$ cat /dev/brain > /dev/blog

Grand Canyon panoramic view

Just. So. Impressive.

(Click on the image to go to the full-size version [4.5 megabytes])

New toy in the house

I plan to take more pictures while travelling. The new lens will be put into use in a few weeks. It might be accompanied by another lens (either a telezoom or a super wide-angle) soon. In addition, I also got more memory on CF cards as I’d like to experiment a little bit with RAW and HDR. And I’m still waiting for the delivery of an iPod Camera Connector I shoot on eBay (just to have a backup solution while on the road).

If you’re looking for the most awesome store specializing in Canon equipment in Germany, head over to Achatzi.de — the owner (Martin Achatzi) is very friendly, the prices are right and from what I’ve been told, the after-sales service is amazing. Communication (by e-mail), order management and shipping were awesome when I ordered. He replied by mail just shortly after I placed my order and I had the lens on my desk within 48 hours. Achatzi truly deserves an A+. I’m looking forward to buy additional equipment there.

Is flickr Losing its User Base due to its Recently Introduced Restrictions?

After I came across the flickr: Most Popular Cameras site, I noticed a drop in the graphs a certain time ago. As the diagram lacks units on both the time and the measurement axis, one cannot tell how much the number of pictures taken with one of the most famous/popular cameras dropped, but in fact you get the idea…

As the graphs shown in the picture above represent some of the most successful, semi-amateur/semi-professinal DSLR models (Canon Rebel XT (300D), Canon Rebel XTi (400D), Canon EOS 20D, Nikon D50, Nikon D80), flickr might have lost some of their most valuable customers: those who don’t need a high-professional picture service (professional photographers), but who produce amazing semi-professional pictures non the less — and most of them were willing to pay for flickr’s pro service.

What remains might be (I don’t really like to generalize that) a high number of users with point-and-shoot cameras who care little about the art of photography (yes, I have to admit there are also a lot of people who take great shots with their PAS cameras).

I wonder if there really is a causality between the drop of picture numbers and users leaving flickr due to the newly introduced censorship filters in some countries or if the drop in the diagram is basically meaningless.