Monthly Archives: September 2009

Photo-A-Day

PhotoShoot with @PopImages

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PhotoShoot with @PopImages
Photo-A-Day #1625

Today my friend Lenny (@popimages) came over to shoot photos of me for a Secret Project, which happens also to be the name of his blog. I need photos of me for something that is coming up in a few weeks. I can’t show you any of the photos of me however I can show you the photo that I took of Lenny as he was taking photos of me.

I can also show you a beautiful photo of Eva that I took while we were trying to take family photos as well.

Loving photos from Dadda

The toughest thing for me being an amateur photographer is that I want to shoot my way and cannot convey what I really want to someone else. Lenny comes from the world of old school film and he had the light meter and knew many technical things for photography. He’d say some term and I’d have a totally blank look on my face. My response was “I just shoot”. That is my process I shoot and shoot until I find a shot I like and then I shoot some more. I think that Lenny and I worked out a good system overall and I am pleased with many of the photos. I’ll post them up when I get a chance after the ones I use for the secret project go up.

After the main photoshoot we went to Havana Cafe for Lunch. Lenny works cheap, for food. It was the least I could do for him. Who knows we might even get our Christmas photo from the lot. Every time I go to Havana Cafe I am happy with the results. The food is so delicious and the people there are so friendly. I just wish that more people were in there when we go. I feel bad because the people are so friendly and the food is so good but the location sucks. There is not enough parking and it is on a busy street. But if you can brave that you will really enjoy the food.

After lunch we went up to World War I Memorial Park and Lenny got a few fun shots of me at the playground. Adults on children’s toys make for fun photos. I hope these were the sort of photos that I need for this secret project.

Blogging, Photo-A-Day

Does your Blog Need Pruning?

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Does your Blog Need Pruning?
Photo-A-Day #1624

A week ago I read the post How to Write With a Knife by Michelle Russell on Copyblogger.com. It was all about self editing and having tighter content.

I’m not that good at self editing. I tend to ramble (see, I didn’t need to say that I tend to ramble nor did I need to point it out to you.) However, I’d like to be a better writer. To do so I need to prune my words a bit. Like the photo above there are some great parts of that aloe plant but there are also some dying parts to it. The plant needs to be pruned and re-potted. It has grown wild for years.

This blog has been part of my life for over 6 years now and it has had many incarnations over the years. I’ve had different themes, I’ve added different widgets and links. The blog has been completely cluttered and totally lean. Right now I have a little clutter in the theme and some clutter in the writing so I need to do some pruning.

How to Prune Effectively

1.) Remove useless chicklets. Early on when I started blogging I had chicklets all over the place. Everyone and their brother has a top blog list and you can get listed as long as you pop a chicklet up on your blog. These chicklets add up and clutter the place. See if you are actually getting traffic from these sites and if not toss the chicklet.

2.) Over Advertising. Is your blog cluttered with ads? Which ones are making you some money and which ones are not. Move those money makers to a prominent place and dump the losers.

3.) Hidden Content – Is your content hiding behind all the ads,and chicklets and videos and the whole blog design? Look at your design, that beautiful header might be way too huge and if it makes your readers scroll to find your initial content then it is time to make that header leaner and smaller.

There are many more ways to prune your blog and make it healthier and cleaner, do you have some tips to share?