We'll be talking about taking better photos and video at this month's meeting (Tomorrow, Saturday 1/9/10 at 4pm)... and here's a very quick example of getting the photos out of your camera and onto the web easily, via a blog (like the WSRDistilled one here!) and the Flickr photo sharing site.

The whole point of our talk wasn't to start a 'photo club'... but for everyone to realize that each of us will be in situations this year that could provide amazing, powerful, photos. We will be documenting history, and by moving those photos off our your computer and onto the 'net at public sharing sites, and by taking better photos, you'll be impacting thousands of people, not just a few friends. You know for yourself the power of some of the images you have seen from 912Project events around the country and the DC912 March. Now it's your turn to add to that with your great photo moments.

Here are the photos I took as examples during my photo talk... these are NOT beautiful photos (Since I was doing the talk, I didn't want to drag my big camera to the meeting)... the point is how easily the photos were shared.



You saw me take the photos, they went straight up to Flickr wirelessly from the camera via the restaurant's WiFi Hot Spot.

I went to one of the photo adjusting sites I told you about (Picnik.com) and adjusted some simple things on the shots like making the color warmer, red eye fix on one shot (you're welcome Valerie!), and the like.... and then just grabbed the 'embed' code from Flickr's slide show and there it is all done... about 15 minutes of my time... and all pretty much free.


Here's what I said about what we can do to better use the photos and video we take... If I get a sec, I'll record the presentation and put it up on YouTube as well.

Facebook.com:
• Connecting with friends
• Meeting like-minded folks
• Advocate Groups like 10th Am Ctr.
• Letting friends see what you believe in
• Showing that ‘We Surround Them’... there are more of us 'normal folks, conservatives' than anyone guesses

Twitter.com:
• Instant News (Twitter was *the only* source of info during Glenn Beck's talk at 'The Villiages'
• Short is very sweet
• Broadcast to everyone
• Receive from your chosen sources

Flickr.com:
• Photo Sharing
• Little for free, inexpensive for unlimited (you have to pay some for unlimited photos monthly)
• Getting Photos OUT is great... so use the photos you put on Flickr very easily in a slide show on a Blog...Like you are seeing right here!

YouTube.com:
• Universal... Everyone looks there (works on all computers and the iPhone)
• Multiple ways to upload (from their web site, from programs on your computer)
• Quality isn’t the best, but improving... use the HQ button when viewing videos that have it
• Sharing, embedding very easy (you can copy the 'embed' code and past it into many web sites, like this one!)


More geeky extra stuff:

Slide Show Creation:

Slide.com

Animoto.com

One True Media

Better Quality than YouTube:
Vimeo.com

Live events:
Stickam.com (we have an account and can actually stream live video events to the 'net)

A few last thoughts:

Editing:
Photoshop Elements $50 ad all you'll ever need... iPhoto comes free on every Mac and is great

Picasa (Google)

Picnik.com

Start with good material
a $40 camera better than a phone cam usually... use Ron's tips to take better photos to start with

Look at good photos, videos, web sites

National class stuff can be seen  HERE on Flickr and always changing

You can even search for terms like 912Project on Flickr and see what other groups are posting... like  HERE as a slideshow






Another example with nicer photos:
Photos from our Global Warming Education Event... which included the movie premier of the documentary 'Not Evil, Just Wrong' and a talk by Meteorologist (and Global Warming sceptic) Kevin Williams.