Yesterday was the first meeting of the Bay
Area Photologgers in a few months.
Today's picture is of Derek. A few more faces that I took from the get-togther
are listed below:
It was great to hook-up with local, enthusiastic
photobloggers again. There's quite a concentration of us in the San
Francisco but
we didn't seem to have the urge to socialize in person on the scale that
groups in NY and Toronto do,
until
now. When I attended the first
BAP get-together we sat around a couple of tables; yesterday we took
over a whole deck.
I don't know if we're trying to distinguish ourselves from our Northern and
Eastern cousins, or if it's Heather's way
of limiting the length of these socials but we've always met outside. I want
to see pictures of the photobloggers
from Toronto or NY sitting around outside in February. Truth be told, it was
freezing yesterday (San Francisco freezing, not Toronto freezing). I made the
mistake of believing the weatherman who said the weekend was going to be as
warm as last Thursday and Friday. I should have known better and dressed in
thermals and a down jacket instead of a T-shirt. By the time we left I was
shivering so much I could hardly hold my camera steady. I guess hot chocolate
rather
than
Guinness
would
have been a better beverage choice.
I wish I'd arrived a few minutes earlier, in time to hear the introductions.
There were some familiar faces from previous socials. There were some people
I recognized from their blogs. There were also a lot of new faces too. I wish I could
have tied them to their respective blogs. We should wear name tags that include
URL's (that's only a half serious suggestion) or maybe have a rogue's gallery
on the BAP
website.
The conversation was smart and interesting ... for the most part. At one point,
after talking about some art cinema, we accidentally slipped into a discussion
about how the Lord of the Rings extended edition movies differed from the books.
There followed an awkward silence as we realized how geeky we had just
sounded. It was great to hear what people were working on though. It made me
realize what a great forum photologs are for true enthusiast, amateur and adventurous
photography. Long may it continue so
So what did I learn about Bay Area photobloggers from this meeting? We're
older than you might have thought, predominantly white, predominantly male
and predominantly Canon DSLR users. Not that there's anything wrong with any
of those things but I wonder if this typical of the photoblogging community
as a whole. Anyways, Heather and Derek have set up a great BAP
site where you can drop
by and meet your fellow Bay Area photobloggers in the virtual world before
committing to meet us in real life. I hope to see you there or at our next
get-together - just remember to wrap up warm. |