by Jeff on December 4, 2007
You can publish a book of your digital photos super quick and easy using lulu.com’s photobook creator. It’s basically a drag and drop application that runs in your browser. You just select one of a few themes they have and start uploading your digital photos. You can get either a hardcover or softcover book in sizes 9×7 or 8.5×11.
Their software allows you to easily upload your photos, then drag them to any desired page so you control the layout. You can have text below or next to your photos if you like or none at all for a sleek look.
I made one of these for my wife in about 2 hours… take into account I was enhancing all the images with photoshop actions so that’s what took so long. If your photos are already ready then you could have your book made in as little as 10 minutes if you’re quick. That’s how easy their system is to use. I think it’s a cool way to share photos of your kids or whatever with your family/friends. It’s the perfect gift for grandparents too.
This is the first book I’ve done using lulu.com and it was a breeze. Now I just can’t wait to see how it turns out. If good, which I’m expecting then I can easily order more from the product page. Super simple!
View their holiday shipping schedule to see if you still meet the deadline for Christmas. If you missed it you should still give it a try. Better late then never right?
I’ll keep you posted how my book turns out.
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by Jeff on October 14, 2007
Have you seen my flash photo slideshow yet? I just upgraded it to the new Slideshowpro 1.60. I’m also using SSP Director which is a super sweet admin for it. It allows you to create albums and galleries and edit every aspect of your slideshow online. No messing with creating XML files by hand!
Slideshowpro is now even more advanced fully supporting video! What a godsend. Any professional photographer who wants to display photographs on their website should be using this script in my opinion. It is by far the best flash photo gallery slideshow you can get right now.
Yes you can embed your favorite audio track in the slideshow, but don’t! No one likes having to listen to someone else’s favorite music. Not everyone has the same tastes. Also it’s annoying if you’re already listening to music on your computer. Let your photos speak for themselves!
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by Jeff on June 20, 2007
I can’t express how much I love iStockphoto. They have so many usefull graphics and videos for super cheap it’s ridiculous. You can find a ton of usefull photos, videos, illustrations, icons, etc there. If you’re a freelance web designer and don’t already use istockphoto then you’re missin out, period.
Downloads for one dollar,, are you kidding? Not with iStockphoto. You can find tons of great stuff on iStock.
There isn’t a yougraphic.com cause that would be pretty boring,, but there is a youtube. Have you figured out yet that video advertising is the wave of the future on the net? You can post any video for free to any free video hosting service like youtube, google video etc. You need footage though and maybe you’re not good with a video camera,, or maybe you don’t have one. Have you looked on iStockphoto yet? They have tons of video clips for $5 you can use to create your next video.
I’ve started experimenting with marketing via youtube and I am using video I got from iStockphoto. I’m not marketing anything really.. I’m just experimenting with how many views you can get from putting up video with certain keywords in the title. I am curious to see what gets the most hits. It’s for fun.
But seriously, Istock has a ton of great photos for your website or next brochure if you’re a graphic designer. You wouldn’t expect much for $1 but you can truly get great shots for that much if you’re looking to add nice images to your blog posts. I might consider doing that just to promote some artists on istock. There is some real talent on that site. Just search for anything under illustrations. You will see some great illustrators work.
iStockPhoto - Go have a look!
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by Jeff on July 3, 2006
I stumbled upon this cool little flash photo gallery script that allows you to run a cool flash slideshow on your site. It is super easy to install and use. It’s basically a few files you have to upload and change the permissions to. Then upload your images and it will create the thumbnails for you. You do need GD library installed on your server for the image resizing feature so make sure you have that installed first.
I installed it on my Photos of Norway site in just a few minutes. There is also a cool flickr script which you can also use to create a cool flash gallery from your flickr photos.
The simpleviewer script is great for showing off your photos and is perfect if you are a photographer and need to easily display your photos on your website. Because it is flash though it’s not the best for search engine optimization purposes. I would suggest putting your photo gallery either in a subdirectory or if you do add it to your homepage that you do it in a way that leaves some space for static content.
I added a table to the top of my photos of norway site that includes static links to other sections of the site that the search engines can see and I could of added more text content to the lower section of the page if I wanted but left it out since I am not running an seo campaign for my photos of norway site. But if you are concerned with using flash for your photography site then there are ways to do it where you can still create an seo optimized page mixing flash with static content.
If you are looking for a more advanced flash photo gallery script be sure to check out my photo slideshow page where I display a very nice looking flash gallery that can be embedded into any site.
If you want more information or need help installing this or any script on your website please contact me. I’m a professional web designer that can help you with your business website.
If you’d like to take a look at a cool non flash website for your photography website then check out that link. You don’t need flash for a spiffy looking site.
If you need any help designing or optimizing your website please contact me.
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by Jeff on April 11, 2006
I love taking photos. Just walking around snapping shots of whatever grabs my eye. I often take photos of reflections, graffiti, people, nature and trash. I especially like taking photos of dilapidated signs, buildings and billboards. I plan to start posting some of my photos here as I think this site needs some more visuals instead of just being all copy to give it some life. Now that spring is almost here in Norway things are looking a little more bright as the sun has started to appear. It’s always nice when it’s sunny and warm out to take photos. So I plan on doing that this summer as it looks amazing here in Oslo. On my first visit to Oslo I went out and took a bunch of photos that I put up on my Photos of Oslo blog which I use to share with my family in California. On that page you will see some of my other photos of reflections.
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by Jeff on April 11, 2006
Ha en fin dag - Have a nice day in Norwegian. Photo taken in Oslo, Norway.
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by Jeff on November 30, 2005
Designer’s need photography. But the choice of what photos to use in a design can either make or break a design. There are some cheap stock photography agencies out there where you can find cheap stock photography that is not widely used.
Istockphoto.com offers thousands of stock photos from photographers around the globe. Their rates are extremely cheap when compared to other stock photography sites. You can get a small image for the web for a dollar. Larger images for print cost 3 dollars. They also offer vector images that can be opened with adobe illustrator or macromedia freehand and manipulated from 1 - 5 dollars. This is dirt cheap and probably why this site has gotten so much attention since it’s inception.
When you are surfing photos at Istockphoto pay attention to the times a photo has been downloaded. Their site tells you how many downloads each photo or image has received. This is an indicator that the image you are viewing is either super popular or is not. Less downloaded images are less likely to be seen as duplicates on the web or in print. Less popular images of course might no suite your design but are less likely to be seen as an over used image.
If you want to use a popular photo but still look original try cropping the image. Many times people won’t be able to immediately tell that they have seen a photo before if it is changed up a bit. A simple reversal of the image might be all it takes. Try reversing the image horizontally or even replacing colors within the image. This can be easily done in Photoshop.
Fotalia.com is another stock photography site that offers photos not found on Istockphoto.com. Their site offers larger previews of photos so you can see clearly what you would get. I have found great photos that are not offered on Istockphoto’s site. They offer either web or print use for $1 dollar and $2 dollars respectively. I suggest checking out their site if you haven’t found that perfect image on Istockphoto’s site.
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