A little rant on social media sharing.

I love to share what I do using a variety of social media sights.  One of the things that I find a little strange is the number of people who crave followers but don't follow back or respond to those who they follow.  When I choose to follow someone it is based on the fact that I am interested in their work and thus will express it by hitting like.  That is just the way I am so unless I miss your post I usually will respond to your work.

Lately I have had an explosion of people in Google+ adding me to their circles and when I look at their profiles I don't see anything in common and thus don't add them to a circle back.  These same people who then choose to follow me never show that they are looking at my work by hitting a +1 so I can hardly be flattered that they have chosen to put me in a circle.

Now this is not a situation limited to Google+, I see the same with Facebook, Instagram and others.  I have followed the trends for a number of years now and know that only about 5% of people who follow ever share a like on one's posts.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that I expect my followers to do anything more then they are doing now and I do appreciate when they do throw a like my way.  It is just that maybe I use social media in a much different way then everyone else.  I share my work and limit those whom I follow to those who I enjoy so that I can see their posts instead of having them get lost in a sea of posts.  If you are one of these, consider yourself a member of a privileged few.

Here are my Photo's from the last three days.

January 17.  I received a nice little candle set for Christmas from a true friend.  I was looking at them and thought it might be interesting to see what I could do with a close up of the flame.  Using the 7D with my 24-70 I got in as tight a I could but still retain the reflection of the flame in the glass.  Here is the result.

I was able to shoot this portrait of Luke as he sat in the gym before his class sang at a school event.  He is a real sweet heart and he sang wonderfully.

January 18.  I was lying on the couch when I looked up and saw the boy's minions from Incredible Me 2 looking at me from the shelf.  I got up close with the iPhone and took a shot, then used snapseed to give it an ominous look.

January 19.  The third day of my Sunday Self-portrait series.  I had to take my camera collection of the shelf to get access to something behind it.  As I was putting them back I though I wanted to try a set-up using it and taking a photo of the view-screen with my 7D.  I set everything up then positioned myself care fully in front of the Hasselblad lens.  I had preset the focus by positioning a light stand where I would sit and then placed a mark so I could return to that spot. It took a few try's with the biggest challenge being the reflection on my glasses, yet I got the shot I wanted.

Cool had a recital tonight with Music Makers where he takes his guitar and vocal lessons.  Tonight he played a song which he just learned yesterday.  Though it was not perfect he did a good job with it.  I captured a few shots while he played.