For new eyes: “Pics of the Week” is a feature where I showcase my favorite images shared on flickr. If you would like to have your work included, post your best shots in our group on flickr.  As always please comment your favorites both here and by clicking on the image. Also, help me spread the word by using the share buttons at the bottom of this post.  Hope you enjoy.

Pics of the Week #30  [45 photos]

Great moment…

Beautiful color…

Love it…

Great tones…

Cold and beautiful…

Great view…

Best Hat award…

Great DOF…

Floating…

Great use of B&W…

Cool…

Scary beautiful…

Gangsterish…

Watchout LA…

Nice colors…

Lovely couple shot…

Nice job Michael…

Great light…

Texture…

Desktop wallpaper…

Gotham…

Interesting/fun/vintage…

Awesome…

Matthew can shoot these in his sleep…

Very creative…

Dark…

Great minimal light…

She has a style I love…

Great portrait…

Nice color and detail…

Dramatic and stunning long exposure…

Cool capture…

Fun with photoshop…

Great love story…

Sharp…

I want this fisheye…

I want to be there…

Cool shot…

Been there…

Green sky’s…

Cool scene…

Great photo/angle…

Clever…

One of my favorites by @photogenix…
And there are a TON more in the group you should check out.

Over the past year I have put together a collection of my favorite “Pics” each week on photocrave.net.  I have browsed through each of those posts to compile a list of my top picks amongst those images. Here are my favorite images I have found on flickr in 2011. Please take a moment to comment below with YOUR favorites on this list. And a special thanks to those great talents on this list. – Here’s to a great 2012.

Best duotone…

Brilliant…

Love the color & style…

This is where I want to book my next getaway…

Michael Herb is a magician of imagry…

Love this picture…

Exciting…

This picture goes on forever…

Feels like you are there…

I love a picture that gives you a story yet leaves you asking questions…

Dizzy, yet awesome…

Simple. Authentic….

There is more to this than what is in focus…

Expression leaves you wanting more…

Awesome Self Portrait…

Zoom Zoom…

This is the next place I will be camping…

I want to read this story…

Love paws…

Scary, Bloody, Beautiful…

Cute. I may or may not try this one myself…

Best Maternity picture ever.

Many Words for this One…

I want to know where she is going and where she has been…

Fun….

So simple, so cool…

This one makes me laugh…

Dramatic…

Sweet…

Cool shot…

Green. Nuts…

Nice color, gradient…

National Geographic-ish…

One of my favorite places on earth…

Hope, magic, miracle…

Beautiful Wedding Shot…

Great Contrast…

Winter Wonderful…

Best Back-lighting Award…

Perfect Lighthouse shot…

One of the most natural looking couple shots ever…

Look at those eyes…

Perfect use of light…

Great perspective…

His face says so much…

I just love the light, the warmth, and the color…

Awesome ride, awesome shot…

Wet fun…

Quiet, relaxing…

Great “people” shot…

Gravity kills. or rather works here…

What matters most…

Heart Racing…

Love Bokeh…

Love Eyes too…

I’m not the biggest fan of B&W, but I love this story…

Another great story…

A reason I am becoming a Strobist…

Great…

This one just seemed to be a good wrap-up photo…

What is next for 2012? As for for my readers and followers on photocrave, the short answer is: I’m not sure. Part of my New Year’s resolution for 2012 is to concentrate on my own photography development and cant promise to continue to contribute each week. Perhaps if there is enough interest in my “pics of the week” I will recruit some help on the site or maybe even move it over here to my blog. If you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear them here. But for the time being, if you would like to include your images to our group on flickr, PLEASE continue to do so for future “Pics” posts.

Happy 2012 – let’s make it a good one.

Getting started. You can use any MP3 file currently in your iTunes library other than those you have purchased directly from iTunes – those are encrypted and unable to be altered. You will also need to listen to the song and find the 0:15 seconds that you will want to be played for the ringtone.

1. In iTunes select the song to use for your ringtone and right-click (pc) or control-click (mac) to select “Get Info”.

2. Under the Options tab in the popup window you will check off and fill in the respected Start Time and Stop Time for the 15 seconds you would like to have as you ringtone. For example the first 15 seconds would look like this…. Then Click OK.

3. Now right click again on the song and select “Create AAC Version“. This will create a new version (AAC audio file) of the song at the length of the time you determined.

4. Copy the new AAC Version to your desktop. Once copied, delete the AAC version from iTunes. (If you dont delete it you wont be able to copy the ringtone back in the following step)

5. Right-click on the original song and un-check the start and stop times (so you will hear the entire song the next time its played).

6. Change the extension of the AAC audio file on your desktop from “.m4a” to “.m4r“.

7. Now, copy the newly named .mpr file into your iTunes library. If you do not already have a category called ringtones, it will automatically create one. Each new mpr file copied into iTunes will be read as a ringtone and placed in this folder.

8. Thats it. You created your own ringtone. Now all you need to do is Sync this ringtones folder to your iPhone under the preferences when your iPhone is connected to your computer.

Please feel free to comment below if you have any questions or issues creating your own ringtones for your iPhone directly from iTunes. Also, help me out by sharing this How to article using the social buttons below.

Why Hot Links?

I am somewhat of an internet junkie and I am constantly finding content worthy of sharing. I used to run a similar featured call “Wicked Good Week“, but I dont think people got the humor. I also ran a similar column called “The Weekly 30″ when I was the publisher of ThirtyMag.com. This is the same idea, just with a new name (hopefully one people will understand) and no set number of cool links. I just cant get away from wanting to spread the love.

The idea is to publish Hot Links each Monday morning so you will have something to read while enjoying your morning coffee. Seems like a good match, right?

I’d love for Hot Links to become a collaborative effort amongst all of us. If you have created or found something worthy of share, please send it to me. In general I am looking for content that is informative, interesting, engaging, eye catching, or inspiring. My main audience is online, curious, business savvy, creative people. Also, if you have any thoughts, comments, or suggestions, there is a place for that below.

Ready?

Hot Links #1 Something New

Hot Stuff

1. Probably the coolest (and most anticipated news of the week (OR YEAR)… hint it comes after iPhone4 (story here)

2. Speaking of Apple, here is a neat site for all you Steve Jobs fans… appleofwisdom.com

Photography Stuff

Those who know me, know I am a fan of photo. Check out these great links to some incredible images

3. Reflection perfection! Photographer travels the globe to capture stunning mountain-range shots

4. Check out my favorite Pics of the Week (#20) on Photocrave

5. Breathtaking Long Exposure Photography and How to Capture It

and some really cool images that will take you back (before I was born)…

6. Captured: America in Color from 1939-1943

7. Did you know the FIRST phone camera shot was taken back in 1997? Full story here

Creative Stuff

8. My World, My Way – New Ads Campaign from Allen Solly (my favorite one below)

9. All you tweeters and facebookers may want to see how mush is accomplished on social media every 60 seconds…. (for starters there are 98,000 new twitter accounts in just one minute)

10. Check out these creative Photography in Advertising campaigns… [link]

11.  What Is A QR Code And How Does It Work? find out here

12. A cool minimalist print ad for Lego…

13. Here are 39 more… [link]

Social Media Stuff

14. 20 Ways to Improve Your Google+ Knowledge

15. Cool Brand re-versioning by Graham Smith (here are a few more… full story)

Healthy Stuff

16. 23 Scientifically-Backed Ways to Reduce Stress Right Now

Other Good Stuff

17. Back to the Future fans: ever want a pair of the futureisitc Nike Mags? check this out…

18. This little graphic sums up EVERY SINGLE TIME I GO TO BED…

19. Hockey Starts this week. This may not be NHL, but it could be one of the best goals I have EVER seen…

20. And Finally my next car…

21. right after I buy this one…

Hot Deals

I am an affiliate to several services that I have used and enjoyed in the past. Here are a couple recent offers you may or may not be interested in. Yes I get a cut. No, you wont pay more.

22. New Member Offer – 50 Free Prints + $10 Off at Kodakgallery.com

23. Professional Prints – Get 20% Off When You Spend $20 at Kodakgallery.com

24. 25% Off Greeting Card Printing – Use Coupon Code OC25GC. Expires 10/31/2011

As you can see there are some cool things out there. I could go on and on. However, I’ll let you get back to being “productive”. Just dont forget to stop by next Monday for a new list of Hot Links. BUT while you are here, why not make it easy on yourself  and just subscribe to this fun weekly feature via RSS. Or find me on twitter. Or Facebook. whatever.

*link to featured image