As in the last post, you already know what DropBox does in basics. They also provide very nice tutorials on how to use DropBox. I would like to show you one in particular this time. Sharing files and photos via DropBox.

Most of the time it is the case that you are shooting a birthday party and then you have to send the photos to all the people, burn a CD or get your self a server. Now you just creat a folder inside your DropBox/Photos folder and DropBox will create a web-viewable gallery for you. To grab the link you need to share it with your friends, simply do a right-click on the folder you just created and select “DropBox->Copy Public Gallery Link”. Now send this link to your friends via email and all they see is a beautiful gallery of all the photos. Just that simple.

But what about doing all this downloadable? So all you would like to do is provide some friends a Song which you created and you would like to share it with some of your friends? Now there is a folder for that. It is called Public. So if you want to share a file with friends, just drop it into the DropBox/Public folder and do a right-click “Copy Public Link”. Now you send this link to who ever you would like to download your file.

This simple. I am always amazed just copy it into the DropBox folder and you are done. I love it!

DropBox: Sharing (1/5) is a post from: CHRISSPdotCOM

Probably the best about this service: you get 2GB for free and if you refer friends you can pump that 2GB up to 10GB free online storage or you buy it.

But there is more about DropBox. And I would like to give you a little insight in how I use it over the next days.

1. Sharing (Share files with friends and colleagues)
2. Hardlinking (backup folders which are not in your DropBox)
3. Your own Website (hosted for free in your DropBox)
4. Shared Folders (project folders with friends)
5. Mobile DropBox

DropBox: Series is a post from: CHRISSPdotCOM

1. Number one is Tom Lowe who is currenlty editing the footage for his feature film TimeScapes which will be edited in 4k! The trailer already is impressive! Watch the Trailer here. To follow his projects he is online at twitter.com/timescapes, facebook.com/TimeScapes and gplus.to/tomlowe
2. Eric Hines who is only 21 years old! He really impresses with some great work at Vimeo.
3. Sheldon Neill and Colin Delehanty with their work done in Yosemite. They absolutely killed it! Lovely short film in addition to that, they also did a great job on the behind the scenes video.

Top 3 Timelapsers I Know is a post from: CHRISSPdotCOM

A think tank (or policy institute) is an organization that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, and technology issues. Most think tanks are non-profit organizations …

~ Wikipedia

But I think that is not what I understand by that term. I would like to define a Think Tank as a collaboration of different people from different backgrounds working together to reach a goal. I implement that in my circle of friends a couple of weeks back. I initialized a meeting of a bunch of people with totally different backgrounds and some overlaps. We met just to have a nice meal together and then talk about ideas, random thoughts and concrete once as well. Discuss those thoughts and ideas with all the people and get totally different inputs.

In contrast to just meeting each other to sit together and talk some small talk we decided to do the same but also have some productive outcome. Sure we also strayed from the topic but that was and is OK (even wanted and needed sometimes)! We always found our way back.

So what was the evening like?

1. First we met and cooked a meal. Sat together and just talked for a little while.
2. Second I had an inspirational video prepared.
3. Third I talked a little about the reasons I arranged this meeting.
4. Fourth was about questions about why this meeting is a good idea and what should the outcome be.
5. And finally we just started with giving a ball into the round to people who wanted to propose an idea or say something different. The ball was a good started for those who did not really want to say something but were forced a little. Most of the time they are just shy.
6. We talked for some hours, different topics, different ideas and some small talk as well.

This for sure is not a golden rule for such meetings. But I suggest 3 things!

3 Suggestions

1.  Watch an inspirational video to start off
2. Have a moderator of some kind
3. Charter and Smalltalk are not all that bad, but you should find a way back to the topic after some minutes

So this you should remember! And get started. Call 3 – 6 friends and propose to make something to eat and discuss interesting topics. It is fun and maybe you will come up with a business idea?

Think Tank of Friends is a post from: CHRISSPdotCOM

Well if you do not want your photos to end all dusty in your computer or on your wall: The best way is to share them. One of my new years resolutions is to share more. Not a 365 yet but I will see how it goes. Maybe it is going to be daily. Maybe just every second day. But the important thing is to publish. Get your word out there. Some ways to do so are listed below:

• Facebook Profile
  You already have your friends there right. Why not show them your photos. Let them vote them. Maybe there is your next client!
• Facebook Fan Page
  If you already have one: Great. If not: as long as you are just a single photographer I would suggest just to use the Facebook Profile with the subscribe feature it is just like a fan page. But it can be very powerful to use for a company / crew!
• Flickr
  This site is great to share your photos in groups of topics you think your photos belong to. But as long as you do not get involved it is likely that nobody will care.
• 500px
  With 500px it is a little like with Flickr. If you do not leave comments and engage with other photographers it is likely that you do not get any (or just a little bit) of attention. And in addition to that: do not upload every single photo you take there. They really like high quality!
• deviantart
  Remembered to be more about graphical design and such, this site also holds a lot of photography nuggets!
• smugmug
  A premium version of 500px and Flickr. Mainly I know that Trey Ratcliff uses it to host all of his pictures nowadays. But it is kinda expensive!

So here you have a list of sites to use to share your photos. Maybe the best is to start with the things you already have. In my case it is a transformation. I used to use Flickr a lot, started to use 500px just a few month ago. But the thing I was scared about to use was Facebook. I already have a Portfolio selection at my fan page but I was scared to use my profile because I have had a strange fear that people whom I know personally would react strange to it, dislike what I do or would be harsh in critics. A very stupid assumption and what makes it even more stupid is that I never tested that assumption. Actually it is the other way arround: more critics would be appreciated. So I decided to publish more and to more people!

Now I am going for it. I will start posting on Facebook much more in the coming weeks. And I hope you will get into publishing your stuff too!

Publish is a post from: CHRISSPdotCOM

This time I do not want to get into this looking back mood. Instead I would like to focus on the time that is coming. I have a plan for this blog. Ideas for projects. Lots of work to get my hands on and a hand full of habits I would like to change. For now: I will give you the following video to inspire for 2012.  I plan on watching it several times over the year. And why: cause it has 29 great ways to stay inspired.

So let’s celebrate an awesome up and coming 2012.
Have fun and do stuff!

~  Video by TO-FU TV

New Year, New Ideas, New Goals and a Video to watch is a post from: CHRISSPdotCOM

I wish you all a great day for Christmas (if you celebrate something different, I wish you a happy *insert your fest here*). Have a nice day, enjoy your holidays and some silent time. We will all need that to start 2012 big! And that is what we all should! Get going. Let lose the thoughts of ‘I can’t!’. So celebrate the last year for the next few days and kick ass next year!

That sad:

Happy Christmas!

24.12.2011 Have a nice Day! is a post from: CHRISSPdotCOM

They write about them self, that they print in gallery quality. And as far as I can judge that they do. So I am sure that they can provide the quality you demand!

Printing of the Photos in the Shop is a post from: CHRISSPdotCOM

I went with Sony

First I even thought about going with the OYO 2.0 by Thalia. But the problem is it is heavy, has a bad contrast and the PDF support is bad! But looking at the OYO 2.0 I had a look at the Sony which was next to the OYO and just released one week earlier. I lifted it and it is really light weight. The contrast is good. This thing has touch abilities and the zoom abilities with pinch two fingers is awesome (just like the iPhone). Decision made, device bought.

Features

Not to forget the Sony can do much more than display books. You can take notes, make bookmarks, organize Photos (in B&W still) and draw notes. But that is not yet all: it also has an integrated WiFi card and a browser to go into the internet and to Wikipedia or Google. You also have an included dictionary (English->German, German->English and many more).

Hard things

The problem which I faced than was how do I get my files onto that thing? And even worse: how can I organize them on that device?

I found a freeware program called Calibre. It is great for managing all your ebooks, pdf’s and other document files. In addition to that it can handle tags and is able to sync with the Sony eReader and many others. But I think it is not perfect yet.

I think it would be much nicer to be able to sort through the files like you do in iTunes. Where you have Playlists and different criteria. That is the bad thing about this device. But if you think about it and find yourself a system you can work pretty easily with a lot of books.

Conclusion

The Sony eReader PRS-T1 is a great device. I can handle my eBooks ok. Read with a great ‘screen’ and take my library where ever I want. And if need be, I can take notes too!

Review: eReader Sony PRS-T1 is a post from: CHRISSPdotCOM

How it works

If you install Dropbox on your machine, it creates a folder for you which is synced to the web automatically via the Dropbox app running in the background. By default it creates two folders for you. The Photos folder and the Public folder.

The Photos folder

This folder is used to automatically create online picture galleries. If you create a new folder in it and put some photos inside, Dropbox automatically creates the web-gallery. If you right-click that folder and select Dropbox you can copy the public gallery link and open it in your browser. It is really easy to share files this way!

The Public folder

This folder is used to share files with others. You can simply put a file in there and right-click on it. There you will find the option Copy public Link in the Dropbox section. Done that? Share the link with the person you would like to show this file. They will be able to download the file or view it (works with files the browser supports like PDF, TXT, JPG, etc.).

The real neat things

Next to those two folders with special functionality you can also create your own folders which have no special functions but are just as great as the others. I use those other folders to sync my Documents folder between my two Macs and to access those files via my iPhone.

Versions

Other than sync you also get a basic versioning. You can resort old versions through Dropbox but it is quite limited (30 days as of writing this) with the basic free plan.

Backup

They not only keep versions of your files. They keep files you already deleted for an additional 30 days and you can restore those if need be. That saved my work sometimes already!

The awesome 2GB

Why are 2GB awesome. Because you get them for free! Just register at Dropbox.com [ref] and you will get two gigabytes and even better you can open as many accounts as you wish.

Referral

Why do I use referral links to point you to Dropbox? Because they have a referral system which allows you to get as much as 8GB additionally for referring friends. One referred friend gets you 250MB of extra storage. But it does not stop there. Using my referral link also helps you: they give you an extra 250MB too if you use a referral link!

Just in case: if you wish not to use my referral link, here is the normal link: http://dropbox.com

Conclusion

I found Dropbox to be a fantastic service. It is easy to use on a daily basis and provides some functionality which I never expected to find. Now I already use it for 1 year or so and am not going away from it!

Software Review: DropBox is a post from: CHRISSPdotCOM