Ground Zero

Perhaps "Cyberspace Zero" would be a more appropriate title?

Hello everyone! My name is Christopher Honiball, and I am an amateur photographer. Welcome to my blog.

The purpose of this blog is to help me on my way to becoming a better photographer. I don't really think I'll ever become a full time working professional, but I would love to be at that level and be able to have it as a side job. This blog will give me a place to post my progress, my projects, my insights and discoveries. I'd like to share information with anyone reading this as well.

If you're reading this, please hold me to that promise. When I thought about what types of blogs I read, I discovered that I read them all for one reason - I garner valuable information from them. I usually like the personality and writing style of the blogger as well, but that's a secondary issue. The information is much more important to me. For that reason, I would like this to be a mostly informational blog, although that isn't to say I won't include a healthy smattering of philosophy in between the facts.

To start off with the informational theme, I'll provide you with some links to websites that I've found extremely helpful with learning photography. If you have any to add be sure to link it in the comments (I'm always looking for new photography websites).

Digital Photography School - Fantastic information on the blog portion, but the forum here really shines for me. It's just the right size to where people know each other and the community is fantastic. Check it out.

Strobist - As the website says, everything you wanted to know about light. If you're into photography at all you've probably heard of this one by now.

Flickr - Probably heard of this one too. Personally my favorite site for uploading photos, and it's a great place to network and find other photographers that inspire you.

Photocrati - Solid information here, covering a wide variety of photography topics.

The Online Photographer - Frequently updated with more solid information, as well as links to excellent photographers. Worth putting on your RSS.

Photozone - Excellent lens reviews as well as a pretty decent tips section. Be careful of this site though. Seeing all those lenses listed right in front of you might give you lens lust (I know that's what it does to me anyway).

Photonotes - Some really excellent and extensive information regarding lenses and canon camera systems. Defintitely worth checking out if you need a technical primer on how your camera/lens works.

Meet the Gimp - I use the open source program GIMP (Gnu Image Manipulation Program) for my picture editing needs, and this site helped more than any text based tutorials I've ever used.

Fraction Magazine - Puts out issues of an online magazine featuring up-and-coming excellent photographers. Worth checking out for inspiration's sake.

I think that's about all for now. I'll amend the list as I find more/dig more out of my bookmarks.

Future posts: A list of excellent photographers that I follow for inspiration/advice, and I'm going to try to set out a plan for my own development. Wish me luck.