Yesterday, Dan Heller posted an interesting article called Creative Commons and Photography in which he decries the Creative Commons not only as an ineffective and misguided licensing structure for photographers, but as a detriment to its own ends when used by them. I truly believe that he couldn’t be further from the truth, but because his article was so specific I would be doing everyone a disservice to leave my reaction as a mere sound bite.

After the jump, more of Dan’s rantings followed by more of my rantings, hopefully to end with a meaningful conclusion… But no promises.

The Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, or PHMSA (I like to say it “pa-hum-sah” just to be a jerk), dropped a bomb on us recently with a new set of regulations governing lithium-based batteries in public transportation (chiefly air travel, but presumably any transportation system under the DOT’s oversight).

Of concern are so-called primary lithium or lithium metal batteries as well as the somewhat more common lithium ion batteries so familiar to photographers. The regulations basically prohibit loose spare batteries in checked baggage and also place a number of other restrictions on the number and variety of batteries that can be kept in carry-on luggage.

I became concerned because I will be flying out to the California coast at the end of February to scout locations for future art photography workshops and making that voyage across the country is enough of a hassle without TSA inspectors throwing all of my batteries away.

Here I will make a valiant effort to summarize what has already been said by others and tell you why I think this “emergency” might be somewhat blown out of proportion. Continue after the jump!

Here are some ideas for New Year’s resolutions to refresh and enliven your photography.

Try something NEW

Experiment with unfamiliar genres. If you normally shoot fine art landscapes, try still life. If you are a sports shooter who is interested in making artistic images, try landscapes. Get outside of your “comfort zone” and attempt something fresh.

Upgrade to a digital SLR

I know, this isn’t really a philosophical “turn over a new leaf” resolution, but maybe this year is the year to step up to a digital SLR camera and really take your photography to the next level. Here are my digital SLR recommendations for first-time owners in 2008:

If you’d like to see some of the most incredible and moving images from 2007, do take a few minutes (or more than a few minutes) to flip through Reuters’ “Pictures of the Year.”

There are over 100 photographs from all over the world captured during some of the most pivotal events of 2007, many of which I actually didn’t hear about until now. It’s amazing exactly how much happens in a year that we can be completely unaware of.

My headline might be a bit of an overstatement, but digital photography stands closer than ever to forcing out film as the number one choice among new photographers. In fact, I might go so far as to say that digital is the number one choice among new photographers, though that doesn’t mean that film has become obsolete.

It’s more important than ever for photographers to be aware of what’s happening in the digital world as today’s youngest generation of photographers enter the scene and wonder why anyone ever got their hands wet while making images.