Are we doing the right thing?

[cls]

Hi, I first discovered The Digital Picture when I was considering buying the T1i and googled "Canon T1i review". This was late 2009. Since some time after I purchased the camera (around spring 2010) I've been a member of the forum. I've posted some photos, participated in some discussions and I've also made some "+1 posts". Still I haven't been very active on the forum. The main reason for this is the language obstacle - I'm Swedish, and even if I'm usually able to make myself understood in English it's still my second language. For me it requires a lot more effort to write something in English than in Swedish (I suppose native English speakers can get a hint of it if you consider posting something in French, Spanish or whatever your second language is). However I'm quite fond of this forum and I hope it will remain online with its positive attitude for many more years. I'll keep making my sporadic posts and hope my presence (and my probably somewhat weird English) is OK with all (or most).

BTW - I know of at least three photography interested Swedish friends that I introduced to TDP. They regularly read what's written here (news section as well as forum), but they're not comfortable enough with written English to post something themselves. I suppose the world is crowded with people like them - people that read much of what we all write but hesitate to say something themselves. That alone justifies the existence of this forum, and I'd love to see it rising in popularity/posting frequency. I'll try my best to contribute during 2013, but I honestly count on you Americans/Englishmen/Australians etc to continue making this forum worthwhile. Enough said - now I should go back to working on my contribution to "post your best of 2012".

Finally - to any American who may be interested in hockey - congrats to the win in the Junior World Championship! The Swedish guys were actually quite close to a draw in the third period, but the US victory was quite fair and undisputable. Maybe next year...

[Kombi]

For me this is the only photography site I frequent. Look at a few others time to time, but find people in forums and site reviews most suited to me right here.

As mentioned above, Holidays keep me away from computer and posting, and short winter days keep me from getting out and taking many pictures. (I have about 7hrs daylight right now)

I don't know others locally who are into photography, but when I find someone i tell them of this site.

Just liked the site on facebook as well, maybe it will help draw more in.

New camera(7d) and lens(17-55) should be here next week, I'll likely be posting more soon.. but I don't want to post just for the sake of posting

[EricPvpi]

Still learning, I find this forum helpful with realistic advice. I read a few other forums and find that the advice there can get very opinionated at times. In life, there is usually 100 ways to do everything and it seems to me at least, that folks here try to understand your goals and offer some advice to help you get there. Other forums tend to be "this is how I do it and everyone else is wrong". I do like the slower pace and more family like atmosphere and I hope to be able to contribute more down the line. Hopefully this can be a more active forum without losing the spirit that makes it special.

Eric

[Dr Croubie]

Yeah, i've definitely noticed the slowdown too, but i don't really take it as a bad thing, and i'm probably contributing to it as well. As most of you may know by now I bought my first house a few months back, and working on it has taken up most of my time recently, it's not finished by a long short (you can probably hear my missus whingeing about my unfinished path from here). That and cleaning up the farm we were house-sitting for the last year, and my missus kicking the tenants out of her flat and doing it up to sell as well didn't help things. So all forms of photography have taken a back seat for me, with the exception of continually buying more and more crap off ebay.
Just for an example, when I take pics off my 7D, i dump the RAW into a folder called 'new', then go to dpp/wine and batch-process to jpeg for triage and deletion, then I sort them into folders by event or location or whatever. That folder is now 1000 photos big, oldest unsorted photo is October 1st. I've got photos from a few gigs, my Aunty's 50th wedding anniversary, 2 bucks' days and 3 weddings to go through. (don't worry, I was just in the audience at the weddings). And that's not counting all the film i've been shooting lately, which takes longer to batch-scan for triage and re-scan with wet-mounting at full-res, then curves and sharpen etc.

But I still come around, mostly when I'm at work or weekends. Problem is that at work I keep my browser window small so people can't see what i'm doing that's not work, so I only read the text and can't look at all the 'best' photos fullsize, only when I get home if I have time. So I only really respond to text-discussions when I can.
Anyway, in 2 months I've got a friend coming out from NL to visit here, we're going to drive the Great Ocean Road to Tasmania and back. Already I'm thinking I might need a few new CF cards, or rebuild my laptop and take a spare hdd. I'm already trying to decide on cameras, the 7D, 8-16, Samyang 35, 70-300L are a must, probably the Bessa L and 21mm Skopar, and maybe the Mamiya 645 and Flektogon 50mm, plus a whole bucketload of Velvia 50 in an esky (might need a new esky or there won't be any room for food). So you can all expect a lot of spamming of wonderful Australian Landscapes about this time next year when I get to process them all...

[thekingb]

The main reason for this is the language obstacle - I'm Swedish, and even if I'm usually able to make myself understood in English it's still my second language. For me it requires a lot more effort to write something in English than in Swedish

For what it's worth, and not to downplay the considerable effort it may require, your English reads better than most everyone else's on this site

[Kayaker72]

I also tend not to post many "great shot" and "+1" type posts. I find reading a forum filled with 90% of posts like that can get annoying. I tend not to have any in-depth critique to add, so no posts. I also worry about my lack of "great shot" type posts, because when I get them I appreciate them, and I'm depriving you guys of that. I honestly do like many shots posted here, but only comment of a few extra remarkable ones. It would be nice if we could +1 or "like" a post if we enjoyed the pictures, or learned a valuable insight, so we could show appreciation without worrying about clogging up the forum.

It would be great if we could add something like "like" or "comment" on a photo where it doesn't become part of the main thread but rather a subdirectory. Not sure if that is possible. While I do some "+1" and "really wicked awesome photo" comments, I actually hold back for the reasons that you mention. It is one nice thing about also being in contact with many on TDP on flickr. I can hop over there and comment without clogging TDP threads.

[DavidF]

Since getting into photography last year I have found TDP to be an invaluable source of information. The knowledge gained from this site was invaluable in making my hardware decisions. The information Bryan provides forced me to think beyond my primary interests and factor in decision points that I was not even aware of before reading his reviews. Same goes for the forum, so much talent here and the depth of the knowledge base is unreal. The only other site I check daily is POTN, but the size of that site is very intimidating for a newbie like me. Makes me appreciate this site even more.

I haven't posted much to the site as of yet, mainly because I feel that I'm just getting to the point of having something worthwhile to contribute. I fully expect that to change and my plan is to get more involved and make TDP my first and last stop of the day. All sites wax and wane to some degree I guess, but this community shows heart and seems to have a solid group supporting it. I only see good things to come.

Dave

[Jayson]

My subject matter has decreased due to the winter months and I don't really get out that much. That being said, I do check the site regularly and enjoy reading the new stuff. There is a very intimidating amount of awesome work posted here. For those who are intimidated to post, everyone started out learning and it takes practice and learning from others to get better. Post your photos and enjoy!

[HDNitehawk]

Maybe the reason it has slowed down is that everyone is switching to Nikon.
After all they do make better cameras than Canon.
At least that is the rumor I heard.

[DavidF]

Heard the same rumor and have to admit that I did give the Nikon D7000, D300s and D600 a serious go. None could hold a candle to the Canon's I tried out (60D, 7D, 5D Mark II) and the distortion on the highly touted Nikkor 18-200mm VR was a real shocker. But then again, I haven't stayed at a Holiday Inn Express in many moons.

My EOS 5D2 / EF 24-105mm combo makes me happy, happy, happy!