My New Favorite Social App for Photo Sharing (And a few other great features as well!)

About a month or so ago I was reading a blog by Scott Kelby touting Google+’s ease of use and its fantastic photo sharing features. I had heard about Google+ months ago when it was first announced and wasn’t very excited about it. How many more social networks did I really need in my life? But on Mr. Kelby’s recommendation I decided to sign up and see what G+ was all about.

After spending only an hour setting things up, finding some new friends to follow, and uploading some photos, I wished all my Facebook friends would move to G+! Not only is it great looking, it’s extremely easy to use and much more flexible than any other social networking site I’ve used. Kind of like going from a beaten up 1960 Volkswagen Beetle to a brand new Mercedes-Benz.

Google+ has made managing your friends much easier than other social networks. When you locate your friends or find someone you want to follow they appear on your “circles” page. (I’ll explain circles in a moment.)  There you will see all of your friends graphically displayed in nice sized profile boxes with their picture and some of their basic information.

 Though Facebook has recently added the ability to create groups of friends (I’m guessing as a response to the G+ solution), using Google’s “circles”  is much more convenient and logical. Circles are essentially groups of  people.  You can create circles based on friends, family, acquaintances, your motorcycle club, anything you want. You can have hundreds, even thousands, of people in any one circle and you can create as many circles as you want.

To place people into your circles is simple. As mentioned above, you’ll find all your friends on your circles page. You simply drag and drop your friends into as many of your circles as you like.

But the value of circles is realized when you want to post a message. After writing your post simply select which of your circles will see your message from a drop down menu. This is how you manage who sees or doesn’t your messages. You even have the option of letting your “extended circles” view your posts. Extended circles are the members of  circles your friends have created. There is also an option to block individuals or circles from seeing your content.

Want to share a circle with someone? No problem. Just send the it to them or post it as part of a message and whoever chooses to can now follow everyone in it. I’ve found this very handy when I want to share a circle I’ve created featuring photographers that are producing work I find interesting.

One thing that really annoys me about Facebook is the inability to fix a mistake in your post. You have to either leave it as is or delete and start over. Google+ added a  feature Facebook has yet to grasp: an “Edit” button! Click it, fix your spelling error or even completely rewrite your message, and save. The post is now just the way you intended it to be.

When it comes to pictures, whether you’re a pro or cell phone photographer, what’s really nice about Google+ is how it handles your photographs. Click on a large, easy to see thumbnail  and the image appears full-sized, crisp and clear, on a beautiful black background. Comments about the photo are can be seen on the right side of the screen. After the latest comment there’s a place to add your own. (They can also be added on the main page.) If that picture is part of an album you’ll see the rest of the photos in it along the bottom. A number in each photograph’s corner displays how many “+1″ ratings it’s received.(A +1 is equal to Facebook’s “Like.”)  Albums are also very easy to set up, allowing you to write clear, good-looking captions for each photo.

Yes, Facebook can now do many of the things Google+ introduced. Some Google+ features have been in Facebook all along. But its layout, ease of use, intuitive flow, and elegance far exceeds that of Facebook, Flickr, or anything else out there at the moment. Google+ was designed with all these features in mind so they would function together seamlessly and intuitively. As a total package they’ve raised the bar quite a bit and everyone else has a good amount of catching up to do.

You can check out my Google+ page by clicking here. I’ve just created a circle for my clients and anyone else who is interested in Charles Cotugno Photography which your more than welcome to be part of. To learn more about G+, which I highly recommend  you do,  just go to www.plus.google.com.(http://www.plus.google.com).

Charlie

 

Mini Sessions Are Here!

Don’t think your kids can make it through an entire portrait session? Do you know exactly what you need from your portrait session? Are you looking for a more economical option? I’m now offering “Mini Session,” just twenty minutes long and are only $75.00. (Plus WA State sales tax, of course!)  Email cc@cotugnophoto.com for more information.

Charlie

Your Help Is Needed…

As you may know I have an eleven year old son on the autism spectrum. We are extremely lucky that Jackson has benefited from early intervention and is doing remarkably well in all aspects of life. And we’re also very lucky that he has been accepted by his teachers, classmates, and the many therapists who have helped him get to the point where he is now. We weren’t always so optomistic about his progress as there were a number of times getting these services took a lot of fighting for what he needed and spending months on waiting lists. I’m sure any of you with a special needs child understands what I’m talking about.

In 2005 I started what I thought would be a small awareness project of photographing people on the autism spectrum and getting a short narrative about the experiences of their families. I figured the exhibit might include about ten subjects and hang in a few local venues with very little attention. Well, I’ve never been accused of being psychic!

Over four years later, I find myself as the president of the board of directors for Stories of Autism. This past September we were granted non-profit status and began implementing many of out plans. We boiled the essence of our mission to just three words; awareness, acceptance, and inclusion, the three steps we feel are most vital to serving the autism community. Of course, we share a reality with thousands of orgaizations and millions of individuals working towards improving their corner of the universe –  we need your help to fulfill our mission.

That said, today marks a very important day in the short history of Stories of Autism.  We are launching our first fundraising campaign to help us with our mission. Just starting out, we need funding for some of the most basic services and items; web hosting, heated storage to protect our portraits when they’re not on exhibit, and ways to protect them in transit. It’s great that the project has been in such demand for exhibition but now more than half of all the portraits and story plaques are out of commission and in need of repair. We would like to have these portraits and plaques reprinted on a more durable medium. We found a company that can print our portraits on aluminum and the look is absolutely stunning! Though printing on aluminum is a little more expensive than the canvas we’ve been using, the portraits will be almost indestructable and will almost eleminate the need for repairs in the future, eliminating the constant cost of reprinting and frame repairs. We also have an outreach program we need to launch and begin to include photographers from around the globe who also believe in our mission. But in order to even begin all this work we need your help.  

As a parent working devoting to raising autism awareness for not only his own child but for the millions of others on the autism spectrum, I’m asking yhou from my hneart to give what you can. Like most of you I am also affected by the current economic conditions and understand this is not an easy time to be asking for help. by giving what you can to help Stories of Autism’s mission. No donation is too small or too big and 100% of your donation will help fund the mission of Stories of Autism - awareness, acceptance, and inclusion.

Listed below and at www.storiesofautism.com are some of the ways you can give, including funding some of the items I mentioned above. You can even give your time by helping us find new exhibit venues and sponsors. However you choose help please know that I, my fellow board members, and everyone impacted by autism can’t possibly express the amount of our gratitude to you. You can’t imagine how much your actions can help!

I wish you all the best for the new year and you are welcome to contact me with any questions or concerns you may have.                                                                                                                Charlie cc@cotugnophoto.com                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          www.cotugnophoto.com

Please Note: Stories of Autism is currently in the process of obtaining tax exempt status as a non-profit corporation under the Internal Revenue Code 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Service. Once we receive approval we will notify you so that you will be able to receive a tax deductible contribution in the year of approval. 

Sponsor One of Our Much Needed Items or Services!

One Year of Website Hosting: Help us to keep everyone informed about what’s happening with Stories of Autism. Donation amount: $475.00.

Preserve One of Our Portraits! The portraits included in Stories of Autism take a lot of abuse in their travels and are frequently damaged. We’ve discovered a company that can print all our portraits on aluminum and the look is absolutely stunning. And the best part is that they’re almost impossible to scratch or damage! Donation Amount: $395.00/portrait.

Fund A Story Plaque: Our current story plaques simply aren’t durable enough to withstand transportation and exhibition. We’ve found a sturdier solution that will last for years and look a whole lot nicer! Donation Amount: $40.00/plaque.

 One Year of Heated Storage: When they’re not being exhibited, our portraits and equipment need a place to live! Donation Amount: $1,800.00

 To donate using your credit card using PayPal, please click here. If you’d prefer to donate by check you may do so by making your check payable to Stories of Autism and sending it to:

Stories of Autism                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                11310 NE 177^th Place, #237                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Woodinville, WA 98072

 For more information, please visit www.storiesofautism.com.

Quick Tip – Taking Pictures In The Snow

Have you ever taken a picture on the ski slopes or in the snoy mountains only to see the brilliant white look like a dull gray in your photographs? You can avoid that by setting your camera to overexpose your image by one f-stop. Sound weird to let even more light into your image with all that reflective snow? Well, your camera sets its exposure based on 18% gray. It looks for the predominant shade in the frame and establishes that as the point of 18% gray.That means the camera wants your snow to show up as a murky midtone So by overexposing by one stop your telling the camera to let more light in giving your snow scene the nice, crisp white your eyes are seeing.

If you can’t tell your camera to overexpose, try this. Hold the palm of your hand about a foot in front of your lens. Press the shutter button half way until the camera gets all its settings figured out. Then, with the shutter button still pressed half way, remove your hand from in front of the lens, compose your image, then depress the shutter button all the way to capture your image.

By the way, this applies to any subject that is very bright such as sand on a beach. You can also fix your exposure in Photoshop or just about any other editing software but, as always, it’s best to get it right in the camera!

I found a good tutorail if you want some in depth information on this subject. Visit http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/snow.htm.

That’s all for today, enjoy the leftovers!

November 26, 2009 Test

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