Sea World with Eva, originally uploaded by mot412.

Our great friend Mo just went Pro on Flickr and I could finally get to the photos she had of she and Eva. Look at this one that Mo shot with her xshot at the dolphin pool. I keep telling Mo that she needs to submit a story to the SeaWorld Dolphin bubbles blog.

Also Mo is going to once again step in and take care of Eva while we are at IZEAFest 2009. She’ll be taking Eva to SeaWorld every single day including the Blogger takeover day.

Did you know that if you go to IZEAFest 2009 to get a free ticket to SeaWorld. I can talk about this until I cam blue in the face but IZEAFest needs to be experienced. The best value for the money, the most bloggers, the most fun it is going to be fantastic. Each year the conference gets even bigger and better. Be there. Click my affiliate link and get your ticket today.

I buy a ton of stuff from Amazon.com. If you do please buy through our links and help support BenSpark.com. Thank you.

Copyright (c) 2010 Blog Consultant, Photo-A-Day Photographer & Daddy Blogger - BenSpark.com - Everyday Pictures... Every... Day

Auntie Mo at Sea World with Eva

A couple of days ago I got a full year’s premium subscription to Picnik from Alli. Alli uses this to make here awesome photographs look even better. I left a comment on her blog and won a contest for that membership. I’d never used or heard of Picnik before Alli told me about it.

I signed up today and decided to give it a try. I played around for 4 minutes with an image that I had taken of a Gecko on my Gecko hunt last week.

Original Image

I cropped it, edited it and made some color changes.

Finished image after time in Picnik.

Picnik is incredibly simple to use and the interface is also very user friendly. It also integrates with Flickr so easily too. Well, when I posted the edited image to Flickr I got an immediate response. I mean immediate, two people commented, one favorite the image and the other asked me to add the image to his group. Wow, that is the fastest response time ever.

I am growing a beard and it is pretty light right now so I took a self portrait and then uploaded it to Picnik, cropped it, then played with the cool create function. The one thing that I can’t do with Picnik is make very fine edits like I can in PhotoShop Elements. I like the photo and how grainy it is. Makes the beard pop a bit.

I’ll be doing an in depth post about the uses of Picnik in the future. Maybe as a guest post.

And I’ll keep you apprised of the beard growth, who knows I may keep it, I may not.

Mobile post sent by BenSpark using Utterz.  Replies.  mp3

I buy a ton of stuff from Amazon.com. If you do please buy through our links and help support BenSpark.com. Thank you.

Copyright (c) 2010 Blog Consultant, Photo-A-Day Photographer & Daddy Blogger - BenSpark.com - Everyday Pictures... Every... Day

Picnik anyone?… PAD #1068

The subject for today’s photo for the December Challenge is of Rachel. Rachel is a fellow Marketing Support Rep and friend. She always has a great smile and is very personable. I simply asked if I could take her pfor the December Challenge and she was happy to help even though she had only a few minutes to spare between demos. I wanted to compliment the red of Rachel’s skirt with the red in the poinsettias in the background. I also wanted to capture her ever present smile. We made the portrait in the atrium in one of our office buildings.

The December Challenge has been of particular challenge to me as portraits are very hard for me simply because I am very shy about taking someone’s photo. I am a person who avoids confrontation and probably wouldn’t have the guts of a guy like Thomas Hawk to firmly object to anyone who challenged my right to take a photo on a public street.

I was really floored today with the portrait that Jeremy took of Liz and Chico. Such a beautiful and loving photo. Liz and Chico are a homeless couple in San Francisco. Jeremy Brooks captures the beauty in the faces of two people who could easily have remained faceless to society. These are the types of photos that I have been seeing from other photographers in the December Challenge. They are from people who are taking chances to find beauty. Take a look at the December Challenge groups on Flickr and on Zooomr to find inspiration, there is plenty to be found.

I buy a ton of stuff from Amazon.com. If you do please buy through our links and help support BenSpark.com. Thank you.

Copyright (c) 2010 Blog Consultant, Photo-A-Day Photographer & Daddy Blogger - BenSpark.com - Everyday Pictures... Every... Day

Photo-A-Day #977 12/11/07

As one of the FuelMyBlog resident Photo enthusiasts I figure that it is about time that I created a Flickr group for members of FuelMyBlog. Here are some of the rules for participation.

1. Your blog must be listed with FuelMyBlog and the FMB widget displayed on your blog.
2. Only two photos are allowed to be submitted per day, so pick your best!
3. Tag photos with "fuelmyblog"
4. Geotag your photos, FuelMyBlog is worldwide and we want to see where those photos are coming from.
5. You must be (or want to be) a FuelMyBlog Rock Star!
6. Have fun and be creative.

Photo submissions are not moderated at this time, this is subject to change is necessary. Photos should be in good taste and fairly suitable for viewing by a wide audience. If your photo couldn’t be used for your FMB avatar then it wouldn’t be suitable here. Moderators can and will remove inappropriate photos.

If you are a member of FuelMyBlog and would like to participate leave me a comment here or on the FuelMyBlog Forum post. The inclusion to the FMB Flickr Group is by invite only so contact me here in the comments, send me Flickrmail, leave a message in the FuelMyBlog Forum under the FuelMyBlog Flickr Group topic or drop me a comment on this blog.

I buy a ton of stuff from Amazon.com. If you do please buy through our links and help support BenSpark.com. Thank you.

Copyright (c) 2010 Blog Consultant, Photo-A-Day Photographer & Daddy Blogger - BenSpark.com - Everyday Pictures... Every... Day

FMB Flickr Group

Tech Tuesday Test Post, originally uploaded by BenSpark.

Here is a second image I have uploaded to Flickr which automatically posted to The BenSpark

This is an experimental example for my Tech Tuesday with Benspark #9 post at FuelMyBlog’s Blog.

One thing I learned about sending images that were taken by a full fledged digital camera by popping the SD card from my Canon SD80 and putting it into my Treo 650 is that I can’t send a huge image. First I need to change the quality and size of the image and then try to send the message and image together. So here is my second attempt to send a photo that originated on my Canon Camera to Flickr and have it automatically post to one of my blogs.

This is Unicron raising the roof.

I buy a ton of stuff from Amazon.com. If you do please buy through our links and help support BenSpark.com. Thank you.

Copyright (c) 2010 Blog Consultant, Photo-A-Day Photographer & Daddy Blogger - BenSpark.com - Everyday Pictures... Every... Day

2nd Tech Tuesday Test Post