Thursday night I "crashed" (not being from San Francisco) the monthly sflickr meetup, which was also the going away party for high fidelity and kodama who are embarking on a trip around the world. The gathering was really large (see the sflickr0511 tag for details) because of this. Stiil, the gathering was welcoming, even for a first-timer who didn't know anyone. Within moments of walking in, highfidelity had given me a signed print, and we got into a conversation about their trip. I was able to tell them about Lee and Sachi's similar venture, which was fun.

I really enjoyed being in the combined social / photo shootout setting. It's rare to be in a social setting where sticking a camera right in someone's face is perfectly acceptable behavior. You could hear shutters clicking pretty much continuously, and I had a number of great conversations about the art side of photography (as opposed to the gear side). One of the highlights was meeting jbergholm who had a pair awesome books. His study of colors through the eyes of a color blind photographer, is available as a Flickr set. I already had deborah lattimore and thomashawk on my contact list, and it was great to meet them in person and talk to them a little bit. Many thanks to all who took the time to talk to a visitor from Seattle: cygnoir, fotogail, pinhole, shannonmary, caitlinburke, fetching, christyscherrer, missriva, heather, and bees.

Here is my set from the meeting.