Tag Archives: ZINK

Photo-A-Day, Photography, Technology

Tink and Zink

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Tink and Zink
Photo-A-Day #1488

Each time we go to Disney we say that we will make a scrapbook of our times there. Allison and I bought this beautiful scrapbook too. We’ve decided that we’ll start scrapbooking together once a week or so and create pages from our past visits to the house of mouse. One thing we made sure to do when we took Eva for her 1st time to Disney, which was right after IZEAFest last year. We were lucky enough to have Auntie Mo come with us. She surely loves that kid.

Next Thursday we are heading down to Disney for sort of a long weekend. We fly down on Thursday and come back on Monday. While we are there we have a few fun things planned and some in the works. We’re staying at the Buena Vista Resort Palace and Spa. When we arrive on Thursday we’ll relax at the pool and then venture over to Downtown Disney to catch some dinner and walk around. We’re going to go to Animal Kingdom on Friday and I made a reservation at the Rainforest Cafe there for 8 people at 4:15pm so if anyone wants to come for early bird hours let me know.

On Saturday Allison’s parents are coming up from their house to spend two days with us. I made reservations at the Teppan Edo in Japan in Epcot under recommendation from Trevor. Trevor and his wife Mary are going to join us for lunch that afternoon. I’m very excited about Epcot because there is a big flower show happening and that means amazing topiaries. That will give me a chance to take tons of photos, like I need an excuse.

Sunday we’ll be starting off with a Character breakfast at the Grand Floridian. I guess that Mary Poppins, Alice in Wonderland, The Mad Hatter and Winnie-The-Pooh will be there. We had made reservations for the Crystal Palace in the Magic Kingdom for Friday morning at 8:05am but found out that we probably wouldn’t have made that because our hotel complimentary shuttles don’t start running till after that. Oh well. But we hope at the Character Breakfast our friend Maureen (Auntie Mo) will catch up with us to spend the day with us in the Magic Kingdom.

We leave on Monday but not before we make a very special trip over to the Market Leverage Offices for lunch and a tour. The crew over there is looking forward to meeting Eva. I have Dina to thank for that part of the vacation.

Getting back to scrapbooking. We decided to buy Eva her own scrapbook on her 1st trip to Disney. We picked out a Tinkerbell one because Eva makes me think of Tinkerbell. We’ll block off two pages for that trip and eventually put that together. The great thing about me blogging so much is that we can go back to my post about the trip and relive it. It helps to get the details down for the scrapbooks.

The ZINK portion of this is going to be fun. Since ZINK has zero ink the images will not fade, and because the paper has a sticky backing they will make the perfect accompaniment to this trip. I plan to make this trip’s scrapbook pages with some of the stickers shown as well as with ZINK paper. I can’t wait to try this and to show everyone.

Okay one last thing. A while back I made a website for a friend of mine. They paid me and I’ve been sitting on the money, then my birthday came and I sat on that money too. I finally pulled the trigger on some equipment for my camera, namely a new lens and a hot shoe flash. First up is the new lens. I’ve been reading about this lens for a while and wanted something that was going to be a total package. A lens that would allow me to not worry about changing all the time. One that handled wide angle as well as zoom, and one that had image stabilization. I ordered the Sigma 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 DC OS HSM IF Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras. I also wanted a hot shoe flash and I didn’t want to go too expensive so once again I went Sigma. I picked up the Sigma EF-530 DG ST i-TTL Shoe Mount Flash (Guide No. 174’/53 m at 105mm) for Nikon with i-TTL. And to protect my new lens I also got a couple of filters, the Opteka 72mm High Definition² Circular Polarizing + UV (0) Ultra Violet Haze Multi-Coated Glass Filter Kit.

If you are interested here are links to what I ordered.

Blogging, Conferences, Technology

10 Essential Items for IZEAFest 2009

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This October I am attending IZEAFest 2009. I’ve been to many blogger conventions over the years (Blog World Expo, PostieCon, and IZEAFest) and I’ve come up with a list of essential items that you must have to go to one of these blogger conferences.

Did you know that you can Enter to win many of the prizes on this page. Enter BenSpark’s Ultimate IZEAFest 2009 Prize Pack Contest.

10. XShot – This simple gadget for your digital camera is the perfect accessory to have with you at a blog conference. I had the xshot 1st and gave it to some great bloggers. Ted Murphy has taken the use of this gadget to the next level though.

With an XShot you can make sure that you are in the photos with everyone. Being seen at blog conferences is very important. And being able to share photos of yourself with cool people like John Chow is fun.

XShot with John Chow

9. BluFrog Energy Drink – I’ve been drinking this stuff for the past month. I won a case from Martha Decker and also received one for Blogs, Brews and Belly Laughs from Jeremy Kendall. BluFrog Energy Drink is pretty amazing stuff.

I’ve done my own trials with it and I can tell you it keeps you awake and alert during meetings and on those boring days. Of course IZEAFest will be anything but boring. But the nights will be long so you are gonna need a healthy pick me up.

Swag Table #3

8. Digital Camera – So many cool things happen at blogger conferences and you are going to make so many great friends. So what better accessory to go with the XShot than a digital camera to capture everything. My camera of choice for a quick shoot is the Canon Powershot Digital Elph. I have a Canon SD800is and there are many newer ones out now.

Canon cameras are fantastic. There is even a group that has hacked the camera to run some great scripts. I use one all the time called the Ultra Intervalometer. This allows me to set the camera to take pictures at a specific interval. I’ve used this in a few creative ways. Like attaching it to the shopping cart to take Eva to the store.

7. ZINK Paper – ZINK paper is some pretty fun stuff because you can use it in interesting ways. I use this product with a Polaroid Pogo, my Canon SD800is and my XShot to take pictures with people. Then I print the image out, remove the back of the ZINK paper and stick it to my business card. That way the person has both my business card and a photo of themselves with me. It makes the interaction so personal and gives you at least a minute or two to talk with that person while the image prints and you put it on the business card. I did this at Blogs, Brews and Belly Laughs and will be doing it again at Blogs, Brews and Belly Laughs II. This is how I use ZINK Paper.

6. Portable Hard Drive – A small portable hard drive is a perfect thing to have with you because you can take a ton of photos and a ton of video and never have to worry about running out of space. I have a Simple Tech 320GB hard drive that weighs so little and is so small.

You don’t want to run out of space when you get that great video interview with Missy Ward or Chris Pirillo.

5. Power – We’re all looking for a little power but in this case I’m talking about power for your gadgets. I’ve had an iGo for years and after 7 years it gave up the ghost, that was seven hard travel years. I was able to power three laptops, seven cell phones, and various other gadgets. When the iGo died I got a Targus that did the exact same thing, in fact I was able to use my iGo peripheral charger with the Targus. With these products you can power up in the car, at the wall socket and even on the plane.

4. Flip Mino HD – HD is where it is at. And the Flip is a perfect device to have with you at a blog conference, it is small, it fits in your pocket and powers up so quickly. I was watching the cake plow at IZEAFest last year and John Chow was able to scoop the video of Ted Murphy being slammed into the cake. I had a different video camera and it wasn’t fast enough to catch that moment. If you want to catch a moment you have to be ready all the time. And even if you capture a moment you want to make sure you get that moment posted quickly. The Flip Mino HD has all the software you need to edit and upload your movies.

3. Business Cards – Two years ago I made 250 free cards with VistaPrint. They were good but sort of random. I had printed out 100 of my photo-a-day photos and stuck them to the cards. Creative but didn’t get my message across. This past year I made Moo cards with two designs one with my hands everywhere and the other of a rubber ducky that looks like me. These cards made a visual impact on everyone who got them. This year I plan to do something similar but to incorporate the PoGo, ZINK Paper and XShot into the mix.

2. Netbook – Portability and battery life are the two biggest concerns when at a blog conference, you don’t want to be weighed down with a ton of stuff and you don’t want to lose power when you have that great tweet to post.

Allison owns a Lenovo IdeaPad S10 she is able to do so much more now online because she is portable. She’s even applied for a job with Ravelry, I hope she gets it.

1 – A Ticket to IZEAFest 2009 – This is pretty much the most important thing that you need for IZEAFest, you need a ticket. You can buy one at $229.00 which not only includes an incredible lineup of speakers including 2 full days of amazing speakers and events plus a blogger takeover day at SeaWorld!


So is that the definitive list? No, there are many other great tings to bring, why don’t you let me know what some of them are in the comments.

And look here for a contest where I will give away some IZEAFest tickets. Heck I’d love to give away this complete list to some lucky bloggers, but I need some sponsors to help me out. Contact me through the contact form and let me know if you are interested in being a sponsor. I already have sponsors for the PoGo and ZINK Paper, XShot, IZEAFest Ticket and Flip Mino HD.

Today’s assignment for Day 2 of the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge is to write a list post. I’d been toying with the idea of this list for a while and the assignment gave me the push I needed.