Keeping an eye on Windows and other things tech!

Windows Live Photo Gallery Panoramas

It has been over a week since I posted anything more than a Google Alert here as my wife and I have been on vacation in Hawaii celebrating our upcoming 25th wedding anniversary.  This is a very scenic place and we have taken a lot of pictures – in fact – there are currently 508 uploaded after 5 days to our flickr account for this trip.

There are also lots of places that need a panoramic shot to really show the breadth of the view.  So using Windows Live Photo Gallery I have been taking a lot of shots to create those panoramas and they have turned out very well IMHO.

To create a panoramic shot it is quite easy.  Take a series of pictures of the scene you want turn into a panorama keeping a little bit of overlap in each successive shot as you move your camera across the scene.  Once you get back to your computer upload them and then open them up in Windows Live Photo Gallery.  Highlight each picture in the sequence by holding down the CTRL key and then once they are all highlighted Right Click and select Create Panoramic Photo and let it do its thing (highly technical term).  You then get a dialog box to save the new picture and as soon as you do that it will open it up in Windows Live Photo Gallery so you can see your masterpiece!

Here are the panoramas I have created over the last week since we arrived in Hawaii using this same method – enjoy!

Related Posts:

• Windows Live Photo Gallery – Cropping Photos
• SnapFoo Beta – Mobile Photo Blogging
• SnapFoo.com or TwitPic.com Dilemma

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SnapFoo.com or TwitPic.com Dilemma

I am a conflicted person tonight.  There are two picture blogging options in my life now and I am unsure of who to give my loyalty.

It all started back on 17 Dec 2007 when I discovered SnapFoo.com – as I recall I came across it because I encountered @williamsba on Twitter.  He had mentioned SnapFoo in a Tweet and I asked about it and he immediately sent me an invite.  Since then I have posted 174 pictures on my profile there and I think my “Foo” has been very strong.

All was well until two days ago on 09 Apr 2008.  I am still unsure exactly how TwitPic.com came to my attention – wait – it is coming back to me now.  I had just updated to the latest version of twhirl which has become my preferred Twitter client. Included in the latest version was integration with an application/website called TwitPic – so naturally my curiosity carried me to the website and I was quite intrigued.  I signed up for an account and started to Tweet a few pics.

Both sites have great functionality and have many things in common such as uploading pictures either directly through the web interface or via email (my preferred method when I am out and about on my BlackJack mobile phone).  Both play nice with Twitter and send links to your Twitter stream when a photo is posted.

It is at this point that a few things start to stand out between the two services.  For instance, TwitPic posts replies/comments on your photo back to your Twitter stream – as well as any comments you make on photos get posted on both the persons stream who submitted the photos and who ever made the comment.  Currently SnapFoo has a space for comments and you can get notified via email when someone does make a comment but it does not insert those comments into your Twitter stream.

TwitPic provides feedback on your photos page of how many people have clicked through from your Twitter stream to view the picture.  Statistics and feedback – a very nice feature.

All in all either service is very functional and provides you the ability to provide visual cues to your Twitter followers.  I am thankful to have small dilemma’s in my life – it means we have great choices out there and a little competition in the same service arena means better products and services down the road.

Great work on both sides!

You can keep up with my Twitter stream and pictures from both SnapFoo and TwitPIc by following me at @WindowsObserver

Related Posts:

• SnapFoo Beta – Mobile Photo Blogging
• COMCAST and Twitter Equals Great Customer Service
• Digital Duplication
• Twitter Connections and Benefits
• One Week with Windows 7 Beta 1

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