The coffee-table book goes custom

Tuesday, May 26, 2009 9:13 AM

Last year's presidential campaign gave photographers -- professionals and hobbyists alike -- a fantastic opportunity to capture both the personalities and the process of politics in America. Between the cross-country whistlestop tours, the crowds flocking to party conventions, and motivated grassroots activity, it was easy to see why "all politics is local" -- and to snap a photo that captured that idea.

We've previously pointed to the crowd-sourced photography project America At Home, which used the Picasa Web Albums Data API to allow customization of the book's dustjacket. Now, the same publisher is releasing The Obama Time Capsule, which introduces a new (and we think interesting) degree of customization for a photography book -- along with the cover, you can add personal photos to a few interior pages, and personalize other elements, like the dedication page. The book itself includes some top-notch photography from leading photographers, along with essays penned by Joel Klein, Colin Powell, Arianna Huffington, and others.

Obviously, the appeal of this particular title may depend on your own political interest and leanings, but politics aside, we think this kind of customizable photography book is a pretty nifty idea for a keepsake, and a great example of how digital photography lets us do more with our photos. If you're interested, you can learn more about the book (and transfer photos directly from your Picasa Web Albums account) at TheObamaTimeCapsule.com.

posted by Brian Axe, Product Manager

Calling all students: Google Photography Prize

Friday, May 8, 2009 2:45 PM

Posted by Louise Rigby, Associate Product Marketing Manager, iGoogle

We just launched the Google Photography Prize, a global competition for students to create new themes for iGoogle.

The contest aims to find talented student photographers and will give them unprecedented online and offline exposure: Winning submissions will be available for millions of Google users around the world to display on their personalised iGoogle homepages, and will also be part of a special exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in London. The overall winner will also receive £5,000 ($7,500) and an invitation to spend a day with renowned photographer Martin Parr.

It may seem brave to unleash student art on our homepage, but given the amazing talent of student photographers today, our esteemed panel of judges, and the draw of being able to exhibit at the Saatchi Gallery, we're expecting to see some great entries!

The Google Photography Prize is open to higher education students around the world, and runs until May 31. You can enter by submitting a series of five photographs at google.com/photographyprize.

The thirty-six top entries will be selected for the shortlist and made open to an online public vote on June 11. The top six vote-winners will then be flown to London for the opening night of an exhibition of their work at the Saatchi Gallery, and the ultimate winner will be decided by a panel of art critics and artists, including Idris Khan, Martin Parr, Michael Hoppen, Susanna Brown and Tim Marlow.

Millions of user are already adorning their iGoogle page with images, including original art created by Jeff Koons, Radiohead, Rolf Harris, Stella McCartney and Philippe Starck. We're excited to now be adding more photography to the mix, and we look forward to see how art will continue to develop online.

Good luck!

Using Eye-Fi with Picasa - new album presets & video uploads

Tuesday, May 5, 2009 7:41 AM

Posted by Jason Cook, Product Marketing Manager

When the Eye-Fi card was first introduced over a year ago, it quickly won fans among the Picasa team -- after all, here was an affordable piece of hardware that bestowed WiFi superpowers on almost any digital camera, and used the Picasa API to effortlessly upload photos to Picasa Web Albums (and with nary a cable in sight).

Since then, the Eye Fi team has steadily added features like geotagging, hotspot subscriptions, and more. There are new settings in the Eye Fi manager that enable some features that we think Picasa Web Albums users will particularly benefit from: the ability to specify which online album your camera should upload photos to when it connects via WiFi, as well as new options to auto-tag photos, preset description text, and so on. In addition, they've just launched a brand-new generation of cards which add the ability to upload movies from your camera straight to Picasa Web Albums.

For example, say you're heading out on a cross-country road trip, and want to keep a select group of friends and family up-to-date with photos and videos. Instead of having to wait until your trip is finished and your camera connected to your home computer, now you can share an unlisted album with friends as you set out, have your Eye-Fi Explore Video card upload to that specific album, and then hit the road. That way, whenever you're in range of a supported WiFi hotspot, your camera will upload your newest pictures and movies to your vacation album, allowing others to vicariously travel with you.

There's a nice video tutorial on the Eye Fi site that covers these features in more detail. You can also learn more about uploading video files from your camera's Eye-Fi Explore or Share Video card to Picasa Web Albums on the Eye-Fi site.