Blipfoto: Daily Photo Journal

Blipfoto is an online daily photo journal that lets you publish one image each day, starting on the date you sign up. Most people use this as a challenge to take and publish one picture every day of their lives, while others just add entries when they feel like it, leaving empty days in between. It's the zero-fuss website that lets anyone join in and publish or record your life in pictures, improve your photography skills, or just keep in touch with your family and friends. They just insists that any pictures you upload are taken on the date you're uploading them against. In other words, if you upload a picture and date it 1st January, the picture must have been taken on 1st January.

And now, (Extra! Extra! Read All About It!):

Blipfoto has teamed up with Channel Four Television and the National Theatre of Scotland to bring you “Unstaged”, a global photographic event comprised of three consecutive contests, together which aim to expose the extraordinary aspects of daily life. The contest's first prize wins a new Canon 500D and 500 pounds cash (that’s Eurodollars).

The contest is free to enter, but to take part, you need a free blipfoto.com photo journal, and be thirteen or over.

Your contest entries will consist of five pictures with accompanying text, taken and uploaded to your journal between each contest's published start and end date. At the close of each contest, the Blipfoto community - including participants in the competition - will be given a week to nominate the finalists. The top ten nominations in each category (junior and adult) then go before a judging panel for a final decision. The contest's judging panel will include Joe Tree (Blipfoto), Stuart Cosgrove (Channel 4), Vicky Featherstone (National Theatre of Scotland) and others.

Nominations and final judging will be based on the entrant's collection as a whole; where the underlying concept is as important as the technical execution, where image aesthetics are balanced by narrative text. Unstaged is truly open to all - a winning contest entry is just as likely to come from a camera phone as an expensive digital camera. Join the community now and begin seeing the world in a completely different way!

Send Free Photo Messages

If you can't say your message in words, then say it in picture, Polariod style!

Using a Polaroid-style background, Photo Notes lets you send cool photo messages to your friends and loved ones for free. It is so easy to use. Even children can "play" with Photo Notes.

To start, choose a photo that you want to send and upload it. Then, choose a polariod-style frame that you want to use for that photo. Next, click on a style font and color you want. Type your message on the box provided. Be concise as possible, as you only have a maximum of 50 letters for your message. Click preview.

If you're satisfied with your photo and message, enter the e-mail address of your recipient(s). You may also import e-mail addresses from your address book. Lastly, to make sure that it's a human who is using the Photo Notes services, enter the code shown and press e-mail. Your recipient(s) will get your photo message within minutes.

I had fun using Photo Notes, and I admit it was quite addicting. Here are some photos I made from the website. These are photos of some of the lovable dogs available for adoption at the Peninsula SPCA:





Sinatra is a brindle male German Shepherd Dog and Boxer mix; Peaches is a purebred Staffordshire Bull Terrier; Muttley is a sociable black and white Labrador Retriever mix.

Create a photo mosaic for free

Now you can create your own photo mosaic, without the hassle of compiling thousands of photos on your favorite photo editing tool.

PicArtia lets you create free online photo mosaics in a breeze. This cool mosaic creator is fun, simple and totally easy to use. First, select a photo that you want to transform into a beautiful mosaic. You can upload a picture from your computer or from the Internet. Then, click on the gallery and select a category, which includes paintings, flowers and birds, among others. You can also view the photos of each category before deciding on choosing one. The photos from the category will compose your mosaic. After you've decided on a category, you can now finalize the setting of your mosaic.

Finally, provide a name and an e-mail address where you want the mosaic to be sent. PicArtia will send you an e-mail with a code that you will use for downloading it, which will be in high resolution. You can also share your mosaic to your friends by e-mail or by embedding it on your social networking site.

PicArtia is a fun and addictive tool. You can also use it to make unique event invitation, gifts or greeting cards to your friends and family. I only hope that in the future they will add more categories in their gallery, or include a feature where you can use your own photos as the composition for creating a mosaic.

Above mosaic is a photo of Toby, a fun-loving hound and beagle mix, that is available for adoption at the Peninsula SPCA.