The age of the digital camera has changed nearly everything about photography. While the essence of the craft is still to point the camera at what you want to take a picture of and shoot, the manner in which we take pictures and more importantly share them is completely different than it was ten years ago.
Nowadays, everyone has cell phone cameras, point and shoot cameras, digital SLRs, iPhones, pocket camcorders, and a million other gadgets that generate media faster and easier than ever before.
The problem that the tech revolution has created is a lack of 'activity' with that media. Most of the time, photos and videos eventually serve only to clog up their owners' hard drives without doing anybody any good. People are less likely to print their pictures than ever before because they can more easily and affordably be pulled up on a computer screen than put in a photo album. Similarly, few people have the motivation or internet expertise to share their pictures online with the world.
Learning your way around the online photo community takes a little time and effort, but once you get involved you'll regret for not having started earlier.
The easiest way to get involved with the online photo community is to simply put up your pictures on an online photo-hosting site. The web's most popular photo-hosting sites include Flickr, Picasa, Photobucket, and Smugmug. Smugmug costs $40/year for the cheapest hosting package, while Flickr, Picasa and Photobucket are all free but offer upgraded service at additional cost.
Simply posting your photos online won't get them out to the public. The next step is to involve yourself in the photography community by sharing your voice.
Websites such as Dyxum (a personal favorite of mine), Photo.net, and Fred Miranda are great forum sites for professionals and beginners alike to share photos, talk gear, and discuss technique. Forums are a great way to learn about the technical aspects to photography and also to gain an appreciation for its artistic and creative value. Seeing great work posted by other people can often be a strong source of inspiration for your own work.
From there, it's all up to you. Moving your photography online and joining the web's enormous and rapidly growing photography community is a rewarding and exciting experience, and it will help your pictures overcome "stuck on hard-drive" syndrome once and for all.
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