Monthly Archives: October 2011

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Lakeside reflections

This was not one of my best shots from Nikko last Saturday since some areas are a bit blown out, and other spots are grainy, but it was a fun attempt, simply because I had never attempted such a long (about a minute and a half) exposure. I tried other, even longer, exposures after this, but by then the sun was completely down, and the blue light was gone.

G'night from me, and good morning/afternoon to the rest of you! ๐Ÿ™‚

In album G+ Nikko Photowalk – October 29, 2011 (2 photos)

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Patrick was one of the first people I circled when I started with G+ because his…

Patrick was one of the first people I circled when I started with G+ because his photos were so stunning. If anyone wants to see some beautiful images, you'd do well to circle him! ๐Ÿ™‚

Reshared post from +Patrick Di Fruscia

IMPORTANT Vol.3
Contest Giveaway โ€“ Two Limited Edition Fine Art Prints
(valued at $750.00 each)
Sorry for reposting this again and again but the response was more than I anticipated ๐Ÿ™‚ Since I already reached the Google + Limit of 500 comments with my first 2 post, Please reshare & leave comments in this one to let me know that you have shared my post. It is really important to leave a comment here once you shared my post, this is the best way for me to know that you did.

To celebrate the arrival of 100 000 Google + users that have circled me, I have decided to create a contest and give away not one but TWO of my Limited Edition Fine Art Prints 24x36in (valued at $750.00 each) The winners will choose the print of their choice from my gallery located here http://tiny.cc/9a3v9 Prints will be supplied with a certificate of authenticity.
To Enter the contest, simply reshare this post and let me know you did by leaving a comment below. I will also keep track of the reshares via the new feature ยซ View Ripples ยป I will then attribute a number to each participant and choose the winners using http://www.random.org/ The list of participants will be posted periodically. So if you intend to participate, make sure that your name made it to the list. Contest ends December 10th, this date will mark the 5th month I have been using Google +. This might also make a very nice Christmas present if you decide to give it as a gift.

I will also take this opportunity to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for the countless comments, shares, +1 and all the time you have spent viewing my work. I am touched and overwhelemed by the awesome response. This really means a lot to me.. You guys fuel my passion so much I have no words for it.

Shout out to the Google team who have created this wicked platform. Never have I seen such quality content & interaction between users. You Guys Rock!!!

Stay Strong & Live with Passion
Patrick Di Fruscia

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Nikko Photowalk

Have just come back from a full day at Nikko with +Jeff Austin , +Agustin Rafael Reyes , and +adithya anand . Some great pictures were taken, and I got to see parts of Nikko I had never been to. I'll be slowly adding to this album over the next few days, but for now I need to sleep since we got up at around 03:30 this morning to beat the crowds to Nikko!

Oyasumi all ๐Ÿ™‚

In album G+ Nikko Photowalk – October 29, 2011 (1 photo)

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Playing around with the Ripples now – I know it's a useful tool in the right…

Playing around with the Ripples now – I know it's a useful tool in the right hands, but for someone like me, it's just fun to watch (^^;

Reshared post from +Vic Gundotra

What hot!? Creative Kit. Ripples. And finally, Google Apps enabled for Google+.

Embedded Link

Official Google Blog: Google+: Popular posts, eye-catching analytics, photo fun and…

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The creepy broom is gonna get you

This was the 2nd photo I submitted for the PhotoFest Japan contest. It didn't win anything, and honestly I wasn't expecting it to. It was just fun photographing it, crouching in the bushes and peering through a chain-link fence (which you can just make out in the photo)

+Agustin Rafael Reyes saw a mustache, but I thought it was a creepy monster broom (^_-)

There are more photos I took during the photowalk that day, but I'll upload them another time. I had about 4-5hrs sleep last night and I'm dead on my feet…

G'night all! ๐Ÿ™‚

In album PhotoFest Japan 2011 (3 photos)

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Playing ball

This was one of 2 photos that I submitted to the PhotoFest Japan contest. Actually, I whittled down my selection to about 5, and +Agustin Rafael Reyes , +Joanne Yu , and +adithya anand helped me choose the final 2 (the other of which I will upload soon).

Though I didn't win, I did get honorable mention for this picture from +Alfie Goodrich , which felt good ๐Ÿ™‚

Many thanks to the inimitable +Agustin Rafael Reyes for the help in post-processing! ๐Ÿ™‚
I tried to re-do the processing myself, and this is the result~

In album PhotoFest Japan 2011 (2 photos)

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Sunset

Between work and the lingering effects of a cold, I haven't had much time to go through and process/upload pictures. The backlog is building up! >_<

This photo is a panorama of 4 shots taken on the evening of the last day of PhotoFest Japan – more pictures and details of that day to come later.

For now, good night all whilst I collapse into bed… (-_-Zzzz

In album PhotoFest Japan 2011 (1 photo)

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I never got on FB, and I use Twitter only extremely rarely, but I do agree with the…

I never got on FB, and I use Twitter only extremely rarely, but I do agree with the points Robert presents.

Already when talking with friends and colleagues who ask "what is G+?", I've tried to steer away from presenting G+ as being a "competitor" to FB. From what I can see, FB is where you go to catch up with existing friends and family, and it's hard to ask people to migrate away from something that already gives them all they need. G+ on the other hand, is where you go to interact with people who share similar interests. When I first got on G+, I just followed/lurked for a while, searching for people that looked interesting and shared cool things. It was a little while before I started actively posting.

I still keep my Twitter account as well because as +Robert Scoble points out, it is the fastest way to parse current information.

Certainly all 3 platforms will continue to push for dominance, each in their own way – hopefully leading to more innovative options for us, the end-user.

Reshared post from +Robert Scoble

Why you'll continue to need both Twitter and Google+ (and, even, Facebook too)

I read the results over on +Marshall Kirkpatrick's poll: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/why_twitter_users_arent_using_google_plus.php about why Twitter users aren't using Google+.

Even at my most evangelistic Google+ moments, I have NOT left Twitter or Facebook. Why not?

Well, Twitter continues to be THE PLACE to get signals about the news. When Steve Jobs died it was the first place I posted. Why? Because I knew that would be the best place to "signal" to other people that something important had just happened. I don't see Facebook or Google+ replacing this. Why not?

1. Forced 140 characters. This continues to be the best way to reach the most humans on the earth. Many people have crappy cell phones with small screens. Twitter is — by far — better for reaching these people than Facebook or Google+. Also, Tweets are very portable. They work well in a variety of clients and displays. Even on my iPhones and Android phones I greatly prefer to read the news on Twitter than on Google+. The format here just isn't very fast, or the information density tight enough to make it best for reading news. For instance, if I wanted to see what 1,000 people thought about Steve Jobs' death, it took a lot less time to do it on Twitter than to do it here.

2. The most news, important people, and brands are on Twitter. You might not think this matters, but I've been asking lately at the end of my interviews what social networks people are on. Twitter? Always. Facebook? Almost always. Google+? More than half, but not always. So, if I want to see what someone thought about an event I have to go to Twitter. If I want to read a business's output, I have to go to Twitter. If I want to see what a news organization is saying, I have to go to Twitter. For instance, here's a list of world news brands on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/scoblemedia/world-news-brands Nothing like this exists on either Facebook or Google+.

While I'm thinking of other services, I can never see a way for my real-life family and friends to move off of Facebook (most of them aren't on Twitter OR Google+). So, Facebook will continue to be dominant in what it does.

So, Scoble, why are you still on Google+?

For several reasons:

1. The length here means I can have a complete thought. I can't DO what you are reading now on Twitter and, while I could do this on Facebook, it just isn't as nice or as expected there.

2. I can have a REAL conversation THAT STAYS BUNDLED TOGETHER here. Yeah, over on Twitter you can try to have a conversation with me. But I find that I'm unwilling to invest much in those conversations. Why not? Because they aren't bundled together. Things we each say there lose their context VERY QUICKLY. And finding things in the search engine later is very difficult, if possible at all. (Here, though, the search is very good, oh, wait, that's a new point).

3. The search here is very good. Facebook doesn't even try to have search. Twitter's search sucks, especially for posts older than a few months. Here, though, I can find posts I made in July. I can also find most of the associated posts on the same topic. Here, look for yourself. These are the posts about the final Space Shuttle flight: https://plus.google.com/s/STS-135

4. Photos and videos are MUCH BETTER displayed here. Twitter will struggle with this for a while, even though it has a photo service of its own now. I will probably never use Twitter as a photo service now that Google+ is here. Heck, look at my photo of Evan Williams and Biz Stone, cofounders of Twitter. I can't ever see that in Twitter unless I click on a link.

So, this is all to say that, while I wish I didn't have to use Twitter (I don't like the leadership of the company, I think they've become uninnovative and non-responsive to user needs) Twitter is going to be important to be on for quite some time.

Facebook's leadership has a different problem: they freak me out with their expansive vision (which is to build a new media company, one where the media comes to you. The thing they don't tell you is they need to know everything about you in order to do that). That said, I'm not leaving Facebook either, because I quite like their vision, even after it freaks me out, and because all my friends and family are there.

That's a whole lot of words to say you're gonna need at least three social networks now and you'll just have to deal with it (and we haven't even talked about LinkedIn here, or the niche social networks like Foodspotting or Foursquare). I dealt with it by getting three huge monitors at home.

What do you think? Are you able to get rid of any one of these three services?

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Tokyo International Forum HDR

It's been a while since I've sat down and processed an image with the specific intention of creating an HDR. Usually I will process an image as an HDR as a byproduct of my post-processing, but today I felt HDR-y (it's been a long day at work, maybe that had something to do with it)

This is actually my first attempt at a vertorama; shots were taken in Ginza while my family was visiting Tokyo – my parents were checking out the flea market sales while I popped in TIF to see what kind of shots I could take. It's not perfect, I feel like something's still missing in the shot, but overall I kind of like it ๐Ÿ™‚

In album HDR (6 photos)

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