Tag: photography Page 3 of 6

In case you missed it, Moments, Facebook’s proprietary photo-sharing tool, will be shut down for good on February 25, 2019. Moments was created in 2015 as a means for Facebook users to privately share photos outside the social media website.

“Syncing photos with the Moments app is a private way to give photos to friends and get the photos you didn’t take,” reads the app’s press release. “Moments groups the photos on your phone based on when they were taken and, using facial recognition technology, which friends are in them. You can then privately sync those photos quickly and easily with the specific friends, and they can choose to sync their photos with you as well.”

Moments by Facebook

If you don’t know what the app is all about, don’t worry—we’re not very familiar with it either. In fact, Facebook is pulling the plug because of low download numbers. From a high of 10.7 million downloads in June 2016, the app’s adoption rate plummeted to around 150,000 in December 2018—an unacceptable rate for the social media conglomerate.

If you’re an avid user of Moments, there are other apps you can use to store and share your favorite photos in a secure manner. Here are three of them.

Google Photos

Google Photos is a photo-sharing service developed by—you guessed it—Google in 2015. It gives Google users 30 GB of free storage, with the option to pay extra for up to 30 TB of space (that’s a LOT of pictures). Google Photos uses facial recognition and machine learning to identify the subjects in your images and automatically sort them into smart albums, letting you navigate your collection of memories with greater ease.

Nixplay

If you’re here, chances are you have a Nixplay frame. And while our smart frames are amazing, did you know that our app is pretty neat, too?

The Nixplay app works with Google Photos, Instagram, Dropbox, Facebook, Amazon Alexa, and Flickr, letting you display your images wherever they may be. Nixplay Frames have 8 GB internal storage, which you can fill up with hundreds of your favorite pictures. Display your chosen photos on your frame by creating playlists, and share them with your loved ones with a few clicks. Easy, right?

SmugMug

SmugMug was born from its photographer founders’ dream of having a suitable channel for their work. “Photographers needed a place online that was tailor-made for them—a place where they could stand out, shine, and share,” says our website. This cloud-based photo storage system lets you keep your treasure trove of memories—everything from scanned photos of your grandparents to your dog’s pictures–easily accessible online, without compromising security and image quality. The catch? It’s not a free service—plans start at $47.88 per year. If you’re a hardcore photographer, this is perfect for you.

4 Netflix Shows You Should Watch If You’re Into Photography

By Nixplay Team

On January 31, 2019

In Photography

It’s easy to dismiss photography as an easy art. Unlike more traditional art forms like painting or sculpture, you can see photos in seconds, with seemingly minimal effort. Anyone can take pictures—you just have to pick up a camera, fiddle with it a bit, point it at a subject, and start clicking away. Right?

That may be technically true, but it takes more than the possession of a fancy gadget to be called a photographer. There’s an art to taking frame-worthy photos, and it takes an enormous amount of passion and grit to be among the best. If you’d like to be a better photographer, take inspiration from these Netflix shows. Grab some popcorn and start binge-watching!

Harry Benson: Shoot First

Harry Benson is the acclaimed photographer behind some of the most iconic images of The Beatles. That photo of the Fab Four having a pillow fight in their room at the George V Hotel? That’s Benson’s genius at work. His repertoire is not confined to celebrities: His impressive portfolio includes images of every U.S. president since Dwight Eisenhower, magazine covers for Time, Life, and Vanity Fair, and photos of Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1968. Harry Benson: Shoot First is a brilliant documentary of Benson’s storied career, sprinkled with interviews and insights into the elements that make his pictures breathtaking.

Abstract: The Art of Design

Abstract is a Netflix original documentary series that deftly picks the brains of some of the most brilliant creatives in the modern world. For shutterbugs, episode 7 (Platon: Photography) is a must-watch, letting you follow the journey of renowned British lensman Platon, who has shot portraits of some of the world’s most notable leaders, including Vladimir Putin. In the show, he photographs former U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell. As you watch, you’ll be able to pick up crucial lessons in preparing for shoots, establishing rapport with subjects, and communicating the right story to viewers.

Hondros

Whoever thinks photojournalism is a walk in the park obviously has no clue about the struggles and immense pressure involved when covering major events. This is especially true for photojournalists covering war zones—in order to take the perfect shot, you have no choice but to come close to the action despite the perils. And yet, for 13 years, American photojournalist Chris Hondros took photos of major conflict zones, from the 1999 war in Kosovo to the 2011 Libyan Civil War, where he was fatally wounded in a mortar attack. Hondros, directed by his childhood friend Greg Campbell, narrates the late photographer’s life and career milestones, telling the stories behind his most iconic photos and his influence on people around the world.

Tales By Light

Tales By Light, a joint venture between Canon and National Geographic, follows several photographers as they capture their adventures around the world. This Australian documentary series will take you from the jungles of Kenya to the seas of Indonesia, to the unexplored terrain of Antarctica, inspiring viewers to step up and protect our children, our seas, and our aboriginal culture. If you’ve ever dreamed of becoming an outdoor photographer, this series should inspire you to go out and start shooting.

4 Ways To Relive Your Memories

By Beatrice Bisais

On January 22, 2019

In From The Nixplay Team

This article was originally posted at thephotoorganizers.com.

What’s the best way to go back in time?

The way we recall important events is dictated by our senses: What we saw, heard, smelled, touched and tasted. These memories, more often than not, become less reliable with the passage of time.

As such, it’s vital that we find ways to preserve them. The year 2019 is just beginning but, surely, some of us would experience an important milestone sooner than later. We all have a sentimental side that tells us it would be great if we could revisit the memory of the birth of our first child, our daughter’s walk down the aisle, or even last year’s Thanksgiving dinner.

Since we don’t have time machines yet, what can we do to go back to our fondest memories?

Weave your story

For writers, the best way to immortalize memories is through the written word. No wonder memoirs are such a hit! However, the pitfall for some biographies is their inability to keep things consistent. We live in moments and, sometimes, it’s beguiling to leave them fleeting and unrecorded.

Services like StoryWorth could help you when you’re in a writing slump. They send weekly prompts for you to reflect on, similar to how a writing community operates. Each week, you get to share these with your family. You wouldn’t even notice how these granular snippets have turned into a beautifully bound keepsake book with a year’s worth of stories!

Print a photobook

This one is a no-brainer. One of the most common ways to experience memories is by sifting through printed photos of your younger days. Even better to pore over are photo albums published with a touch of creativity. Some go for the traditional design of scrapbooks. Others, in this digital age, prefer to use publishing software tools like Blurb’s Bookwright. Bookwright is free and easy to use for laying out and editing your first photobook project. And if you’re out of design ideas, the software also has templates for beginners to get those creative juices flowing.

Scan your old photos

What may be a reverse approach to the first two points is to digitize your memories. Remember those photos from the ‘80s inside your treasure box that you kept safe at the back of your cabinet? Those pictures deserve to see the light of day again. However, placing them in a photo album might mean eventually shelving them again.

By digitizing your photos, you have a way to easily access them on your phone, computer, or even your digital frame. Take advantage of apps like Photomyne, which allows you to quickly scan dozens of photos with just a tap on your phone. These photos will then be backed up on the app’s cloud base, granting you easy access to your most important memories wherever you are in the world.

Display your memories on a digital frame

Remember the photos you scanned earlier? How about all those photos long buried in your social media feed? Digitizing your photos is one, but it’s another to share them with your families and friends. Fortunately, it’s now possible to display all these with a digital smart frame like the Nixplay Seed Wave.

Music has an uncanny ability to trigger specific memories. There are times when you’d hear a tune and remember a special moment you shared with your loved ones. With its 2×5 watt Bluetooth speakers, the Nixplay Seed Wave can now enhance your memories with playlists of the songs you love.

Overall, there are various ways by which you can relive your best moments. But perhaps the outcome isn’t really the point. Whether it’s a photo book, a memoir, or a slide display of your scanned photos on your digital frame, what should really matter is your renewed appreciation for the moments that defined you, kindled by the process of preserving the highlights of your life.

Beatrice Bisais

Bea is Nixplay’s Social Media Manager. She enjoys drinking coffee, reading about wars, and writing stories. Send her a message at beatrice.bisais@nixplay.com.

4 New Skills You Should Learn This 2019

By Nixplay Team

On January 18, 2019

In Lifestyle

Learning shouldn’t stop the moment you get your diploma. It’s a lifelong process, and there are many ways to improve your skill set outside the classroom. Whether your goal is a promotion, a career change, or simply self-improvement, these four invaluable skills should serve you well in your professional life.

UX Design

UX (User Experience) Design is a tricky undertaking that seeks to find the perfect balance between aesthetics and function. It entails mapping out a customer’s journey through a website, app, or product in order to achieve everyone’s goals in the most efficient and enjoyable way possible. As the world rushes at the speed of light into the digital age, the demand for effective UX Design for apps, websites, and operating systems will only increase.

Photography and video production

People’s attention spans are getting shorter and shorter, and we all need to adjust accordingly. This goes hand in hand with the ever-increasing usage of social media, as well as the never-ending shift to mobile devices for media consumption. As the boundaries of photo and video are kept being pushed, content creators—a term that encompasses anyone who puts something out on the ‘net—should strive to enhance their skills as well.

This year, take your content creation skills to the next level by improving your photography and video skills. Dig our your camera, shoot videos daily with your phone, try a photo challenge, attend a seminar—whatever works for you! Don’t forget to display your hard work on a Nixplay Frame!

Machine Learning

Data is the backbone of the world we live in, affecting almost every aspect of our lives. If you’re fascinated by the process of analyzing and interpreting data, machine learning—the process of training a machine to learn—is a field you should definitely get into.

Machine learning makes use of algorithms to make sense of big data (that’s what you call all the data received by a business), adapting from previous computations to churn out more reliable results. Because of machine learning, Netflix is able to recommend which shows you should watch next, and Amazon can show you stuff you might be interested to purchase. It’s not new science—machine learning has been around for quite a while—but it’s never been more relevant and necessary.

Language Translation

While English is the universal language, knowing another tongue will always be an invaluable asset. People who know more than one language are usually seen as a bigger asset to their companies, as they can communicate with foreigners, making more sales and securing more contracts. If you want to study or be assigned abroad, knowing another language should increase your chances.

If you’re traveling, even a rudimentary grasp of your destination’s language can make your trip easier. And if you want to impress someone, speaking in another tongue should do the trick! Sure, it takes a lot of time and willpower, but the additional knowledge (and the inevitable self-esteem boost) worth the sacrifice, don’t you think?

nixplay blog-photography challenges-main

5 Photography Challenges You Can Try In 2019

By Nixplay Team

On January 14, 2019

In Photography

If you’ve always wanted to improve your photography skills, 2019 is the best time to work on it. You’ve got a whole year ahead of you to seize every opportunity to take better photos, so don’t waste any time! Start by taking on these challenges.

1. The 52-Week Photo Challenge

The annual Dogwood 52-Week Photography Challenge dares photographers to stick to a specific prompt every week. You’ll start by taking a self-portrait—a deceptively easy task, until you keep reading the prompt and realize that the prompt prohibits you from showing your face. When you’ve accomplished that task, you move on to showing motion in photos using the Rule of Thirds, then Black and White photography, and so on. The challenge ends with another self-portrait, one that illustrates how others see you. You can also join a Facebook group where you can talk with others who are also taking on the challenge. See all the prompts here.

2. The 365-Photo Challenge

Think the 52-Week Challenge is too easy? Try the 365-Day Challenge. Taking one photo a day looks easy on paper, but when you’ve got a million things going on in your awesome life, you might find it nearly impossible to stop and shoot. No photography prompts required—you don’t have to go out of your way to find a great subject to take pictures of. The real challenge here lies in making the mundane beautiful.
Tip: Create a folder on Google Photos for your images and sync it with your Nixplay Frame so you can view all your photos easily!

3. Go Analog

Film photography isn’t dead. It’s just lying dormant, yet ready to embrace those who discover it. One key takeaway from shooting with film is that you’re forced to be more selective with your subjects. You don’t have the privilege of taking photos of everything because you can only shoot a limited number of images, and you don’t know how the shot will turn out until much later. On the bright side, the thrill of waiting for your film to develop is incomparable, and there’s nothing like a hard copy of your photos. This year, dust off your film camera (or get a disposable one), load it up with film, and shoot away!

4. Portraits of Strangers

Humans Of New York is one of the most inspiring Instagram accounts anyone can follow. Founder Brandon Stanton’s photographs, combined with the moving stories of the people he features, make for a riveting read. This year, take a page from HONY and try taking photos of the people you encounter! It’s also a great opportunity to get out of your shell and meet interesting folks. Who knows, you might just meet someone cool!

5. Recreate Famous Photos

There are some photographs that anyone can recognize instantly. Take the 1965 photograph of Muhammad Ali towering over a fallen Sonny Liston, taken by renowned sports photographer Neil Leifer. Or, the nude portrait of a pregnant Demi Moore, taken in 1991 by Annie Leibovitz for Vanity Fair. Let these photos inspire you to make your own mark in the photography world, one frame at a time!