Welcome to my blog!

Hello there!

I'm quite taken aback and flattered after receiving so many hits on my blog after the great comments published by Theo Boehm on the Althouse blog and the link from Instapundit (thank you!).

Over the past year I've watched the visits on my Blog and to my Flickr account rise, My blog (until yesterday!) averaged at 40 hits a day and my Flikr photostream has reached 70,000 unique visits. Right now the Blog is experiencing on average 12 hits a minute which is a bit awe inspiring.....blimey I should think of something profound to say to take advantage of the situation...um, "Give peace a chance", "End pollution now", "Vote for....." (no I can't really go that far!).

This is my simple photoblog about my trials and discoveries in photography, sometimes I write a little about myself too, but it's mostly pictures with words to describe them. Generally, you can get a good inkling of my mood and life situ through my pictures, it's kind of a cryptic-esque diary. When I find out how to do something new I post it here as I like to share, I really appreciate it when I find someone's photo that I love and they explain how they took it, it helps me learn, so I'd like to do the same, but also it's a good record for myself.

Do have a look at my Flickr Account http://www.flickr.com/photos/ktlindsay/ and comment on my photos. I always appreciate feedback and constructive criticism,

Today has been a bit of of a weird one, I was on the radio and TV this morning to promote my dance troupe Soleil d'Egypte (not the day job!), then I had all this great feedback on my photos, then as I was walking to that great little Italian Restaurant where I can never a get a table a group of girls told me I had cool hair, then I got ushered into that little Italian Restaurant with no reservation and was given a free drink....what's going on! Could fame really be approaching? I don't think so, it's just one of those days where for once everything is good, but it's nice for a little bit!

Right, enough of the words and back to creating some pictures........

Virginia Tech

Whilst the shocking events at Virginia Tech yesterday were fully covered by the media, it was the bloggers and flickr users who portrayed the unfoldings of the tragedy, the grief, and the anguish, better than any news station. Within hours blogs held firsthand accounts, pictures had been uploaded to flickr, before the evening a VT Memorial group was set up by the facebook community and a comprehnsive entry adorned wikipedia. The reporters sniffed this out in minutes. Looking through some of the blogs and seeing the endless messages from CNN, MTV, CBC, BBC, every media company imaginable, to "get in touch" to supply them with first hand stories I feel slightly sickened. Once again the bloggers are doing their jobs for them, but for the bloggers it's not a job, it's their lives, in many cases lives that have been rocked beyond belief. The public nature of the blog puts emotions on show, and when those emotions become the focus of the media it can be hard comprehend, as one of the most media-sought bloggers writes:

"This is ridiculous. I find myself getting excited because I'm on the news (Fox News recently shared the blog). Each time I hear something else I get a brief moment of selfish joy before I am stabbed in the heart, realizing that I deserve no credit and that lives are gone, destroyed, and in pain. What is the significance of all this? My postings are simply what I always do-- except I left my thoughts for the public instead of just my friends. This run of emotions is hard to bear. I need to go for a walk-- but of course, what good is that since everything is outside my door. There is no escaping. The chains have been tied to the door."

It's easy to forget that as a blogger the world can see your words, not just you and your friends. We are wearing our lives on our sleaves.

I think that these days it's easy to become numb to the news, every day so many horrible things are reported to be happening in the world. But the unedited "informal" reports and stories that flood the internet, from the mouths and the eyes of the people that experience them, bring me down to earth. They elicit a greater reaction in me than a man stood with a microphone next to a big white news van on the edge of the VT campus twisting language for politics. Reporters without borders.