Winter is a tough time for photography, especially with the weather being fairly wet at the moment. Still I am spending my time working out what next year will hold and the locations I plan to visit and project planning etc etc.

I quite fancy doing some European city trips in 2007 and seeing what I can achieve there.

Alamy

I might just hit the 700 mark with my Alamy collection before the year is out.

A new post!!

Welcome back! Photo phoughts has been on a holiday but we are back in business and to start things off, I am going to share this shot with you.

I am in the middle and the photo was taken by fellow Nfolio member, Tina Henderson on a recent photography day out.

I think Italy will win

This is slightly off-topic for this blog but I really think Italy will win the World Cup. I thought they would before the tournament even began. I should have placed a bet because there is a strong likelihood this may turn out to be true....

Citizen journalism

You, your neighbours, your family and your friends are now all photojournalists. Yes you can have your work published in the National press! You don't need an expensive DSLR and pricey lenses either! How about that! You can now upgrade your old Nokia for a brand new camera-phone for free and sell your photos to the Press...

Shall I hang up my coat?

Well not quite.

It seems ironic that since the tragedy of last years Tube bombings, a new fad was born, now commonly known as "Citizen Journalism". All you need is a phone with built-in camera, spot something interesting, take a snap, send straight to your choice of newspaper and receive a fat £10,000 cheque! Simple hey?!

Well actually no...

Shortly after the devastating blow to London Underground another attempt was made, this time it failed. The Police tracked the terrorists down and the following day we all saw one of the suspects leaning out of a window surrendering himself on all of the front covers.

This was not photographed by a professional but a casual passer by with a compact camera who just happened to be there at the right time. His quick thinking netted him a lot of money, £60,000 to be exact!

Surely thats fantastic? We had better all have a go? The sad truth is, the above example is rare and the man involved did play his cards with great cunning to get that kind of payment. Its not considered to be a norm.

Where will "Citizen Journalism" lead? Will it destroy the lives of those who want to take risks? Will Joe Public flirt with certain death to photograph someone who may kill them? I think the Media is putting normal people at risk, simply to save money!

I love this guys work...

I am now going to plug two things at once here, direct your browser at Nfolio and admire the work of Tommy Ga Ken Wan, one of our members and a genius.

Lightning

Have you ever attempted to photograph lightning? Me neither! I am going to try it this week, as we've been forecast some serious thunderstorms. The funny thing is I am petrified of lightning!! I'll certainly post a picture or two here if I have any joy...

If this has spurred you into thinking...

hmm, thats an interesting idea

Take a look at http://www.blackrabbit.com/lightnng.htm or http://www.blackrabbit.com/lightnng.htm or http://www.cimms.ou.edu/~doswell/ltgph.html

New domain name registered

I have registered www.photophoughts.com and once its gone live this blog will be moved there!

Take a camera with you wherever you go

Up until now I have not done anything like this. I recently bought a Fuji finepix F810 to complement my main Nikon D100. Its hard to carry the D100 around with me all of the time but the Finepix can slip into my pocket with ease. I shall carry it with me, so that its ready and waiting for those moments in time.

Photo Phoughts will be a mixture of written and photo blog, hence the format I've chosen represents the former type, to allow for a mix of writing and imagery.

This is going to be an interesting project.... I hope!

What is this all about then?

I fancied starting a new blog, I was getting bored of running one simply called "Nick Lewis" and as a consequence of a moments inspiration, invented "Photo Phoughts". Blogs that have an abstract name like this seem to fare much better than those named after their owners...

So what will "Photo Phoughts" be about?

A blend of photojournalism and thoughts about the World in which we live. Some interesting ideas for other photographers. Maybe some other things, its young, its just begun, so lets see where it leads!

The aim will be to post something on a daily basis. Please come back tomorrow for our first proper installment.....