If I entered a drawing contest with preschoolers I would come in last place.  My best entry would feature a stick figure, a trapezoid looking sun and a bunch of lines and scribbles that might pass as a tree.

However, thanks to Sketch2Photo maybe I have some hope. Sketch2Photo is reportedly an "Internet Image Montage" project from five Chinese Computer Science and Technology students at Tsinghua University and the National University of Singapore. In three steps you can go from scribbles to finished product.

Step 1. Draw the outlines of the figures you want in your picture.

Step 2. Add labels for each of the items, as well as for the background.

Step 3. Sketch2Photo will then find real-life images to match your scribbles.

Check out a video about it posted on Vimeo.

Their site is currently down but look forward to checking it out. Is it real, vaporware or a fake altogether?

 

I start paying attention to Major League Baseball when the first team loses 100 games (congratulations for the second year in a row goes to the Washington Nationals). 

The loss of 100 games signals that post-season baseball is coming and baseball, more than any other sport, is linked with America's history regardless if the sport is not universally lauded as America's national pastime anymore. 

That got me thinking about American imagery. What image collection best represents America? One source often mentioned is Visions of America, which represents Joseph's Sohm's journey across the fifty states. You can license his images direct through a site powered by ImageSpan.

What image collection best represents your country and its heritage?

I’m always in the mood for a tutorial. And, for those of you who live and breathe PhotoShop, the guys at PhotoShop User TV do a great job and have a plethora, yes I said “plethora,” of tips, tricks and tutorials.

In this episode not only does Matt Kloskowski do his best Yoda impersonation, but they also talk about the Digimarc for Images plug-in about 21 minutes in. Check this episode out and while you are there check out their other tutorials.

For the Tweet addicted, the "Photoshop Guys" are on Twitter. Follow them at: @ScottKelby, @DaveCross, and @MattKloskowski.

There are a lot of great photographers and designers that use Digimarc to communicate copyright information and track their images online.

A gallery that recently came to my attention is Lens Flair, a portfolio of photographs from Andy Farrar. In addition to the Digimarc for Images solution, Andy utilizes the Digimarc Enabled co-branding in the footer of his site to communicate his images are watermarked.

Andy got started with a Kodak 126 Instamatic camera when he was a kid, ran a photography shop, studio and darkroom with his brother and in his own words went digital a few years back.

I’m partial to his color work, including "Fisherman on Boat" but judge for yourself. Check out Andy’s Gallery.

Flickr’s Nearby Photos service shows you all the photos taken in a particular location. A few days ago Flickr brought that ability to their smartphone mobile site.

From the Flickr blog: "For those devices that support it (currently Android and the iPhone with the new 3.0 software), the Mobile Nearby page will figure out where you are in the world and show you photos that have been taken in the same area."

The best way to get started is pull out your mobile device and dial in m.flickr.com where you'll see a new link: "Photos taken nearby."

My favorite books are on a single shelf. All our music is in the same directory. And the few movies that we own are all in the same hutch. However, when it comes to photos it’s a different story. A handful of printed images still reside under our bed, mobile phone photos are on Picasa, our wedding and other event DVDs are in the office and yes I back up images quarterly to an external hard drive.

But if you asked me “where is that recent photo of...” I would have to search multiple places before I found it. Why is this only an issue with my photos? Michelle Slatalla over at the New York Times had a similar experience when Kodak let her know that she needed to archive her images.

So, where do you store your images?   

One of the cool things about my job here at Digimarc (other than getting reminded that this blog post is late) is that we stay closely connected to the latest industry trends and product rumors that impact our business.

I’ve been following a particular Nikon rumor for about a month. Rumors varied a bit but the one I honed in on was a potential new SLR camera offering. The rumor was that Nikon would release a digital SLR camera at a hobbyist price point...

Did you know that your digitally watermarked images can communicate your copyright and contact information to your site visitors?

Include the download link for the free Digimarc for Images reader on your web site and make it easier for visitors to learn more about your images. 

With a single right click visitors to your site can see more information via a pop-up window versus clicking through additional pages on your website.

Download the free reader to detect and read covert digital watermarks. The reader is available on Windows XP and Vista.  System Requirements:

• Windows Vista SP1, Internet Explorer 7
• Windows XP SP3, Internet Explorer 6 and 7

Here are my favorite PMA tradeshow announcements courtesy of my digital image group via Google Reader. And, yes, I’m cheerleading GE’s entry into the camera business. Why? Because they need all the help they can get to get their stock price back into the teens. Enjoy.

• GE getting into the camera and printer game.
• Yes, a SpyderCube will help you achieve balance – white balance that is.
• Put "hybrid" into your product name and you can charge more.
• 12-megapixel GH1 from Panasonic, HD recording.

Any votes for HotDog?

Portland, Oregon - Out of undergrad I used a product called HotDog from Sausage Software (and yes when you closed down the program it went "woof") to edit HTML, and I relied heavily on the integration with PaintShop Pro for image editing.

So while I had PhotoShop installed, I found that for most of my tasks the "one click" access and quick launch of PaintShop Pro trumped the lack of capabilities.  

 

That got me thinking, what is the 2009 version of Hot Dog or MS Paint for image editing? Google's Picasa has made some tremendous advancements, including a facial recognition feature, but what about the upstarts... the companies and products that the masses haven't heard about yet? 

Some of these new products, including Picnik.com are geared toward the active social networking user and of course PhotoShop.com service fits this mold.  What are your favorite application upstarts or is it Adobe or Bust for you?

Oh, and just so you know, Sausage Software has a new product called "HotSocial"... I was afraid to find out more from work.