LIFESTYLE: Pictures worth a thousand downloads

By Kevin Purdy

One man found a way to feel like he was back home in North Tonawanda, despite being 2,500 miles away at graduate school.

One woman in Monroeville, Penn., found her pictures of her dogs, flowers and children used as set dressing on a cable network medical drama, as well as the models for an artist who paints oils of dogs to raise funds for rescue efforts.

Another man in Lockport found himself transformed in the space of 18 months from taking family snapshots to working with Toronto-based models and going over his thematic compositions with a fine-toothed Photoshop comb.

Type your own town’s name into a photo sharing Web site like Flickr, Fotolog, Webshots or almost any other, and one is bound to run into stories like these. People across the Niagara region have made long-standing friendships, nurtured newfound skills and perhaps even drawn visitors to the region by doing something that used to require snacks, a slide projector and a living room full of seriously patient guests.

In other words, the past few years have made showing off your camera work not only acceptable but, in many ways, life-altering.

“I’ve developed great friendships that go beyond just photography by coming across local people with an interest in (similar) themes,” said MJ Worthington, a Lockport resident whose Flickr gallery includes many styled shots of neglected urban areas in Lockport, Buffalo and other areas, among other vibrant portraits.

“Most (photo sharing users) are very friendly and supportive of each others’ desire to get better at their photography,” Worthington wrote. “As opposed to a social site such as MySpace where it seems to be more about posing and posturing, the dedicated photography site seems to bring out the more genuine people.”

Dave Rogge, a North Tonawanda native, started a group on Flickr to solicit pictures of anything involving his home town. A little over seven months later, it now has 18 regularly-contributing members and 121 photos of everything from Canal Fest to snowy landscapes.

“I started this group because I found that Flickr was a great way to find pictures of places and do a little virtual traveling,” Rogge said. “I moved away from North Tonawanda four years ago to go to grad school, and I really missed it ... (This) reminds me of home.”

Like many other point-and-shoot enthusiasts, Rogge has picked up tips, editing tricks and advice on framing that used to require a wise uncle or subscriptions to glossy magazines. It’s not uncommon to see comments traded back and forth on photo sharing sites regarding “rule of thirds” and exposure times — even when the subject is a seemingly simple shot from a toddler’s birthday party.

George Campos, whose business The Campos Group has been providing darkrooms and printing since the early 1970s and now includes IprintFromHome.com, said part of the reason for the online renaissance of amateur photography involves the evolution of camera technology.

“I think that with today’s digital cameras, the percentage of good pictures that result from shooting is just simply higher,” Campos said. “A good photo used to rely on the photographer knowing a lot more things, but now the camera knows a lot of it.”

Affordable high-resolution digital cameras have also spurred an interest in the advanced aspects of photography that used to concern mostly serious enthusiasts and career photographers, Campos said.

“We used to say, years ago, that the percentage of people who really care was about 1.5 percent,” he said. “Now, a darkroom renter could come from anywhere ... my daughter, who never took this seriously, is starting to get into it now.”

But geeky enthusiasm is far from the only reason more than a billion pictures have been uploaded to photo sharing sites. Kevin Pletcher, a member of the North Tonawanda Flickr group, wrote in an e-mail that his “greatest benefit of posting to Flickr is sharing my photos with my fiancée in Missouri.”

Pletcher also takes inspiration from other users’ shots, he wrote, and feels compelled to bring his camera with him whenever he heads out, and enjoys hearing feedback and learning which shots are interesting enough to garner comments.

And then there are users like Victoria Bush, who focuses mainly on plants, her beloved dogs and, when she’s traveling outside of Monroeville, Penn., fish stores and aquariums. Her picture of a puffer fish from North Tonawanda’s The Fish Place garnered her comments like “cool” and “great,” and other photos have netted her a spot on TNT’s “Heartland” and oil paintings of her pets.

“All this from just posting pictures that I like to share,” she notes in an e-mail. “What fun!”

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