Photography Bay

Digital Camera News, Reviews and Tips

Flickr Makes Geotagging Easier

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Flickr has made it easier for photographers to geotag images uploaded to the photo-sharing site. If you take a look at your photos on Flickr, there is a new option in the Additional Information section, labeled “Add to your map.”

Click on that link and you can mark where your photo was taken on a map, direct from Yahoo! Maps. Not my first choice on mapping options, but considering Yahoo! owns both, it isn’t a surprise. It looks like there is an element of feedback from the photos folks tag on Flickr and Yahoo! Maps. According to the Flickr blog:

As the odds are you know more about your local neighborhoods than we
do, when you edit a location on the pop-up map you can also see other
nearby options and choose one. Over time if everyone continuously tells
us we’ve got somewhere wrong, we can feed it back into the system and
update it for everyone else.

 

Photrade: Simplify Selling Photos

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I think every photographer has experimented with selling prints, mugs and anything else they can think of with their photography printed on it. It can be a good way to make a little money off of a picture that might otherwise just sit on your hard drive, taking up space. But it is a fair amount of work to do on your own.

Photrade is willing to take on the hard part of the work, for part of the profits. It’s an easy system to use — just upload your photos, set a price and Photrade will take and fulfill orders. You set the markup, and can also make a little more cash from advertising on your page. You’ll have to do a little promotion on your own, but you can get a little bit of income through the site.

The site is still in beta, but quite a few Photrade invites seem to be floating around through various invite trading sites.

SmugMug to Enable Powerful Syncing

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My favorite photo sharing service just got better.  I have been a staple SmugMug user for over 2 years now and have been most happy with their service.  On the few occasions that I needed to get in touch with someone, they have been back to me within hours of my initial email and, usually have any problems resolved without further inquiry on my part.  What’s more, I don’t recall my photos ever being off-line.  Enough of my ranting, check out the release below regarding SmugMug’s integration with MS Sync Framework.  (By the way, if you want to take SmugMug for a spin, you can use the following code for $5 off at sign up: 7jCtURK05RxCQ – as a disclosure, I get a credit against my account renewal too.)

PRESS RELEASE:

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., June 3, 2008–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Online photo sharing site SmugMug announced tools today to make safe backup of photos simple. Now adding or modifying photos in one location, such as a desktop, can automatically add or modify them in many diverse locations and applications, such as SmugMug’s online photo albums, laptops and handhelds.

SmugMug’s integration with the Microsoft Sync Framework empowers SmugMug’s thriving developer community to provide dynamic photo sharing across devices, such as electronic photo frames, and many applications, such as desktop photo editing & online photo sharing. When a customer adds such things as captions and keywords to photos, they can automatically be added wherever customers choose to synchronize.

“Everyone loves to flaunt their photos and wants to keep them safe,” said SmugMug President Chris MacAskill. “Now they can add once and flaunt everywhere. And watch as they’re safely backed up online and copied to all their devices.”

“Online photo sites are becoming more popular every day. With the multitude of devices that people use to access and modify them, synchronization is a must,” said Mark Jewett, Director SQL Server at Microsoft Corp. “SmugMug has shown one of the many innovative ways that the Microsoft Sync Framework can be used to make people’s life easier.”

For more about SmugMug, point your browser at www.smugmug.com.

About SmugMug

Since 2002, snap-shooters, passionate amateurs, and pro photographers have added more than 300 million photos and videos to SmugMug. Founded by son and father team Don and Chris MacAskill, SmugMug is the largest profitable independent photo sharing site. Its emphasis on beautiful displays and safe backup keep its sales almost doubling each year.

Product and service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.

PicApp and Free Photos

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Vegas or Bust
Image details: Vegas or Bust served by picapp.com

The new PicApp online service makes it possible for bloggers to use high quality photos from Getty Images and Corbis, among others, for free. The only thing is that the images don’t look quite as nice because they are embedded flash images.

Additionally, I’ve been poking around trying to find how and if photographers are compensated for the use of these images. No luck. It appears that PicApp is getting revenue from advertisements that are embedded with the photo, of which I’m sure Getty and Corbis take a cut. Again, I’ve not seen how much of that cut gets passed on to the photographer. I can’t imagine that the pennies from these ads are will compare to the per image price that the photographer would normally get for the use of his or her photos. For the forseeable future, the example image above will be the only PicApp image that appears on this site, even if b5media is putting it on all their sites.

So, photographers, what do you think about PicApp?  Are there any Getty or Corbis shooters out there who can shed light on the compensation for photographers as a result of this deal?

Promote Your Blog for Free

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Lately, Photography Bay has been dishing out Free Links Friday to give readers the chance to visit other great blogs and read great stories they might have otherwise missed. This week, all bloggers with photography-related blogs will have the opportunity to be featured on Free Links Friday.

So, pick your best post over the past week (or even a bit longer) and, in the comments below, submit the

  • URL, and
  • a short summary (1-2 sentences) of what the post is about.

For an example, see last Friday’s Free Links post. I will hold all comments in moderation and post them into this week’s Free Links Friday post. Limit one post/article per site.

If you don’t have a blog, you can feel free to submit your favorite photography-related post or article that you’ve read over the past week or so. Just use the same submission format above.

SmugMug Adds Embedded Video

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A few months ago, SmugMug added video capabilities to its repertoire of sharing features.  SmugMug has now followed up with embedding capabilities for a variety of video sizes including HD.  Don MacAskill gives the rundown on the new H.264 embedded format here. 

I’m a big SmugMug advocate. I’ve been nothing but thrilled with their photo hosting and sharing services. You can read more of my thoughts on an earlier Photography Bay post – 7 Alternatives to Flickr.

While SmugMug “demands video to be awesome”, I ran into a little bit of a lag issue on my aging iMac G5.  I have to say though, that the video quality looks great for a flash-based video. How’s the above video working for you (for both streaming and quality)?

If you decide to give SmugMug a try, you can use this code ( 7jCtURK05RxCQ ) in the ‘Referred by’ field on the signup form to save $5 from whatever account you sign up for. (Disclosure: I get a credit as well.)

Cheaper Nikon Full Frame DSLR on the Horizon

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Amidst the recent discussions of the rumored Nikon D3X, insights on a cheaper full frame DSLR from Nikon surfaced again.  The exchange between a couple of forum posters occurred on DPReview’s forums; however, one of the forum posters was Thom Hogan.  The original poster noted that a cheaper full frame Nikon DSLR was in the rumor mill.  Thom replied with:

Yep. But I still hear this as being further out than the D3x.

(via)

As you may know, Thom seems to have his ear keenly to the ground regarding Nikon news, rumors and equipment developments.  I’m sure Nikon users would love to see a mid-range FF DSLR that’s in the same price range as the current Canon 5D.  We’ll keep you posted with the latest on this rumor and the Nikon D3X.

Flickr Adds Video

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Flickr has just stepped up the standards for online photo media sharing with the launch of video for its pro members (mind you that’s only $25 per year). While anyone can view or share via embedding (like the one to your left) videos, only pro members can upload them. My initial impression is that the quality of the player and the content looks great and works well. Video on Flickr will be available in eight languages including English, French, German, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish and traditional Chinese. [Read more…]

45 Photo Sharing Sites

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A while back, I posted 7 Alternatives to Flickr. I asked for your thoughts on my suggested alternatives and other recommendations that you had. I got more than I bargained for in your comments. I quickly realized that I had left many great sites out of my abbreviated list. Due to all of your great suggestions, I felt that you deserved a more complete list of photo sharing sites. I’ve included my original 7, all of your suggestions and a few others that I’ve scoured the web to find. Read on for 45 ways to share your photos. [Read more…]