Hull flickr meeting and a simple flickr guide
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flickr is a superb website for sharing and learning about photography. It really is huge, and it is quite easy to get lost… but do persevere and have a look around. I thought I would outline a few of the things that I have learnt about it over the past couple of years, so you can dive right in.
Pro Account
This is essential in my books - only $25, so less than £13 with the rather good exchange rate at the moment (BTW, if you need a good currency convert, there is only one - easy to use and fast!). The pro account gives you all the things below. £13 for 12 months, I think this is a bargain!
Uploading Photos
There are a number of ways you can upload your photos. You can do it from flickr itself, but this is not the recommended route. If you using Macs (we salute you!), there are a couple of much better options. Firstly, a plugin for iPhotos which you can find here. Or, try flickr uploadr, which is the one I am using the most now having switched from iPhoto to Lightroom.
Tagging
For each photo you upload to your account, you can “tag” it with appropriate words. This allows you to find it again quickly, but more importantly, lets others find it as well. Some users go potty when tagging and one photo can have about 30 tags. I would suggest using a maximum of 10 and a minimum of 2. It can be descriptive, location, colour, person etc etc. The sky is the limit!
Groups
As well as tagging, you can also send pictures you have uploaded to different groups, having first joined those groups. This is the wonderful community aspect of flickr - you can join groups that interest you, and believe me, there are some diverse groups out there, so you will be spoilt for choice! Within groups there are people, dicussions (like a forum) and the photos themselves.
Explore
If you have a spare 5 minutes, just click here, right now! Explore showcases the photos that are most interesting - the ones that people are favouriting, or commenting on. The standard of photography is just superb and you can click away and have a look at all the latest shots.
Contacts
As well as groups, there are also contacts - the people who post the photos. You can add these people to be contacts, or friends, depending on whether you really know them or not. You can then see when they post new photos (very handy) and also send them messages. Again, this really adds to the sense of community and you can get to know people, stay in touch and interact.
Meeting people
Groups, as I mentioned earlier, can be based on pretty much anything. However, one of the best things is that places - towns, cities, regions, often have groups and they sometimes organise meets where people get together, talk photography (and other stuff) and take some photos!
Hull is no exception and I had the pleasure of attending a meet last week, which was excellent and met some great people.
So, tagging, groups, exploring, contacts and meeting up with fellow flickr folks gives you a huge amount of scope! It really is a a great site with many features. Please feel free to point out some more good stuff in the comments and I will amend this to reflect the items I have missed (and there are many of them!).
Technorati Tags: flickr, hull, photography
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Spaceship in Hessle
My good friend David Innes kindly rang me with the news that there was a F40 outside his work. After asking him what the registration number was, he confirmed that it was indeed an Enzo, and not the F40.
5 minutes later, I was there and managed to get some snaps. What a car! It looked rather out of place!
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Engadget posts the new iMac keyboard?
Blimey - bit of a scoop here if this is true. Engadget have just posted pics of the new iMac keyboard, well, supposed to be anyway. Looks pretty swish.
I am a big fan of the current keyboard - works very well and I have one of the iSkin protectors on it too. These really help and can be easily washed - well worth it if you’re a clean freak like me! 
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MacLiveExpo - free tickets for first 5000 people to register
As it says on the tin, get registering now for free tickets - link here.
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OpenCoffee Hull
Events for anyone who like the web!
OpenCoffee is a group of events, for entrepeneurs, web folk, designers and also investors, which have spread around the world in locations from Leeds to New York. Well now, it’s time for Hull! I am certain there are people in the surrounding area who are just as passionate about using the web as myself, whether for their personal use, or in business, maybe their own business! These events are great for
- meeting people with common interests
- networking
- hearing about what other people are doing
- demoing some latest web technologies
- chance to relax and talk about some fun stuff
So, if you live near Hull, it means that this monthly event could be for you! I have posted the details here on upcoming, so do have a look and indicate whether you are attending or just watching at the moment. if we can get a few regulars coming, I will try and organise some short presentations from people on a variety of topics, or if people fancy talking themselves, then let me know.
Hull is not exactly rivaling Silicon Valley or London in terms of start up Web 2.0 companies, but it would be great to build a community of like-minded people, so please, do come along!
Technorati Tags: opencoffee, opencoffeehull
Best shot for a long while
I am rather chuffed with this shot - shame about the blue cane…. We went for a walk last night and I just snapped this as we walked down the road - 5D, 70-200mm F2.8LIS.
It almost looks like an HDR image, but all I’ve done is added a little more colour and sharpened it. Very pleased !
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Borders for photos
Being a particularly basic user of Photoshop (I need to get on a course or two to be honest, so let me know if you can recommend anyone!), I was very pleased to buy a script plugin set to produce some nice simple borders. These were from a top wedding photography called David Jay. His site is very well thought out, and has some great videos - an excellent way of getting potential clients to get a sense of who you are and what you do very quickly. He also has a site where he sells a number of actions which you can find here.
The borders scripts give you a choice of about 9 different versions including this Kodak one in the photo above. The really clever thing is that the script does all the work for you and matches the border to any size photo. This is a huge timesaver and you can open multiple photos at any one time and run the script - off it goes and applies the border to all the open photos and saves them in the original folder!
So, if you are, like me, wanting some nice border effects, but are not a Photoshop whizz, I would really recommend something like this.
Technorati Tags: borders, davidjay, photography, photoshop
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iPhone Bluetooth Headset Unboxing (July 23, 2007)
iPhone Bluetooth Headset Unboxing (July 23, 2007), originally uploaded by nomad7674.
This is a great the first set of photos from nomad on flickr, showing the new Apple Bluetooth Headset for the iPhone. I will certainly consider one of these WHEN the iPhone arrives here!
Technorati Tags: iphone, apple
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Dexter
Dexter is a superb new series on FX channel. It stars Michael C. Hall as the lead character, Dexter Morgan, who works as a blood splatter analyst for the Miami Police department. So, just another crime drama then? Well, no. The twist is that he deals out his own justice by murdering people who the system hasn’t caught.
Not only is Dexter superbly played by Mr Hall, but there are also a number of things that really make this series stand out:
- Great characters
- Very well edited and shot in a really different style - very atmospheric
- Different
- Edgy
- Quite shocking in some parts
- Excellent accompanying music and sound effects which really add to the programme
It’s had 3 episodes so far on UK Tv, but in the good old US of A, they are onto series 2. If you have missed any of these episodes so far, then they are available online from the normal sources, shiver me timbers you Pirates out there
So, in conclusion, a very good addition to the general dross on UK Tv and well worth watching - FX channel in Sunday night at 10pm.
Technorati Tags: dexter, tvshow
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Friends
JA and myself!, originally uploaded by JonnyMoss.
Great to see my good friend Jonny Ayres! Here is the traditional Photobooth photo from the MBP.
I’ve known Jonny since I was around…. hmmm… 7 or 8 years old and we’ve been through a lot together. We left England and travelled to Italy to do a ski season together. This was back in 1993! We then met on Koh Phan Gan pier in 1995 in Thailand and travelled through Asia for a while, before we parted company and I went onto HK and Oz. Seems a LONG time ago!
Anyway, friends are important. As well as you family and partner, these are the people who you have fun with, can turn to for many things, who you respect and also, and possibly the most important of all, the people who tell you the truth, even it is hard to hear.
I’m lucky to have some great friends - Nick, Mike, Rossman, JA, Anand, Andy, Simon, Richard and Nicky…. and a few more. I’m really thankful for that.
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