NOTE: Due to lack of time, I am fairly ruthlessly cutting down on my contacts list. If I have removed you and you feel I made a mistake, please mail me.

Thank you for taking the time to visit.

I am just returning to posting shots, but my time is severely restricted. I have been reducing the number of contacts I have, as I found I had too many contacts to be able to visit them regularly. I will probably continue reducing my contact list, and only rarely add new contacts, as, if I have a contact, I want to visit their stream, and still find it difficult keeping up with the number of contacts I have (over 200).

So, if you make me a contact, please understand if I do not immediately make you a contact too. When I do log in, I just look at posts from contacts and comment on those I like. As a result, I am not able to look at all posts from all contacts. I am sorry if you are a contact and I have not visited for a while, but, heh - it isn't because I don't want to, just my time constraints. When I am not on a Flickr break, I do try and return all visits to my stream ASAP, whether they are from contacts or not.

I won't join award groups any longer, (so please don't invite me, or be OK with me declining an invite ...).

See www.flickr.com/groups/globalvillage/discuss/7215762258027....

"Why people join groups, which have obvious rules, and then decide the rules shouldn't apply to them is beyond me. Sadly it seems to be the norm now and pretty much every award group I am a member of suffers from it."

Award groups seem to have had their day, and I was never happy with forced 'copy and paste' award-type comments. I intend restricting my activity to a few regular groups which I like, and can keep up with.

I purchased my first dslr camera, a Sony Alpha 200, in February 2009, which is when I converted this account, which I hadn't really used, to a Flickr pro account. Since then I have been learning how to use my camera, but still have a long way to go.

I have not had any formal photography training, being self-taught, and have decided not to do any courses. I feel I want to 'do it my way', rather than be taught how to do it 'a certain way' - or 'the proper way' - or 'someone else's way'. I think that formal learning can remove the natural naive spontaneity, creativity and original art that often only comes because the rules are broken. Well, if you haven't had the rules crammed into you, perhaps you will naturally break them, and sometimes produce creative and original results. I love the wide variety of images that photography makes possible, and just want to show the world as I see it through my lens.

A quick note about my shots. I don't own Photoshop or other image processing software, and all my pictures are only processed using the standard Sony software and sometimes Irfanview. For the odd shot I may use GIMP, but rarely, and also sometimes use Picnik for simple shot corrections. I tend to mainly shoot in raw, and adjust the contrast, exposure, and saturation only, to give the final posted shot. I do not use hdr, not because I don't agree with it, but because I do not own any hdr software.

I find Flickr amazing, as it stimulates ideas by allowing me to see all the stunning shots that people world-wide are posting. In addition, I have made contact with some really wonderful people through Flickr.

Above all photography for me is a great hobby, and Flickr is a superb way to share my hobby with like-minded people, who regularly teach me a lot, through their wonderful shots.

If you've read this far, well done! Enjoy your photography ...!

Photostream Views

10,000 views - August 26th, 2009

11,000 views - October 4th, 2009

12,000 views - October 27th, 2009

13,000 views - December 3rd, 2009

14,000 views - May 2nd, 2010

15,000 views - Dec 3rd, 2010

16,000 views - Feb 10th, 2012

All photos available from Sony200boy's photostream on flickr are COPYRIGHTED, and ALL RIGHTS ARE RESERVED. Any reproduction of the said materials, including publishing on web sites, copying, painting, using in magazines in any physical or virtual (digital) form is prohibited unless explicit permission for certain purpose is received from copyright owner. If you wish to remix or reproduce any materials contact me via my Flickr mail.