The Growing Pains of Google+

Preamble

Google+ is one of the youngest social networks around. Because it is sponsored by Google, this social network is growing faster than any other social network. It's not Number 2 after Facebook - and Facebook has been around for quite a while longer.

I enjoy Google+ because I'm interested in photography and evolving my appreciation, my taste and my skill.

I generally like Google+ but some people have mixed experiences. Here are some tips to help you enjoy yourself there.

Incoming Traffic

1. Create three circles. Name them Favourites, Approved, Pending.

2. Limit how many Favourites you have. If you have about 20 real true friends in real life, well, that's these.

3. Limit how many Approved you take in. If you feel they will overwhelm, limit these to 2x what you have in Favourites

4. Put the rest into Pending.

5. Set the volume of each circle contributing to the Home Stream.

• Favs should be More. 
• Approved should be Fewer 
• Pending should not Show in the Home Stream

6. Do not add people just because they add you

7. Set Community posts to zero volume so that they do not invade your Home Stream.

Tweak points 2, 3 and 5 for your Home Stream

8. If the Home Stream continues to be overwhelmed and you are missing really favourite persons, do not visit the Home Stream. Only visit the Favourites, Approved or Pending directly.

Outgoing Traffic

1. If you have not established yourself and gathered people you like, join a Community and post there. After sometime, you will spot people you like and vice versa so engage with them. If you like each other you will have circled each other.

2. At the same time, establish you own identity, not the Community's by posting your own flavour of posts directly from yourself, not into the Community. If you feel that once in a while you want to share into the Community, post directly first, and then reshare into the Community. Donot only post into the Community because Community posts do not automatically appear in the public.

3. Post to Public to encounter new people. Participate in Themes to meet birds of a feather. On the other hand, if you have had too many encounters with strangers you don't like, create an Outgoing Circle to post out to.

Points People Ponder

A.  Do not gauge a person's worth by the number of followers. That is not a measure of worth

B. Do not gauge a photo's worth by the number of plusses. That is not a measure of worth.

C. If people like you or people like your photo - it just means someone does.  Be happy. Don't compare 10 against 10000 plusses or followers.

D. Why do you have thousands of people circle you but only a handful engage with comments or plusses? I don’t know. It could be that these thousands think this is Facebook – they want you to follow them so they follow you. This isn’t Facebook. Anyone can follow anyone – you don’t need permission. It could be that some brands or companies think following you is an SEO technique. Whatever. I don’t bother about them. It could be that you have been exposed in a Shared Circle or some Recommendations website – so people who want to fill their Home Stream and see the world go past have circled you.  Maybe some of them want to propose marriage or flash their bits at you. Don’t let it bug you.

E. Why does so and so have thousands and millions of followers but their published content is meh? That’s life. Same reason why certain restaurants or tourist sites get lots of hits. Does popularity equal refined taste? Do you bother to track them in real life? Really?

F. Why isn’t everyone you encounter or engage with on Google+ not your type? Huh? Does that happen in real life?

Take It Slow, Let It Flow

Way too often, people want to start from zero experience in photography to doing Peter Hurley headshots, Zack Arias studio lighting or do become a McNally. There are some talented people who are born like that, for the rest of us, take your time, practise, learn, rinse, repeat.

Let It Flow

A Homage to the Kodak P880

The end of this year, 2013, is shaping up to be a thrilling time for new camera models. The camera industry has been seeing a decline in sales over the past few years. To excite and motivate the market, we’re seeing ground breaking new models at the full frame end (Sony A7, A7R), exciting challengers for the middle position in Micro Four Thirds (the OM-D EM-1) and a revitalisation of the bridge, all-in-one camera (the Olympus Stylus 1 and Sony RX 10).  But what about the old digital old timers – the ones that were an earlier part of digital history?

The Kodak P880

The P880 is my third digital camera – after the Nikon Coolpix 775 and the Olympus C-750 Ultrazoom. For those of you who just came in, there was a time (around 2005) when DSLRs were expensive and not consumer items. The age of the all singing, all dancing bridge camera. Olympus had the remarkable C-8080. Konica Minolta had the DiMage A200Z (remember Minolta?). Nikon had the Coolpix 8400. Canon had the G6 and S2. Panasonic had their Lumix FZ-20. Samsung had their Pro815. Fuji had S9000.

The Kodak company was in its death throes – it had managers who were experienced in film and print. It had a digital sensor division and a digital camera division – but, in the field of digital, it couldn’t focus on how to make the migration. The P880 was not well built or robustly designed. It didn’t use premium parts. It was offered for sale at a crazy Recommended Retail Price. So what did it have going for it? A Schneider Kreuznach branded zoom that starts at 24mm equivalent. A slightly larger than sensor for a bridge camera (hence the limit on the 5.8x zoom range). And that Kodak Color Science chip. Yes, the Color Science chip. For some reason, the Kodak JPEG engine is exemplary in handling the way the highlights when they hit the limit. After this, engineers created cheaper, larger sensors. Intelligent dynamic range compression. But this camera was designed before then.

So, for Melbourne Cup Day 2013, I took out the old, cranky, faltering P880 and shot some bright sun, harsh contrast, Melbourne spring scenes. And was pleasantly surprised.