Happy Friday everyone! I can hardly believe another week is at an end!

This week’s photographic topic was Black and White and the Flickr Group received a whopping 145 submissions this week! It’s by far the most submissions yet and I cannot explain how painstaking it was to select just 18 photos to highlight. Starting this week, I’m also including a short blurb next to each shot explaining something I like about it, how it makes me feel or why I chose it. I hope you enjoy the Black & White Gallery, but please do scroll down to the end of this post and enjoy as many of the submissions as possible. They are all unique and breathtaking.

Of Photographic Interest

• Awarded – Over at The Onion, Melanie awards The Versatile Blogger, makes some thought provoking insights and highlights various artists. Putting me and my site aside, there are some amazing links and artists in this post, plus it’s a good introduction to Melanie’s site if you’re unfamiliar. (I have known her online for many years and she’s a regular contributor to Friday Finds!)
• Happiness – A mostly photographic entry on happiness. It’s a feel good kind of thing.
• A Guaranteed Method for Improving Your Photography – A three part series, this last installment written by Tasra Dawson of Tasra Mar focuses on how Project 365 can improve your skill as a photographer. I fully agree with this, going through the experience myself.
• Wordless Wednesday: Wheels and Blossoms – A quick, calming shot. Go check it out.

Photography as a Parent

Recently, there’s some great discussion around the blogosphere about whether or not it’s wise to publish photographs of children online, especially when any real details accompany them. This is an issue I’ve obviously given a lot of thought to since I do share photographs of my kids and immediate family along with their real names.

I guess I don’t see what the big deal is in sharing that information. I’ve been interacting with people on the internet since 1996 and maybe I’m just super lucky, but I’ve never had a scary or invasive experience. I’ve met some of my closest friends, including my husband, online. I believe people are generally good, especially the type of people who find my blog. Sure, if I ever felt even remotely threatened, I’d tighten things down considerably. I don’t assume anything bad is going to happen from what I publish online. Could I be an optimist?

• Click! – Zoey at Good Goog contemplates when her child is going to start drawing the line and opting out of being on the blog. Elias has told me not to take a picture of him at times and I won’t (or if I do, I won’t publish it publicly). Elias has seen my blog and recognized himself on it before. I know he doesn’t have a full understanding of what that means, but I’ll respect if/when he or Noah want to opt out. Of course, that leaves the question of is it my right to opt-in for them without their consent? It’s a deep, philosophical question. Legally, there’s no doubt. I respect those who may disagree with me, but I absolutely feel it’s my right to do with my children’s photograph’s what I’d like. There are some barriers I won’t cross even for private collections (like potty training shots). I don’t think my kids are going to hate me for sharing what I have though.
• Do you think it’s alright to share your kids’ photos online? A discussion in CrayonWrangler’s Blog Frog Community. A great read and discussion on the topic with both sides well represented.
• Photography from a Mom’s Point of View – Maureen of Tatter Scoops explores photography from her childhood and what drives her photography as a parent wanting to create lasting memories for her family.

Other Cool and Interesting Links!

• Open Face Omelet – I really love this site, Cooking with my Kid. It has tons of great photographs. This omelet looks delicious, cute and healthy. How many foods can you say that about?
• Comment Vomit: How Not to Leave Comments – Any blogger or commenter on blogs should read this article and understand it.
• Advanced Web Metrics – I recently purchased this book and have been reading through it. I’m eager to learn more about how Google Analytics works!
• Thursday 13, Bloggy Boot Camp Style! – I’m going to Bloggy Boot Camp in Austin at the end of October and this contains some excellent tips and reminders to prepare for the trip! Valuable advice for any conference you’re attending.

More Gorgeous Monochrome Goodness

As mentioned, there were 145 submissions this week! Every single one of them is amazing and deserves to be viewed. It’ll only take 3 minutes to click through the full collection starting with the first thumbnail. I highly doubt you’ll regret it!

Next Week’s Theme Is… Bokeh!

Bokeh is always a favorite. People just love looking at it and photographing it! I’d love it if you’d enter up to five submissions to the Flickr Group Pool by next Friday morning. Tag your submissions with dwcff-bokeh so your thumbnail will show on my site. You can see current submissions and read through the qualification guidelines on the Friday Finds page.

Link Up

If you’d like to help promote the challenge, feel free to grab my button and link to this page!

This button was made by Christy of Skinned Knees. The photograph used is New “Camera”!, used under the Attribution 2.0 Generic license. By the way, please go check out that photographer’s site, One Failed Experiment.

Share YOUR favorite reads this week and link up to Friday Favorites at Life Without Pink!

Daily Window {Photography. Photo Editing. Inspiration.} is a photo journal on digitalwoe.com maintained by Lynda Giddens. (That's me!) I'm 31 living in Fort Worth, Texas with my husband, two young sons, mother, two dogs and a cat! I'm participating in Project 365 to learn more about photography and to keep a visual record of our life for my children.

You can also find me on Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.

I have amazing giveaway luck. I’ve been entering them for about a year and have won no less than 10. Really, I’ve lost count. Just in the last few weeks, I’ve won three giveaways! I can hardly believe it. It seems like everything I enter lately, I win!

I Won… A Pet Bed!

Several weeks ago, I won a large rouge & blush Kakadu Pet Adventure Mat over at A Wrestling Addicted Mommy. It’s just as cute as it looks and pretty amazing. It’s durable, washable and comfortable. The Westie, Maltese, cat and 15 month old all highly enjoy its addition to our living room. I know it’s an OUTDOOR mat, but because it’s so easy to wash, it makes for a great indoor pet bed.

The large is $50. It’s a bit much for our smallish animals, so if I were to get one, I’d buy the small at $35. For the quality and durability, I think it’s worth the price. Ask me again in a year. We’ll see how much wear and tear it goes through.

I Won… Textures!

Toward the end of August, I was notified I won the Love that Shot Olde World Textures Giveaway! I was especially excited about this. I LOVE all the freebie textures peppered throughout the site and knew I’d love this product. Love that Shot members also receive 50% off all textures or photo veils!

Mouseover to see SOOC shot.

I desaturated the SOOC a bit using adjustment layers, then applied Love That Shot’s Textures:
Verona – Screen – 33%; used 40% soft brush & layer mask to remove the effect from the acme writing and some of the lines.
Bordeaux – Soft Light – 69%

A lot of these textures are very artistic, with beautiful leaves and patterns going down one side or framing the shot. Here’s my attempt at using some:

Mouseover to see SOOC shot.

Monteverdi – 70% – Overlay
Riviera – 45% – Overlay

I’m a month behind on my photo editing, so I’m sure I’ll find some opportunities to practice more with these textures. They’re high quality and absolutely worth the price, especially so if you become a member.

I Won… A Photographic Workshop!

Most recently I won Kelly Willette’s Find YOUR Joy mini e-journey at I Heart Faces. (That’s my second giveaway win through them!) It’s a 3 week course about self-exploration with the camera. I’m especially excited about this since the focus is not going to be on technique as much as photographing myself and the things in my life. I feel terribly uninspired lately and a little burned out, which makes excitement about photography difficult. This class starts in a week and will surely motivate me!

How Do You Win So Many Giveaways?

Is it luck? I’m not sure. If it isn’t, I’ve decided to share my “secrets” with you. These are rules and guidelines I adhere to for nearly every giveaway I enter. I win often enough that I feel utilizing these tips make a difference.

1. Enter every way possible.
   Usually, you must comment on the post to enter and can submit additional entries by following through social media avenues, tweeting the giveaway, blogging about the giveaway or subscribing to the newsletter or RSS. Some blogs get creative with how entries must be submitted, but it’s usually the same and usually doesn’t take more than 5 minutes total (with the exception of the blog post.) If you have a weekly link round-up, it’s easy to collect giveaway links to write about it. I personally find blog posts that are nothing more than, “Hey, I entered this giveaway!” to be annoying.
2. Want the product.
   Would you buy this product or service if you had the extra cash to burn? Do you know what you’ll do with the product if you win it? I made the mistake early on of entering almost every giveaway that came my way. As a result, I got some stuff that I wasn’t sure what to do with and took up space in my cabinets or closets. That’s not really fair to the people who do truly want the product they’re trying to win.
3. Be happy to support the blogger.
   I have a problem with blogs that are nothing but giveaways. If I go to a blog and there’s more than one giveaway on the front page posts (not just a giveaway links section) I am not very likely to enter that giveaway. They’re probably not offering something I want anyway – some cheap little trinket designed just to lure in customers. Blogs like that aren’t ones I want to support as the blogger doesn’t care about content or their reputation and just wants to make easy money. I’m not comfortable tweeting out to the world or worse, linking on Facebook, to drivel such as that.
4. Be happy to support the sponsor.
   Is this company someone you’d be happy to recommend to your family and friends? You’re likely going to if you follow rule #1. Take a moment and research the company if you’ve never heard of them. Do they sound cool or sketchy? I personally like supporting small companies, working moms or talented individuals. (Also, the smaller the company, usually the more awesome the giveaway.)

Okay! I’m Ready to Enter Giveaways!

Here are the recent giveaways I’ve entered or others I’ve noticed going on right now:

• Love That Shot’s Leather Revolution Giveaway – An amazing hand-made cute floral cuff bracelet. Just go click over there and look at the pictures. Seriously, it’s the cutest thing ever. If I won it, I’d be tempted to frame it.
• I Heart Faces Moirai Compositor Giveaway – Looks like a simple, fun way to storyboard your photos!

Giveaway Suggestions by Zemanta
(I’m trying out this service. Whenever you see Zemanta recommendations, I’ve reviewed the article – it’s just like any other link I recommend.)

• Taking The Next Step with Your Photography (betterinbulk.net)
• Giveaway: Win a Pillsbury My Sweet Sunday Gift Pack (momblognetwork.com)
• Engadget’s back to school giveaway, part one: win $1,500 worth of gear! (engadget.com)
• Giveaway Time! Win a La Mer Bali Stud Wrap Watch From Their New Collection (secondcitystyle.typepad.com)

Are You Hosting a Giveaway?

Please link up!

Question Time!

Have you tried entering giveaways before? What’s your success with them? Do you feel giveaways help or hurt bloggers overall?

Daily Window {Photography. Photo Editing. Inspiration.} is a photo journal on digitalwoe.com maintained by Lynda Giddens. (That's me!) I'm 31 living in Fort Worth, Texas with my husband, two young sons, mother, two dogs and a cat! I'm participating in Project 365 to learn more about photography and to keep a visual record of our life for my children.

You can also find me on Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.

Happy Friday everyone! This week’s photographic theme was Boats, suggested by Flickr member, …-Wink-…. Please enjoy the photographs selected to highlight these submissions throughout this entry. There are 18 highlighted images in all, found in my Friday Finds: Boats Gallery. All submissions to the Flickr group for this theme can be viewed under the tag dwcff-boats and you can also look through all 67 at the bottom of this post.

Normally Friday Finds would contain my favorite photography and photo editing links found throughout the week, but now that the photographic challenge is gaining more and more exceptional participants, I’d like to take a moment and explain fully what I’m doing with the challenge, why I started it and the process I go through each week to round up a collection of themed shots submitted by photographers all over the world.

If you’re a blogger who’d like to incorporate more images in your blog or you’re searching for another stock photography solution, I think you’ll be interested in my process so I published a separate article for you: Find Photos for your Blog in 6 Easy Steps. All of the photos selected for Friday Finds are licensed to allow me to display them on my blog, with credit to the photographer. This means you’d be free to use the same images on your blog as long as you credit.

How it Started

On Friday, May 21, I published, This Week in Surfing. My goal was to share the articles I enjoyed most throughout the week, to give other blogs some recognition and traffic.

After two weeks, I decided I wanted to try gathering a collection by searching Creative Commons licensed photographs on Flickr. My first theme was Cemeteries simply because that was the theme at the Digital Photography School forums that week and I knew I’d never get out to a cemetery to get the shot. I figured studying others’ cemetery shots was the next best thing.

I continued putting together weekly galleries after that. I really enjoy the process of being a photo editor in that sense. I knew with that first collection I’d want to open submissions to highlight a larger number of photographs since Flickr Galleries can only hold 18.

I toyed with the idea of doing a Linky and allowing others to submit their photographs directly on my site, but I still wanted to be able to highlight these photos via a Flickr gallery, which would require the photographs to be uploaded to Flickr. Then it hit me that the challenge should live and breathe ON Flickr. My weekly entry is not the focus of Friday Finds, all the photographs submitted through the Flickr group during the week are.

I don’t limit the submissions to people who know about my blog. Every week I search Flickr for photographs matching the theme and I invite them to the Friday Finds group. I change the group’s title each week to reflect the current challenge. I’m finding a lot of great contacts through the challenge and I cannot believe the talent of those participating every week!

Picking Photographs for the Galleries

On Friday morning, I open the group pool and look through all the submissions in it. I tend to open several each in their own tab and look through them one at a time. If I see a shot that speaks to me, I add it to the gallery. I make sure I look through all submissions before making any final decisions.

While I do look for technically awesome photos, I also look for a lot more. A story that’s told, something quirky and personal. For each of my Friday Finds galleries, I hope to put together an interesting collection of photographs while still trying to draw attention to all the submissions.

By inviting photos to the Flickr group, there are always plenty of absolutely amazing photography to select from. It makes the process of limiting the submissions to 18 in a gallery especially difficult.

Life at Sea…

For more fabulous boat themed shots, start with the Boat Gallery on Flickr to see all the photos I selected to highlight. Below you’ll see all of this week’s submissions. Click on an image and you should be able to navigate through all 67 entries!

The Next Theme Is: Black & White!

Please enter up to five submissions to the Flickr pool by next Friday morning and tag the photograph with dwcff-bw if you’d like the thumbnail to display on this site. You can see current submissions and read through the qualification guidelines on the Friday Finds page

Link Up

If you’d like to help promote the challenge, feel free to grab my button and link to this page!

This button was made by Christy of Skinned Knees. The photograph used is New “Camera”!, used under the Attribution 2.0 Generic license. By the way, please go check out that photographer’s site, One Failed Experiment.

Share YOUR favorite reads this week and link up to Friday Favorites at Life Without Pink!

Daily Window {Photography. Photo Editing. Inspiration.} is a photo journal on digitalwoe.com maintained by Lynda Giddens. (That's me!) I'm 31 living in Fort Worth, Texas with my husband, two young sons, mother, two dogs and a cat! I'm participating in Project 365 to learn more about photography and to keep a visual record of our life for my children.

You can also find me on Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.

A point of visual interest adds a lot to a blog post. Your words are powerful on their own, but couple them with relevant images and it will be more likely to grab readers and prompt them to share it via their own social networks. If you’re not sure where to start to find images to use on your blog, Flickr is an awesome solution. There are thousands of photographs licensed for creative use by others which means you can use them in your blog posts, usually just as long as you attribute the artist.

In six really easy steps, I can assist you in finding high quality, relevant photos for your blog using Flickr and Creative Commons licensing.

Photo credit: 18 seconds before sunrise .●

Step 1: Sign up for a Free Flickr Account

An account on Flickr is completely free and having one will make it a lot easier to find great photographs and build a contact list of photographers to search through first. Go ahead and set one up now, or log into Flickr and then you can follow along with this example to see for yourself how easy this process is.

Step 2: Pick a Subject to Search

As an example, let’s say you’re having steamed crab for dinner and have a great story to tell about it. A photograph would really help to bring the scene to life and give your readers something to connect to visually. Maybe you’re not a photographer or you don’t share personal photographs on your site or maybe you just didn’t get a chance to take a picture of the crabs before they were inhaled. Whatever your reason, if you don’t have an image for your blog’s article, it’s highly recommended that you find one somewhere and add it.

Step 3: Search for the Subject on Flickr

At the top right of every page on Flickr, there’s a search bar. To start your search, just enter “steamed crabs” into the search box, then click the drop-down arrow and select to search from “Everyone’s Uploads”.

As you can see, the drop-down contains a lot of options. If you want to feature your contacts or friends before just any Joe Blow on Flickr, it’s really easy to do that. For my Friday Finds, for example, I search through my contacts first to invite their photographs to join the group before I search through all photos on Flickr.

Searching “Everyone’s Uploads” for “steamed crabs” is not quite refined enough yet. The results are relevant, however they are not necessarily licensed for use with attribution. To filter the results, just click on “Advanced Search” under the bar at the top of the page.

When the advanced search page comes up, scroll all the way to the bottom and look for the Creative Commons logo and search options.

Step 4: Choose a Creative Commons License

Creative Commons is a way for you to mark your work to be shared in a number of different ways, or as all rights reserved. This clearly indicates to others whether or not they’re free to share, distribute, alter or remix your work or whether they’re free to do none of these things.

It should be noted that Creative Commons is not a legal document and I’m not sure whether or not it would stand up in court. The individuals selecting and displaying a specific license are indicating through good faith alone that you are allowed to use their work. This may deter you from using this method, but I’ll risk it that people understand what they’re indicating. The default license set on Flickr is All Rights Reserved, so anyone who has an Attribution license must have set it as such.

There are four conditions of the license:

1. Attribution: Can others copy, share, distribute or perform your work with proper credit?
2. Share Alike: Can others share derivative works under the same license?
3. Non-Commercial: Is it cool to use or alter your work for non-commercial purposes?
4. No Derivative Works: Is it okay to use your work as long as no alterations are made to it and proper credit is given?

If you’re interested in licensing your work and need some help choosing the license, check out the License Your Work survey to find one tailored to your desires.

For your search of steamed crabs, you want to select the option to only search Creative Commons licensed content. To be safe, since I have ads and affiliate links on my site, I also select find content to use commercially. If you want to do more than just display that photo on your site – if you want to alter it or remix it in any way, you’ll want to select find content to adapt, modify or build upon.

Step 5: Sort to Find Interesting Shots First

At the top of the search results page, you will see confirmation of the search criteria selected and you can sort the results by Relevance, Recent or Interesting. For a photograph to rate high “interestingness”, it takes a special formula of views, comments, favorites, tags, groups, sets and galleries. There are plenty of theories out there on how it works, but I don’t think anyone but Flickr is really sure.

This step is certainly optional. I’ve found with some broader searches, the most exceptional photos have a high interestingness. That’s not always the case though, so you might want to look through all the sorts.

Step 6: Grab the HTML

Most Flickr users have their preferences set up to share their photos with other Flickr members. This means that a button on top of the photo called “Share This” will be available. When you click on it, there will be a number of options to allow you to share the photo with others. To put the photo on your blog, you want to select the “Get the HTML/BBCode” section. From there, you can select the resolution you’d like and the HTML code will appear for you to copy and paste into your own entry. I also add a note under the photo linking to the photostream of the owner.

If the artist does not have “Share This” available, it will be grayed out. You could contact them, explain your intent to use the photograph and see if they’ll make it available to share. Flickr doesn’t charge more for using their bandwidth in this manner, so the artist has little to lose, especially if they’ve already licensed their photos. You could also download the photo under the Actions > View all sizes menu, then upload to your own server. I find that to be too much work though. I’m a lazy blogger.

What Do You Think?

Flickr has a plethora of photographs at your fingertips to easily insert in your blog posts. Are you using Flickr or another site to find photographs and images for your blog? (Flickr does have illustrations and screenshots as well. They are marked as such and can be searched for in the Advanced Search preferences.) If you’re a photographer, do you license your images to be used by others under any Attribution license?

Daily Window {Photography. Photo Editing. Inspiration.} is a photo journal on digitalwoe.com maintained by Lynda Giddens. (That's me!) I'm 31 living in Fort Worth, Texas with my husband, two young sons, mother, two dogs and a cat! I'm participating in Project 365 to learn more about photography and to keep a visual record of our life for my children.

You can also find me on Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.

This week, bloggers all over America were rocked when the Philadelphia Citypaper, among other news outlets, published an article indicating the city required all bloggers with any ad or affiliate links on their site to pay a fee of $300 for a “business privilege license”. There are two clear camps: those who are outraged at being taxed when they don’t even make enough money off the affiliate links and ads to pay for the cost of their hobby and those who agree that if you want to open up an avenue to be paid for your blog, you ARE a business and should be taxed as one.

Is the Government Double Dipping?

For my hobby of blogging, I pay hosting fees at $120 yearly and yearly domain fees of $10. I also paid for my logo, the core design and two books on blogging: 31 Days to Build a Better Blog and the Copywriter’s Scorecard. All of this is paid out of my pocket from the piddly amount of money the government lets me keep from what I earn.

To get paid for ads and affiliate programs, I must provide my social security number and guess what? I need to report that money earned in my yearly income taxes. While I might qualify for a tax deduction (I’ve never looked into it), the cost to maintain my blog is still responsibility to pay and likely in the first few years of blogging, I’m not going to make enough money to even cover that cost.

The government takes nearly 40% of our total household income through their various programs (social security, medicare, income taxes). Almost half of the money I make goes to the government. That’s tens of thousands of dollars and in most cases, it’s ridiculous or impossible for me to be able to figure out what that money is going toward.

Being an American comes at a very high cost and what is our benefit from this? Why exactly are we so accepting of new taxes? Most localities already have rules regarding starting a home based business, what qualifies, what licenses are needed for a DBA or incorporation… Now a “business privilege tax” is added on top of this?

Doesn’t the Government Deserve to Control Content?

Isn’t that a really stupid question when phrased that way?

Today Outspoken Media claimed the tax is a good thing and will ensure only serious bloggers are allowed to have blogs. What? Freedom of speech is only allowed of the articulate? Or super organized? An editorial calendar may be magnificent for some and for others, especially those who are more artistic than business savvy, they rely on spontaneity to drive their blog. Who the eff are you to tell someone HOW to publish or that they are not allowed to self-publish unless they’re super “serious”.

The article itself and the comments are an excellent read. I think that argument is baseless and not very Constitutional. Is the internet a privilege? Or are we a different type of society which is generally self-sufficient? The government is scared senseless of the internet and it drives that fear into its citizens. Exactly what right does the government have in restricting the content that’s publicly available? How is forcing blogs off the web through ridiculous taxes benefiting Americans? How different is this from book burning and censorship?

Is a business privilege tax needed if you self-publish through Lulu.com and let friends and family order it with a small profit going back to you? Do kids mowing lawns and selling lemonade over the weekend need to get a permit to accept payment?

Our Duty as Americans

I don’t care what Bush tried to drill in our heads after 9/11, the government is supposed to be scrutinized. We are to hold our representatives accountable. We need to educate ourselves and participate in local government elections if we want to make any difference at all. And we must be vocal. The Constitution in its wisdom allowed citizens freedom of speech. When does freedom of speech go too far? If you’re yelling, “Fire!” in a crowded theater when there is none. (How similar is this, by the way, to trolling in blogs and forums?)

This basic freedom granted us as citizens of the United States did not come with limitations other than this.

We’ve allowed huge corporations to take over instead of supporting local, small and family based businesses. We’d have the money to pay a little extra for quality, customer service, love and to boost local economy, but the government takes almost half of what we make. Go watch, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price to see some of the things the government lets a huge corporation get away with.

I’m horrified anyone supports a $300 “business privilege tax” from the government. Does anyone supporting this have any clue what the money from this tax will be used for? Yet you don’t think twice about paying the fee… why?

Update: 8/27

The Wire released the article, 5 Myths About Philadelphia’s Blogging Tax. So basically, it applies to any business or individuals filing 1099s. (Freelancers or others working for themselves.) The article itself is a bit strange. It seems to stop abruptly with no conclusion and no clear point being made. The author makes it sound like there’s some secret society of these $300 lifetime licensed business owners and only they know what the laws are or how to get around them. This is the very last sentence:

“They stick together. They have to. They’re the only ones who know. Nobody else knows anything.” (Read More)

It seems like the author’s trying to draw a conclusion, but isn’t actually putting it into words.

Apparently some larger publishers are given a First Amendment exemption – they don’t need to pay the same fees asked of bloggers running “business” on their website in the form of ads and affiliate links. The city gets to interpret how to read its laws and if you’re an individual the city decides to make an example of, woe is you. Tax evasion is so super serious in this country that you can be jailed for it. Does that make sense to anyone else? How are people refusing to pay taxes a threat to their community? If they’re purchasing things through local businesses, they’re already giving back to their community at least somewhat. Are these people horrible enough to be treated like murderers and rapists?

My position remains after reading The Wired’s article. Our government is broken and we need to work together to fix it. If it isn’t already too out of control TO be fixed. This economy is EFFED up and the government is actually discouraging people from making money for themselves to pump back into the local economy. Meanwhile, larger corporations are getting political favors and get tax deductions which are unreal and clear favoritism.

It makes me sick. This isn’t progress, it’s censorship.

Daily Window {Photography. Photo Editing. Inspiration.} is a photo journal on digitalwoe.com maintained by Lynda Giddens. (That's me!) I'm 31 living in Fort Worth, Texas with my husband, two young sons, mother, two dogs and a cat! I'm participating in Project 365 to learn more about photography and to keep a visual record of our life for my children.

You can also find me on Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.

Happy Friday everyone! It’s that time of week again where I share my favorite photography and photo editing links found throughout the week! I have some really great links to share with you too, so please be sure to visit and comment on these articles!

This week’s photographic theme was Food and the Flickr group received more submissions than ever before with 76 photographs! I am so thankful for those of you who come back week after week with your submissions! It’s making my job of putting together an 18 photograph gallery especially difficult!

If you have any suggestions for a future theme, please add it to the Upcoming Themes Flickr discussion thread or just reply to this entry.

Photography

• Histograms: The Key to Better Exposure – There are a few things I constantly forget when I’m shooting and reading the histogram is one of them! I need to sit down and play with how different exposures look in the histogram so I can make use of this tool. If you’re not sure how to read the histogram from your digital camera, read the manual! (I’d suggest looking in the index in the back under “histogram”.)
• When to Move to Manual – If you’re a photographer and a knitter, this is a must read article. Kristal blew me away with this analogy, gently explaining why one should feel no need to shoot everything in manual before learning other basic photographic techniques.
• Exposure Triangle: Not Just About More/Less Light – There are possibly hundreds of articles in magazines or blogs and chapters in books on what Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO mean and most of them tell you what happens in terms of light only. This article goes deeper and shows what else is going on.
• 13 Places to Practice Taking Beautiful Motion Blur Images – I’ve only taken one good halfway decent motion blur shot as a passenger in a car. That shot was taken before I knew a lick about photography and I’ve never been able to recreate it! This article makes me want to go hang out on escalators at night though; I have to try some of these shots soon!
• The Arrow of Time – A family tradition for over 30 years, professional photographer Diego Goldberg requires a full face portrait of his immediate family regardless of what they’re doing every year on June 17. I absolutely LOVE this idea and think I might steal it. I only wish I’d started it before Mark and I had kids! What a precious gift Diego is passing along!
• Tag My Images – Flickr Group – If you’re anything like me, you have a hard time tagging your photos on Flickr, however tags are an excellent way to let people find your work. (It’s how I find most of the submissions for Friday Finds!) You can add up to 50 images a month to this group and the only requirement is to go through the pool and add a few tags for each image you submit. There are many languages represented and your submitted images are sure to get a few tags added to boost its exposure.
• 50 Stunning Examples of the Droste Effect – Everyone’s seen a picture or image with this effect, even if you’re not familiar with the term. “An image exhibiting the Droste effect depicts a smaller version of the image within itself in a recursive manner.” These are some mind-blowing images. I doubt I’ll ever be able to create anything as cool.

Some Foodie Links

In honor of the theme!

• Tastespotting – This site is a visual potluck. You’re presented with delicious looking images and can click through the links for the recipes and more information. Taste first with your eyes!
• Cooking with My Kid is a really neat website with wonderful photographs and easy to follow recipes where the kids can take some control in the kitchen! Try out her Crustless Quiche in a Cup!
• 8 No-Bake Summer Cakes – Who loves cake? Everyone! Who likes turning on the oven when it’s 105 degrees outside? Anyone? I didn’t think so. Have no fear, summer cakes are here!
• Coraline Button Cookies – These are the cutest little cookies and look pretty easy to make!

Other Cool Stuff Around the Web

StumbleUpon is one of my new favorite web tools. Every article mentioned in Friday Finds is stumbled by me. This helps out the blog’s traffic and also allows me to bookmark the site for review each Friday.

• How to Make the Most of StumbleUpon – StumbleUpon is about a lot more than just stumbling articles. People usually ignore a lot of the awesome aspects of the tool and Carrie breaks down how she uses the site and toolbar in this enlightening article!
• The Secret to Massive Digg/StumbleUpon Traffic Without Spamming – Liz shares an additional brilliant, yet often overlooked tip to get more traffic out of StumbleUpon!
• One Sentence – Can you create a descriptive, enticing story with just one sentence? These contributors do!
• Imperial History of the Middle East – a 90 second tour through who historically controlled the Middle East. I love history, so this was a fun minute and a half!

Hungry Yet?

The photographs featured in this entry aren’t even the tip of the iceburg! Start with the Food Gallery on Flickr to see all the photos I selected to highlight. Below you’ll see all of this week’s submissions. Click on an image and you should be able to navigate through all 76 entries!

The Next Theme Is: Boats!

Thanks so much to …-Wink-… on Flickr for this week’s theme suggestion!

Please enter your submissions to the Flickr pool by next Friday morning and tag the photograph with dwcff-boats if you’d like the thumbnail to display on this site. You can see current submissions and read through the qualification guidelines on the Friday Finds page

Link Up

If you’d like to help promote the challenge, feel free to grab my button and link to this page!

This button was made by Christy of Skinned Knees. The photograph used is New “Camera”!, used under the Attribution 2.0 Generic license. By the way, please go check out that photographer’s site, One Failed Experiment.

Share YOUR favorite reads this week and link up to Friday Favorites at Life Without Pink!

Daily Window {Photography. Photo Editing. Inspiration.} is a photo journal on digitalwoe.com maintained by Lynda Giddens. (That's me!) I'm 31 living in Fort Worth, Texas with my husband, two young sons, mother, two dogs and a cat! I'm participating in Project 365 to learn more about photography and to keep a visual record of our life for my children.

You can also find me on Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.

Due to the SITS/Blogfrog 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge, I am weeks behind in my photo editing. The photographs used in today’s example are from July 31 and I just today edited them! I haven’t been the best Project 365 example either, as I almost always skip at least one day a week. Hopefully now that the challenge is “over” (is self-improvement ever truly over?) I’ll get back on track.

I’m excited to participate in this week’s Before + After Blog Hop hosted by Pixel Perfect.

As I mentioned, I totally ditched the Love That Shot Blossom Workshop, but it is 100% because I was overwhelmed. I completed the first week’s assignments. The materials are AWESOME. Michelle goes over not only excellent photography techniques and exercises, but also covers the photo-editing aspect in Photoshop and Elements. The course is completely awesome and it’s totally worth the price. All workshops are free to members, and that’s totally worth the price, also!

Non-Destructively Edit Your Photos

One thing Michelle taught me to use effectively in the workshop is fill/adjustment layers and I’m in love with them! They are a way to work on your photograph non-destructively. This is so important because you can go back and tweak just a single aspect without having to undo or go back to the beginning.

For most of my “clean” edits, I adjust a few things: levels, curves, color balance and hue/saturation. All of these can be accessed through the Image > Adjustments menu or through keyboard shortcuts and up until recently, that’s what I’ve been doing. I feel kind of silly for doing it this way for so long when you can also use adjustment layers to accomplish these individually.

Down in your layers palette, there is a half black/white circle icon: . That’ll give you most of the same options as the Image > Adjustments menu.

This is my SOOC. I’m sure I took it for the Blossom workshop, but can no longer remember what my goal was.

I feel something’s off with the white balance or exposure. I’m not really sure, but too many details are lost in the red of the flowers and the leaves look more on the blue side than yellow. While I adjust the levels just a bit (slider on each side just a bit in both directions, depending on the histogram) that edit doesn’t make much of a difference.

Color Balance

Using the icon at the bottom of the layer palette, I select color balance.

Really, I know there’s a science to this, but I don’t know what I’m doing, so I play it by eye. By selecting each option under Tone Balance, I adjust the sliders either way until the image looks “right” to me.

Hue/Saturation

Already, I feel this is much better! Next up, I choose Hue/Saturation from the fill/adjustment layer icon.

Again, I fiddle with the sliders until things look right to me. I repeat the process by selecting Reds, Yellows and Greens through the Edit drop-down menu. Through fiddling around, I realized reducing the saturation by 10 in the red channel allowed some of the details in the tiny flowers to show through. Frequently my flower shots seem oversaturated SOOC, so this is a good trick for me to remember.

Finishing Touches

By now, there’s a world of difference between the SOOC and the edit. I’m happy with the colors and exposure, but the whole thing seems too busy and it’s hard to miss the small bunch of flowers that are in focus. So I go for a crop and finish the whole thing by using Pioneer Woman’s Quick Edge Burn at 40% opacity.

What do you think? I opted for simplicity with this edit, which is not really like me. Believe me, it was hard not to apply a texture, but I’m trying to restrain myself.

Are you a believer in using non-destructive layers? What are some of your favorite applications of them?

Daily Window {Photography. Photo Editing. Inspiration.} is a photo journal on digitalwoe.com maintained by Lynda Giddens. (That's me!) I'm 31 living in Fort Worth, Texas with my husband, two young sons, mother, two dogs and a cat! I'm participating in Project 365 to learn more about photography and to keep a visual record of our life for my children.

You can also find me on Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.

Happy Friday everyone! Friday Finds is a collection of my favorite photography, photo editing and blogging links throughout the week. Every week there’s different theme and a gallery of images is presented in addition to the links!

I have to publicly thank my husband for his brilliant suggestion to have a Signs challenge for Friday Finds! I had so much fun this week; signs are just so interesting! Some are funny, some are haunting and even if the sign is the same, the execution of the photograph is going to be different. We had more participation in the Signs challenge than any other one so far at 65 entries! Every week I’m seeing more and more people submit their own great photos instead of me having to go out and search Flickr for photographs to invite. Thank you so much for the participation and I hope you’re having fun!

If you have any suggestions for a future theme, please add it to the Upcoming Themes Flickr discussion thread.

Photography and Editing Links

• He Took a Polaroid Every Day, Until the Day He Died – Wow, what an incredible story! A man started taking a Polaroid picture a day on March 31, 1979 (I was 2 weeks old!) until the very day he died, October 25, 1997. The last few months of photographs tell the tale of losing a battle to cancer. Just… wow. A must read if there ever was one.
• Photo Editing Tips: Color Basics – Vanita tells us the importance of setting up and selecting a color profile to make sure your photos look the same across all monitors and in print!
• Sun Burst Style Sun Flare: 10 Sure Fire Tips to Achieve It – These are some pretty simple tips. I can’t wait to get out on a clear day and try shooting sunbursts! The only thing is I don’t have a lens hood, but I guess I can go for hazy sunbursts until I do.
• 10 More Quick Composition Tips – To be completely honest, composition hardly ever enters my mind. I won’t say composition plays no part in my photography because I DO rearrange the shot or angle until I’m happy with how it looks, but very rarely am I as attentive to the composition as I am the shutter speed, ISO or aperture. Needless to say, I appreciate the variety of tips offered here!
• 10 Quick, Easy and Intuitive Tips to Improve Your Photography – If you need to infuse something different into your every day hum-drum shots, try any one of these suggestions!
• Love That Shot’s Hot Shot! Member Spotlight – I was highlighted on Love That Shot! How awesome is that? I feel so terrible because I cannot keep up with that Blossom Workshop I signed up for, though it is WONDERFUL and I’d love to take it again in the future. The sisters who put that site together are talented photographers and editors and also incredibly kind and generous. If you’re not part of the community, I highly recommend joining. Though some of their tutorials are pay (and totally worth it) the forum is free and full of talent!
• Sarah Beth Photography – Quite an amazing pet photographer in Minneapolis. Her blog highlights her work; I can only imagine her clients are all thrilled when they see the photographs she’s taken!
• Girl Quits Her Job in the Most Creative Way! Hilarious. I love these. This girl is gorgeous, too.

Other Cool Stuff Around the Web

• How to Create Guest Post Guidelines – This article covers everything I could possibly think of to put into your site’s guest post guidelines. I’ve been meaning to create some guidelines for submission and this article let me do it! That being said, if you’re interested in guest posting on this site, please see my Guest Posting Guidelines page for more information and to submit a pitch!
• The (Wicked) Popular Blogger – Oh, how I love the musical (and book) Wicked! I found this post from the fabulous Carrie Actually who shares my love of Wicked and went to BlogHer this year where Amy at The Bitchin’ Wives Club performed this live. This is the only thing I’ve heard so far to make me jealous of those who went to BlogHer!

Is that All?

No way! There are lots more fabulous sign shots to see! Start with the Sign Gallery on Flickr to see all the photos I selected to highlight. Also, if your browser is capable, you will be able to click on a thumbnail below and view a gallery of this week’s submissions. Please do; there are some awesome shots in here!

The Next Theme Is: Food!

I think this will be another fun week. Almost everyone loves food photography. I’m hungry right now, so this is the theme I came up with. If you have suggestions for next week, let me know!

Please enter your submissions to the Flickr pool by next Friday morning and tag the photograph with dwcff-food if you’d like the thumbnail to display on this site. You can see current submissions and read through the qualification guidelines on the Friday Finds page

Link Up

If you’d like to help promote the challenge, feel free to grab my button and link to this page!

This button was made by Christy of Skinned Knees. The photograph used is New “Camera”!, used under the Attribution 2.0 Generic license. By the way, please go check out that photographer’s site, One Failed Experiment.

Share YOUR favorite reads this week and link up to Friday Favorites at Life Without Pink!

Daily Window {Photography. Photo Editing. Inspiration.} is a photo journal on digitalwoe.com maintained by Lynda Giddens. (That's me!) I'm 31 living in Fort Worth, Texas with my husband, two young sons, mother, two dogs and a cat! I'm participating in Project 365 to learn more about photography and to keep a visual record of our life for my children.

You can also find me on Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.

A couple of weeks ago, Mark found a toad out by our hose in the back yard. We spent close to half an hour looking him over carefully and trying to identify him using various websites to no avail. His description and appearance very closely matched that of the Texas Toad, however they do not have a stripe down their back! I guess he’s a hybrid.

I could’ve sworn I got a picture of Elias looking at him, but I guess not. Needless to say, he thought the little toad was his and was rather enamored by him. He was a mellow little guy we appreciated having around for a visit.

These photos were taken July 25. That’s how far behind I am in editing and publishing photos!

Daily Window {Photography. Photo Editing. Inspiration.} is a photo journal on digitalwoe.com maintained by Lynda Giddens. (That's me!) I'm 31 living in Fort Worth, Texas with my husband, two young sons, mother, two dogs and a cat! I'm participating in Project 365 to learn more about photography and to keep a visual record of our life for my children.

You can also find me on Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.