Of course, perhaps a little bit of self promottion should be undertaken - my passion for design and composition has close links between this website and my other main life, namely that of garden design and consultation, so if you're interested have a look at www.designandconsultancy.co.uk 

This design website is in its early days and will be developed to show some of what I do, using the photographs that link the two sites together. Digital photography and modern design has been a fascinating area of development over the last few years, and the contrasts to the days of hand drawn plans and sketchs is amazing. Without the digital camera I could not record the garden and how it evolves through the design stages. Without the digital camera this JustSwanningAround website would not exist. But through it all I love the link between these two interests with my artist friends, whose work fills me with envy and even sadness that art was a subject that I was not allowed to study at school! The inter-twining between art, design and photography is always very close to my heart and each plays a key part within each discipline.

The other speciality that I have is being a 'devil's advocate' trying to find a balance within conflict and opposing views - this can apply to my design where the often opposing views of a husband and wife have to be balanced to find and decide the best solution, in photography where beauty is literally in the eye of the beholder, and in art where the ideas of the artist can so easily be miss-understood by the viewer. So enough of my roamings . . .

Friends, Roamings, Countrywomen - lend me your ears

Firstly an artist friend whose work always provokes discussion, sometimes confusion or even anger and annoyance, but who has always been there to help and encourage me. Reading the Visitors Comment Book at one of her exhibitions was interesting for the range of comments, but look at the artwork and there is the quality of a drawing, text and installation, that will one day receive a greater recognition. The joy of being a friend and occasionally helping to record her work has made the journey for me so worthwhile - I know what's there and what's to come!
Claudia Sacher - artist

For many years a friend who's work I always love to see has steered well clear of technology. Her artistic skills of Drypoint, Etching/Aquatint, and Woodcut/Linocut use a process that is almost totally reliant on old traditional hand tool skills, the knowledge of an alchemist, and fabulous heavy old machinery such as a hand turned, mangle like printing press. But now she has a website, and I'm really pleased to be able to link to it at http://www.jowestgate.com/index.php 

Another friend has been changing career to study art at University, and it has been really interesting to see the mixing of her 'old' skills with the challenges of thinking up and creating new artistic works. And so far it all looks very promising and I can see her responding well to the challenges of the modern art world and creating some commercial and innovative works. Have a look at http://www.joannahutton.com/ and her new Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Joanna-Hutton/168909576486401?v=wall

I've seen two photography exhibitions by Mike McFarlane. Both exhibited his complete control over the composition of the image to create some wonder photographs. His work provides an inspiration and should be seen by anyone wanting to undertake landscape photography
Mike McFarlane Landscape Photography

Another photographer who I happened to meet by chance while walking on the coast near Bamburgh Castle was David Osborn. He is a professional photographer who has had some important commissions, such as recording the construction of the BAA Terminal Five at Heathrow, but it is his current project that interested me. He was out and about finding locations to use a Seitz 6x17 digital panoramic camera - a beast of a camera but blimey just look at the quality - to quote "the camera captures an amazing 160 megapixels or 21,250 x 7,500 pixels, 912 megabyte, 16 bit tiff files. To put this in context, this produces a printed image 7 feet wide at 240 dpi, printed 1:1, without the need to interpolate or enlarge the digital capture file providing maximum quality." That really is amazing quality and I would love to see the finished print - in the meantime have a look at his website at http://www.britishpanoramics.com/ with some of the images produced with the camera being shown at http://www.britishpanoramics.com/Panoramic/Colour001.html

Looking for Free web site space so that you can create a simple website like this? Then why not take a look at http://smallbusiness.officelive.com/?cloc=en-gb (this is the UK site but you change to your locality in the top right of the webpage).

Another initiative has been the creation of 'Getting British Business Online' - at their website http://www.gbbo.co.uk/ you can register and then set up your own business website using Google - remember though that these websites may be relatively basic or have some limitations on the amount of technical wizardry that you might want, so always check before committing. They are however an excellent way to produce a web presence.

Olympus user and proud of it - born to be different!

I use Olympus DSLR cameras for their small lightweight size and ease of use. With a range of features, the ability to carry two camera bodies and lenses in a small rucsac helps ensure that I'm ready for many photo opportunities. And when without the Olympus DSLR a small compact Canon Ixus is usually to-hand.

My original Olympus E500 was replaced with the Olympus E520, which is an excellent value for money camera with access to some excellent lens, and more recently the kit has been updated further with a bargain E-30 from Jessops.

The smaller sensor size can mean more noise at higher ISO settings (400 upwards), but it also means that the focal length of four thirds lenses are doubled up - so the really good value 70-300mm ED lens is the 35mm film camera equivalent of a 140-600mm telephoto lens.

In late 2008 a combination of the Olympus E-520 + ED 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 + ED 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6 cost less than the camera body only of a Nikon D300 * - now that really was a good way to get into longer range photography!

Olympus though have always had a struggle in the DSLR field against the might and name of Canon and Nikon. A larger sensor in these makes and a constant range of good quality cameras from beginner standard right up to the demanding Pro photographer, has always ensured that these brands are a 'safe bet'. But makers such as Olympus have produced some cameras that challenge the norm and bring in new features that eventually get adopted by the big two.

But there is no doubt that it is a commercial struggle - shops tend to rely on displying Canon/Nikon and only have very limited stock if any at all of smaller brands such as Olympus, and consumers therefore have reduced choice so therefore will tend to buy Canon/Nikon - it's a vicious circle that is hard to break into. 

Recent months therefore have seen a perceived reduction in Olympus support of the DSLR market with only one new model being released. This is the top of the range E-5 - see http://www.olympus-europa.com/consumer/dslr_digital-slr_e-5_23432.htm#/reliability/ - but below it the supporting camera range is being reduced and not replaced. 

The massive area of expansion for Olympus in the last few years has been in the 'micro four thirds' system -this really has been a commercial success for Olympus and the early adopters. 

It is what they call the 'new generation' PEN system, which uses a smaller sensor than the standard four thirds sensor thus enabling the camera body to be smaller. This is then combined with smaller lenses to create a lightweight small camera system. Think of it though as an enhanced compact digital camera with far more flexibility of control but with added bulk! See http://www.olympus-europa.com/consumer/pen.htm?_s_icmp=PEN_Websp_button

I still prefer to have a properly small compact digital camera in my pocket and a bigger digital SLR camera. The answer for me though arrived in early 2011 with the announcement of a new semi-pro compact digital camera from Olympus - the Olympus XZ-1 - this keeps the size very small, has a reasonable sized sensor, and really will fit in the pocket without too much trouble.

See http://www.olympus-europa.com/consumer/xz-1/digital-camera-XZ-1-manual-control.htm - I look forwad to being able to evaluate it.

For more information on the current Olympus digital SLR camera range have a look at http://www.olympus-europa.com/consumer/dslr_6749.htm

A useful forum for us Olympus DSLR users is http://e-group.uk.net/