Aylesbury_Mark's photostream

I spent the first 27 years of my life in Toronto, Canada, and then moved to merry old England where I now live in Aylesbury (Buckinghamshire) with my wife, 5-year-old daughter and a mischievous Jack Russell terrier... actually, all three of them are mischievous.

Unfortunately there never seems to be enough hours in the day to get everything done and find time for this wonderful hobby (don't we all say that??), but I do manage to take the occasional snapshot when the time and opportunity present themselves.

I am a relative newbie to Flickr, having joined in March 2009 -- my main aims were to see what all of this "Flickr madness" was about and to try to improve my photographic eye. After viewing the incredible quality of photos on here it was apparent that I had SO MUCH to learn!
I feel that I'm now slowly (ever so slowly) winding my way up the path, as in the short time since joining I can already see quite a difference in the quality of images in my photostream. With photography now etched in my brain it's probably a bit sad that when I see something interesting the first thing I think is, "Now how would I frame that scene?" :-)

At this point in my life I don't have the time or money to warrant investing in a DSLR so I'm doing what I can with my fairly new but trusty Canon A650IS compact camera. I don't get any of the SLR benefits such as high ISO, low noise, interchangeable lenses and that oh-so-important quality bokeh, but I'm hoping that the techniques I learn with my P&S will translate well to my future cameras.

I'm just loving the helpfulness and resourcefulness of the Flickr community -- it is you people who are making me strive to achieve better photography through your inspirational photos, valuable advice and insightful comments.

What I really prefer most is critical feedback on my images as I won't know what needs changing if you don't tell me. I feel this sharing of advice and opinions is the biggest benefit of Flickr and not many people actually use it in this way. Even though I'm no photographic expert I do know what I like to see in a good photo and I try to convey this as often as possible, so I hope you'll do the same for me. Be as honest and brutal as you like, I can take it! :-)

Regards,
Mark