For my last blog posting of 2013 I decided on something unusual. Because it was really the year of Google+ for me, I shared out a few of my circles over there in the last few days. This was not an easy decision, because although Google+ is all about circles, I have to admit that I’m not a big circle sharer. This is mainly because my own collection of circles is rather chaotic, but I chose five of my most important circles to share at the end of this year to highlight and thank all the amazing people I’ve met there. I actually shared the circles yesterday directly on Google+ and this is just a blog article collecting those posts together, but this will be the start of a regular feature. But before we come to the circles…

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Photography Essentials – This one is my “small” Photography circle of people I mainly found in the beginning about one year ago. These are people whose posts I don’t want to miss even when I don’t have time to look at all the other circles. Don’t be angry if you’re not in there – there are two more much bigger photo circles coming up after this!

Photography One – This is the first part of my “big” hand-picked Photographer circles. Everybody from the Essentials circle is also in here, plus everyone I noticed in other circles, who plussed or commented on my posts or who I learned to know through other people. If you’re not in there, either I haven’t noticed you yet or you don’t fulfil my one requirement: you have to post your own work. There are only original photography content creators in here

Photography Two – The second part of my “big” Photographer circle. I had to split it to be able to share it because of the 500 user limit. This second circle is the one I constantly add new people to and maybe I’ll post an updated version once in a while!

Science, Space & Astronomy – One of the other things I try to get involved in, or at least promote, is everything about these three fields and for this reason I have a hand-picked circle with everything about science, spaceflight and exploration and astronomy around. It’s a relatively low-noise group, but everyone from space journalists and scientists from the CosmoQuest / Universe Today crowd, many astronauts and a lot more people are in there. If you want even more, have a look at Fraser Cain’s Super Science Circle, on which my circle is, of course, partly based on.

Astrophotographers – There is some overlap with the Science circle, but I chose use a separate circle for astrophotography to see all the beautiful images in one place. Credit where credit is due, though: this circle is also based, but not completely similar, to one with the same name originally shared by Fraser Cain.

This is just the beginning, let’s see what 2014 will bring…! :-)