I've been working the last week to evaluate potential opportunities that could keep LuckyOliver kicking or create value for Carnies and Olivers. The response from the community has been overwhelming, but this process takes time and presents more unknowns.

For those Carnies that are concerned about your images- we are appreciative of all your hard work and value the opportunity to showcase your work. For the few people that have requested images to be removed, please allow us the full 30 days as stated in the supplier agreement. We have no malicious intent and intend to honor those requests. Please understand that we are dealing with a limited staff and are working on all aspects of the business.

I'll give people an update next week with more information. Thanks for hanging in there.

I've been working the last week to evaluate potential opportunities that could keep LuckyOliver kicking or create value for Carnies and Olivers. The response from the community has been overwhelming, but this process takes time and presents more unknowns.

For those Carnies that are concerned about your images- we are appreciative of all your hard work and value the opportunity to showcase your work. For the few people that have requested images to be removed, please allow us the full 30 days as stated in the supplier agreement. We have no malicious intent and intend to honor those requests. Please understand that we are dealing with a limited staff and are working on all aspects of the business.

I'll give people an update next week with more information. Thanks for hanging in there.

I'd like Olivers and Carnies to know that we have received your emails and have read your comments. We're still here and trying to sort through all the responses. Part of the reason for taking a month to close things down is to make sure we're doing the right things. The complexity of a community marketplace is not an easy thing to just shutdown. We're sorting through all the issues involved with a limited staff. Please give us sometime to get back to you. We've had an overwhelming response and I personally appreciate everyone's feedback.

Thanks for your patience.

Working with the creative minds that make up LuckyOliver has been a rewarding experience- two years went by fast. I want to thank our talented staff for working through long nights, our investors for giving us a shot at growing a business, our legal and business advisers for lending an ear, our customers for their positive encouragement, and our contributors who provided us with a wealth of knowledge and tough criticisms. We really appreciate all the hard work Carnies put into making LuckyOliver a special place for people to find great imagery. On a personal note, I would also like to thank my family for letting me pursue a passion that often went beyond reason.

As a leader and entrepreneur, it's tough to see something you have put so much time into not materialize into a successful business. We spent the last year looking for the funds to grow LuckyOliver because, without the addition of significant capital, the return on investment for LuckyOliver and its contributors would not be satisfactory. After reviewing the options, the investment team decided that it was in the best interest of all stakeholders to shut the company down.

Please email me if you have any comments (..and give me some time to respond). Thanks again for giving LuckyOliver a shot.

Best of all, you don't need anything more than 10 minutes, a printer and some paper to finish this project.

Time and Materials: 10 Minutes

• A standard printer, preferably color
• Paper - standard photocopy paper and heavier paper
• Scissors (or a paper cutter, if you're a control freak)

Step 1: Select and Make Your Envelope
The origami envelope is made from patterned paper. You do not need to use traditional origami or craft paper, though - you can print your very own origami paper. I printed this pretty and fresh pattern onto standard photocopy paper (it's easier to fold) on my color printer, and simply trimmed the edges to the square shape required.

To make your envelope, follow the directions here. Your finished envelope should look something like this:

Step 2: Select and Make Your Cards
You can use any kind of photo or illustration that takes your fancy for your card requirements. Today is Easter, so I used these funky retro Easter eggs to match my envelope.

Whatever image you select, you need to paste it into Word or a similar program along the right-hand side of the page. Print it out on the heaviest paper you have to hand - it will stand up better. Then fold the paper along the image's left border. This should give you the folded-over card effect; simply trim it to the shape you want, making sure you leave enough paper on the left margin to act as your card's hinge.

And that's really it - simple, fun and fast home made mini cards in under 10 minutes!

Time and Materials: 10 minutes.

• A standard printer, preferably colour.
• A photo or illustration large enough to fill an 8.5 x 11 or A4 piece of paper.
• A glue gun, stapler or tape.
• An empty container you can re-purpose, like a milk carton or tissue box.
• Easter grass, tissue paper, or shredded paper of any kind.
• Some ribbon, scissors and a hole punch if you have one.

Step 1: Select an Illustration
Select an Easter illustration for your door hanger. I used a cute, traditional bunny, but you can use virtually anything. You will need to download a size large enough to fill a regular piece of paper. (The Small version worked perfectly for me.)

Step 2: Print and Trim Your Image
I print on heavier, 120gsm paper from card making, but you can use standard photocopy weight paper if that's all you have. Carefully cut out your picture, and for added support, put some tape on the back where you'll be punching or cutting holes - in this case, I taped the back of the ears and then trimmed off the extra from around the ears.

Step 3: String It Up
Cut or punch holes in two support points good for hanging - they need to be reasonably far apart or your paper will buckle. Thread fabric ribbon or curling ribbon through the ears from back to front in a good hanging length - about 8" in total - and tie the ribbon ends behind the ears. You may need to tape the ends down to secure the ribbon.

Step 4: Attach and Stuff Your Basket!
The basket for this door hanger can be virtually anything - I used the bottom of a milk container, but anything lightweight , like tissue boxes or business card boxes, will work. You need to trim the height of your container to about 3 inches.

Staple, tape or glue gun the bottom of your bunny to the container. Stuff it with tissue paper (I knew keeping all that green paper from Christmas would pay off!) or Easter grass or even the clippings from your paper shredder - as long as it's overflowing and nest-like, it will work beautifully.

Finally, pop in some Easter treats - anything lightweight so you don't buckle the hanger. M&Ms, hollow chocolate eggs, blown dyed eggs and Peeps are all perfect choices to start your Easter Sunday with a quick-crafted sugar rush.

1st Prize: 8GB iPod Touch or $300 | 50 Lucky Oliver Tokens

2nd Prize: iPod Shuffle or $79 | 50 LuckyOliver Tokens

3rd Prize: iTunes Gift Card or $25 | 25 LuckyOliver Tokens

While an iPod Touch or $300 is quite a tasty 1st prize, we were honestly blown away by both the number and quality of the entries for this contest. (In fact, there were so many entries, I think we broke COLOURlovers - twice!)

Personally, I was amazed not only by the truly gorgeous palettes created, but the extraordinary images selected for inspiration. Contestants picked, in my opinion, some of the most vivid and breathtaking LuckyOliver images as sources for creating some truly inspirational colour paths.

Judging was an enormously difficult shared task. There were just so many great entries, and we went through hours and hours of paring down the selections to just three. Here are 20 more Honourable Mention entries that stayed with us through all of the discussions:

Prizes will be handed out in the next 10 days - please check your messages at COLOURlovers if you're a lucky winner for details on what we need to know to send you your swag. And finally, a big thanks to everyone who entered and to our friends at COLOURlovers who made this contest so much fun, and, well, inspiring!

And for a serious splash of colour, $75 gets you the brilliant LOMO Colorsplash Fun - see you what you can do in this really neat mini-gallery. With thirteen coloured filters and flashes plus long exposures, it throws out some really groovy looking shots.

I am still desperate to find a Harry Potter Kaleidescope Camera, though. Apparently, it exists, but is nowhere to be found - rather like Horcrux, in fact.]]> Fri, 07 Mar 2008 07:42:54 -0800 http://virb.com/luckyoliver/posts/text/501954 http://virb.com/luckyoliver/posts/text/495862 We're tickled pink (or possibly blush, candy floss or scampi) to announce the Color Inspiration Contest in conjunction with colour trend website COLOURlovers. Pick your favourite images from Lucky Oliver, create stunning palettes from them on COLOURlovers, and be in with a chance to win an iPod Touch or $300 for your inspired artistry.

Take your inspiration from whatever tickles your colour fancy: photos or illustrations, food or fashion, travel or interior design. Browse stock imagery at LuckyOliver for the images that inspire your sense of color, then create a colour palette from your image on fabulous colour trend site COLOURlovers.

COLOURlovers delivers a daily dose of color trends, inspiration and information, and the COLOURlovers community is a growing source of color palettes, patterns and colors. Find some color inspiration or share your own!

How to Play:

1/ Grab any image URL off of LuckyOliver (right click and copy image location)
2/ Create a palette at COLOURlover with it
3/ Upload a copy of the image to show off your inspiration image
4/ Tag it with LuckyOliverLove (one word!) so we can find all of the entries
5/ Sit back, relax, and win cool prizes

There are detailed, step-by-step directions at COLOURlovers, too.

Prizes, You Say?

First Prize: 8GB iPod Touch (or $300 via US check or PayPal) and 50 LuckyOliver tokens.
Second Prize: An iPod Shuffle (or $79 via US check or PayPal) and 50 LuckyOliver tokens.
Third Prize - iTunes Gift Card (or $25 via US check) or PayPal and 25 LuckyOliver token.

This contest closes at midnight PST on Monday, the 17th of March and winners will be announced on Wednesday the 19th on both COLOURlovers and LuckyOliver.com. Winners will be selected for the best palettes that capture the spirit and mood of the inspiration photo, so enter early and enter often!

Keep reading the blog over the next couple weeks, we'll have more announcements. We're working hard to roll out some features. I'll be heading to SXSW at the end of the week to head up a panel, so if you're in Austin shoot me a note.

• 320x400 (IPhone)
• 800x600
• 1024x768
• 1280x800
• 1440x900
• 1600x1024
• 1680x1050
• 1920x1200

Thanks for the inspiration Carnies! These wallpapers use images from intoit, GeoPappas, Lagui and ricardo. All wallpapers are for personal use.]]> Mon, 03 Mar 2008 13:10:09 -0800 http://virb.com/luckyoliver/posts/text/494667 http://virb.com/luckyoliver/posts/text/491463 One of the things web designers come up against all the time is clients saying "I have a budget of very nearly nothing, I want a website, and I don't want some free web template, either." Since most of us are not inclined to work for free, something has to give here. But the truth of the matter is that the free web template objection is really because they are so damn generic - no client can ever see themselves in those templates.

Stock images to the rescue! Because while you may not have the time and budget to lovingly code CSS from scratch and break out Illustrator or PhotoShop to custom create images for Mr Brokey McBrokeypants, you can easily customise a free web template and clip together a custom header from stock images for less than five bucks in under an hour.

Most of the free web templates out there are incredibly blah and generally pretty crap. But even in Paint, you can take stuff like this from yawningly dull to something that is nicely customised for a client:

Basically, in order to not have to get too deeply into editing the CSS and layout, we're using the default header proportions and using stock images to customise a new header as a drop-in replacement - no muss, no fuss, no bother.

Create a new image in your graphics program of choice that fits the proportions of the boring default template header image. In this case, it's 860px wide and 264px tall. Since the new header is going to use two images pasted together, I want to balance the left image area over the left navigation so everything lines up nicely. So, our header image is setup in two parts:

In this case, to meet each area's minimum width requirements, I need to use small instead of blog sized images, so I'm spending a whole $4. (For which, by the way, I am totally charging Brokey McBrokeypants. Cheapskate.)

After choosing my two stock photos or stock illustrations, I crop my left one to 240x264 and slap it in the left of my header, and crop the second to 620x264 and place it on the right. Save as header.jpg, drop it into my website's /images directory, and badda bing, badda boom.

I did a fun thing for this example because nobody ever asks me to do anything cool like a website for a rave, but really, this quick and dirty method works for any kind of client:

Natural Living: Leaf Image | Couple Image Beauty Care: Products | Face | Cosmetics Rave: Badge Image | Rave Image

You can click that image to see the full-sized versions, all of which leave plenty of room for logos on the left and promotional copy on the right. Don't underestimate how good font selections in images like these really add to the "ooh, just for me!" custom feeling, either.

And if you like, you can download the CSS and watermarked image files I put together for this show and tell in the Free Web Template Pack. Although to be perfectly honest, I only threw it together for demonstration purposes, so I'm not providing support for it and I'm making no guarantees about it's perfection, either!

Hey, what do you want for under five bucks?

Since contemporary cameras take big photos, especially if you're shooting in RAW, long trips away from your home computer system or laptop create a storage issue. While flicking through the internet trying to solve a problem I am not yet lucky enough to have, I found some tips I never would have thought of and products I've never heard of:

• Save on upload time by brings a stack of blank CDs - a lot of internet cafes will let you burn CDs or DVDs from their workstations instead of just using their internet connection. And hey, you can mail the CDs to yourself back home! If you're me, that means less worrying about losing all those little cards and CDs, but more worrying about the reliability of the world's various postal services. Hmm.
• Portable data storage devices let you transfer all the images from you SD cards to a portable card downloader that you can also view and delete from. Nifty! The monochrome end seems cheap, while the full colour, multiple image viewer models look like an iPhone and cost about as much.
• Speaking of iStuff, I don't know why it never occurred to me to use an iPod for this kind of storage, but with an iPod Camera Connector, you can. As this really in-depth review and work-flow says, "If you already have an iPod, the iPod Camera Connector can be an inexpensive solution for backing up photos or freeing up memory cards on-the-go."

I'm sure there are other, probably simpler solutions out there, but all of this stuff is new to me so I'm like a kid in a candy factory right now, looking at new toys for my new toy.

But one of the very best travel photography tips I came across is simple, cheap and smart: take a snapshot of your name and address and set it as your camera's LCD wallpaper in case you lose it. A lot of (but not all) cameras will let you do this. Happily, mine does!

Well, I'm all for free. I love free. Very few people on the planet, in fact, are cheaper than I am. I am so cheap that even when I have money to spend, I will check Freecycle, Craigslist, second hand hand shops and thrift stores before I buy new. But I will not use Creative Commons for images.

The reason I do not use Creative Commons images is that the licensing is broken - completely, totally, inexorably broken - in all of its implementations around images.

Flickr, for example, provides members with a way to select a default Creative Commons license for all photos they upload. The license photographers choose most often to allow their images to be used by other people is, by far, the Creative Commons Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share-Alike license.

In theory, this is a great and clear licensing agreement that basically says "You can use my work for non-commercial purposes if you credit me." If you actually look at the license terms, however, things get a lot more murky:

Noncommercial. You may not use this work for commercial purposes.

I understand that I cannot, for example, sell prints of someone else's Creative Commons image, which is fair enough. And I understand that I can't use it on MegaConglomorate Inc's home page, wrap it around their product packaging, or print it in their corporate brochure. All of that is part and parcel of common understanding for the term "commercial."

But what if I want to use an image on MegaConglomorate Inc's blog in a post? They are commercial, but the blog is not. Is that commercial use?

Or what if I want to put these images on my personal blog, and I run ads there - either from individual companies or through the ubiquitous Google Ad Sense. After all, I am making money, even if it's pennies a day. Is that commercial?

My husband says no. I say yes. Nobody knows.

Attribution. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor.

Almost everyone who uses Creative Commons puts this requirement in their license. Virtually nobody, however, actually specifies the manner in which they would like to be attributed. Believe me, I have looked. I have tracked down photographer's home pages via their flickr streams on many occasions, and on exactly none of them have I ever found a Creative Commons guideline or attribution statement. Ever.

Which rather begs the question: if no manner of attribution is specified, is attribution still required? And if it is still required, what constitutes sufficient attribution when none is defined? A flickr name? A real name? A link? A URL?

Nobody knows. Creative Commons itself doesn't tell me, although they are helpful enough to let me know that in addition to crediting (or not) the original creator, I also have to provide the URL of the Creative Commons license the image is licensed under.

You are free to to Remix -- to adapt the work.

Sometimes the freedom to create what's call a derivative work is included in the license, and sometimes it isn't. When it isn't, it's a pain because guess what? Derivative work isn't defined. Is cropping "adaptive?" Can I put text over it? Can I turn a colour image into a black and white image, or colour in a single rose in a black and white image?

Nobody knows.

Far more worrying, however, is when the rights to create a derivative work are granted. Under the Creative Commons license agreement, the "moral rights" of the original creator are retained. This means that if the creator doesn't like the way in which I have "re-mixed" his or her work, they can demand that I remove it. And if the creator considers my derivation to be derogatory, he or she can take legal action against me.

These are just some of the numerous Creative Commons headaches I really do not want.

I choose, instead, to pay for licensed images from stock image sites. While purchasing stock images isn't without potential issues, particularly around copyright, I've decided that the relationship is a lot cleaner and the annoyances are a lot fewer.

I do not have to credit the creator, nor do I have to send traffic from my site to any other in order to use an image. I can do anything I like to the images I purchase, including using them in ways the photographer may find patently offensive. I can use them for commercial, non-commercial, and questionably commercial projects, sites and clients without worrying that I'm breaking an agreement. And if I want to put them on a product that will be sold, there's a system in place that allows me to do that clearly and immediately with zero confusion.

Is it more expensive than free? Sure. But I get what I pay for.

These are some of the opening words from social entrepreneur Bill Strickland, presenting at the TED conference, a series of talks from some of the world's most inspired thinkers and do-ers. Bill's story is appropriately inspired, and you can watch it here.

For the purposes of this blog post, though, I'm focusing not on Bill's message, but on his presentation - an unwritten speech given before a backdrop described as "a slide show that has opened the minds (and pocketbooks) of CEOs across the country."

It is, in fact, one of the simplest and most powerful uses of PowerPoint I've ever seen. It doesn't use text effects, buttons, pie charts, statistics or sound effects. It simply uses fantastic stock imagery and provocative questions to inspire people to action. You can watch the whole thing in isolation - it's about 4 minutes long - but here are a few key slides:

I found this stuff through Presentation Zen, Garr Reynold's blog about professional presentation design. Garr has this to say about Bill Strickland's presentation style:

Bill Strickland has a fascinating story that he tells on stage in a straight forward, conversational style. His story is amplified naturally by the use of photos projected on a screen behind him... The content is wonderful and inspiring and the delivery serves as a reminder: Presentation is never just giving the facts, it's a performance and it is art, "the art of presentation." It's not fancy and it's not high-tech, but like the art of jazz itself, its authentic, naked, and real.

The thing that is interesting to me that while excellent, this is a PowerPoint presentation that doesn't work without the presenter providing the narrative in front of it. Too often, people planning presentations, be they external sales pitches or internal reports at meetings, invest vast amounts of time in creating PowerPoint presentations that work completely on their own. All the information, all the data, all the stats are crammed into endless slides and bar charts, and the person delivering the presentation is left simply reading slides with nothing of value to say.

Bill's is a simple presentation that flips that model on its head, putting the emphasis back on the presenter and the power of story telling. It leaves PowerPoint to do the thing it's really best at, which is to deal with the visuals. The better the visuals you select, the better the impact they will have - but the visuals should support your key message, while the story should come from you.

It's an exciting week around here. First of all, there is yesterday's announcement about the new $25/$1 payout, which seems to have been met with something close to online jubilation.

I, however, will not be receiving a Valentine's Day payment, which is fair enough because I couldn't photograph my way out of a well-lit paper bag. Instead, for my Valentine's Day score, I got a blog sidebar. You may have noticed the snazzy new graphics and layout over there on the right; they're the first rollout of some blog changes coming over the next few weeks.

Someone in the Odditorium asked about how to keep up with LuckyOliver news like this. The ever-helpful Ann Parry (AnnOverboard) came up with a great list, to which I'd add one suggestion from the new sidebar features:

• Read this blog. New posts are linked from the LuckyOliver home page, and obviously, appear here.
• Check the Odditorium; someone (did I mention Ann?) usually reposts important news from the blog to the forum.
• And as of this week: posts in your email!

For people who don't use an RSS reader, you can now get LuckyOliver blog posts delivered directly to your Inbox. Just click the subscribe via email link to sign up. An email with all of the previous 24 hour's posts will be delivered to you once a day. It's free, it's easy, and your email address will never be shared or used for spam.

In addition to making it easier to keep up with all the action at LuckyOliver, the new blog tools will let us promote some cool new stuff, especially for the designers and businesses who make up LuckyOliver's buyer audience. We're planning some Showcase features on how to use stock images, along with some templates and tools, too. Should be fun!

So, no Valentine's Day payout for me, but lots of lovely new stuff that's almost -- but not quite -- as good as chocolate.

Image: Stelian Ion (Stelian)

To kick things off, we're giving everyone a chance to cash in on Valentines Day. Carnies with at least $1 in their account can have a payout sent to them via Paypal or moneybookers!

Starting in March we'll also be lowering the payout to $25. Payouts will continue to be processed at the end of every month.

Here is the official press release: LUCKYOLIVER SCORES ON VALENTINE'S DAY WITH $1 PAYOUTS

Thanks for everyone's hard work!]]> Tue, 12 Feb 2008 14:55:46 -0800 http://virb.com/luckyoliver/posts/text/461549 http://virb.com/luckyoliver/posts/text/452323 Just a quick link that may be of interest:

My previous post on Your Rights As A Photographer generated some interested feedback, so I thought LuckyOliver's photographers might be interested in PhotoPermit.org, a site which tracks interference with legal photography by authorities, often in the form of arrests, harassment or law suits.

A quick browse through the site's stories and the examples in the forums makes for scary reading. Most of the incidents deal with photojournalists with press credentials, but it all cranks up my personal moral outrage meter.

On an only slightly related note, via PhotoPermit I also found this story from BoingBoing around an issue of photography and trademarks often discussed at LuckyOliver:

The folks at BMC (Black Mustang Club) automotive forum wanted to put together a calendar featuring members' cars, and print it through CafePress. Photos were submitted, the layout was set, and... CafePress notifies the site admin that pictures of Ford cars cannot be printed. Not just Ford logos, not just Mustang logos, the car - as a whole - is a Ford trademark and its image can't be reproduced without permission.

While I certainly can understand vigorous protection of trademarks, I'm also thinking that major brands are going to need to update their Goliath stances to deal with the digital age we all live in. As the contributor noted:

Ford has a lineup of enthusiasts who want to show off their Ford cars, the company is bent on alienating them. 'Them' being some of the most loyal owners and future buyers that they have. Or rather, that they had, because many have decided that they will not be doing business with Ford again if this matter isn't resolved.

The club appears to be going ahead with a different printer, but however it pans out, it's bad PR for Ford.

Michael David Murphy is a street photographer who documents and shares his work in several places online, including his professional portfolio, a photo blog, and general blog. But he also regularly updates a more unusual project, called Unphotographable. He describes Unphotographable as:

a catalog of exceptional mistakes. Photos never taken that weren't meant to be forgotten. Opportunities missed. Simple failures. Occasions when I wished I'd taken the picture, or not forgotten the camera, or had been brave enough to click the shutter.

Murphy details, in artful and evocative prose, those photographs that he didn't take, the images that escaped capture. Murphy started the site in 2004 after returning from Ethiopia, where in many communities, photography is shunned. Unphotographable was born from that trip, as a place to capture all the moments he was unable to photograph.

Despite the fact that both photojournalism and street photography sprung largely from the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson, they are distinct genres. While photojournalism is a much celebrated, mainstream workform, street photography is often viewed as being both more egalitarian and slightly subversive. I happen to be a fan of subversive, and if you are, too, you might want to check out Murphy's excellent, 10 part series on Ways of Working for street photographers.