Social Groups.

"Picking up a DSLR does not make you a photographer. It makes you the owner of a DSLR"

Social groups are a very important tool for new and emerging photographers. It allows us to share information and learn from those who we would never come across in our local market.

Twitter- Using twitter I talk to about 15 different professional photographers from around the world going from LA, to Toronto, England, China, and other countries of the world. I can send them a message asking what they think of my work and get a reply within a few hours depending on timezone differences. And they do the same. I'll log into twitter and see their work posted up asking what people think of it or them just letting people know something new is on their websites.

Flickr- Flickr is in my opinion the best website for anyone who wants to share their photos with the world. Within this website there are a mulitude of groups you can join. Some of them are limtied by region of the photo, lens used, camera used, and etc. I belong to a group where you submissions must have certain colours in them. There are many groups on there also which are run by the Camera companies themself.(I belong to 4 different Nikon groups, one of which Nikon USA sponsers)

Blogspot- Blogspot is a great tool to share ANYTHING with the world. As with my blogspot I post varying information regarding photography. I post samples of my work time to time within my posting and have links to my other websites on the side. I treat blogspot just as equally important as I do my main website.

So always remember that if there is no one in your local area there is always the internet to reach out to, and its waiting to answer.