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Clearing Up the Confusion E-Zine Vol 04 Issue 05
------- Clearing Up the Confusion E-Zine -------
Vol 4, Issue 5
My daughter Kaylie can be a real cutie at times. Anyone who has
children knows what I'm talking about. Just watching her running
around the house or out on the lawn can bring a smile to my face.
When she decides to give the nearest tree a hug, well, I just
have to get a picture of that.
Unfortunately, unlike in days of yesteryear, none of Kaylie's
grandparents live in the same village (or even within an hour's
drive) of us. For some reason, me just telling them about these
events just isn't the same as seeing their granddaughter in
living color. Of course, they want actually to be with her
whenever possible, but when that can't happen, a photograph is
the next best thing.
In fact this is a reflection of a natural desire in all of us.
We are tremendously visually oriented. Even the most powerful
writing or speaking will be improved by associated images. For
those of us who are regular bloggers, this can lead to the
challenge of where to find good images.
We talked about a few locations last issue. This time through,
we'll add more options to the list. Different ones will be more
or less appropriate depending on purpose, budget, and the images
needed.
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In This Issue...
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1. Article: Show Me a Picture, Part 2
2. Blog Posts
3. Shameless Self-Promotion
4. The Fine Print
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1. Article: Show Me a Picture, Part 2
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Ever since I started my first blog, Clearing Up the Confusion,
and on into today with my latest effort, The Reluctant Networker
(http://thereluctantnetworker.com), I have always preferred to
include an image of some kind with the articles I was posting. At
the advice of another blogger, I primarily just did a Google
Image search and used whatever images looked like they would fit.
I've begun to feel more than a little uncomfortable about that
lately. I have a couple of friends who are professional
photographers -- my buddy Al Bogdan, portrait and event
photographer and videographer (http://chronasoft.com), and my
friend Timothy Wells Householder, art photographer and owner of
Timothy Wells Photography (http://bit.ly/92avCL) and I realize
that they put a *lot* of work into their craft. For me to use the
work of their colleagues of the lens without permission or
acknowledgement just felt wrong for me.
In the last installment we looked at the good and bad of Google
Images and of either taking your own shots or hiring someone to
do it for you. This time I'm going to talk about what I consider
to be the most powerful of the available options.
* iStockPhoto (http://istockphoto.com/) -- iStockPhoto is a
service which allows potographers to provide their imagery to
interested users. Prices vary between images and increase as
the desired resolution increases. Positives: *Wide* selection
of imagery including photos, illustrations, and
video. Easy-to-use interface. You can get a lot of images in
their "dollar bin" which are high quality and are still not
very expensive (even ones of Siberian Tigers). Negatives:
Costs money, if not always a lot. You have to purchase a
minimum number of credits, so if all you need is a single,
small image, you may have leftover credits.
* Flickr (http://flickr.com/) -- Flickr is the photo sharing site
where many people upload and share their photographic
efforts. They can set the permissions on their files to allow
you to use them for a variety of purposes. The advanced search
(http://www.flickr.com/search/advanced/) allows you to specify
those files which have the appropriate permissions for your
needs. Positives: Wide selection of photos. Photos are
free. HTML code to give appropriate attribution is connected
directly to the image in question. Easy to use. Negatives:
Doesn't have quite the depth that iStockPhoto offers. You may
not always be able to find the particular image you want
(though they did have Siberian Tigers). Imagery may be slightly
less professional than iStockPhoto (though with so many images
to choose from, that shouldn't be a real issue).
* Google Image Advanced Search
(http://www.google.com/advanced_image_search) -- Yes, we
already talked about Google Image, but this is the considerably
more powerful version (thanks to David Ludlow --
http://adsllc.com/) for putting me on to this one). This
interface *does* allow you to search using the Creative Commons
permissions like Flickr. It does not, however, limit the images
to Flickr. Positives: Flickr plus! Google somehow finds not
only the images on Flickr, but also many other images which
have the desired permissions set on them. Negatives: Not
many. The main limitation would be that you are constrained to
those pictures which others have specifically made available
through Creative Commons, so may not have access to the
*perfect* image you are seeking.
If you have any other locations where you like to find images,
please send them in. In the meantime, I hope that these sources
help you add some zing to whatever project you are working on.
Copyright 2010, Greg Peters
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2. Blog Posts
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Links to posts on the "The Reluctant Networker" Blog:
Tuesday, April 20, 2010 -- Just Like Us
http://thereluctantnetworker.blogspot.com/2010/04/just-like-us.html
"This morning my daughter, Kaylie, and I stumbled downstairs,
still in our pajamas a bit earlier than normal. She played
happily with her stuffed Mickey Mouse while I tried to shake the
sleep out of my brain. After I finally got myself awake, I called
out to her, "Kaylie, would you like some breakfast?" She came
running into the kitchen, "Breakfast!" Then she paused, with a
look of concentration on her face and said..."
Tuesday, April 27, 2010 -- Asking for the Referral
http://thereluctantnetworker.blogspot.com/2010/04/asking-for-referral.html
"My sales coach, Joe Marr, has a great system for asking for
referrals, called CAPS. The general idea is that you focus on
some particular aspect of your target market which, when
specified, is sufficient to trigger a listener's associative
memory. Asking "Do you know anyone who needs a house?" isn't
likely to stimulate any ideas, but asking "You wouldn't happen to
know a young family who's about to have their third child, would
you?" is more likely to get the desired results..."
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3. Shameless Self-Promotion
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The "Clearing Up the Confusion" E-Zine is a production of Greg
Peters, owner, chief cook, and bottlewasher of Cyber Data
Solutions. CDS has been helping website designers develop better
web presence for their clients for more than a decade. Visit us
on the Web at www.cyberdatasolns.com to see how we can help your
webmaster.
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4. The Fine Print
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