Flickr for Good—A Joint Project

flickrtechsoup.jpgFlickr has caught on not only with individuals, but also with certain organizations. They have discovered that flickr can bring attention to their causes, their members, their goals, and their achievements. Recently, flickr and TechSoup, which helps nonprofits share and learn about technology, began a new program called Flickr for Good.

Flickr for Good will provide 10,000 almost-free pro memberships to registered nonprofit organizations and certain libraries in the United States and Canada. I say “almost-free” because while the memberships themselves are free, there is a small administrative fee of $3 per account.

Many groups have already taken advantage of this offer. For example, The Nature Conservancy has a flickr site that ran a digital photography contest that received more than 11,000 entries. Interplast, a group that provides free reconstructive surgery to children in underdeveloped areas, shows before and after photos of patients, as well as images of their own workers. Oxfam sponsored a Starbucks photo petition showing images of people holding signs that said “I support Ethiopian Coffee Farmers.”

Organizations can use flickr to publicize themselves and their work,

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Photo Dropper, a New Tool for Bloggers

Those of you who write blogs using WordPress now have a new tool to help you find quality photos to illustrate your words: the Photo Dropper. The Photo Dropper allows you to find Creative Commons-licensed photos on flickr and add them to your blog. You find images by doing keyword searches, and after you have selected the shots, the Photo Dropper even adds proper attribution links. It’s easy, it’s free, and you never have to leave the WordPress dashboard while you are working.

photodropper.jpgThat said, we should add a few caveats. First, be sure you understand the various types of licensing before you begin. Some images cannot legally be altered. Others can be used only for noncommercial sites. The various types of licensing are clearly explained in an article on skelliewag.org.

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PhotoWorks Offers Retail Outlet for Photographers

PhotoWorks, which began life as Seattle Film Works, started out decades ago using movie film to make prints and slides. Today, many know them as an online photo sharing site, which offers prints and custom photo items, such as books, calendars, cards, and other gift items. I’ve often used this company. I buy prints from them, and last year, I made a book from old scanned family pictures.

Photoworks StorefrontNow this company offer Storefronts, a retail outlet for photographers, where the photographers can create and sell their own photo-related gifts. Right now, you can sell only books from this site. Soon you’ll be able to sell all sorts of products, including images and items that use images, such as coffee mugs, calendars, and so forth. In addition, PhotoWorks plans to offer widgets that will allow users to display their products on their personal websites.

You choose a user name, which gets incorporated into the URL. Choose carefully, since you cannot change this name later. PhotoWorks will take care of hosting your images, payments, and shipping. You can then have the proceeds either deposited into a Paypal account, or credited to your PhotoWorks account.

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Get sunset and sunrise times for any location on Earth

Sunset/sunrise tables screenshotPhotographers know that the best light of the day usually happens at sunrise and sunset. I’m happy to announce the availability of a helpful utility that lets you use a map to find your location on the Earth and then instantly creates a table of sunset and sunrise times and moon phases.

Choose one of the dozens of pre-set locations or create your own custom location (with precision right down to the street level, if you like). The last location you selected on the map is automatically restored the next time you visit the page making it extremely easy to get up-to-date information.

Get sunset and sunrise times for any location on Earth

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Photodoto Grand Opening contest winners announced

There were over 180 high-quality entries in the Grand Opening contest. Thank you to everyone who participated. It was a pleasure going through the entries even though it was incredibly difficult to narrow it down to just three who would take home the prizes. The judges were looking for technical excellence, adherence to the theme, and visual impact (the ones that really caught their eye). But these three winners stood out with unanimous appeal. So, without any further delay:

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Life, it sneaks up on you when you’re not looking

I was planning on having the next post in the composition series up this morning, but life hath intervened. I’ll have it up later tonight. In the mean time, check out these interesting web morsels:

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