot had a better camera than me I suspect, I still had a lot of fun. I took about 200 shots, a lot of them were 'take 10 shots to get the right one' type shots, most of which didn't last on the camera. We hit The Forks, 5 of us in all, and took shots of 4 major areas. We took from the parkade, from the observation deck, down below by the skating rink, and then we drove over to the St. Boniface Cathedral and took some shots of that with the setting sun casting it's last few rays on it. Sadly, with the setting sun I had no choice but to use the tripod, and a lot of the side shots had horrible tilts.

As far as equipment, we had 3 Nikons in our group, I think 2 Canons, and my lowly little Fuji. Dan brought 2 Nikons, and with his fisheye lens took some amazing shots, including one of the other 4 of us looking like we were standing around the Canadian flag that flies above The Forks tower. Also, I noticed that the others had a lot less hassle with timing. I must have taken 20 shots of that flag to get 2 or 3 decent ones, because the flag would change so much between hitting the button and the actual picture being taken that it was difficult to get the one I wanted. I imagine if I spent a couple of thousand I could probably get a decent camera and some lenses, but I don't have that kind of money, and am not likely to at my current job and debt level. *sigh* I just want to take the shots I imagine.

Yes! It's going to happen. After missing a few shoots organized by Dan over at WPG Photo that were of models, I am finally able to get out of the house for a little photography tomorrow. The plan is either The Forks, which long time viewers of my photography will know I love to shoot at, or Birds Hill Park, a place I haven't been to with camera in hand or without in a few years. Nature or man made? Those are the choices, I think. I hope that if we go to The Forks, that the observation tower is open because if it's as nice and clear as they say it will be, I expect some truly amazing shots from up there. I suspect my camera and meagre equipment will pale by comparison to the other people there, but I go to shoot anyway!

I am itching to get out there. I glance often at my camera, gathering dust, and am angry with myself. I love taking pictures. I imagine all the sunsets and sunrises I am missing, not being at work to see and photograph them, I gaze longingly outside as the sunlight creeps across the brick of buildings outside, I need to get out and take pictures. I have taken precious few, and they all seem to be the same stuff, Fort and Portage, up and down my street, inside my apartment, stuff like that. I am afraid, though. there is still a lot of ice, and I somehow doubt that any claim against the management of that parking lot I slipped in 2 months ago will go well if I slip and do worse damage while exercising my hobby. I just want to get out of here.

While not one taken with a lens, really, and I am also sure I am not the first or last to do this since Spirit landed, but I have now after nearly a month with a black desktop, decided to go with one of the more stunning pictures of the Mars landscape that the rover has taken in the time on the landing pad. Click here for info on Spirit, or here for your own choice if you want to be the next owner of a Martian Desktop. Thank god NASA has such good data pipes, both to and from Mars, and across the earth. [Update: Several of the other options also posted now]

I know, this is not supposed to be a two blogs at once thing, but hell, it fits in both. Those who read the Photolog will note that this is a text post, but you'll see why in a minute, if the title didn't give it away. I am not happy at all today. I paid $180 CDN with shipping and tax for my HP Photosmart 320 digital camera, with which many of the pictures from here came from. It is now pretty much worthless, as it is not requiring a power source and allows only the length of the adaptor cord from said power source in order to take a picture, and let me tell you, the best pictures in this city are no where near a convenient power source. Therefore, I am pretty limited in the pictures I can take, and I have no idea how to fix the problem, or what the problem is other than it will not take batteries.

I have been telling myself for awhile now that I need to get a more digital camera appropriate set of batteries for the HP, preferably rechargeable due to my stubbornness for using the LCD to frame shots and take them, and as it was payday today, and there was to be plenty of decorations to take pictured of today, I decided to go to Staples and pick some up. Well, I went and after humming and comparing, I got an 8 pack of Duracell batteries made for such uses, and proceeded about 20 feet from the store, to pop the camera open and try out the batteries. Well, nothing happened. I ensured they were in right, and still nothing. I tried the other 4, and still nothing. I went back into the store, and had them hook up the adaptor they had, and it powered up fine.

This was good, I thought, because at least the camera wasn't fried. Well, they tried the batteries in other cameras and the batteries were fine too. Damn. I knew this would be bad. After trying another four brands of batteries nothing came close to sparking non tethered life in the camera, and I knew I had trouble. I went to Radio Shack, not willing to give up my love of taking pictures, and shelled out $30 for an adaptor, and then went to work, but after 8 hours of being tethered to the closest plug, and to the very short power cable, I have come to the conclusion I have a $200 piece of crap(with adaptor) and that this is a waste of a camera. I might try to find someplace that can take a quick(and free) look and tell me if it is fixable cheap, but I hold no hope. No more HP for Me!

Ok, so I have added a photography category, because I foresee a lot of images in my near future. I have now a total of 27 pictures up, dating back to taken dates of May 30th, and the log was launched ont he 11th of last month. Wow, this Friday will be 1 month. Cool! I just uploaded my most prized picture to date, with the following description: "This is what I consider to be my most amazing image taken yet, and with the D-Link yet. This is an image of the skyline taken from the side entrance to 180 Main St. in Winnipeg here, straight down York Ave. right at dusk. On either side, we see towering hotels and apartment complexes, while down the middle we have a breathtaking view of the sky. The only way this could have been any better would have been if I could remove the buildings, though they do add a little something. I took lots of pictures on this day, so many more soon to come." Check out the Fotolog!