Dave Benham

Morning! A couple of updates to share…

Away from photography I love to indulge in a little online gaming every now and again. Chris McKinnie, a fellow gamer, has recently started a new blog documenting his experiences putting a site together and working with a content management system. It’s interesting to see Chris have some of the same experiences I did when setting this site up. Bloggers unite!

Back to my blog, I’ve made a few changes on the blog today, and there are a few more in the pipeline.

• Added a link in my photography section to John Goode. John is a colleague of mine at Redweb and also a Canon shooter with a great set of images. Check out his Sky set on Flickr as well, some unbelievable colours and moody clouds in attendance!
• You can now follow me on Twitter via the link at the top right and from my About page – Twitter is a great microblogging service and is a great source of information as well. The first shots of the ‘plane coming down in the Hudson were posted on Twitter literally as people left the cabin!
• In draft: new equipment pages. The lowdown on my gear, and the software I use too. I’m hoping to get these on the site this week some time.

I’ve got some more shots to post on the blog later as well, watch this space. Or just come back later.

A quick roundup of the latest interesting stuff on my blogroll!

• Carl Martin discusses the development of live sport on the mobile platform. I can’t wait until I can *properly* watch stuff on my Iphone – we’re not a million miles away.
• Some great shots from Dave Burton following RedRaw, a cycle event over Purbeck. I’ve cycled that “bridleway” a few years back, and went over the handlebars on the grass bit leading down the hill in the second set of photos.
• Neil Potter goes through the top 10 most hated digital buzz-words on his Running Blind blog. Remember Drop the Dead Donkey anyone? 
• If your looking for a design vigilante there’s only one place to look. At Paul Seys. Just remember not to look too high up.

My parents always told me it was nice to share, so in true Web 2.0 fashion I’ve added the Sociable Wordpress plugin to the blog.

At the end of every post there are a selection of little plugins that will allow you to share a post with your friends on some of the major social networking sites, like Facebook, Digg and Del.icio.us. Feel free to have a play!

You may have noticed that for a photography blog there is currently a glaring ommission – a gallery. I’m just working my way through some of the Picassa / Flickr plugins and working out which works best with the blog and layout. Watch this space!

Working for a digital agency you need to keep abreast of all the latest developments in the digital arena.

My favourites in 2008 were:

1. Techcrunch - The Bay area is where it’s at for new web technologies and Michael Arrington has his fingers right on the pulse.

2. Readwriteweb – A broad overview and review of the latest web startups all over the world.

3. Scobleizer – Robert Scoble’s tech blog and videos.

Enjoy!