The following post is from Australian photographer Neil Creek who is part of the Fine Art Photoblog, and his own blog as a resource for the passionate photographer.

If you’re a photographer and you’re not using Twitter yet, you’re missing out. Twitter has been written about here before (20 Photography Tips from Our Twitter Followers), and DPS has its own Twitter account @digitalps. There are many seriously talented and very sociable photographers there who love to talk about their craft and hear what others have to say. You can find me on twitter @neilcreek.

Hashtags

Hashtags are a recent innovation that when combined with the Twitter search function, allow you to “tag” your tweet for others to easily find it and all others on the same topic. This was recently dramatically demonstrated during the Mumbai attacks when twitters used the #mumbai hashtag to collate discussion on the incident. You can read more about hashtags at Twitip (a blog dedicated to Twitter Tips by Darren Rowse, the editor of DPS).

The true strength of hashtags is demonstrated when a large number of people all use the same tag on all of their relevant tweets. This way one can keep up with discussion on their topic of interest, without needing to follow everyone involved. At the moment, there doesn’t seem to be any coordinated use of photography related hashtags. I would like to propose a set of hashtags for photographers to use when tweeting, to help us connect with each other and build stronger relationships.

Hashtags for Photographers

#photog – This hashtag can be used for any general photography discussion. #photography is too long for the 140 Twitter limit.

#photogs – Discussion of particular photographers can be hashtagged in this way.

#photo – Already seeing a fair bit of use, this hashtag can be used when linking to a photo in your tweet.

#camera – Discussion of camera gear and equipment of all kinds can be identified with this hashtag.

I’m going to start using these hashtags in my tweets whenever I can, and I hope you will as well. I look forward to connecting and engaging with many other photographers very soon!

Read more from our Other Photography Tips Category