Category Archives: Women

What’s the number one camera being used right now as represented by the number of photos shared on Flickr? The Apple iPhone4.

No where on this list of the top 5 cameras do you see any mention of Android devices. Why is that? Apple has clearly made strives to improve the camera on their phones, but is it because of the multitude of applications that are motivating people to share their photos on Flickr or other photo sharing sites? Some might say that Android cameras just plain “suck”, but others will clearly disagree. It’s not as if there aren’t any applications to help take better photos. So maybe it’s because with all this talk about how the iPhone camera is the greatest thing since sliced bread, it’s about time that the Android camera gets a little bit of love. And that’s exactly what VentureBeat’s Jolie O’Dell is doing in her new book Android Photography.

In this 160 page book available for pre-sale now, Ms. O’Dell sets out to promote how cool the platform is. In an interview with me, she says that since she’s been a big Android advocate for a long time, she finds the platform very exciting and “in practice, the phones end up being a huge outlet of creativity for me, personally.” And since she carries around an Android phone all the time, she found it useful when traveling and finding beauty in the world all around her. But the age-old question is, why not the iPhone? Well, she thinks that it’s “over”. In fact, she feels that they’re just inaccessible with few carrier options, no real hardware options and the price can be unappealing to some.

So what’s exciting about this book? Android Photography is an instructional book with a run-down of some hardware and some applications. In addition, Ms. O’Dell as included some information about photo composition, editing, and even how to upload and share your creative work online. And before you think it’s just 160 pages of tough reading, think again. She’s put together some inspiring photo galleries with some jaw-dropping photos from a wide range of photographers around the world. Bottom line? According to Ms. O’Dell, we’re going to be shocked at the kind of results we’ll get out of an Android.

As a photographer, I’m always one to favor my Canon 7D SLR, but often when I’m out about town, I’m carrying my Android phone. And I’ll admit that I’m often thinking that my friends are taking way better photos using their iPhone. I mean, just look at Lisa Bettany’s Camera+ photo app for the iPhone which has been a rousing success or the prominence that Instagram has had in mobile photography — it’s just increasing exponentially. But now, after hearing about Android Photography, I’m thinking that there’s hope for improving my photos, and what I find incredibly helpful is that the examples that are in this book come complete with details on how they were taken so you can learn and try and recreate them.

Android Photography is set to be released in February and can be purchased off of Amazon in paperback format (sorry, no Kindle version). Who knows whether this will help reinvigorate the Android camera revolution, but with studies showing that Android applications being more popular than iPhone and the proliferation of these devices across all carriers like AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint, Android Photography might be the book for people to read in order to understand how to really take a photo.

It’s that time of year again – holiday dinners, holiday spirit and, of course, holiday parties! Trendy Lime is excited to be entertaining its global fans with a tri-continental series of Holiday parties this year—in Brazil, Europe, and the place where it all began– San Francisco, at our beloved Harlot club.

Please join us at Harlot on December 20, 7-11 pm, to enjoy this festive event. The highlight of the party: 10 amazing prizes from our sponsors handed out by Santa Claus and his lovely Elves. So be sure to get your raffle ticket at the door:

• Main prize: two $250 vouchers towards your adventure experience with Zozi.com
• Two sets of sparkly jewelry from Chic Gems
• Two 14-day passes to the elite Bay Club Financial District
• Two beauty baskets from Jurlique, organic care from Australia
• Voucher from CocoVine,1673 Haight Str. for Coco-Luxe delicacies and Blue Bottle Coffee
• Delicious dinner for two @ Morac Lounge

Program:

• Presents raffle handed out by Santa & Elves
• Complimentary appetizers courtesy Morac Lounge
• Photo shoot by Sergei Krasii Photography and Julie Blaustein Photography

Admission:
Complimentary with password sent through Eventbrite. Please RSVP at http://holidaysoireesf.eventbrite.com

General Sponsor:
Our Holiday Soiree is kindly supported by Royse Law Firm, integrated legal solutions for domestic and international clients including start-ups.

Partners:
Zozi.com
Bay Club Financial District
Morac Lounge
cocoVine @ 1673 Haight Street
ChicGems
Jurlique

Media Partners:
Graffiti PR
Eclectic a la Mode
Bub.blicio.us
Sergei Krasii Photography
Julie Blaustein Photography

Trendy Lime:
TrendyLime.com is a social network of 4,000+ international influencers and producer of upscale social and networking events. We enjoy a track-record of 40 sold out events on Fashion, Technology, and Professional Networking in the most exquisite venues of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Sao Paulo, and Vienna. Our Mission is to provide unique event experience for the most discerning guests, while supporting good cause initiatives and charities and collaborating with local businesses.” Ourr diverse and international team is comprised of experts in Marketing, Branding, Event Planning, Fashion, and Travel.  We also enjoy the support of our advisors, followers, and evangelists. Past Trendy Lime sponsors and clients include: HP, Intel, Bay Club, Red Bull, Bloomingdales, jetBlue Airways

Contact:
For inquiries, please contact Liana Burtsava at liana@trendylime.com. Information on Trendy Lime events at www.trendylime.com

San Francisco Fashionista’s have been waiting quite awhile for this. No longer do we Frisconians need to look towards New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles with envy, thinking “why do they get to have all of the fashion forward fun?” The fashion gods have smiled upon us and appraised their gloriousness on our beautiful city with blessing it with our very own version of the interweb’s famed, undeniable click- read- and-bookmark, fashion publication… Ladies and gents, Refinery29 San Francisco has arrived.

How are we stylish mere mortals going to celebrate its launch, you ask? By having a Shop Crawl! The Epic Shop Crawl is a four hour event that stretches amongst San Francisco’s best boutiques. TODAY, April 28, starting at six in the evening! Refinery29 has teamed up with 10 San Francisco boutiques. Each set to suit any and every San Francisco lady’s style.  Not only will there be sales at participating stores entitling shoppers up to 30% off the entire night, there will also be fun giveaways, Refinery29 photographers snapping pictures of you, and free treats from delectable local eateries. Click here and RSVP now so that you don’t miss out on this amazing shopping opportunity!

To see the boutiques in on the epic-ness (the Bell Jar and Acrimony, to name a few of them) and for the ultimate Refinery 29 San Francisco Shop Crawl Cheat Sheet, head over to my blog, http://www.thebeautybohemian.com.

Happy Shop Crawling and a Warm Welcome to Refinery29 San Francisco!

The following is a guest post by Melanie Notkin, founder of SavvyAuntie.com and author of SAVVY AUNTIE: The Ultimate Guide for Cool Aunts, Great-Aunts, Godmothers and All Women Who Love Kids.

My life changed this week. And I owe it all to social media.

I’m at the precipice of one of the most thrilling times of my life and one of the most important days for my business and brand. My book, SAVVY AUNTIE: The Ultimate Guide for Cool Aunts, Great-Aunts, Godmothers and All Women Who Love Kids is being released on April 26^th.  I can honestly say that I owe everything about this book and therefore my entire company, to social media.

It all started almost four years ago on June 12, 2007, when I decided to invest my life savings in developing the first online community for aunts and godmothers, specifically the nearly 50 percent of American women who are not moms but love the children in their lives, by relation and by choice. Savvy Auntie is now an award-winning multiplatform lifestyle brand for an influential and long-neglected segment of women I’ve dubbed PANKs®: Professional Aunts No Kids.

On August 20, 2007, I discovered Twitter through a blog post by Jeremiah Owyang @jowyang .  It was the perfect “Peoria” testing ground as a marketer. As I was developing SavvyAuntie.com, I was able to leverage my innate curiosity (so important to marketers!) and ask my new Twitter friends about the role they play as aunts or as moms who rely on the aunts in their kids’ lives. It really helped me build a better online destination. Over time, I met true pioneers in new media such as @ScottMonty @AaronStrout @ChrisBrogan @GaryVee @Zappos and of course @BrianSolis who taught me so much on how to connect and inspire my audience.

By the time I launched SavvyAuntie.com in July 2008, the support from the Twitter community was so strong, ‘SavvyAuntie’ was the most Tweeted word that day (yes, it was way before Beiber Fever!)

By the fall, I was working on a deal with RazorFish to launch a sponsored conversation on Twitter on behalf of Disney. That idea was so interesting it made the Wall Street Journal online! Further partnerships landed Savvy Auntie in The New York Times and Advertising Age.

Fast forward to the fall of 2009 and I was besotted by a little girl named @Leah_Albert, a 7^th grader in Tanzania who is part of EpicChange.org’s #TwitterKids program, enabling children from the world’s poorest countries to connect digitally. Through that experience, I met @DebbieStier, then an editor at HarperCollins, who was also taken with these amazing kids. Debbie noticed my flourishing online community and brand following and invited me into her office to have lunch. Before I left the building, we were working on the title of my first book.

In the meantime, I started to build a Facebook following. The Savvy Auntie Facebook Page now includes over 42,000 “fans,” rivaling major media companies and household name brands, enabling me to connect and engage with Savvy Aunties consistently daily.

Social media is democratic, enabling good people and good ideas to shine. It’s enabled me to connect with tens of thousands directly, and hundreds of thousands, if not millions, through their networks. I’ve received letters from women who are unable to have children telling me the Savvy Auntie has touched them profoundly, changing their perspective on what it means to be maternal, and lessening their grief. I’ve received letters from women who have chosen not to be mothers, who thank me for elevating their role and respect in their Family Village. I’ve received letters from women who like me, are ‘circumstantially infertile,’ they just haven’t met their love yet, who thank me for redefining their lives in the positive. They are not childless. They are childfull. And their love is a gift.

Recently, I received a Tweet that stopped my heart and then filled it with more love than I ever knew. It was inspired by my effort to give back to @Leah_Albert and kids like her in Tanzania for being an important link in my getting my book deal. I’m giving $1 for each book sold between now and April 27, 2011 to EpicChange.org in Leah’s honor. The attention Leah has been receiving makes her feel like “mr obama!” she Tweeted. And then there was this Tweet from Leah that changed everything: @savvyauntie i like you more than you like me.i have a favour to ask you can call you mum .coz you are like a mother to me.

And that’s how social media changed my life. Being the best Auntie I could be has in effect finally made me a mother.

And I owe it all to social media.

Melanie Notkin is the founder of SavvyAuntie.com and author, SAVVY AUNTIE: The Ultimate Guide for Cool Aunts, Great-Aunts, Godmothers and All Women Who Love Kids (Morrow/HarperCollins).  Melanie invites you to join the Savvy Auntourage at Facebook.com/SavvyAuntie or find her on Twitter @SavvyAuntie.

By Julie Blaustein

Women 2.0 PITCH Night on November 4, 2010 in San Francisco brings together hundreds of entrepreneurs, investors, and startuppers. Both men and women are invited to join Women 2.0′s biggest event of the year — featuring women-led start-ups and successful women entrepreneurs in technology.