ThirstyPhoto

Fun with Cooliris

Nick Newell — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 19:26:59 +0000

If you have not used the ‘slideshow’ option while browsing a contest in the gallery section of the site, be sure to check out its features. Built on top of Cooliris, it is a great way to interact with the many photo submissions in a contest. You can browse photos quickly, and its fun! Here is Cooliris in action for the Flowers Contest. Be sure to check it out in Full Screen mode, and the sharing options for Facebook and Twitter. You can even share the entire gallery of photos directly to your Facebook wall. Try it out!

Be sure to download the plug-in at http://www.cooliris.com/ for more slideshow features.

Prizes Announced for “Flowers” Contest – Camera Straps that Rock

Nick Newell — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 17:35:51 +0000

Finally the prizes are selected! The ‘Flowers’ Contest introduces a new Sponsor – Riley G Design Works. Riley G ‘s goal is to create quality camera straps that embody the creativity and style of the photographers who wear them. Check out the selection of designer straps at http://www.rileygdesignworks.com.

Riley G camera straps will be awarded to First and Second place in the Judge’s Selection , as well as First place in the Popular Vote. To view prizes for all places in the contest , head over to the Facebook App.

Be sure to participate in the contest by submitting photos as well as voting, and commenting on other submissions.

Good luck!

My one shot from the Holga TIM

Nick Newell — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 04:35:47 +0000

I got the Holga TIM a few weeks ago, and rattled off some shots so I could quickly get to the camera store and process my first roll of film. It’s usually hit or miss with me and shooting film – this time it felt more like a miss. When I got the pics back I only liked a single shot off the whole roll. Much of the shots were just taken just trying the play around with the controls on the camera body, or showing it off to friends.

Some coordination is needed when shooting in half-frame mTode. I lost my place in the sequence and would forget which ‘eye-ball’ I shot with last, or if I just shot in stereoscopic (using both eye’s at the same time). The result would be unintended double exposures or blank frames as I would advance the roll too soon.

Despite my lack of coordination – its a fun little camera. I think I like my Golden Half better at this point, but I’m only one roll into the Holga TIM.

This shot was taken from the pump house at Linda Mar in Pacifica, CA. You can notice the slight shift (parallax) in the two frames. Both shots were taken simultaneously. Supposedly, you could actually get an stereoscopic viewer on a print on the image and see it in 3D.

“Flowers” contest open for submissions

Nick Newell — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 00:40:37 +0000

The “Flowers” contest is now open for submissions. This is a subject-based contest focused on ‘Flowers” as the subject in the composition of the photo. Rules are simple – have a flower(s) in the photo! Quota for submissions per member is 3 photos for this contest.

Prizes?

Yes! There will be prizes for the top three photos in two categories : the Judges selection, and Popular Vote. Keep in mind you can only place once per contest!

This Contest introduces a new Sponsor – Riley G Design Works. Riley G ‘s goal is to create quality camera straps that embody the creativity and style of the photographers who wear them. Check out the selection of designer straps at http://www.rileygdesignworks.com. Riley G camera straps will be awarded to First and Second place in the Judge’s Selection , as well as First place in the Popular Vote. To view prizes for all places in the contest , head over to the Facebook App.

Good luck!

How do I submit a photo?

For more info on the contest, its prizes, how to submit, and schedule go to the Facebook App now. Be sure to check eligibility if you are new to the App here – http://apps.facebook.com/thirstyphoto/contests/rules/eligible.php. The Facebook App will redirect you back to the site when you are eligible to upload a photo.

Example of Contest listing in Facebook App

What do those Icons do?

The Facebook App has a number of icons you can click to access different parts of the application, a contest, and photos. By the way , the icon images below are not click-able. Be sure to enter the Facebook App (screen-shot shown above) to interact with these icons. The file icon can change depending on submission options.

This icon will check your eligibility for a contest.
Once your eligible, the icon will change to this image which will allow you to upload photos to the contest. When you click this icon for a contest, a pop up will report your remaining submission quota, and give you the link to upload.
Example of Eligibility Status in Facebook App
If you hit the quota, or the contest is closed to new submissions you will see this icon.

The ‘photo‘ icon will take you to the contest photos, where you can view, comment, share your photos or other photos on Facebook.
The ‘calendar‘ shows you the dates of each phase of the contest. You can also join the Facebook event associated with the contest.
The ‘prize‘ icon shows you all available prizes offered to the top placed photos.
The ‘info‘ icon will display contest information.

Final Results for Windows Contest

Nick Newell — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 05:45:34 +0000

The results are finally announced. Thanks for everyone’s patience. This was one of the more difficult contests as a lot of photos ranked up in the top range. Eventually, the top three photos emerged. We usually have only 10 Honorable Mentions, but since there were so many close scores form the judges – this contest lists 15 Honorable Mentions. Thanks for such great participation from everyone. The submissions are getting better and better every contest.

Listed below are the Judged Photos and the Popular Vote. Also be sure to see the contest page of all winners at Facebook here.

Top Placed Photos from the Judges Round

Congratulations to 1st place Patrick Eozenou, 2nd place Hamide Şebnem Köken, and 3rd place Dave Brenner! . Also listed are honorable mentions, picked from the top rated photos from the judges.

1st Place Photo By : Patrick Eozenou

2nd Place Photo : Hamide Şebnem Köken

3rd Place Photo : Dave Brenner

Honorable Mentions

Top Placed Photos from the Popular Vote

Congratulations to 1st place Firas Abussaud, 2nd place Ong Mario, and 3rd place Dave Bairstow!

1st Place Photo By : Firas Abussaud

2nd Place Photo By : Ong Mario

3rd Place Photo By : Dave Bairstow

Oloneo’s PhotoEngine open for Beta Users

Nick Newell — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 22:44:19 +0000

Okay this looks like a promising tool I could spend hours in tweaking the controls and lighting in some of my old HDR Shots. It also revives my interest is playing around with HDR shots again. Yet – I am still obsessing with toy cameras at the moment, but I think I’ll check PhotoEngine out this week.

Take a look at the following demos of PhotoEngine from OloNeo. The Beta program is open till October – so if you want to play around with a pre-release of this tool for free go to the download page @ http://www.oloneo.com/en/page/download.html

HDR Relight

HDR ToneMap

Edit RAW Files

Check out Oloneo : http://www.oloneo.com/

Unpacking the Holga 135TIM

Nick Newell — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 19:59:59 +0000

Holga 135TIM

I’ve been on a tear lately with toy camera’s. I first got the Golden Half, then the Blackbird Fly, and now I found myself over the weekend at PhotoWorks in San Francisco staring at this odd camera on the shelf that seemed to be staring right back at me. It was the Holga 135TIM, an ugly little camera that reminds me more of a Sponge Bob Squarepants toy from McDonalds than an actual 35mm camera.

Other than the comic personality of the camera body – what also caught my attention was the way the camera supported half-frame shots. Where the Golden Half takes consecutive shots – each one on half of a 35mm frame – the Holga TIM gives you some more control on how to take such shots. Each “eye-ball” on Sponge Bob can be opened or closed to expose each half frame. You can choose the left or right eye-ball – open it up , frame your shot , and click. This actually gives you three options to compose your shots.

Left half frame first
Right half frame first
Both left and right at the same time for a stereoscopic full frame!

The one issue I have with the Golden Half is not knowing which two shots are actually composed on the same frame. This isn’t an issue with the Holga TIM – as you get to even choose which half frame to compose first. The cool effect of option 3 is the dual lens is slightly displaced from the subject of your shot which produces a 3D image. You need one of those old-timey 3D viewers ( which by the way Holga actually sells as an accessory – though I cant find it online) and a print of the final image to enjoy the 3D effect.

There is actually a fourth option for your composition.

Double Exposure

In order to support half frame shots, the Holga TIM has an exposure switch – which allows you to re-shoot on the same frame after toggling the left or right eye-ball before taking the second shot. This exposure switch can actually be used when taking a full frame shot with both eye-balls open at the same time. Simply take your first shot, flick the exposure switch, and take another shot. The effect is you can do a double exposure on a full frame.

Below is the unpacking ceremony for the Holga 135TIM. Once I get some shots developed – I’ll post online.

Staycations, vacations… better than working

Nick Newell — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 19:16:39 +0000

Over the last few weeks, I have taken time off of work mostly for a ‘staycation’ - working in the garage, surfing, reading, and generally just sitting around the house as much as possible. I did get a chance to go back east to visit familiy and took my Golden Half along. Its much easier to travel with than my Nikon D300 – though I miss the instant gratification of being able to view your shots as you take it. Its a fair trade-off to the simplicity of the Golden Half.

Once I came back home to the NorCal coast of Pacifica, CA - I worked on overhauling this Site. Hopefully you find the new layout an improvement, as well as the ease of the new Login mechanism. Hope eveyone is enjoying the summer!

Below are some new shots from the Golden Half. For more shots, checkout my Flickr stream.

Shots from the South :

Tomatoes and Logs

Waffle House Breakfast

Back in San Francisco:

Downtown Deli

North Beach Corner

Gallery make-over

Nick Newell — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 04:19:51 +0000

You may have noticed a number of changes over the last couple of days.

The Facebook login integration has been completed to allow new user registration.
You may find login issues when jumping form the Facebook App back to the site – so be sure to login from the blog page.
New theme is being used for the blog site
Now underway is a new layout for the gallery pages, as well as more useful permanent links to each page. Currently, you may experience some broken links from time to time while these changes are underway.

All these changes will settle down by the end of the week. Hopefully with a lot of nice improvements!

Hiroshi Sugimoto : Lightning Fields at Fraenkel Gallery

Upgrading our LogIn with new Facebook APIs

Nick Newell — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 03:26:05 +0000

Facebook has made some recent changes to how websites connect members with a new set of features called the Graph API. ThirstyPhoto uses an older feature from Facebook that allows our members to log into the site and use the Facebook App for photo contests. Since the introduction of these new features, our old code wont work for new members.

For now new members may not be able to connect to the site, upload photos, etc. Over the next few days we will review these changes from Facebook and make the appropriate updates to get all memebers – old and new – connected to the site and particiapting in our contests.

Stay tuned for an update next week on our progress! Thanks for your patience while we work on this upgrade.

New Notifications on Facebook Dashboard