Jun 112010
May 172010
The Lay's® Happiness Exhibit
Yesterday while I was on flickr, I found a flickr add that linked you to the “Lay’s® Happiness Exhibit.” This web site caught my attention, not because it was part of flickr, but, because I love the way this web site looks and works. The front page is laid out so simply, but is has a lot going on. I do find it interesting that they are partnered up with flickr. If you look in the lower right corner you will notice it says “Powered by flickr.”
I have been looking at a lot of web sites lately because I would like to upgrade my personal website and make it more functional or photography. My problem is that I am very technical and have a tendency to make things more complicated then it needs to be. I am trying to teach myself how to keep it simple (stupid). It is not as easy as it sounds for someone that is not artsy, but technical. So I keep looking and making notes and adding them to my list of web sites I like. This sight has been added to my list because of it’s simplicity and that is was made with flash.
If you know how they built this site or have an expertise in this type of web design, I would be interested in hearing from you. Also, i would like any suggestions of clases I can take to learn how to make this type of site. You can place your comments and suggestions in the comment section below.
Now on with the Lay’s® Happiness Exhibit. When you look inside, you first notice that the images submitted are not by pro’s, but by the average point and shoot photographers. As you dig deeper you will find some very exceptional photos. It’s is easy to join and add photos. If you have a flickr account just go to the upper left corner of the frames, and you will see UPLOAD YOUR HAPPY PHOTOS and click on the Start Here. This will link you to your Yahoo or Flickr sign on. Sign-in and the follow the instructions to accept the API. Next when you go back to the Lay’s® Happiness Exhibit it will ask you to accept and a few other instructions to follow. When you are done you will be able to add images directly to the flickr group Lay’s® Happiness Exhibit flickr group or directly to the Lay’s® Happiness Exhibit.
If you don’t have a flickr sign-on you can follow the above instructions and create a new flickr account.
A friend of Thomas Hawk of Thomas Hawk Digital Connection has posted some great trip to increase your Flickr influence on the web and on the Flickr Social Media site. As a photographer, I have wanted to increase my exposure among Flickr circle. Since Flickr is one, if not the largest photography social media web site it should be a good place to my photography noticed.
With permission from Thomas Hawk I have reposted Thomas Hawks TOP 10 WAYS TO GET ATTENTION ON FLICKR .
“What is more pleasant than the benevolent notice other people take of us, what is more agreeable than their compassionate empathy? What inspires us more than addressing ears flushed with excitement, what captivates us more than exercising our own power of fascination? What is more thrilling than an entire hall of expectant eyes, what more overwhelming than applause surging up to us? What, lastly, equals the enchantment sparked off by the delighted attention we receive from those who profoundly delight ourselves? – Attention by other people is the most irresistible of drugs. To receive it outshines receiving any other kind of income. This is why glory surpasses power and why wealth is overshadowed by prominence.”
Caterina Fake, Co-founder of Flickr, 2005.
Over the course of the past 4 years, about every 2 years or so I’ve written a blog post that has been one of my most popular entitled “Top 10 Ways to Get Attention on Flickr.” It’s been a few years, Flickr’s changed a bit, and so I thought I’d take a bit of time today to outline some of the techniques that active power users use on Flickr to get more attention for themselves and their photos.
Fundamentally it comes down to a pretty simple equation:
quality photos + reciprocation² = attention.
But there are lots of other little tricks and tips, so let’s get right into them.
1. The order that you publish your photos in matters — alot. A lot of people will take 50 snapshots of that killer sunset on their vacation and then upload them at random to flickr. Some are better, some are worse. At Flickr, those that call you contact predominantly only see your last photo uploaded or your last 5 photos uploaded (depending on their settings) from the popular “your contact’s most recent uploads” page. The other 45 are effectively buried. Always upload what you feel are your best, strongest, etc. photographs as the last five and save the very last spot for the photo you want to pimp the most.
2. Explore, you whore. Explore is a section of Flickr where Flickr highlights what they feel are 500 interesting photos every day.
I used to have photos show up in Explore pretty much every week. Then Flickr staff blacklisted me from Explore (and their help forum) about 7 months or so ago after I wrote a blog post criticizing Flickr staff for nuking a popular group on Flickr that I administered. Payback’s a bitch, right?
After having photos regularly appear in Explore every week since it started, they capped my ass in there at 666 photos (cute, because I’m the devil, get it?). That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t consider Explore though. It’s probably the fastest way to get a lot of views on any of your photos. Whilst everyone bitches about how full of crappy photos Explore is, secretly you know you all love it when your photos show up there.
Flickr claims to have a “magic donkey” formula which picks the photos for Explore. This “magic donkey” is really just an excuse though to avoid transparency/accountability about Explore. In general, the more activity a photo has (activity = faves, comments, notes, blogged, etc.) the more likely it is to show up in Explore. By putting your best foot forward (see item 1) and by focusing on promoting a popular photo of yours on a given day, (see below) it just might get there.
3. Promote your photos outside of Flickr. What are you doing to promote your photos outside of Flickr? Some things are super, super easy and involve no active participation on your part other than setting something up. Popular content aggregators on the web allow you to publish your Flickr photos out of Flickr, with valuable links back to your photos on Flickr.
Have you configured Flickr Tab on your Facebookery page yet? Why not? It’s free and easy.
May 102010
The other day while going through the endless post of photography blogs and websites I follow, I ran across an post from DIY Photography. DIY Photography had two videos that Google made using High Speed video up to 2700 fps (frames per second). Google had three different scenarios one with a potato gun. Another with paint on a speaker, and a third was with electricity coming from a Tesla Coil.
The first video is the actual comercial. The second video is how it was done. Take a look, it is awesome to see how they played with each scenarios.
May 092010
I was reading today on DPS (Digital Photography School) a post that was titled Finding Your Camera’s Current Shutter Actuations. I have always want to know exactly how many clicks had actually committed my camera to doing.
I Can't Believe it (55247)
In order to find out how many actuations you camera has taken you need to look in the EXIF data. Now I currently am shooting with a Nikon D70s and I have been shooting with this camera since June, 2006. Last night I had my camera with me while my wife and I were baby sitting her brothers kids. We took them to the park and had a good time chasing them around. The last image I shot last night was shutter click #55247. I figure that when my 4 year anniversary with this camera come this June, I will be up to at least 60,000 camera actuations. That is an average of 15,000 clicks a year.
Here is the link to the web site MyShutterCount that allowed my to grab this information for my Nikon camera. If you have a Canon or another brand go to the article on DPS to find your Shutter Actuations.
May 072010
Adobe released Lightroom 2.7, Camera Raw and DNG Converter 5.7. According to Adobe version 2.6 was the final update to Lightroom 2.0. Adobe Lightroom 3.0 was going to be the next release but I guess they either miss calculated the release of Lightroom 3.0 or the need for bug fixes couldn’t wait.
Known Issues
• Burning exported images to disc is not available for the Lightroom 64-bit Windows application. • Upgrading a Lightroom 1 catalog during a catalog import can create multiple temporary copies of the
catalog while upgrading • Lightroom performance can be impacted when the Window’s Recycle Bin contains thousands of files • Lightroom may not automatically launch an import dialog when a memory card is attached to a Windows Vista computer. Please select the Import button in the Library and select the attached card reader to begin the import. • Lightroom 2.7 will not automatically migrate plug-ins located in the following directory: C:\Program
Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2\Modules\. Any plug-ins in this folder should be moved to: o XP: C:/Documents and Settings/{your_username}/Application Data/Adobe/Lightroom/Modules/ o Vista: C:/Users/{your_username}/AppData/Roaming/Adobe/Lightroom/Modules/
Supported File Formats:
• JPEG
• TIFF (8 bit, 16 bit)
• PSD (8 bit, 16 bit)
• DNG • Proprietary raw formats (Please visit http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/cameraraw.html for afull list of raw file support. File support for Lightroom 2.7 aligns with Camera Raw 5.7)
New in Lightroom 2.7
The goal of this release is to address bugs that were introduced in previous releases of Lightroom 2 and provide additional camera raw support. A comprehensive list of issues fixed in this release is included below:
Lightroom 2.7 and Camera Raw 5.7 are now available as final releases on Adobe.comand through the update mechanisms available in Photoshop CS4 and Lightroom 2. These updates include camera support for the following models:
- Canon EOS 550D (Digital Rebel T2i/ EOS Kiss X4 Digital)
- Kodak Z981
- Leaf Aptus-II 8
- Leaf Aptus-II 10R
- Mamiya DM40
- Olympus E-PL1
- Panasonic G2
- Panasonic G10
- Sony A450
Release Notes:
- Camera Raw 5.7 includes an updated demosaic algorithm designed to provide compatibility with settings applied in Lightroom 3 beta 2.
- Lightroom 2.7 also includes the same updated demosaic algorithm. The updated demosaic algorithm will appear as a subtle shift in noise characteristics at default values.
- By default Camera Raw will display the image adjustments exactly as performed in the Lightroom 3 beta 2 develop module. However, at this time Camera Raw 5.7 is unable to support further adjustments to the following settings or tools:
- Highlight Priority and Color Priority post-crop vignette
- Enhanced Luminance and Color Noise Reduction
- Grain effects
- Process Version
There’s more to this update than I saw at first. According to Lightroom product manager Tom Hogarty, Lightroom 2.7 and version 5.7 of the Photoshop plug-in adds Lightroom 3 beta 2′s new “demosaicing” technology for processing raw images.
Specifically, Hogarty said:
• Camera Raw 5.7 includes an updated demosaic algorithm designed to provide compatibility with settings applied in Lightroom 3 beta 2.
• Lightroom 2.7 also includes the same updated demosaic algorithm. The updated demosaic algorithm will appear as a subtle shift in noise characteristics at default values.
• By default, Camera Raw will display the image adjustments exactly as performed in the Lightroom 3 beta 2 develop module. However, at this time Camera Raw 5.7 is unable to support further adjustments to the following settings or tools: Highlight Priority and Color Priority post-crop vignette; Enhanced Luminance and Color Noise Reduction; Grain effects; [and] Process Version.
May 052010
Here is a creative suite 5 video of the new content aware functions offered by Adobe. The author goes through several examples of how content aware feature will really speed up your daily workflow.
May 042010
Here is a little video to entertain you. I have always been interested in doing arial photography. Yes, I would like to one day go up in a actual helicopter or plan and do so really great arial photos. However, If you decide that flying is not your cup a tea, then maybe you would want to consider trying this as a alternative and keep you feet on the ground, and leave the flying to the birds.
Aerial video with a Canon 5D , 7D helivideo.com from Eric AUSTIN on Vimeo.
Apr 292010
April 22, 2010, 4:06 PM
Suit Filed to Allow Photography Near U.S. Buildings
By ALISON BOWEN
Citizens should be allowed to take photos while standing in public spaces near federal buildings, according to a lawsuit filed on Thursday by the New York Civil Liberties Union. The lawsuit challenges regulations that prohibit photography on federal property.
The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan, names the Department of Homeland Security along with the Federal Protective Service, an unnamed federal officer, and Inspector Clifford Barnes of the Federal Protective Service.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Antonio Musumeci, 29, a software developer from Edgewater, N.J.
According to the complaint (pdf), in November 2009, during Mr. Musumeci’s lunch break, he was filming Julian Heicklen, a libertarian advocate, while he protested outside the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Federal Courthouse in Manhattan.
Mr. Musumeci recorded while Mr. Heicklen distributed pamphlets, and he kept recording as Mr. Barnes approached the two. Mr. Musumeci stepped back about 10 feet to keep recording on his hand-held camera as Mr. Barnes arrested Mr. Heicklen.
Mr. Musumeci was also arrested, and Mr. Barnes and another officer confiscated his camera’s video card. He was later given a ticket for violating the regulation barring photography; the charge was dismissed in March.
The lawsuit seeks a court order to bar federal officials from harassing or arresting people taking photos while standing in outdoor public areas by federal buildings. “In our society, people have a clear right to use cameras in public places without being hassled and arrested by federal agents or police,” said Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.
All this week I have been preparing for a trip to Orange County. I am traveling to OC in the next week for a series of Job interviews. No, it’s not for a photography job, it’s for my chosen profession of a Financial Services Professional (Equity Trader). Anyone that knows me personally, knows that I was laid-off from my job over a year ago. Yes, it was a huge disappointment, however I never thought I would be unemployed for this long. The job market has been very bleak at best.
In preparing for my upcoming interviews I realized that I didn’t have a business card. I have cards that I made for photography, but nothing for my profession. Last night I rectified this little issue. I spent a few hours before I went to bed, and made some financial business cards. I had some ideas of how I wanted my business cards to look like. I didn’t want to just use the free templates that vistaprints.com offers. I wanted to have a personal touch.
A fes days ago I was fooling around with Wordle and created a couple Wordle graphics and posted to my blog here Financial Buzz Word Bingo . I mentioned that I was going to use them for a project. I decided to use them for my financial business cards. I downloaded the photoshop .psd layout file from vistaprints.com. I used photoshop to put my business card layout together. Next, I uploaded the finished file to vistaprints.com and added the text. The next step and most important step, I had my wife prof the card before I finished. This is what my business card looks like. If you notice I didn’t add an address, because I am looking for a job in the Greater Bay Area and in Orange County. I didn’t feel that the address was as important. My wife had made the suggestion of putting my Securities Licences on the card instead. I agreed that this was more important since I worked so hard to get them during my career.
