Tag: photos

Photo Management

Since moving to the Mac managing most data has been fairly easy. My doc’s are all straightened out, music is in iTunes capable hands and photo’s are thrown into iPhoto and it’s easy to sync and publish from the one app. Lightroom has changed all that.

I started using Lightroom at Christmas and I love the finer control I get on my photo’s. However all my photo’s prior to Christmas are managed in iPhoto. The only way to get the photo’s from Lightroom into iPhoto would be to export from Lightroom into iPhoto and keep two separate sets of the same photo. Grrr. I hate duplication and I hate over complicating processes.

iPhoto’s most annoying feature is that it moves photo’s into it’s own library. I would love to have it create a library of images from across my drives but leave them in their location just like Picasa does. I tried Picasa when it came out for the Mac but iPhoto was by far the better tool for me.

So that leaves me with two photo libraries at the moment and none of my new photo’s on the iPhone as I didn’t want to create duplicates. There’s a couple of options in iPhoto for changing the editor which is a bit clunky in practice and for copying items into library but all that does is change the import from a move to a copy. I just hope iPhoto 10 has the options to manage files out with the library. That would be an update worth paying for. I guess there’s nothing for it but to export and duplicate the files I want to view on the iPhone into iPhoto. At least then I can take advantage of the new face tagging features as well. Or is there another option that I’m missing?

Schmap’d

Back in April I had a stroll around Glasgow with Shakeel and took some photo’s. It was a pretty good way to spend a day and I plan to do some more winter shot’s around Glasgow during the Christmas break…weather and time permitting.

Anyway, to the point of this ramble. Someone at Schmap liked one of my photo’s and from today the Glasgow guide is featuring one of my snaps. Nice one. Even nicer is that I’ll be able to see if anyone clicks on the photo and visits my Flickr photo’s via their new stats service.

Stats and other Mince

Okay. My love of statistics knows no end. Three stat related topics, one of them seasonal, all of them useful..ish.

  • Google Zeitgeist 2007 has now been published. There is nothing too surprising this year although it’s great to see the Wii top the poll as Christmas comes around. Great stock management Nintendo. Definitely keeps people thinking you are the must buy games console.
    Where's Wii?
    Also worth noting that HD-DVD is more searched than Blu-Ray despite Blu-Ray disks outselling HD-DVD and that more people want to know what love is rather than who God is.
  • Flickr StatsMore stats can now be found on Flickr. If your a pro user, activate your stats and in roughly 24 hours you too can see who is viewing your photo’s. As expected nobody is finding any of my photo’s interesting but it did remind me to get my tagging and geo-tagging sorted.
    The stats are really well presented. Clear with lot’s of white space. You can also dig down into screens that show more details i.e. all photo’s. You can then sort by comments, date’s, your photo’s that have been added as a favourite by other members. Very informative and a great place to waste a few minutes. I even found some photo’s that I had put up that I had totally forgotten about.
  • Now onto a festive stat. Well, when I say stat I really mean reviews. My friend Roy has been road testing Mince Pies (not to be confused with mince rounds). So far the mince pie to beat is from Starbucks. I’m in shock. Having just sampled a Marks classic mince pie I really must seek out a Starbucks version over the holiday period. Anyway, if you have any more recommendations for Roy and his co-workers to test then add a comment below and I’m sure they will oblige.

I hope to have my own further stat/review post up this weekend. Stand by for startling revelations!

Flickr Related Tag Browser

A great Flickr search tool – Flickr Related Tag Browser. Type a tag and watch the preview window fill. Move your mouse to the edge of the screen and related tags to your search will be shown – click and view those photo’s. A great visual way of searching through Flickr.

With updated map searching, video support and online picture editing all coming soon it’s looking like good times ahead for Flickr.

Doorstep

Shakeel was up visiting so we took advantage of some nice weather on Saturday to plod round Glasgow and try out his new camera. It will take a few days for his pictures to appear but I’ve thrown up some that I took.

Glasgow Harbour
Clyde
Kelvingrove Art Gallery
Glasgow University

It’s a bit annoying that I don’t get out and about photographing more as there’s some great spots in Glasgow. That was the first time I’d visited Kelvingrove since it had re-opened too. In fact it’s the first time I’d visited since I was a kid and thats shocking as I used to only stay a few hundred yards away. The interior looks magnificent now but it still had the same smell that I remember from all those years ago. However I only scratched the surface while I was there – I’ll definitely be back soon as it’s wonderful.

Something that hadn’t changed was Glasgow Uni. It’s been over 12 years since I left but walking round the quadrangles and seeing the exam desks – it was as if nothing had changed. Apart from my weight. Still – really nice day that made a change from buying more gadgets! Must do more often.

Moo

MooFree Moo cards came though on Friday. If the images are right then this is a nice option for handing out small cards to folk – gift after party or wedding perhaps? The crops worked OK (some a bit inaccurate) and a couple of the images were soft but these were some of the scans of American snaps from 10 years so probably expecting too much. Would certainly use the service again.

Zooomr adds Portals

I’ve tried Zooomr out a couple of times but Flickr still wins due to size of community, other application support and features. However Zooomr today added Portals which is a nice way of adding details to photo’s and linking through to other photo’s in a set – almost like picture within picture on a TV. Good examples can be seen in the video on Zooomr Blog.

Click on the sample below that you allows you to see it in action (not IE7 friendly but works well in Firefox)

Wheres the toys?Wheres the toys? Hosted on Zooomr