I’ve been meaning to write about the Radiant Vista for the last week or so, but now I don’t have any excuse not to.

The Radiant Vista is a combination of community photography website, as well as an amazing resource for photographers at any level of experience who are looking for ways of improving their photography. The folks who run the site offer video tutorials with their Photoshop Workbench for editing photos, as well as more or less Daily Critiques, in which they critique user-submitted images for both the quality of photography as well as the artistic merit of the photo. In particular I’ve found the Daily Critiques to be very useful, particularly since their critiques are done in a very positive, reinforcing way.

But the reason I’m writing today about the Radiant Vista is their Holiday 2007 Pay it Forward Giveaways. Basically, the generous folks who hang out there are indulging in a mutual photogear give-away. If you’re willing to part with something photography related for free (typically you pay the shipping), you can speak up to get something free in return.

It was way too much good karma for me to pass up. So last week, after thinking long and hard about it (for about 5 minutes), I offered to give away my Canon EF 80-200mm f/4.5-5.6 lens. We bought this lens used off eBay a couple of years ago, and it’s served me well. But I’m finding that I’m using it less and less. Within a day it was claimed, and is going to find a new home being used in teaching High School photography courses. It was a calculated risk, that I’d get something at least as good in return from someone else. This afternoon I claimed a Canon EF 50mm f/2.5 macro lens. Definitely a step up.

🙂 Happy Holidays. 🙂