Taking things for granted

Do you find yourself forgetting how incredible this internet thing is? Caught up in the humdrum, always looking things up for work, ordering groceries or failing to keep your email in order? And then sometimes you find yourself transported into a different world, that would have been closed to you before, learning new things and seeing the world in a different way.

I've just spent 20 minutes on Flickr.com, enjoying the work of a photographer from the west coast of USA called Patrick Smith. His photos are beautiful to look at - west coast sunrises, beaches of Hawaii, fog over the Golden Gate. I was engrossed by the descriptions of how he takes his shots and realised how long it's been since I took any serious photographs myself, since I used a camera with manual controls and sat patiently for the right combination of light. clouds and scenery.

Seeing his photos is a treat, but having an insight into his techniques a real privilege. Both are probably available in a coffee-table-book of his work, but those 20 minutes are much more accessible and the ability to stumble across such treasures underlines what makes the internet such a wonder.