Nice to see some awesomeness out of Redmond: check this Bing Maps demo where they automatically meld Creative Commons-licensed Flickr photos into their street view using Photosynth. (via waxy)

Foreword: This post is not specific to Picasa, so don’t be put off by the first couple paragraphs if you don’t happen to use it.

I love Picasa, but for the longest time it had a major annoyance: when downloading photos from your camera it would stick them in a folder dated according to the download date, not the date the picture was actually taken. This has been fixed in recent versions of Picasa, and there is now an option when importing to organize the downloads by date taken:

The problem is, the folder names are what is displayed to you in the Picasa interface, and I had almost 6,000 old photos stored in folders according to download date rather than taken date. I needed a way to automatically reorganize my old photos into a consistent directory structure that used the right dates. I thought I’d find a free tool that would do this easily, and I did, but it’s not easy for a casual user, so I thought I’d write up the steps.

First, MAKE A BACKUP. You have been warned. Okay, backup safely stowed away, go to wherever you keep your photos. We’ll call it Pictures. You probably have a pile of subdirectories there that that look like this:

In Pictures, create a folder called “old”. Move ALL the subfolders and photos from Pictures to Pictures/old:

Next, download ExifTool and unzip the contents to the “old” folder. Rename the resulting file from exiftool(-k).exe to exiftool.exe. This is the tool that will do all the renaming work for you.

So now the “old” folder should contain all your photos (most if not all in badly dated subfolders) and exiftool.exe. While holding down the SHIFT key RIGHT-click the “old” folder. Pick “Open Command Window Here” (note that this option will only appear if you are right-clicking a folder in the RIGHT Explorer pane – stupid Windows). At the prompt, type:

exiftool "-Directory<DateTimeOriginal" -d "../new/%Y-%m-%d" -r .

… and hit ENTER. After churning for awhile and possibly throwing a ton of warnings (some might be important, although for my run none were), it will eventually finish like so (I’ve included some sample warnings):

At this point, most of if not all of your photos have been moved from the “old” directory to a set of properly dated subdirectories in a new “new” directory:

If you’re like me though, some photos (and all videos) might lack the metadata needed for ExifTool to work its magic. I was going to suggest you use Windows Search to find those files, but I just tried that, and it sucks mightily. It missed a TON of photos and videos that I would have lost had I not double-checked. Stupid Windows. So instead, install the Everything search engine, let it do its indexing, then right-click the “old” folder and pick “Search Everything…”

(If I were the MS employee in charge of search I’d hang my head in shame for being so outclassed by a third-party file finder.)

You can then copy-and-paste (or cut-and-paste, or drag-and-drop) all the photos (be sure to look for video files too) that were left behind and put them in a new folder under “new” called “undated” (or whatever you want).

Finally, move all the properly dated subfolders under “new” back up to Pictures, and delete the “old” and “new” folders. The next time you fire up Picasa it might take awhile for it to load as it recompiles all the metadata and whatnot, but when it’s done its UI should reflect the new properly dated folder structure. And since it will respect this structure on future imports, you’ll hopefully never have to do this again.

The Big Picture has finished their 2009 roundup. Many great shots but I have to warn you there are some awfully grim ones in the mix. Here’s part one, part two, and part three.

Who knew H1N1 would make for such a good photo gallery. Check the agony and the eggstacy.

Great shot of Usain Bolt with a cheetah cub:

This guy made a hummingbird feeder helmet, held really still, and they flew right up to his face. Very cool, although it’s exactly that kind of gullibility that can land a little bird in big trouble. Wow, do not be taking the praying mantis lightly!

No way a crow would fall for either of these. The mantis would be lunch, and the guy would be watching one crow while another lifted his wallet.

Very happy boy today, as Google rolled out face recognition with the latest version of Picasa. Tag some faces, and it will automatically find the similar ones. Can’t wait to play with this.

The Big Picture has shots from this year’s Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling in Gloucester, England:

In a tradition that dates back at least 200 years, possibly much longer, groups of fearless competitors chase an 8 pound (3.5 kg) round of Double Gloucester Cheese down an extremely steep and uneven hill, with a 1:1 gradient in some parts. Thousands of spectators gather to watch the five downhill and four uphill races, and to celebrate the winners and console the losers afterward. Injuries such as broken bones and concussions are commonplace, but the event continues to grow in popularity. The winner of each race is awarded the delicious round of cheese they were chasing.

Phojojojo teaches how to do black and white photo conversion right, rather than the uninspiring “convert to greyscale” technique.

The Big Picture has a nice collection of Easter shots. I really like the eggs in the first two pictures. While we’re on the subject of Easter, Amelia had a stroke of genius this year, suggesting we do the egg hunt in the dark, kids armed with flashlights. It’s at least twice as much fun as a daytime hunt, and even eggs in plain sight can take awhile to find. Give it try next year.

The Big Picture has a bunch of cool before/during Earth Hour photos. Starting with the second photo, you can click the picture and watch the lights fade off.

You can ask Matt Held to paint your Facebook portrait photo:

With the development of social networking sites, I’ve developed an interest in how people take simple or complex snapshots of themselves, post them to their page as a representation of who they are and what they want people to see. It is an interesting form of control and, in a way, self-preservation. However, there is a strong likelihood that many people who don’t know you will see this photo representation and make passing judgments as to who you may or may not be, much in the same way we make passing judgments on people we see in our neighborhoods every day.

Take a collection of these portraits and put them into the context of a gallery space or like setting, and you see a community of individuals- their likeness elevated and memorialized like the original commissioners of portrait painting; the rich and powerful – displayed as a portrait’s original intent: expression of an individuals’ character and moral quality.

To apply simply join the I’ll have my Facebook portrait painted by Matt Held Facebook group. (via andrew sullivan)

The Big Picture has a fantastic set up, Scenes from Pakistan. The great photography is offset by the grim news:

The government of Pakistan announced on Monday that it would accept Islamic Sharia Law to be implemented in its Swat Valley region, as part of a truce with local Taliban leaders. Militants had been demanding Sharia law, attacking opponents, burning scores of girls’ schools and banning many forms of entertainment. Gun battles between Pakistani security forces and militants have killed hundreds, while up to a third of the valley’s 1.5 million people have fled.

Off to see Coraline with Amelia this afternoon! In celebration, a little GIMP work:

She finds it creepy. Mission accomplished. :-)

The Big Picture’s Inauguration photos are up. I wish I could requisition satellite shots like this one.

I really like Color Me Katie’s thought bubbles project. Her whole blog is fun. I imagine she’s just like Jennifer Garner’s character from 13 Going On 30.

The Big Picture, The Year 2008 in Photographs (part 1 of 3). Use the “j” and “k” keys to navigate through these. Really nice UI touch, so much better than using Page Up/Down or the scrollbar. Can’t believe I didn’t notice that before. The “graphic content” filter is nicely done too.

Some heartbreaking shots in there.

P.S. Part 2 is up. Ouch. Plus some Usain Bolt action.

P.P.S. Part 3. That can’t really be what the moon looks like from Tibet, can it? Long exposure?

He Took a Polaroid Every Day, Until the Day He Died. 6,697 of 'em. I love projects like this.

After watching Americans are NOT stupid (very funny, but all you have to do is read a few of the comments to be reminded that idiocy knows no geographic boundaries), it was refreshing to be reminded that there are also very, very smart people in the world: Blaise Aguera y Arcas shows off Photosynth. Wow.

Just a little diversion for you: talk about awkward moments in sports!

I really enjoyed browsing through Bil Elsinger's Nationals Open Division Finals photos. Lots of great shots, but I particularly liked teasing a story out of a couple sequences. Two examples:

• First, second, third, and fourth.
• First (holy cow!) and second.

Homeless James from Virginia:

i took to james immediately. he is friendly, open and warm. he says he'll have my back if i should ever need him. he introduced me to his friends as he walked the street looking for a fix. he says he has "a lot of hatred and a lot of happiness." he agrees it's a strange mix.

he doesn't mind people taking his picture. "people say it's stealing your soul; but my soul ain't worth nothing."

but he says he thinks he has goodness in him. "i'm a motherfucker, but i'm good to women and old people. i always give up my seat on the bus. and i'm good to my friends."

James is dying of colon cancer. More on the clickthrough. Speechless.

Why Your Camera Does Not Matter:

Why is it that with over 60 years of improvements in cameras, lens sharpness and film grain, resolution and dynamic range that no one has been able to equal what Ansel Adams did back in the 1940s? ... [snip] ... Why is it that photographers loaded with the most extraordinary gear who use the internet to get the exact GPS coordinates of Jack's or Ansel's photo locations and hike out there with the image in hand to ensure an exact copy (illegal by US copyright laws and common decency), that they get something that might look similar, but lacks all the impact and emotion of the original they thought they copied?

Interesting rant, even for non-photographers like me.

Poor beast. I dub this a Lloodle.