international nut of pastry - I think this lines mostly filler.

The best advice I can give regarding photography is to never get a DSLR. You'll either always be wanting, or always be broke.

A short while ago I thought I could get away with a bargain on a DSLR lens. A Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4.5 DC MACRO. Turns out... There's no such thing as a bargain.

Ever since I got my Canon EOS 350D, I've been told by many people to never go for a third party lens. Since I never had much money to invest in new and better lenses, it was never really a problem. But one day I started looking about and decided to replace the kit lens with something better, I was drawn to the Sigma lens mostly for it's price. At $485AU it was a down right bargain.

No photo of the day today, I'm too annoyed that my new lens is apparently a dud.

Back to the stores seeking a refund during the holiday period - fun times ahead.

Today being the 1st of December, it's a perfect time to start something I've been thinking about for awhile.

Throughout December I plan on posting at least one photo a day.

I know. I'm an ideas man.

So, these photos will either be from my DSLR or from my iPhone. Either way, I plan on posting a minimum of 31 photos this month. The first will be uploaded shortly.

If anyone else wants to go with the flow they're more than welcome to post them daily in the forum.

Thanks be to Mike for sending me a link to PhotoSwap.

This awesome little app encourages you to share your surroundings with random people. You simply take a photo of whatever you want and it gets sent off to a random person. You'll then receive whatever photo they've just taken. The idea is simple, but it's strange addictive. I've been wandering around for the last hour or so taking random photos to send to people I'll never meet.

The app gives you the option to reply to someone's photo - so you can send another photo to the same person. As well as a "show on map" option so if you want you can see a rough location of where the photo was take. But this can be turned off if you're concerned about privacy.

A key thing about PhotoSwap is that you must participate to receive any photos. You can't simply run the app and expect to receive anything. Unless you send out photos, you get nothing back. A couple of expected features are missing, but it's only at version 1.0 so I'm expecting plenty of improvements over time.

Some of the photos I received have been attached for just laughs.

Earlier in the year, I was taking my camera anywhere and everywhere with me. I carried it to work every day, always had it in my bag, or slung over my shoulder. It was like I'd grown another limb - A strange limb that had interchangeable lenses and could take photos.

Then, several months ago... I put my camera down for some reason and in all honesty, I haven't picked it up since except for the odd happy-snap or random family photo.

In recent weeks I've made a small attempt to get back to what I used to really enjoying doing. I've even taken the camera out of my bag where it's been living these past months. Only now instead of the bag gathering dust - my camera is gathering the dust while sitting on the desk. Maybe I should put it away again...

Maybe I really am all photo'd out?