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flickr – Geek Dinner Toronto And Thoughts About Photography

I had an epiphany on my flight from Toronto to Nashville to speak at BarCamp Nashville last weekend:
I suck at photography.
It’s not just taking pictures that I’m weak at. I don’t even have a camera. Not having a camera was a direct result of years of me going places and constantly forgetting (or not caring) to take a camera with me.
I can’t afford to be like that anymore.
Whilst in Nashville, I bought a slim and trim digital camera (the Casio Exilim Z75 – in case you’re a Gadget Geek like me). I actually surveyed my online social networks (both twitter and Facebook) to see what the community recommends, but my main reason for grabbing the Casio was because it was given the thumbs up in Popular Photography And Imaging Magazine‘s 2007 Editor’s Choice guide. Upon reflection: it’s a little strange that I used traditional media and the final input of my online social network to get validation prior to purchase.
Maybe old habits do die hard.
What I find most interesting about this whole experience (beyond the fact that I was traveling solo to BarCamp Nashville without a camera) is that my main reason for buying the camera wasn’t the camera at all.
It was flickr.
I know… it is strange. I really wanted the ability to not just take pictures, but to share pictures (flickr is a photo sharing online social network). Truth be told, I could care less about having stacks of digital files filled to the gills with images. Sometimes, to tell stories, people do need the images to go along with the words. I also felt like I was missing out on a large component of online social networking because I wasn’t pointing, shooting and sharing.
So this is my first and (I think failed) attempt. I grabbed a bunch of shots at yesterday’s Geek Dinner Toronto. Some are underlit, some are overlit, some are blurry, some have red eye.
There is a lot to learn about this space, but I am eager to do it.
I’m also truly fascinated by the fact that it was flickr that brought me to photography and not the camera.
You can check out my rank amateur work here: flickr – Mitch Joel – Geek Dinner Toronto – August 2007.
Feel free to shoot tips, tricks, etc… for better point and shoot photography my way.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.