14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has just launched the Windows Live Photo Gallery 2011 experience on Foursquare, a great initiative designed to highlight the best photo spots in cities across the United States, with a focus on San Francisco, Seattle and New York for the time being. I just have a bit of a problem with it. Where was this when I was in San Francisco a month and a half ago, on foot starting somewhere near Van Ness Ave. and in dire need of some suggestions for the best places to point my camera at?
I ended up snapping some pictures with Alcatraz and the Colden Gate Bridge, but I could have used some help. It was my first time in San Francisco, and in the US for that matter.
“Once you follow Windows Live Photo Gallery on foursquare, we will start to provide you with tips, from expert photographers, on where to take great photos in your city and how to go about taking them,” revealed Microsoft’s Harrison Hoffman.
Hoffman even provided an example of how the new experience works, using San Francisco’s Fort Mason Municipal Pier as a reference.
Users would get a tip such as this one: “Walk out to the end of the pier and look back at the city. There is a great Panoramic Stitch opportunity in which you can capture Coit Tower, The Transamerica Building, and Ghirardelli Square.”
Microsoft launched Windows Live Photo Gallery 2011 earlier this year, along with the rest of the Windows Live Essentials 2011 rich clients.
And just like the rest of the Essentials 2011 suite, the latest iteration of Photo Gallery has evolved considerably.
There are a number of new features for users to take advantage of, enhancing the way in which they are handling digital images, including: enhanced import capabilities, find tab, Photo Fuse, Retouch, Panoramic Stitch, facial recognition, noise reduction, Auto Adjust, Auto straighten, batch editing, improved sharing across social networks, etc.
Microsoft is using tips from some great photographers to get Windows Live Photo Gallery 2011 into the best places possible to take their images, Lorenzo Dominguez for NY, Patrick Smith for San Francisco, and Jason Hoover for Seattle.
“It was a ton of fun scouting out these spectacular spots with each of these talented photographers for a day and hearing about their passion for photography and for their city. Without them, we definitely wouldn’t have been able to get the same level of quality that you see in our tips,” Hoffman added.
“We are also really excited to have worked with foursquare on delivering this experience.
“Many of us on the team here are hardcore foursquare users (I even have the elusive Super Swarm badge!) and their location-based platform is a natural fit for helping users to discover these great photo spots while they’re out exploring their city.”
You can download the features of the Windows Live Essentials suite here:
Windows Live Family Safety Windows Live Mesh Windows Live Photo Gallery Windows Live Movie Maker Windows Live Messenger Windows Live Writer Windows Live Mail The Bing Bar Silverlight Outlook Connector Pack