I am just a learner who likes to delve in websites as a hobby.
Hobbies are what make life so enjoyable for me. I have tried
many other things - watercolor and pastel painting, organic
gardening, kayak making, dinghy sailing, kite making, origami,
stock photography, cartooning, carpentry, rock collecting, snake
rearing and many other unusual pursuits. Somehow, as time goes
on, and for some particular reason, they gradually become just
bits of historical and passing interests for me. Amidst these
passing interests, the Internet comes along.

From the first day I learned to surf the Internet, I became
impressed by it. I could not recall whether it was the
incredible amount of knowledge that can be found there, or was
it the quality of the reading medium that struck me. But it did.

I was hooked. At that time, I was gathering information on how
to make a kayak. Well, not all the information was exactly the
way I had wanted it, but by carefully piecing all the bits and
pieces of information together, I managed to use them to make a
fully functional kayak, custom made to suit me.

Deep down inside me, I was so excited by this technology, that I
wanted so much to get involved too.

Then a MLM company that calls themselves SkyX (Not their real
name) came to the scene. They were supposedly going to
revolutionize the world of online business in Malaysia. They
were an American company that operated their business very much
like a pyramid scheme, with their main products being a web
design software, some learning tool and web hosting for one year
that teaches one how to make websites. To me at that time, it
was the product I was looking for. Being so very new to the
Internet, I did not try to look at other options.

That’s what the company wanted! The trap has been sprung. Sweet
talking me with their attractive carrot bait, the members made
me lose my grip on myself and I succumbed to their enticements.
Although I was aware that people have been conned into pyramid
schemes before, I was somehow swayed by their explanations about
multi-level marketing concepts and how their business structure
was a bit different from pyramid schemes. They really knew how
to play on my emotions and weakness to their advantage.

They had all the workings of a well-established network that
gives support to all the members, organizing presentations and
holding functions. What did I do then? Since I was already part
of the network, I had to do my part in getting more members. If
not, I won’t recover my money. So for a very short while I did
just that.

Eventually, this American Company was sued and it went bankrupt.
That was the end of the chapter. My money just went down the
drain! It was a bitter and expensive lesson to learn. But the
lesson was well learned. I bit the bullet, picked up the pieces,
and behaved as if nothing had happened. I was determined to make
full use of what I had purchased. Looking back at the situation,
I recalled that taking part in MLM activities was never on my
agenda in the first place. Learning how to make websites was.

And so from that clumsy beginning, making use of the product,
and working on it when I had the time, and completely at my own
pace, I managed to learn the rudiments of web designing. I
borrowed books from the library to supplement my knowledge. I
learned basic html language, color notations, picture editing
and other simple steps. The websites that I created were so very
crude.

But it was fun and exciting for me. It’s a new toy. And it’s
magical.

After surfing for some time on the Internet, the knowledge in me
gradually grew. I picked up bits and pieces everywhere. By the
time, the MLM collapsed, I was already well versed in html
language and I was no longer that fresh. I had also acquired the
necessary photo editing skills to make presentable websites.

I bought a scanner and started to generate images for my
websites. Unfortunately, most of my photographs were
transparencies. So I had to copy and develop them into photo
prints before I could scan them.

I searched around for a few web-hosting companies that offer
free hosting and decided to try out my new skills on them. It
took me some time but I got around getting used to their
routines eventually. My first efforts on these free hosting
companies were nothing to boast about. (Although I did get
feedback from people who said that they were good. Surprise,
surprise!)

I also learned to use the search engines, and I found them very
useful. They opened up a whole new way of finding information
for me. Almost any subject could be found with just a click from
the mouse.

As I dug up more information both from the Internet and also
from library books on designing, and handling images, I became
more and more proficient. I learned how to use ftp to upload my
files to the host server. This saved me a lot of time. Most
important of all, I saved on Internet call charges on my
telephone bill.

Reading through what the experts say, I came to the conclusion
that one of the most important characteristics of a good website
is the content and its loading speed. I have observed some sites
that give very flashy and impressive animations, but
unfortunately, were rather slow loading. I decided in favor of
functionality.

My websites must be fast loading and full of content. I also
found out that to make the page load fast, the file size of the
images should be small. So I optimized all my web photographs
accordingly to jpeg and gif format to make their file sizes
small.

Then I looked at other things like making my websites crawler
friendly. (The spider at the search engines will crawl inside
the Internet to find your site. This spider is not the creepy
crawly type that will give you the goose bumps, but they work on
the web just like a real spider)

Although I am aware that the html software editor that I use is
not so efficient in generating clean html, and that it adds a
lot of extra html tags that are redundant, thus making the files
bigger than required, I will leave it as it is for the time
being. There are still many other things that I still want to
explore and develop.

One of them is e-book creation. E-books are one of the most
efficient ways to present information to people. They can be
published completely with text, images, color, hyperlinks,
animation, and sounds on CD’s and diskettes. They can also be
downloaded through the Internet, or sent through emails. (But
first make sure that the email server can handle the file size)

Making e-books presented a need for a completely different range
of knowledge and skills that are built up upon each other. It is
not as easy as it looks. For those who do not know much about
computers, Internet and web designing, it can be quite a
struggle!

For these people, I have got a solution. Perhaps they could use
my service to design e-books. I have the knowledge and the skill
that people can use. People can make use of this service at E-book Maker

Think for a while. Almost anybody has something to say that is
valuable to another person. Each person has his or hers own
experience. A secondary school student may know how to make a
cute and adorable doll out of easily obtainable cloth materials.
A housewife might want to reveal a special recipe that is handed
down from past generations that could become the springboard to
fame.

A retired carpenter or hobbyist may know how to make a special
piece of furniture that will fit some space in the living room
of an apartment. A car enthusiast may know of some tips about
choosing and testing a used car. A sports enthusiast may like to
share his secrets of scoring at a certain game. A gambler may
have some insider tips that he wants to sell. All these are
knowledge that can be tapped and sold.

Talk about the Global-Economy! This is it! Anybody is capable of
contributing to the Global-Economy. If the information is
useful, and it can be written down, or illustrated, there will
surely be someone on Planet Earth who wants to pay to learn from
it.

E-books have the advantage over books printed on paper.
Distribution is instantaneous, cost is low, and format is
colorful and interactive, and most important of all,
self-publishing for the unknown author. You don’t even have to
find a publisher for your e-book! And you don’t have to sell it
locally. You can expose it to anywhere on the Internet.

Although the Internet has leveled the playing field somewhat, I
found that the major players are still dominated by companies in
the USA. When I scouted around for a reasonably priced facility
that will enable me to receive payment for credit card
purchases, I could not find many around that will accept
participants from my country.

Well, after searching for sometime, I did find one that suits my
budget - a reasonably priced one that I can use. You can check
it out at 2checkout. Their
services are excellent.

Next I went into affiliate marketing. The concept is simple. My
website serves as a storefront for other merchant’s advertising
banners. When people who are attracted by the merchant’s
banners, click on them, they got transported to the merchant’s
website. If the visitor buys anything, a percentage of the
purchase price will be paid to me.

I find that some small money can be made from this. It depends
on how well you design your website and how well you encourage
your visitors to click on the banners. Your website has to be
carefully designed and the wordings selected to induce people to
go to the merchant you represent. Some merchants pay 5%, some
10%, and some more. By carefully choosing the merchant to match
the contents of your website you will get more click-throughs.
More click-throughs means more sales. It’s a numbers game.

Any marketing person will know that the more visitors I have,
the more the potential for a sale. So I have to find out how to
bring in visitors. The most logical step is to tackle the search
engines. It is estimated that 80% of all the traffic comes from
the search engines.

This time I explored search engine optimization. How do I place
myself near to the top of the search engine listings? By
optimizing for the search engines, people will be able to search
for my website and it will come out near the top and not
somewhere in the thousandth position. But it’s a continuous
learning process. Search engines are constantly changing their
algorithm to beat spammers. Yes, there are spammers on websites
too, webmasters who tries to beat the search engine rules.

As my web knowledge improved, I became more and more
adventurous. I noticed that many websites have forms that allow
visitors to fill up and the owner of the website will receive
the information. It’s a great way to collect data. So I found
out how to do that. It’s great fun receiving messages from
somebody from the other end of the world.

Then there are scripts. They can do magic on the website. Dates
can be automatically displayed and updated. Calculations can be
done. Images can be changed automatically. Counters can display
the number of visitors. Guest books can be signed. They are
fantastic pieces of code done by talented programmers.

Since they are so marvelous, I had to make use of them. Some of
the scripts were described as simple. Indeed most of them are
very simple to use. However, when I looked at their source
codes, they are extremely gibberish to me. I really marvel at
the work done by the programmers of these scripts. Perhaps in
the future, I might want to pursue this line of programming
activity. I can see great possibilities there.

At this moment, cgi scripts catch my attention. Cgi is short for
Common Gateway Interface. They need a bit of tweaking in order
to work because they must run on the web server on the host.
Recently I had the chance to install a cgi script on a server.
It took me a few days of tweaking and communication before it
worked, as it should. They are not for the faint-hearted
beginner. But once the beginner has acquired the necessary
knowledge, these scripts shouldn’t be a problem to install. Once
they work, you can forget about them, because they will run by
themselves, automatically.

Would the learner in me be able to teach people? Perhaps it
might. After going through many years of hands-on and
disciplined study of websites, software, and the Internet, maybe
I have acquired sufficient knowledge that people might be
willing to pay to know. Perhaps this might be the subject of
another e-book.

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About the author:
Many years of working experience in Marine, Facilities,
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facworld ezine More information at Marine and M & E

It’s hard to find sometimes but it’s making a resurgence, black
and white film. If you’ve never used this film now is the time
to try it out. Here are some tips to using b&w film and what you
can expect from the results.

1. Forget color. This is the hardest thing to do and the number
one reason that you will not get good results with b&w film. 2.
Look for contrast. Once you can ignore color look for contrast.
You will want your image to have a bit more contrast than you
would normally want in a color image. 3. Consider shooting
situations that are more formal. Black and white film gives such
a wonderful timelessness to an image and it’s perfect for formal
situations. 4. Keep your photos simple. Black and white film
simplifies so don’t fight it. Keep the images simple by keeping
close to your subject or place your subject against a simple
back drop. 5. Babies and pets look great on b&w film. Place the
pet or baby on a white background and you’ll be stunned at the
beautiful results.

Black and white film creates a timeless simple look. It’s
wonderful for portraits and formal events. After shooting a few
rolls of b&w you’ll notice that you start to pay attention to
composition of your image more, since you don’t have to worry
about color. If you’re just learned photography try using b&w
film for awhile it will help you teach yourself good
composition. Think of light and dark, black and white, and good
composition and you’ll find that b&w film could be a whole new
hobby for you.

About the author:
Copyright 2004 Kelly Paal Kelly Paal is a Freelance Nature and
Landscape Photographer, exhibiting nationally and
internationally. Recently she started her own business Kelly
Paal Photography (www.kellypaalphotography.com). She has an
educational background in photography, business, and commercial
art. She enjoys applying graphic design and photography
principles to her web design.

Photography 101 Part One Equipment: camera, meter, flash, tripod

This article is a simplified photography course directed at new
photographers out there who want to know where to start.

If you really want to learn photography the first thing you need
is a good affordable and reliable camera. It must, and I repeat
must, be able to shoot in fully manual and fully auto focus
modes. (This leaves out any digital cameras on the market right
now, sorry.) To really learn photography you must understand the
equipment. You’ll need to learn how manipulating the shutter
speed, aperture, and focus will have a dramatic effect on your
photos. Meters, if you have a camera that can work in a fully
manual mode it should have an internal meter suitable for what
you will be doing. Tripod, you’re going to need one whether it’s
portrait work or landscapes you’ll need one eventually. Luckily
you don’t have to spend a lot here. Just something lightweight
and durable. Flash, you can buy a separate camera mounted flash,
which is great if you can afford it. Consider what kind of
photography that you will be doing though. If you’re going to do
mostly nature and landscape, you may only need the fill flash
that comes with most cameras today. If you plan on doing
portraiture alone you will want to consider a camera mounted
flash that has an adjustable angle. Film, film speed to be
exact. Slower speeds (25 to 400) are intended for portraiture
and landscape photography. Faster speeds (600 and above) are
intended for actions shots and photojournalism. So first you
need to know what you going out to photograph and make sure that
you have the appropriate film for the job. Now that you have the
camera loaded with film consider shutter speed. Do you want to
blur motion, or freeze it? If there is no motion at all what
shutter speed do you need to expose the scene with natural
light. From 1/60th and down to the bulb setting will blur most
motion. For example if you want to blur the water in a
waterfall, a setting of 1/30th should work. (You’ll need a
tripod though.) 1/125th is a normal setting for most shots. On
many cameras the 125th setting is marked in a different color to
make it obvious. If you want to freeze action you’ll need to
start with 1/500th and work up from there. The faster the motion
the faster the shutter speed needed to stop motion. Many cameras
go up to 1/2000th of a second. If you’re trying to use natural
light alone in a scene you will want to determine the aperture
first and then see what shutter speed you need to properly
expose the scene for available light. (Keep in mind sometimes
there isn’t enough light.) Aperture, these are the set of
numbers on your lens closest to the body of the camera. They can
go from 1.8 to 22, and they are referred to as F-stops. These
numbers determine how much light reaches the film inside of your
camera. Most internal meters will blink on the appropriate
aperture for the shutter speed that you’ve set, or the speed
you’ve set will blink if your F-stop is correct for the speed.
Both the F-stop and shutter speed can be changed to expose the
scene correctly. Consider that the faster the shutter speed the
more light will be needed to expose the scene correctly. This
makes logical sense if you think about it. If the shutter isn’t
open as long, fast shutter speed, then there is less light able
to make it to the film and so the scene must be brighter to
expose correctly. To learn, bracket your shots. Take the first
shot at the aperture suggested by your meter, move one stop up,
take a photo, one down, take another photo. Flash, I personally
like shooting with natural light whenever possible and at most I
use a fill flash. But if you’re going to do portrait work then
most of the time you may be indoors and you will need a flash
sometimes. For the amateur the fill flash units that are on the
top of most of today’s cameras are wonderful for basic work. You
will have to read your manual on your particular flash unit to
learn what it can and can’t do. This is where the camera that is
fully manual and fully auto is great for the amateur. You can
usually set it so that the camera will meter and set the flash
output accordingly and then you still can control the shutter
speed and aperture. This week’s assignment: Have several rolls
of 400 speed film, find a subject that you can work with
preferably something that won’t move, and shoot one roll of
film. Shoot some of the roll in the morning, afternoon, and
evening. Bracket every shot, take notes on time of day and light
conditions, and what your settings (aperture) were for each
frame, keep the film speed the same for the entire roll. Have
the film developed and examine the photos. You should be able to
see a difference in each frame. You’ll need to repeat this
procedure until you feel that you understand the relationship
between shutter speed and aperture, and every camera and meter
has it’s own quirks and differences, you’re camera will act
differently than someone else’s. This way you will learn you own
particular camera as well. Once you have a sense of how aperture
works you won’t need to bracket every shot you take, you may
only need to do it in cases where you want to be extra safe on
exposing the subject correctly. If you have some specific
questions please visit my Photography Forum at:
http://kellypaalphotography.com/v-web/bulletin/bb/index.php

About the author:
Copyright 2004 Kelly Paal Kelly Paal is a Freelance Nature and
Landscape Photographer, exhibiting nationally and
internationally. Recently she started her own business Kelly
Paal Photography (www.kellypaalphotography.com). She has an
educational background in photography, business, and commercial
art. She enjoys applying graphic design and photography
principles to her web design.

Photography 101 Part 2 Basic Composition

Now that you are beginning to understand how your camera works
you can begin to understand basic composition. I know that many
people that I’ve talked to think that photography is just
pointing your camera and taking a photo but it’s more than that.
After you understand how your equipment works you can begin to
get into the real art of photography and that art is called
composition. Basic principles: 1. Use all of your available
space. Fill the image with the image. If the reason that your
taking the photo is your daughter’s beautiful face then get
closer. If you’re taking an image of the breathtaking valley
before you. Fill the frame with the valley. Keep distractions
out of the frame. They’re called distractions for a reason. 2.
Look at the forms in your image. You almost have to look at the
people or the landscape before you in their simplistic
geographic forms. A good way to learn form is to practice taking
photos of still life objects, that you can arrange into pleasing
forms. A good photo is always a beautiful arrangement of form.
Whether it’s the beauty of a woman’s face, her features being
forms, or a wonderful landscape, trees, rocks, and hills being
forms. 3. Line or direction, motion. The direction of the forms
in your photos is very important. Never have action or motion
moving outside of your image. It will direct the eye away from
your image. Diagonal motion lines are good, curves and “s”
curves are better. The last two is probably way landscape
photography is so popular nature is full of curves. Also never
put a horizon line in the center of your frame. 4. Contrast, the
difference between black and white. Now it is possible to have a
beautiful photo with little contrast if that is your intention,
this works best with color. But a lot of shots, some really
beautiful shots have a nice balance of black, white, and grays.
This can be manipulated for artistic purpose of course, but in
the beginning you want to focus on trying to take shots with
equal amounts of black, white, and shades of gray. (Shoot a roll
of B&W film to really learn this principle.) 5. Color, you may
have to familiarize yourself with the color wheel. (See my
article Graphic Design Using Color for more information it’s for
graphic design but the first couple of paragraphs talk about
basic color theory) Whether you’re shooting nature or setting up
your own shots in a studio you need to know what colors go
together and why. Many of us have an instinct as to what looks
good. When in doubt follow your instincts. Start out by taking
shots of things that you think have pretty or beautiful colors.
Show the photos to others and see if they agree. Photographers
learn not only what they think is beautiful but what is
universally beautiful as well. Now the hard part practice all
these principles at the same time. It’s not easy! Now you really
know why photographers take years to really learn their craft.
This week’s assignment: Let’s break this down into four
assignments. You’ll need four rolls of film. Roll one, fill your
available space. Shoot pictures of whatever you like, but get
closer. Eliminate distractions from your image. Keep the focus
of your image on whatever it was that made you want to take that
photo. Roll two, forms. Here’s an old stand by that I did in
college. Get out an assortment of vegtables and fruit from your
kitchen. Put a sheet down on your table, no distractions, shoot
an entire roll of the veggies and fruit making sure that your
rearrange with each shot. Make sure you study your results and
see which forms looked best. Roll three, Contrast, you can do
this in B&W film if you want to. Take a shot of the flower in
your garden in the early morning, afternoon, and sunset. Shoot
some portraits at the same times, by candlelight too. When you
see the results you will be surprised. Roll four, color. Use the
vegtables again, this time paying attention to the colors. If
you can tell me why a red tomato looks best on a green bed of
lettuce or the orange sunset with the purple clouds is so
captivating then you’ve figured out some of color theory. If you
have some specific questions please visit my Photography Forum
at: http://kellypaalphotography.com/v-web/bulletin/bb/index.php
and post your question there.

About the author:
Copyright 2004 Kelly Paal Kelly Paal is a Freelance Nature and
Landscape Photographer, exhibiting nationally and
internationally. Recently she started her own business Kelly
Paal Photography (www.kellypaalphotography.com). She has an
educational background in photography, business, and commercial
art. She enjoys applying graphic design and photography
principles to her web design.

Photography 101 Part 3 Content

Even if you feel that you already know what kind of photography
you like to do, it’s always a good idea to try your talent at
different aspects of photography. Pictorial, this is a general
term but it applies to any photographer who’s goal is simply to
create beautiful photos. This breaks down into smaller subsets
but the most popular form is landscape and nature photography.
This is what I do and it’s tempting to go on and on but I will
just say that this form of photography, to me, is a real art. At
least that is goal to create art in photographic form. It is the
goal of the photographer to use their abilities to capture an
image in it’s moment of beauty and simplicity. Portrait, this
can be people and even animals. It also includes wedding
photography as well. This is an aspect of photography that can
be a lot harder than it seems. Not only do you have to know your
basic photo composition but you need to understand what makes
each person look their best. You must know how to bring out
their personality and character in the shot. If you love working
with people this may be your field. It’s fun and challenging.
Photojournalism, now this isn’t just press photography, though
that is one aspect of it. It is also documentary photography as
well, the latter doesn’t always need an event to occur right in
front of you. Either way the purpose is to tell a story. Really
good photojournalism shouldn’t need the text below it to tell
you what is going on. It should be compelling and storytelling.
Composition still plays a part, you can’t tell a story if the
story can’t be seen. And while these photos can be beautiful in
their technical aspects they aren’t necessarily beautiful
images. The story telling is as important. Abstract, probably
not as common of a form of photography but I’m seeing it more
and more. This is usually characterized by extreme close ups of
detail of something, so much so that you can’t identify the
original subject. But in this case that doesn’t matter since the
abstract detail or pattern is the subject of the photo. (Color
can also be the subject as well.) Basic composition still plays
a part, maybe a bigger part in this form of photography. This
week’s assignment: Four rolls of film again. Roll one,
pictorial, get outside and try your best using all your
abilities to capture moments of beauty and simplicity.
Composition is key here. Roll two, portrait, get somebody to
volunteer for you. Remember composition but really focus on
finding the shots that make that person look their best.
Different light, background, camera angles, or even clothes.
Roll three, photojournalism, outside or inside anywhere you see
stories. This can be as simple as a child playing with their
toys. Find the appropriate moment to take a shot that tells the
story. Roll four, abstract, details, details, and more details.
Get in close, make sure that you can’t identify the subject but
find beauty in the color or details of the item.

If you have some specific questions please visit my Photography
Forum at:
http://kellypaalphotography.com/v-web/bulletin/bb/index.php and
post your question there.

About the author:
Copyright 2004 Kelly Paal Kelly Paal is a Freelance Nature and
Landscape Photographer, exhibiting nationally and
internationally. Recently she started her own business Kelly
Paal Photography (www.kellypaalphotography.com). She has an
educational background in photography, business, and commercial
art. She enjoys applying graphic design and photography
principles to her web design.

Wall hangings are what make most homes decorative and
attractive. And most of the time, the wall hangings we see are
the portraits of the most memorable moments of our lives.

Family pictures, graduation pictures and baby’s first birthday
pictures hang on the most prominent wall of the home to remind
us of the momentous events of our lives. Other times, the cutest
pet, my “bestest” friend, and the prettiest dream house occupy
the bare wall in the bedroom. There are also times, as a tribute
to the favorite painter, his oil painting occupy the biggest
space on the wall. The latest favorite celebrity idol has a
place on the wall too, somewhere in the house. No matter what
hangs on it, the wall looks good for visitors to see.

The most common types of wall hangings nowadays are photography
and oil paintings. There are times when charcoal or watercolor
paintings replace oil. There are also embroidery and
cross-stitch wall hangings. The motifs of most cross-stitch wall
decorations are of flowers, birds, animals and houses. It is
very rare that a photo is presented in a cross-stitch. But, it
is just possible.

Did you know that in the history of cross-stitch, pictures of
Benjamin Franklin and George Bush were featured in almost all
covers, cushions and other accessories in cross-stitch? It was
at the height of cross-stitch portraitures trend that their
stitched pictures became so in-demand. Cross-stitch is actually
not a new craft. In fact, in history, this art is one
outstanding needlecraft used by prominent people. Mary, Queen of
Scots and Queen Elizabeth 1 were just two of the brilliant
needlewomen in history. Catherine of Aragon, wife of king Henry
VII popularized a stitch called Holbein stitch or the
double-running stitch. Even Elizabeth of York was into the fad
when she bought a “lynnyn” cloth, one of the primary materials
of the needlecraft.

It is said in history that the needlecraft was most used by the
religious and the royals. Needlecraft, then, was a symbol of
social status. The churches’ accessories and the ecclesiastical
clothing of the pious were adorned with beautiful embroidery.
The homes of the royals and the elites were filled with
embroidered covers for everything from cushions to coverlets,
handkerchiefs and runners.

Cross-stitch portraits graced the walls of the homes of the
privileged in the early age. They brought timeless class and
elegance not only to the portraits but to the entire home as
well. Since cross-stitch, then, was a status symbol, only the
elites were privileged enough to have this kind of luxury.
Instead of having their images in photograph or paintings, they
chose to have it stitched - every detail and nuance of their
image.

Cross-stitch portraits have the touch of class and elegance
because every detail is carefully considered. Every detail is
painstakingly stitched to perfection that the result is as good
as the real image. Every color and every feature is very
carefully considered that gives the portrait the personal touch.

These days, class and elegance are seldom elements of a
household since most of the equipment in homes are
technologically upgraded. Everything works in a click, a push or
even a snap. Modernization has lost timeless grace and style
somewhere along the way. Now, everything has to be fast,
efficient and advanced. It appears that people have less time to
appreciate beauty and flair. Wouldn’t it be nice for your home
to be appreciated for its uniqueness, style and elegance?

Snapshots are tokens of the memories that you treasure. And you
would want to remember them for always. It is fun to look (and
look and look again) at the collection of pictures of the most
terrific events of your life. Sometimes you couldn’t help
yourself to trace the face of your loved ones on the pictures.
Your touch bears the longing and the fondness for the person or
the event.

In cross-stitch, every detail stitched means every account of
the unforgettable occasion is remembered and labored with. It’s
like stitching together the intricate details of the memories
and the feelings during those times when the affair happened.

And when the portrait is done, you’ll know that all the memories
and feelings are captured in that magnificent and elegant
portrait in cross-stitch. And you’ll always be pleased and proud
of it because of the labor of love that was poured in it.

Copyright (c) Sphinx Cyberworld Ventures

About the author:
The writer, Caryl B. Grecia, works for Sphinx Cyberworld
Ventures whose website, www.cross-stitchportraits.com features
custom-made cross-stitch portraits of your choice such as your
wedding portraits, baby portraits, favorite pet’s portraits and
even your favorite celebrity idol’s portraits. You can send
emails regarding custom-made cross-stitch portraits to
cross-stitch@e-mart4all.com.

By Jakob Jelling http://www.snapjunky.com

While analyzing any camera, one of the most important qualities
of a photograph that a person seeks, is resolution. This word
itself needs a brief discussion before progressing onto its
implication upon a digital camera. This is a word that seems to
almost every new photographer as a nightmare. With all the myths
and irrelevant information circulating all around, this is quite
common. This however is an effort to clear those misty myths and
provide good information for everyone. Without any complexity,
generally a photograph, either viewed on the screen or printed,
is composed of infinitesimal dots (called pixels). The greater
amount of these dots that can fit per inch of space, the smaller
the dots and the sharper the image. This is the basis of
understanding … resolution!

Considering an image at 100 dots per inch that is one square
inch in size. It is comprised of 100 X 100 pixels. Now changing
this image four-times to four square inches. This image is quite
clear. Now the same 100 X 100 dots exist, but with only 25 dots
per inch. The appearance becomes grainy. This is the factor know
as resolution that determines this quality of image. Hence it
can now be interpreted by any person what the importance of
resolution is and where it is required in the filed of
photography. While purchasing a digital camera, resolution is a
very important factor to take into account when settling upon
buying a particular one.

Digital camera resolution comes in as Mega pixels. A Mega pixel
is composed of one million pixels. The greater the number of
Mega pixels, the greater becomes the standard of quality of the
photograph or picture. As a standard, one mega pixel is the
minimum bottom line below which a digital camera must not be
usually purchased. This is a general decided value for any
amateur photographers also, and the exact value of higher mega
pixels is not a concern for people who do not intend to print
the photographs. In an effort to scrutinize the pixels in an
image out of sheer anxiety, a person can magnify the display in
a photo editor, like a little magnifying glass, and they become
very much visible!

The resolution decides the ultimate the future of the hard copy
of a photograph being taken, whether a digital camera or a
conventional camera. A print from a high-resolution photograph
challenges anything produced from a chemical film camera.
However a low-resolution image print of a photograph is quite
appalling with fine details and restrained color transitions
absent resulting from too few pixels. Thus the resolution can
spoil an entire effort to freeze a memorable moment. Thus it is
so vital. As a general rule a minimum of 200 pixels are required
for each linear inch of a print. However, some printers get
better results with 300 pixels per-inch of resolution.

The above discussion has brought into light a lot of relevant
information regarding resolution and its application in the
digital camera and photography. Also in the concluding lines it
can only be stated for digital camera … resolution is the real
soul!

About the author:
Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.snapjunky.com. Visit
his digital camera guide and learn how to take better pictures
with your digicam.

By Jakob Jelling http://www.snapjunky.com

The digital camera is essentially a computer-based device, whose
core is controlled by the computer. And as a result the
photographs are stored in a location called memory. Now, this
concept is or paramount importance in discussing digital camera.
Strictly speaking, digital camera memory is where digital
pictures are stored inside the camera. The digital camera memory
is an essential and often a very neglected and overlooked
section of equipments for digital photography and camera. There
are many types of memory available for digital cameras, and it
is a good practice to mull over what type of memory a camera
uses before buying a digital camera. This discussing is aimed in
revealing some of this relevant information!

Knowledge of the digital camera memory is very essential for
using such a camera and capturing photographs. The most common
form of such memory is a memory card. These are reusable, have a
limited capacity and can always be installed when required in
excess. A person needs to be well informed about enough memory
available for taking photographs. And accordingly make
arrangements. Generally, digital cameras come available with low
capacity memory cards, and it is a wise purchase to acquire
higher capacity memory cards in order to budget for an
additional card for later use.

With the increment of a camera mega pixel counts, it becomes
essential to use higher capacity memory cards. Some of the small
sized cards are for example the 64 megabyte cards and larger
ones are like 1-gigabyte cards or combinations of megabyte
cards. Digital camera memory is available in many shapes and
facade depending on the type of digital camera that is being
used and even and the number of pictures that are required to be
stored in the digital camera memory. These different types of
memory are solely dependant upon the requirements of the digital
camera, like for example a camera using compact flash type 1,
requires the use of compact flash type 1 digital camera memory.
Other examples of types of digital camera memory are Compact
Flash Digital Camera Memory. It is suitable for rugged and rough
handling and is also resilient for incessant usage. This is also
small in size to assist better handling and flexibility. What
more, it is cheap and anyone can afford it!

Generally, the sizes of a digital camera memory are as follows,
64 MB, 128 MB, 256 MB, 512 MB, and 1 GIG. Again, the digital
camera memory depends upon the file format used to store
photographs upon and the compression used by the manufacturer
when storing digital images into memory.

Coming to the concluding portion, it is recommended to get hold
of one 256 megabyte or two 128 megabyte cards for a 3-5 mega
pixel compact digital camera. For higher resolution photographs,
512 megabyte and 1 gigabyte cards are also available. These are
some of the guidelines for revealing the true facts about the
different digital camera memories and their secrets. Summing up
in a few words, with such a powerful tool as the digital camera,
a proper selection of memory can help a person achieve the
glorious tasks of freezing a precious moment from life for
eternity!

About the author:
Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.snapjunky.com. Visit
his digital camera guide and learn how to take better pictures
with your digicam.

By Jakob Jelling http://www.snapjunky.com

Being such a fascinating device as the digital camera, this
technological masterpiece is of course a precious and priced
possession. And acquiring it also means that one time
achievement feeling. Thus a person must also be very careful and
at the time quite a little knowledgeable in order to make a good
purchase and not lose a good bargain in the maze of soaring
prices and mist of exaggerated cost myths. This discussion is
again focused to pierce that mist and unravel that myth to
reveal the truths and facts regarding the actual and economic
cost of a digital camera!

As per recent marketing trends, the conventions has it that
there are only two types of digital camera users, firstly the
average people who only craves to push the button, and secondly
the professional photographers, people who looks for good
control over the digital camera and its well carved features and
are willing to pay virtually any price. Thus with this idea in
the back of the entire process of sell and purchase, diverse
levels of resolution for such digital cameras are available that
are the real culprits in defining the price range of the
cameras. United with such singular features the digital cameras
come in a spectral variety of price range for an even varying
customer range that are willing to pay anything from £30 to
£1,500. The cost of an average digital camera probably lies in
the region of £260, however in spite of this a person must be
aware of what functionality or resolution that he or she is
looking for and ultimate paying for, so that the purchase does
not result in too much in exchange of too little of whatever
must be desired from the digital camera. A person must self
analyze the reasons for purchasing the digital camera before
venturing into an expensive rendezvous. He or she must be aware
of what the real purpose is, is it only snapping for casual
reasons or a serious plan to produce super quality photographs
to be printed as art or for professional purposes.

Looking into the price index in a little more detail reveals
more facts! SLR (single-lens reflex) digital cameras have
attained quite a price shedding with the invention and market
release of digital cameras like Canon’s EOS Digital Rebel, an
SLR priced below $1000, perhaps the very first of its kind. Even
with certain add on into the digital camera that even add to the
price a bit more, still the Rebel cost remains about $600 below
its flanking competitors. However comvention has it that these
standard digital cameras cost around $2500 to $4,000.

In an effort to find out the reasons behind such soaring high
prices, research reveals that digital camera sensors are, for
all intents and purposes, computer chips. The bigger the
computer chip, the more likely it is for errors. The reason
remains that a single blemish in the silicon wafer may reduce to
rubble an entire chip. Thus the random flaw increases with the
size of the wafer. This is the exact reason why costly chips
like Intel Pentiums processors are basically not bigger than
20mm square and can be also manufactured in greater volumes. Yet
with the reduction in size the prices soar up and this proves
the high costs of the digital cameras.

Thus it becomes clear from this discussion that a predetermined
mind set is required when approaching for purchasing a device
like the digital camera. This discussion provides an overview of
the price ranges of good digital cameras, but a person must
identify his or her own needs and preferences and have an open
mind but with some notion of what a good but should be, and the
cost of the digital camera would be a guaranteed perfection!

About the author:
Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.snapjunky.com. Visit
his digital camera guide and learn how to take better pictures
with your digicam.

By Jakob Jelling http://www.snapjunky.com

As it is a fact that digital cameras are comprised of miniature
computers that have storage discs for retrieving the images as
digital information, so a certain amount of knowledge is
necessary regarding the digital camera disc formats. A proper
understanding of the disc formats of the digital camera memory
can help the photographer or user make efficient use of the
device in a correct and useful fashion. This discussion is aimed
at revealing these little details!

At present in among the common users of digital cameras there
are two main types of storage medium available nowadays. Some
cameras use 1.44-MB floppy disks, which are available almost
everywhere in the present market trends, and some digital
cameras use assorted forms of flash memory having a range of
capacities covering from several megabytes to a gigabyte. The
difference lies between these two types of disc formats in their
capacity. Floppy disks have a fixed memory capacity that cannot
be altered, and the flash memory devices have capacities that
keep increasing everyday. This is a kind of boon because of the
fact that picture-sizes are also increasing constantly with the
invention of higher resolution cameras that become available in
the markets with daily technical advancements.

The major and the most popular file format available for digital
cameras are TIFF and JPEG formats respectively. Looking in a
little detail into these two formats, the TIFF format is an
uncompressed format without any alteration of image sizes and
JPEG is a compressed format that does alter the image size for
economic use of memory for storage. Certainly, from common
sense, majority of the digital cameras use the JPEG file format
for storing images and photographs, and they even offer quality
settings such as medium or high and accordingly the size is
altered thus providing both memory management as well as quality
management of the pictures.

Again looking at the disc formats from a different angle, it is
apparent that a 1.44-MB disk cannot clutch many photographs or
images. Sometimes, in fact, they can’t even fit one picture on
one disk, due to high quality and subsequent seize and memory
requirements. However, the floppy disks have their own
advantages. In today’s world of Internet publishing and email a
picture size larger than 640×480 is hardly required, and more or
less always they are saved in JPEG formats. During such times it
is possible to accommodate about 15 pictures on every disk. Thus
making situations more economic and flexible for the users.
However for storing bigger and greater quality pictures higher
capacity media are required such as a 128-MB flash memory card
that can store more than 1,500 small compressed images or 20 of
the uncompressed 1600×1200 images.

Thus so far a handsome amount of information regarding the disc
formats has come into light from the above discussion. It is a
humble effort to bring out the rudimentary knowledge for such a
wide field of study as digital camera disc formats, which
includes photography as well as computers all in one. What a
fantastic combination!

About the author:
Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.snapjunky.com. Visit
his digital camera guide and learn how to take better pictures
with your digicam.