Here's my lab-chow mix, Holley, trying to squeeze into the bed of my brother's much littler dog. I guess she was hoping we wouldn't notice.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Sunday, May 30, 2010
#90: Photo from the Nature Set in Flickr
This is a great egret in the pond at Meyer Park along the Cypress Creek. This is part of a series of local nature photos I took as background for the "Leaves: On the Banks of the Cypress Creek" mural at the Barbara Bush Library . The mural was digitally created by artist Pat Rawlings.
# 90:Kohrville Community Marker (Flickr)
In the 1870's, former slaves settled in the Kohrville Community along the Cypress Creek. A school used by African American students in the 1940's is preserved in the Klein ISD historical park near Doerre School.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
You Oughta Be in Pictures #90: Sharing Photos
1) Watch the video for an overview of photosharing.
The video and the ratings chart make me want to try Photobucket, which scored higher than Flickr.
Flickr has been awkward to use for HCPL purposes. This may be due to the fact that we are trying to do all of our 26+ locations on one account, and there are now 7500+ photos to manage. This makes loading and editing extremely slow and tedious. I do have a personal Flickr account that is much more user-friendly. Right now I have three sets of photos there: 1) Klein local history sites and markers; 2) Cypress Creek nature; and 3) photos of our family trip out west in 2007. Samples from my Flickr account are shown in the adjacent posts. I was pleased to see that Flickr has partnered with Picnik so that photos can be edited. I don't think that this feature was there when I first opened my account.
2) If you aren't familiar with any of these sites, browse through the public areas and their features or tours.
After reading the comparison review, watching the video review of Photobucket, and browsing through the Photobucket site, I created a free account and uploaded a number of photos. It looks like it will be easier to use and has many more features than Flickr.
3) What features are important to you when sharing your photos? Are privacy or copyright/creative commons options important to you? Which site do you prefer?
Photobucket makes it easy to share with Facebook, which I often use. Copyright is not as issue for me at this stage. Being able to specify who can share the photos is important, but often I don't care if they are public.You Oughta Be In Pictures #89: Basic Photo Editing
1) Upload a photo to Picnik, Photoshop or Fotoflexer. Use at least one editing feature (red-eye fix, cropping, sharpening, resizing, etc.) and one creating feature (framing, adding text, touching up, captions, etc.). Post the edited photo on your blog.
Picnik:
I opened an account in Picnik in the original iHCPL, so I was able to sign in quickly.
I uploaded this photo of my niece Courtney , her husband Jeremy, Courtney's niece Kylee (my grand-niece), and my brother's two dogs, Emmie and Biscuit. This was on a visit we made to Alabama at Christmas a few years ago. I chose it, because it gave me several good opportunities for editing.
I started by cropping it to remove some of the extraneous and distracting background. Then I tried to get rid of some "red-eye". It worked on one of the dogs, but just couldn't get it to work on both. I adjusted the exposure and contrast a tiny bit. For fun, I added some text, some stickers, and a frame. It was lots of fun to experiment. Here is my end product:
2) Which photo editing features are important for your use? Which of the listed sites would best meet your photographic needs? Post your answer in your blog.
Cropping is my favorite feature, because I often have too much junk in the background. I usually use Microsoft's built-in Picture Manager for this, but Picnik has way more features to use. I like the sharpening feature, the captions, the red-eye (when it works). Frames would also be nice on special occasions.
Picnik:
I opened an account in Picnik in the original iHCPL, so I was able to sign in quickly.
I uploaded this photo of my niece Courtney , her husband Jeremy, Courtney's niece Kylee (my grand-niece), and my brother's two dogs, Emmie and Biscuit. This was on a visit we made to Alabama at Christmas a few years ago. I chose it, because it gave me several good opportunities for editing.
I started by cropping it to remove some of the extraneous and distracting background. Then I tried to get rid of some "red-eye". It worked on one of the dogs, but just couldn't get it to work on both. I adjusted the exposure and contrast a tiny bit. For fun, I added some text, some stickers, and a frame. It was lots of fun to experiment. Here is my end product: 2) Which photo editing features are important for your use? Which of the listed sites would best meet your photographic needs? Post your answer in your blog.Cropping is my favorite feature, because I often have too much junk in the background. I usually use Microsoft's built-in Picture Manager for this, but Picnik has way more features to use. I like the sharpening feature, the captions, the red-eye (when it works). Frames would also be nice on special occasions.
I did not realize that Photoshop had a free online editing version. I have used the regular Photoshop software before, so I had an Adobe password established. I have always found Photoshop overwhelming in its capabilities, and I use only a few features. I think the online version is also a bit overwhelming, and it was pretty hard to use compared to Picnik. The photo I chose to edit was an old black and white of my Dad and his brother and sister. Photoshop made them even cuter than they were naturally!
Fotoflexor was also fun to use. However, I had problems trying to upload pictures from both Facebook and Flickr. Here is a photo of my grandnephew, Ryder, changed with different effects. 
Saturday, May 8, 2010
The Web According to Google #88: Wave, Buzz, and Mobile
1) How do you think you could use Google Wave or Buzz for collaboration? Do you currently use any online collaboration tools?
The only collaboration tools I have tried are wikis and Google Docs. Google Wave offers a wealth of possibilities, but you have to have people to collaborate with who are rather tech savvy. I don't see this being useful for my relatives, or even most of my friends for just social purposes. It could be useful in a work environment where everybody can be trained and on the "same page", so to speak.
These days I get lots of videos, photos, and websites "shared" with me via e-mail. There are so many I can hardly keep up. With Buzz I see this sharing becoming even easier, and I see myself drowning in information.
The only collaboration tools I have tried are wikis and Google Docs. Google Wave offers a wealth of possibilities, but you have to have people to collaborate with who are rather tech savvy. I don't see this being useful for my relatives, or even most of my friends for just social purposes. It could be useful in a work environment where everybody can be trained and on the "same page", so to speak.
These days I get lots of videos, photos, and websites "shared" with me via e-mail. There are so many I can hardly keep up. With Buzz I see this sharing becoming even easier, and I see myself drowning in information.What all these tools make clear is that reading and being able to assimilate information will be even a more highly valued skill in the future. Surely the library's success in turning young children on to reading should be even more important in the future. How can we capitalize on this aspect of our role in the community?
2) Read a little about one or two of the Google Mobile apps available for mobile phones. Which ones do you think you would use the most and how?
The best thing I found while searching for this module was the free Mobile Google app. Previously I had been searching Google indirectly through the Safari App. It was OK, but not very easy to use. The print was often very tiny. The Mobile App is great. It has a voice recognition feature so I can just speak what I am looking for and it gives me a screen of choices that look great! Why did I wait so long to get my iPhone?! It surprises me with something cool all the time.
2) Read a little about one or two of the Google Mobile apps available for mobile phones. Which ones do you think you would use the most and how?
The best thing I found while searching for this module was the free Mobile Google app. Previously I had been searching Google indirectly through the Safari App. It was OK, but not very easy to use. The print was often very tiny. The Mobile App is great. It has a voice recognition feature so I can just speak what I am looking for and it gives me a screen of choices that look great! Why did I wait so long to get my iPhone?! It surprises me with something cool all the time.Saturday, April 24, 2010
The Web According to Google #87: Google Reader
1) Take the tour or sign-up and try the service out. Do you currently use a feed reader? If so which one do you use? Would you switch to Google Reader if you don't already use it? Why or why not?Read a little about one or two of the Google Mobile apps available for mobile phones. Which ones do you think you would use the most and how?I took the tour which was not much more than a listing of the features of Google Reader. I currently have an account with Bloglines that I created when I did the original iHCPL 23 Things. I hardly ever check it. Last time was 200 days ago. Rather than transfer the feeds there to Google Reader, I decided to search for and add some feeds to a new Google Reader account and see if I would use it more. The items I selected have to do with Spring, Texas; the Barbara Bush Community partners; and Harris County politics. The Bloglines account has feeds more related to the field of librarianship.
I checked the App Store on my iPhone to see what mobile readers are available. I found:
App Google Reader (2-1/2 stars; 97 ratings; $.99)
iNews Premium 9 (3-1/2 stars; 13 ratings; $3.99)
GReader App (2-1/2 stars; 686 ratings; free)
Feeds - RSS Reader (3 stars; 56 ratings; $3.99)
GooReader (1 star; 6 ratings; $2.99)
Newsie Google Reader (4 stars; 5 ratings; $3.99)
I decided to give the last one a try after reading the reviews. I installed it and it linked to the new Google Reader account I just created on my laptop. Probably I will check it more often since it is on my phone.
2) Take a look at some of your favorite sites. Do they have feeds? If they do, subscribe to one of the feeds. Hint: Our website has feeds.
As noted above, I add a bunch of feeds to my new Google Reader account.
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