Last week I received an email from the gents at MWW group reminding me that the Nikon “Picture This” blogger outreach program was coming to a close, and it was time for me to decide what I preferred to do with the camera. Read my previous post about my involvement from a year ago.

Before I get into what I decided, I wanted to say a few words about the campaign itself- I know that I was chosen because of my interest and support of campaigns just like this one, but it is rare when outreach campaigns of this nature get everything right. In my opinion, the fine folks (especially Chris Thilk and Tom Biro, my contacts during the campaign) of MWW handled it expertly; with a policy of full disclosure and no expectations from participants. From my post a year ago:

The trial period is six months, after which the camera can be purchased (at a discount, with the funds going to charity), sent back or kept for an additional six months.

There is no obligation or even expectation to blog about it, the only rule being that if we choose to, we must disclose that we are part of the program.

Kudos to you for what has to be considered a success- I’d be interested to know how many of the 46 participating bloggers chose to keep the cameras after the fact. View a Flickr Group of photos taken by those 46 bloggers.

And now back to the camera itself. My choices:

• Send back the camera, to be donated to charity.
• Buy the camera for $500, with the cash being donated to charity.

I chose the latter option, and I have no lack of reasons why. Although I was only just getting back into digital SLR photography when I was selected for the program, it took no time for me to decide that I preferred the D80 over my existing Olympus. I took the camera on several photowalks with fellow photogs (learning tons in the process) and had it with me for several tech events over the past year. And when it came to the birth of my son this Spring, I borrowed a 50mm fixed prime lens from Vincent Janelle to get the best possible shots of my little guy during his first few moments of life. The camera came through- the shots are amazing.

There’s a lot to love about the D80. The plastic body, although a mark of more affordable SLRs, helps keep the unit light enough that taking it hiking, boating or to the peak of Whistler Mountain on my snowboard isn’t out of the question. The kit lens (an 18-135mm workhorse) that came with it is extremely versatile and produces terrific shots. Still, it leaves me longing for plenty of other lenses. With the D80, I know I have a solid body that will be with me for some time, so I can confidently start collecting new glass. Plus, the D80’s infrared abilities mean that I can use a remote control with it. My brother-in-law bought me such a device, making family (self) portraits a cinch.

While my knowledge of existing DSLR cameras is limited to my experience within these past two years, I quickly justified the purchase of the D80 (at the reduced “editorial rate”) by using one simple metric: the D80 has made me fall in love with taking pictures again. I keep the manual next to the toilet in my bathroom, and every day I spend a few minutes learning news ways to control light for better and better shots of our son, our neighborhood and our family.

Thanks again to Nikon and MWW Group for introducing me to a great camera, and for conducting a brilliant blogger outreach campaign; one that may have been called into question by a few jealous bloggers, but can’t be faulted for the professionalism and transparency with which it was conducted.

*Photo of me with D80 by Ianiv Schweber*

Dear Flickr,

My photos don’t seem to come up in tag searches. I have checked everything, and can’t seem to figure out what the problem is.

Please help, as I would love for my shots to appear in searches for barcampvancouver07, as well as my many, many other tags.

In the meantime, for your viewing pleasure, please enjoy this set of photos from Vancouver’s recent Barcamp, and remember where you came from.

Love always,

Jordan

P.S. Here’s a slideshow of the ones that I want the other Barcamp folks to see:

I’m not going to attempt a live blog this year; too much work trying to plan a session plus my duties as an organizer.

But I did want to link to the various photo and post tags, as well as any links from proper livebloggers at the event. There is talk of a Ustream live feed from the Workspace couch starting tomorrow too, so watch for that.

Update: Miss604 is live blogging like the champion she is, check out here post.
Pardon me if this post keeps popping up in the feed all weekend as I update it with tons of links and whatnot. It will be as if you’re there, even if you’re not.

Here’s a few to get started:

Flickr: barcampvancouver07 barcampvancouver
Technorati: barcampvancouver07 barcampvancouver

I forgot my camera, as did everyone else.
Barcamp Organizers photo by Roland’s camera phone.

Hey Flickr! Why don’t my own shots come up in tag searches? My account has been deemed ’safe’ for ages…

While I was in Korea, things seemed to change at a mile-a-minute. Google bought Feedburner, David Meerman Scott shipped the first review copies of “The New Rules of Marketing and PR,” (thanks, I got mine David) and some guy built a Flickr slideshow app that lets you embed a Flickr slideshow, just to name a few.

And while I was still groggy from the jet lag, etc. I made a few changes of my own. For starters, I test-drove the aforementioned slideshow app, see the result here, using some of my Seoul pics:

Created with Paul’s flickrSLiDR.

Also, I’m quietly launching a new site dedicated to my way-too-big ego, using Wordpress, and mapped it to www.jordanbehan.com. The amazing thing is that the whole site cost a mere $18 USD/yr. And it would have been cheaper (package deal for domain and mapping) if I had bought the domain from Wordpress and not Yomamma. I mean, Godaddy. Today’s lesson: for just $15 USD, you can have your own Wordpress blog, including your own domain name. What are you waiting for, world?

That new site will be home to some video podcasts, and all of the rants that I hold back from here. I felt like I couldn’t goof off on the company site as much as I do in general, so the more personal, reflective and downright silly side of me will be published on the new site. I will continue to publish marketing and PR news and tips here, hopefully at a steadier pace than I have of late.

And if I don’t publish a newsletter soon, I might as well board up the shop; I get an average of four or five subscribers a week, and I have neglected them for months. Bad me!

2007 is going to be a great year, I can just sense it.

For one thing, my sister moved to town, and that means more quality time with family, plus a consistent running partner to keep me in line while training for the Vancouver Marathon this May. Call that my New Year’s resolution, but longtime TTF readers will recall I committed to this several months ago, and after a (admittedly light) season of occasional runs here in Vancouver last year, I’m ready for the real deal this year. The big one. I can feel the burn already, and I’m still a bit “festive” from the wine at dinner. This should be interesting.

Also of note: I got a new camera (yeaaaaah!) from my wife for Christmas, an Olympus Evolt E-500. And I’m loving it. Two seconds out of the box and it took me right back to my days as a sports shooter, firing away like mad on my 35mm SLR hoping I got the puck (or soccer ball, etc.) in the frame. I’m back behind the lens again, and this time it’s not a betacam, DV or a video camera of any kind, but my beloved still photography. I missed it, so prepare for an increase in the number of shots coming through my feed (pardon the duplicate, in this case). But sentimentality aside, it will have great business applications as well. Add photography to the list of services available from your favorite boutique marketing firm

Still, since Vancouver has been a rainy mess (surprise!) the past few days, I haven’t been able to snap much of anything that’s ‘flickr worthy.’ So I’ve defaulted to the obvious cop-out in times like these, where the first shot has to tell a certain story…and so here is a shot of my new camera, by my new camera:

Did I mention how terrific Mrs. Behan is at giving Christmas presents?

Have a terrific and prosperous New Year, all. I’m back in the saddle, so posting should resume just as sporadic and inconsistent as ever. Cheers!

You’re probably all just dying to know, and although I’m tempted to publish a whole list here, this is actually just to announce a cool new feature from Flickr:

Give the Gift of Flickr. As many of you know, I’m a huge fan of the service, but I am still on a free account. And even though, as Factory Joe (aka Chris Messina) reports, those free accounts are going from 20MB to 100MB per month in uploads, I still feel as if I owe it to the Flickr community to contribute more than just my occasional photo or two.

So if you’re stumped, and you want to get me something that I will cherish for many years to come, this is the idea you’ve been looking for. If my new Pro account isn’t under the tree this year, I resolve to purchase this for myself in the New Year. Just like I resolve to finally start training for the Vancouver Marathon. Seriously.