While On A Stroll Today

I snapped these three today while strolling with Hermione on the way to the shops a good 2Km from home and there are a lot of gardens in between, so I took my D300 with the new favorite lens the NIKKOR 35mm f2.

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, f2.8, 1/8000 sec

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, f2, 1/8000 sec

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, f2, 1/4000 sec

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, f2, 1/3200 sec

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, f2, 1/6400 sec

Market Research and Social Media

Do you use twitter lists? Twitter Lists are groups you make and is a new way to organise the people you’re following or find new people. Its a way for you to collect together other users on Twitter into groups so that you can get an overview of what they are all tweeting. These Twitter streams give you a snapshot of the list by viewing that list’s page. Lists allow you to organise the people you’re following into groups that make sense to you, and even to add people you’re not following.

This got me to thinking about developing a capability for using social media for market research. The Internet is fundamentally changing how market research and data collection is done. Using social media tools to ask questions is part of a broader trend called crowd sourcing and is tapping into the collective intelligence of the public. Low cost online survey tools like Survey Monkey make it easy to design, and conduct survey research. Even easier is using social media sites and tools to ask questions and bloggers have long used their blogs to ask questions of their audience, but if you don't blog you can still ask questions online.

LinkedIn has a section where users can ask questions and Twitter can also be used for market research in addition to getting a lot of answers and good information if the number of Twitter users following you big enough. Used by companies like Innocentive and Amazons Mechanical Turk which uses crowd sourcing to solve corporate research and other task oriented problems.

New third party services like Brizzly have a fun approach to understanding the world's trends. Brizzly allows you to see why topics are trending on Twitter, and edit their descriptions yourself. No longer wonder why a certain event or company is suddenly in the news.

Speaking of research I have just read a very interesting book, The Abc Of Xyz: Understanding The Global Generations by Mark McCrindle and Emily Wolfinger. With marketers so interested in generational attitudes the book makes the tidy little definition of what a generation is, 'generations are people of a comparable life stage and age who's attitudes were shaped by the same developments, events and trends'. This short synopsis from the publisher "The Abc Of Xyz is designed for educators, business managers and parents who want a brief and useful introduction to Australia's living generations and how they interact. It begins by exploring what a generation is, how its definition has changed, and the trends that are emerging for the future. It goes on to examine specific generational conflict in schools, home and the workplace, and the ways in which they can be understood and resolved. Interspersed with useful tables and figures, the book also offers insights into how our generations compare to their counterparts in Japan, the US and even Finland, and what might lie beyond Z". ISBN: 9781742230351

Sculpture by the Sea

The 13th annual Sculpture by the Sea exhibition at Bondi 2009 is on from 29 October - 15 November 2009. The Bondi to Tamarama coastal walk has over 100 sculptures along this popular path. Again while I took my 11-16 Tokina Wide Angle I found the natural aspect of the Nikkor 32mm gave me more pleasing results.

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, f5, 1/160 sec

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, f2, 1/2500 sec

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, f2, 1/2000 sec

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, f2, 1/8000 sec

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, f5.6, 1/160 sec

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, f2, 1/1600 sec

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, f2, 1/1250 sec

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, f5.6, 1/80 sec

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, f2, 1/320 sec

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, f2.5, 1/500 sec

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, f2.8, 1/200 sec

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, f2.8, 1/100 sec

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, f5.6, 1/60 sec

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, f2, 1/3200 sec

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, f2, 1/1600 sec

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, f2, 1/2000 sec

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, f2.5, 1/500 sec

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, f2, 1/1000 sec

Sunday Morning Walk

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, f2, 1/8000 sec

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, f2, 1/250 sec

Bokeh II

Lights from IKEA with my new favourite lens the Nikkor 35mm f2

In focus (sort of) and with a wide depth of field this would be a background.

Depth of field small lots of Bokeh. Nice heh?

Shopping Trip

IKEA is an interesting place. From the quirky flat pack furniture, sprung wood laminate chairs and lighting components you don't seem to find elsewhere its a eclectic mix of interesting and sometimes innovative design. Other times its WTF? Did you know IKEA has named their cheap stuff after Danish places, while the more expensive and luxurious stuff is named after Swedish places? For example Noresskog, Mattlig and Karlstad are product names and one at least (Karlstad) is a Municipality in Sweden. Fascinating huh?

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, f2, 1/200 sec

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, f2, 1/500 sec

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, f2, 1/125 sec
None of these guys looked happy :-{

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f2 @ ISO 200, f2, 1/125 sec