May

So you like a picture I took and you would like to license it for use on your blog? Sweet. (Here is my Flickr page…go shopping!) I don’t usually charge much, so send me a direct message on Twitter we’ll negotiate a smaaaall fee. But here is the question: “How can I send you that small payment?” Wonder no more…

A new service out seeking to capitalize on the rapidly growing popularity of Twitter is a micropayment service called Twitpay. If you live under a rock and don’t have a Twitter account, let me explain one thing about Twitter first. You reply to another use by typing @ and their user name. For example, you can send me a reply by typing @dcmba.

Okay, that said, here is how you send a payment on Twitter. Say I agree to sell you this picture for $0.50 to use for your 4th of July post (minus the watermark). You would simply login to Twitter and type @dcmba twitpay $.50 for photo of the flags. Easy, huh?

For the service to work, you must follow @twitpay on Twitter. When you send a payment, Twitpay records the receipt on your account and on the recipient’s account. When you are ready to settle up, you go to your Amazon Payments account and click “Settle Up”. You can settle up with one person, or everyone. If you haven’t yet settled up, you can remove the promise to pay by clicking the trash can icon next to the tweet in Twitter. This may be helpful if you quickly change you mind or if the other person doesn’t deliver your purchase in a timely manner.

Any payment of $0.99 or less is free. Payments of $1.00 or more are charged $.05 by Twitpay. If you have content you want to sell, you can use Twitpay with RT2Buy and their family of services. RT2Buy allows you to upload your content: music, ebooks, pictures, videos, and sell it online. (PDF, MP3, OGG and WAV are currently supported. Other file formats coming soon.) There is
RT2Get which is useful for promotional campaigns. I think the coolest use is RT2Give.

RT2Give is designed primarily for non-profit organizations. If “The Dump Fund” had a Twitpay account, they might type a Twitter message like the one below:

Then $5 would be sent from your Twitpay account to the Dump Fund’s Twitpay account, which they would then settle up using Amazon Payments.

So, here is what you do: Get a Twitpay (because I assume you already have a Twitter account), follow @twitpay on Twitter. Then update your Twitter status with:
@dcmba twitpay $2.50 because you are soooo cool!

What if church was more like a sporting even? Would it look like this?

Since my wife bought me a DSLR camera a few months back, I have scoured the web looking at photography sites. I have a few technical sites that I learn a great deal from and a few online photography magazines where I enjoy browsing the photos. (Note to self: add links to these on my photography site. But some of my favorite sites are those run by amateur photographers (though some are not so amateur) and independent professionals. Once such site that I have been following for 6 weeks or so is the
blog of Kim Pace Photography.

Kim’s site is well written, has large pictures, and is updated regularly. She has several regular features such as Wordless Wednesday and Weekly Winners, but the one I am looking forward to the most is What the Heck? Fridays.

You can read the introduction here and see the first post here. In this series, she “will share with you areas that I found to struggle with during this journey. I want to give back what others have given to me. Even if is the smallest tip in helping someone understand, or “see” will make it all worth it to me (my tips will range from equipment to Photoshop tips).” These are the kind of articles I love right now because I am where she was 18 months ago. I really enjoy learning from those who have recently been where I am. Kim is an example of why, she still remembers what it was like trying to learn all about photography and is able to write in a way that even I can understand. Stop by her site today and add it to your feed reader.

I took this from my photography site. The author gave me permission…

Today we tip our hats to those who have fallen during their service to our country. That debt cannot be repaid. Thank you one and all.

Share this post

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

This almost made me spit out my coffee this morning. Not really sure why it tickled me so much.

Please read this post by Trey Morgan and then send a few dollars. He posted back in November about the Adventures in Mission Team that made the trip to Honduras and went to the dump to hand out sandwiches. They make and handout up to 3,200 sandwiched a day! Here is the really shocking part. $20 per day will feed everyone at the dump for the day and $80 will take care of them for an entire week!

From the most recent post:

“If you have read my blog in the past month, you know I’ve asked that this Tuesday you consider making a donation to the “Dump Fund” to help feed the people who live and eat at the dump. Although I haven’t officially asked for money yet, a few of you have already sent some. You guys are amazing. In fact, one person has contacted me and said they’d match dollar for dollar anything given over $2500 (up to $2500). That means if we raise $5000, this very kind person will write us a check for $2500 to make our total $7500. I’m praying that this happens. This Tuesday I’ll give you all the details how you can give, and please understand that 100% of what you give will go to feed hungry people.”