Short and sweet – I don’t know that there is much that can be said about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) at this point that isn’t just adding to the noise. So I will simply join in solidarity with the movement to stop its passage, voice to that I think SOPA is going about what needs to be done, copyright reform, the wrong way and leave it at that for now.
Google Plus pages.
November 9th, 2011Not sure yet the value of a Google+ page vs a normal Google+ account for Photographers, but that may come as they develop the service.
One thing I have notice while looking into pages is a bunch of people talking about “ERROR CHANGING MEMBERSHIP” problems, if you take a look at Google’s tips for the new pages feature you will find this:
“2. No Google+ Page Can Follow You Until You Follow Them
We want Google+ to be a place you love to share. Pages cannot circle you until you follow them first…”
So if you have a Google plus page and you are trying to follow someone and see “ERROR CHANGING MEMBERSHIP” remember they have to follow you first.
Creating a Google Plus Thumbnail Panorama Template.
October 25th, 2011
I have seen several templates for creating a Google Plus Thumbnail Panorama, but they seem to over-complicate what has to be done. If we go back to the dawn of Photoshop there is a tool that does all the work for us: the slice tool. Using the slice tool to create a thumbnail panorama is as easy as downloading my PSD template – or creating your own PSD that is 670px by 134px with 5 square 134px slices – adding your image (resizing and positioning as needed) and saving for the web.
Gimp:
You can also use the PSD template with the free, open source image editor Gimp. The process does not seem to be as automated, but someone who uses Gimp regularly may be able to correct me on that. Once you open the PSD and add your image to the template, in Gimp’s image menu choose transform and then Guillotine.
Value of Art
October 3rd, 2011Three memorable experiences with the pricing of art left it as one of my takeaways from the Alternative Press Expo (APE) in San Francisco this weekend.
1) I found it interesting that one of the artists that we bought a print from had a quasi pay what you like pricing structure, for example some of the pieces were priced $10 – $20. When I first asked how much the piece was he said something about knowing the economy is bad and he wants to work with people. And later after we were purchasing the item I asked from him one artist to another how the pricing structure was working for him. He seemed embarrassed, said that he guessed that it averages out to somewhere in between, but he didn’t track his sales and then sheepishly mumbled that he is still not making it.
Read the rest of this entry »
Now out of the San Francisco Bay Area.
May 1st, 2011Quick update I just moved from the Boston area back to the San Francisco Bay Area.
SimpleViewer 2 and Fotomoto
September 13th, 2010Currently SimpleViewer 2 does not provide a method for clicking an image and running a function. You can however get around this short coming by embedding the simpleviewer.swf into another swf and placing a transparent button over your image area. Note you wont be able to use the image overlay navigation and you will need to make your gallery size static. The other option is to create normal purchase button that calls the purchaseImage function.
Read the rest of this entry »
Long over due post/gallery update
August 30th, 2010Been busy and it looks like that trend is going to carry on for the foreseeable future. I have updated all of my galleries with the exception of Oceans adding 16 new images, primarily to Abstractions 2. I have a review halfway written for RadioPopper’s JrX STUDIO flash triggers which I will try to have up soon.
Some new hardware and software “toys” and site updats…
March 11th, 2010Steve Chapman’s (panocamera.com) Nintendo DS Camera Controller which I purchased awhile ago has been open sourced as Open Camera Control.
Palm has released the beta version of the native Plug-in Developer Kit (PDK) for the Palm Pre, though unfortunately they don’t have support for Linux yet.
I finally got around to completing the assembly of the Camera Axe I got for Christmas.
Seems like I’m constantly tinkering with site updates I added 29 new images to my galleries and Fotomoto released their API last month which I integrated with SimpleViewer.
How To: SimpleViewer 2 and SWFAddress.
January 28th, 2010As this is an update to an existing post I will dispense with a basic introduction. The major difference between this post and the previous is that the new version uses Actionscript 3. Here is the deep linking example of SimpleViewer 2 and SWFAddress 2.4.
What you will need to download:
- SimpleViewer Pro 2.0.1
- SWFAddress 2.4
- If you don’t have it Adobe Flash Professional
Everything At Once and More
December 23rd, 2009SimpleViewer 2
SimpleViewer 2 has been released and I will have an update of my SimpleViewer SWFAddress code shortly. Most of the code is done – I just have to do some testing. You can check out a preview example here. Update: the post is up here.
Borrowlenses.com
I recently rented a lens from Borrowlenses.com and over all it was a good experience, but there were a few issues. They have strict address requirements, which in some ways are understandable based on the value of the gear. This does however limit shipping to basically your business or home via FedEx with a signature requirement, no hotels and no P.O. Boxes. The other issue was that the lens was sent to me very dirty, good thing Photoshop can fix it, but still would be nice if had been cleaned before it was sent.
Read the rest of this entry »