The Night Sky, Nature by Design
We all need something that inspires us, the universe inspires me! Its hard to believe that there is so much beauty around us and we often don’t take the time to stop and see it!
Late in the evening on March 1st I got a call from my husband, he was excitedly telling me to check the sky watch maps at Space Weather to see the Aurora intensity. When I pulled up the web site I mirrored his excitement and said “Heck yeah, we are so going sky watching tonight!” Since we live in Northern Minnesota we have the opportunity to see Aurora’s when they dip low enough, its not often though.
What does this mean? Well, first of all the sun has to be active and when it is it sends out solar flares that can interfere with our atmosphere and cause geomagnetic storms. OK, this is the really simplified explanation, there are a lot of factors and more scientific stuff but I’m sure you don’t really want to hear all that. If you are interested check out SpaceWeather.com for more info. Our atmosphere is always slightly active but when its more active we get a nice light show of green and sometimes purple ribbons to the north. Because of the light pollution from cities most people that live in the northern areas still don’t see them. In order to catch them in Northern Minnesota we still have to go out to remote areas and use long exposure photography. On the night of March 1st we were hitting K5 to K6 for intensity, which means it was dipping low into the upper United States and perfect for sky viewing.
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Winter Fun!
You can’t be serious and work every day! I recently took the kids out to enjoy the sun, although it was extremely cold! Living in Northern Minnesota you do learn to acclimate a bit and even at -10 we were out playing. I should also add that hand warmers are your friend. Normally I shy away from taking photo graphs outdoors in the winter because all the white scares me. It can be tricky to get your camera settings right so that the pictures aren’t all over exposed, or blue. We took a chance and had a blast in the snow.
So I’ll leave you with a few pictures and the reminder that you shouldn’t work too hard, you have to take time to go out and play as well! Want to see more Northern Minnesota Photography? Check out Nate Paul Images for more photos taken by myself and my husband.
Photo Alterations, Aperture Tutorial
(Mouse over photo to the left to see original unedited photo)
My last blog post highlighted photo enhancement, now we’ll look more at alterations. When a photo has unwanted clutter or defects it is necessary to alter it with photo editing software in order to direct the viewer’s attention to the subject of the photo. To the left you’ll see a photo that I have altered from its original version. Along with altering to remove clutter I have also enhanced the photo. This is not as hard to do as you might think. For this I used Aperture for Mac which has a variety of built in features to let you manipulate your images. The original picture here is actually a low quality image that was loaded on Facebook, imagine what you could do with a higher quality image!
I’ve also done a video tutorial so you can see the process in which I used to create the final image to the left. Check it out and see what you can do with your own photos. Don’t have a Mac? Try GIMP, Photoshop or Paintshop Pro on your Windows computer.
Want to see in high definition? Click the video to go directly to YouTube and view it there.
Photo Manipulation and Enhancement – Why?
(mouseover photos in this blog article for before and after examples)
Enhancing photos to maximize your web site visitor’s experience. Sell your products with the use of great photos!
You’ve visited web sites and seen amazing product photos or just great photos in general, you might have asked yourself “How can I get photos like that?” or “How come the photos I take never look like that?” Well, they can! Chances are, the photos that you see and love don’t start out that way. In fact, they probably look like the photos you have been taking all along.
Of course you have to start to with a good photo, but it might look different than what you think! The photographer (you) will matter the most when taking your pictures, not the camera. Get the shot you want, make sure it is in focus, good light balance and a large enough resolution that you can work with it. Most point and shoot digital cameras are plenty good enough for your web site needs! (If you have a fancier DSLR, chances are you already know how to digitally correct your photos anyways so this blog post wont teach you much! Sorry!)
Find a graphic editing program that will work with your computer. I prefer Aperture on my iMac, many use Adobe Lightroom or even Photoshop. Many cameras have software that you can install to edit your photos as well. I wont go into the actual editing process here though. I have a Aperture video tutorial on the blog if you want more of that specific information. Play around with your photo, adjust colors, contrast, smoothing and sharpening features. Pretty soon your so-so picture may look amazing.
Why is this important? When shopping for products or browsing a web site you look for images that pop and catch your eye. Pictures truly do say more than words and many wont stop to read a description if the picture doesn’t interest them. If your pictures are washed out or flat, that is what your customers are going to feel about your site and your products. Editing your photos can give your products a more representative finished look. The color you thought was beautiful in person may look flat in the picture. You want your customers to get excited about your products so make sure the pictures show what they really look like! Your product probably isn’t flat, so your picture shouldn’t feel flat either. You don’t sell a product? That’s ok too, this still applies! Pictures often are used to show emotion, a little photo editing can really enhance this so your visitors can grasp that emotion immediately at first glance.
I’m not a fan of photo editing to the point of altering body perception, I prefer to only enhance the natural beauty of the subject as it is. Sticking to this, I feel the photos look more natural as well. An over photo-shopped image will leave the viewer scratching their heads and wondering what they really going to get if they dare to order. So keep it simple, keep it natural, enhance to promote an emotion you wish to emphasize.
Not sure if you can do it? Give it a try and don’t be afraid to experiment! Try funky effects to create your own style.
Still not sure? Web Savvy Mama (me!) does offer image manipulation and editing services. Just contact me and I can give you a quote for your project.
The images on this page are ones that I took of my children and did some very basic photo enhancing to. Mouseover to see the original images and the difference that can be made.
10 Reasons to Avoid Free Websites
I see this a lot, really, a LOT. Someone decides they have an awesome idea for a new business and starts researching how to start a web site to sell their product. Obviously, its human nature to try to get the best deal we can and free sounds amazing! Or does it? Here are my top 10 reason to avoid free web sites.
1. Is it really free? Sure, the basic personal version is free. Did you consider you may want more space, add on a domain, a different look, and oh did you want email as well, we can do that but start adding on the fees. Sorry guys, but the free is part is usually just to get you in the door and signed up thinking you found a great deal.
2. Who are you really promoting? So you think you are promoting your products or services, but really you are also promoting their services and interests as well. I’d say %99 of free sites have either advertising or pop-ups that they throw onto your site. So when your visitors visit and get side tracked by the add they stuck in your margin and click-off, did the free site really help you get a sale or did they just get a sale for one of their advertisers? Not to mention, its just annoying to see when trying to shop!
3. Unprofessional. When I go shopping for a product I may have hundreds of choices for where to buy it. I’m going to ultimately buy from a site that looks secure and trust-worthy. If they have ads or are using a free template seen on 20 other sites I’ll probably pass them up. I’m going to buy the product from the site that put more effort into their storefront. Would you rather buy a new computer from a reputable store or from someone selling from the trunk of their car? Which one are you going to be more willing to turn your credit card information over to?
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My iPad Review
I’ve been lazy with my reviews, so here’s one about a product that has helped me catch up lately! I started back to school for the year in August taking on a 19 credit course load! All I can say is: whoa! How is a mom of three busy children supposed to keep everything organized, work and do great in school? I decided to get technical and try another Apple product.
I picked up a 32gb iPad in September in an attempt to better organize my life, and boy have I given it a workout! I have to start by saying that I previously brought my Aluminum Macbook to school everyday in order to follow along on power points, do assignments and have an easy way to look up the information I was looking for. I love my Macbook, but lets face it, it can be a bit heavy and cumbersome. The iPad may seem like a giant iPhone and many people say it wont replace a laptop, I beg to differ.
The iPad comes with many standard features that you may already be familiar with on your iMac or iPhone including: iCal, Notes, Contacts, Mail and Safari among others. We are also big fans of MobileMe to help keep our calendars organized and contact books synced.
After unboxing and playing around with my new toy, I immediately purchased 3 apps that I knew would come in handy to make the iPad an essential tool for me. Pages, Keynote and Task PRO. Pages allows me to download (or load) my study guides and assignments right to the iPad so I can review and work on the go. Pages does come with a lot of useful templates and I am even able to create newsletters and documents for work by loading my own templates too! Keynote allows me to view Power Point presentations my instructors lecture from, enabling me to follow along easier no matter where I sit. I can pull up the information again at anytime without printing off several dozen pages. Task PRO allows me to keep track of lectures, skills and assignments so I always know what I need to get done. The extra wireless keyboard we had for one of our iMacs works very smoothly with the iPad to make typing even easier. Although, I do find that having to turn off the bluetooth when I’m wanting to use the onscreen keyboard again is a bit frustrating.
With wireless enabled I can study and research anywhere on campus or at home. The iPad fits easily in my purse so I don’t have to worry about forgetting it at home, its always on hand so that I can pull it out to study whenever I have down time without bringing a bulky laptop or piles of papers.
Besides the education and organization aspects of the iPad I’ve also found that its become an awesome tool in other areas of my life as well. With the camera adapter I use the iPad to free up camera space and easily share pictures with others. When I’m ready to load them to my computer it transfers full resolution versions of my photos! I won’t have to tell other photographers how valuable it is to be able to proof photos right on location versus waiting until you’ve gotten back to a home computer. Instead of shoving the latest book I’m reading into my purse, I can purchase it for my iPad and have it with me without having to worry about bent pages or losing my place. The screen is also the perfect size for watching movies. Earlier this month I had to bring 2 of my children to a boring meeting with me. Thinking ahead, I loaded a favorite kids’ movie and plugged in 2 sets of headphones. (jack splitters are invaluable for multi-kid families!) The only noises they made during my meeting was the occasional giggle of glee. The iPad helped get us out of there much faster so we could get to the really fun stuff, like playing at the park!
The bad? I want WiFi printing! hey, awesome that it allows bluetooth printing, but I don’t have a bluetooth printer! Our home network is all wireless with wireless printing, it would be amazing to be able to print my documents without having to sync to my computer. Fortunately, Apple seems to be taking this request seriously and promises to unleash WiFi printing to the ipad in November. Yay! I also with this device had a USB port to allow easier data transfer, but I can live without. Many say the lack of camera is a deal breaker for them, not so much for me. I can’t imagine trying to take a picture with the iPad, it just is not light enough to comfortably do so. Which brings me to weight. Sure, its lighter than a laptop, but it does have some weight to it. You wouldn’t want to hold it out in front of you for long, but I haven’t found that I’m tempted too either. I sit with it either on my lap or table anyways, so it hasn’t been a big deal for me.
Overall it has been well worth the investment! I feel more organized now and don’t worry about missing an assignment or not having my materials with to study. I’m sure I’ll get a lot more use out of it as I continue on as well.