SEO for Bloggers: Foundations
When it comes to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) the main thing to remember is that it’s all about relevancy and keywords.
Search engines love blogs and, if you do it right, you can make some good progress just by making a few key changes to what you’re doing already.
When I Grow Up I Want to Shoot Like…
It’s Wednesday again, and one of the things I like to do when I’m feeling so uninspired and uncreative is to look at the work of those who are doing something awesome.
Taking it to the Next Level
I have recently begun talks with a popular web design site to be one of their contributing writers – on an article by article basis. I am very excited about this new opportunity and the challenges it brings.
I am already formulating my first article based on taking something ordinary and transforming it into something unique. I will be doing a start-to-finish workflow, from concept to final image, using my mini-planet tutorial as the basis.
There are many instances when you have a photo and you’re just unimpressed. Not because it isn’t a well-composed, evenly exposed, sharp image, but because it looks like everything else you’ve shot. That’s exactly when you need to do something drastic and jump into the surreal.
Also, coming down the pike with this new venture, I will be writing an article on search engine optimization (SEO) that all you bloggers and website owners out there will want to read so you can make your sites more search-engine-friendly and get more of the traffic you desperately want, and need to keep new customers coming in.
In my final article of my initial series with them, I’ll present an in-depth review of a piece of digital asset management (DAM) software that helps keep all of your files and file associations in order for speedier searching and a more efficient workflow.
When I’m done writing the first article and it is ready to go live, I will certainly share some excerpts here and link you to the entire article for you to enjoy.
Twitter: Photoshop Tips of the Day
Starting last night and continuing every weeknight, probably around 10pm (Eastern) or so, my followers on Twitter will be treated to a new segment I am doing called – imaginatively enough – Photoshop Tip of the Day.
Though I could do full-length tutorials with one tweet/step, single tips are easier to digest and lend themselves so much better to the Twitter format.
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Our Canadian Escape
Last Friday Kim and I decided that we wanted to do something other than house stuff or just relaxing in the pool or watching some movies. And, since today is our 21 month anniversary (Happy Anniversary, Kim! I Love You!). So, around 8 o’clock we decided to drive the 4 hours northwest to Niagara Falls.
These are the first three shots I processed, taken with a Lens Baby – I’ll talk more about that later on – and processed entirely in LR. I think they turned out pretty well.
Photoshop Book Suggestions
What do you look for in a Photoshop Book? Or a Photography Book?
I’ve been thinking about Photoshop and photography books lately and what I hope for whenever I pick one up: quality imagery, something new (or old, done in a new way), engaging writing, a glimpse into the creative process, a sense of the big picture, etc. But how about you?
When you select a new book to help you with your work, what do you look for? Is it the tips and tutorials? The images? The technique? The entire workflow? The nuts andbolts of teh software? Insights into the creative process? How in-depth do you want it to go? Something for the beginner, intermediate, advanced? Something else?
What do you think?
June 23, 2005
A couple of weeks ago I was watching Primetime Live on ABC and Diane Sawyer was interviewing Brad Pitt. Though there were certainly some questions about his relationships over the past year, there was something he did that was very refreshing. He said that the only way he’d give an interview would be if the majority of the time was spent talking about an issue that was very dear to him: poverty. During the course of the interview and segments from his trip to Ethiopia, I was constantly reminded of the poverty that I saw in the flesh during my world travels. I was also reminded of something I saw in passing one evening while my mom was watching one of the entertainment news shows on TV: ONE.
The ONE Campaign is working to raise awareness of Americans and those all over the world about the possibility that there is to make a real difference in the fight to end poverty through a series of agreements to forgive third-world debt, reform trade, and increase the level of foreign aid by an additional 1% of the US budget.
All of a sudden, I felt a great deal of compassion and energy to support such an important problem facing our world. And a sense of passion, even a little, is something that my life has lacked over the past year. And it feels good to have some of that back.
…
On a totally separate note, I have come to a decision in my life, one I have not made lightly. For the past 6 years – maybe even twice that, on some level – I have been struggling with who I am as a spiritual and religious person. I have been a part of the United Methodist Church for my entire life, in part, because I was born into the family of a UM pastor. I’m not implying that that was a bad thing, or that I didn’t find a sense of direction and belonging there – because I did – but as I’ve matured as a person and have gained a clearer picture of who I am and what I believe I’ve come to see more and more that the UMC is no longer the place for me. So, as of the end of July, I’m done.
I’ve spent a great deal of time studying the religions of the world and praying about how I see God and have come to realize that my most basic idea of God is so much wider than the box that Christianity creates. I’ve spent years justifying my beliefs and twisting definitions so that I could feel like I still fit. But that has done nothing but leave me feeling exhausted and like I haven’t been true to myself. It hasn’t been healthy. And I don’t want to do that anymore. I need to be me and not the person I have – for lack of a better word – pretended to be for the past quarter, or more, of my life.
I’m not sure where I’m going to go next, maybe UU, maybe not. I just have to look within and without to find where God is leading me and what community is best for me and where I can be as faithful to myself as possible.
March 14, 2005
I am about to take a step I have never taken before. I have been in foreign countries before and I have even spent some time alone in some of them. I’ve flown cross-country by myself and I’ve lived on my own quite successfully for some time now. But today, while similar, is quite different.
Once again, two and a half years later, I am in the Syracuse airport waiting for a flight that will lead me to a far away place, a place to which I have never been. Semester at Sea took me around the world to twelve different countries, and it was awesome. In many ways, that trip defined my life. While I feel the excitement and anticipation of travel abroad, there’s something else there today, something significant.
I am on my way to London and Northern Ireland for a week of vacation, history, and escape from my day-to-day life. In the 4-5 months that I’ve been planning this trip I’ve felt quite excited and anxious to go. Now, I’m glad to be here and on my way but there is a touch of anxiety that I’m traveling with. I’m alone. It’s not related, directly, with my singleness but I’m somewhat nervous to travel by myself. There’s freedom and flexibility with it but there is no one to lean on, no one to share this adventure with.
For the next week, I am totally independant and on my own in a way I’ve never been before now. It’s exciting, it really is. As uneasy as I may feel because of the newness of the experience, I am filled with this deeper sense of meaning and purpose. And I’m not sure what it is. I was talking with a friend of mine yesterday and she shared with me that she had the same feeling about this, that it is going to be a very special time for me and filled with amazing things.
Visiting the place where my family comes from as well as spending time in a world-class city are going to be a part of the wide range of experiences I’ll have and will bring a depth to my time that I cannot yet perceive. Something wonderful is about to happen…
From My Journal
I haven’t cried in a long time. I’m not talking about a cry that comes from pain or emotional distress or anything like that. The crying I mean comes from someplace deeper.
I don’t remember what I was watching but a few days, or a week, ago I found myself getting teary-eyed while watching some show or movie. When I watch shows like “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” or see an exceptionally romantic or meaningful scene I tend to well up with tears. It doesn’t come from a sappy side that I have, it’s just that shows like that or touching movies tap into something that is fundamentally genuine and good that I don’t see or experience that often.
Remembering back across my life I recall a few moments when I’ve been on one side or the other of just such an expression of honestly and goodness. They are the most moving of moments. They reveal something that is nothing less than a true reflection of one’s heart and most certainly contains something of the divine. I know when I have expressed myself with total humility and honesty I cry. And when my heart is touched by the words of another spoken with the same genuineness, I cry. And it’s amazing!
I don’t know why, but times like that are rare for me nowadays. Meaningful moments that are real and not filtered through the screen of my tv just haven’t been there. And I’m not sure where to find them.
I haven’t cried in a long time…
And I want to cry again…
March 16, 2004
Not really sure what to say this time…yet I’m plagued with the desire, no, the need to write. Nothing momentous, nothing outstanding, nothing even all that good is happening in my life at the moment. Now, don’t get me wrong, work has been going continuously well and we keep doing great work for great people and I’m really enjoying myself. Outside of work General Conference, CCYM, and church obligations keep me out of too much trouble, too.
But there seems to be something missing…
I’m not sure what that “something” is, really, but I know there’s something that doesn’t seem quite right or complete in my life. It feels like I’m always busy and whenever I get the chance to slow down all I feel like doing is crashing on the couch, watching a good movie, and sleeping in – if I get the chance to slow down. Now, at this point in my life – out of college, on my own, single, working – I can afford to be always on the go and always doing something. But I do need that time of retreat, that time of disconnectedness, that time to reclaim myself in the midst of it all.
But it’s a strange dichotomy in which I live. On the one hand I need the me time to refresh and renew my spirits. But on the other, there’s that something else that’s missing and the need to be connected with others. Maybe that’s what’s missing: the feeling of being connected outside of my normal work and church relationships that, often, aren’t all that fulfilling – in a more casual/social sense of the word.
I’ve not been writing in my personal journal lately either. I don’t know why, but I haven’t. I was talking to a friend of mine awhile ago and she was noticing how, in her life, the times when writing doesn’t come easily are often the times when writing is the most necessary. That’s certainly the truth! So, during this time when writing hasn’t been coming quite as easily, I’ll try all the more to keep it up. We’ll see how it goes…
