Imagine There's An Image

Tonight I had the pleasure of meeting in person two "virtual" friends of mine from Cyberspace. Dan Lightner lives just up the road from me in Glen Burnie, but Steve Bowden had traveled here on business all the way from North Yorkshire, UK.

We know each other through the "community" of Usefilm.com, a website where you can post your photos, others can comment on them, and you can comment on others' photos. Invariably, some members will gravitate towards others, either through geographical proximity, admiration of the other's photography, or both.

I started participating in Usefilm.com in mid-October last year, and almost immediately became aware of Dan Lightner. Dan's images are fabulously imaginative - he's always trying new things. And he's very persistent - like the time he shot a strawberry splashing into a dish of milk hundreds of times until he got just the right look. He has a fantastic eye for design, and I've found his work very inspiring. At dinner tonight, Dan told us he'd only been taking pictures for about a year and a half. All I can say, is that he's a very quick learner! I was happy to hear that good things are happening for Dan, photographically speaking - people are buying his pictures, he's become a photo stringer for two newspapers, and he's already shot a number of weddings.

Steve is a delightful fellow who has a real enthusiasm for photography. Take a look at his wonderful nature and landscape photos on Usefilm.com. Steve also has a website that features more photos and some of his other interests, such as ham radio. He mentions that he is "42, going on 19." Definitely my kind of guy!

About two months ago, Steve put out the word on Usefilm that he would be staying in Columbia, Maryland on business during this week in June in case any Usefilmers lived nearby and wanted to get together. As luck would have it, I now work a four-minute walk from Steve's hotel. After a few emails Steve exchanged with some of us locals, it looked like we'd be able to get together. So tonight we met at Chevy's, a Mexican restaurant at a nearby shopping mall and had dinner together. Two more of our indigenous Usefilm comrades were unable to make it, unfortunately.

So we had a good time tonight, yakking away from 7 until about 10 pm. A wonderful experience, and something that just couldn't have happened even 10 or so years ago, pre-internet.