Sunset with Expression and Emotion

Agios is located in north Evia, just a few kilometers from the famous thermal sources of Edipsos. The below pictures from Agios have been shot in July 2010. The images from Astir Beach are from August 2010.

Evia located north of Attica. it’s the second largest Greek island after Crete. The best known place in north Evia is Edipsos. The curative thermal springs have been known for thousands of years; from the old Greeks to the Romans and more recently to Sir Winston Churchill, Onassis and many other well known personalities.

Shooting Sunset Photos

Sunsets are a beautiful natural spectacle. The ever changing light conditions under the declining sun offer great photographic opportunities and challenges.

Everybody can take sunset pictures, it’s not all that difficult: just point your digital camera and shoot … the automatic settings will do the rest. If you want however take a more stunning sunset, the one that knocks even an ice-bear out of his socks, then you may consider some of the following aspects and try them out.

Light and Colors

In order to take a smashing picture, you need dust and or clouds. The red and orange colors result from micro-particles in the air. Dust can come from anywhere, pollution helps to break light, smoke, fog and so on. A second element for great effects are Clouds.

Clouds add structure, interesting light effects and in as much as I am concerned, I prefer the cloudy sky to the straight gradients resulting from a cloudless and dust-free atmosphere.

The Horizon

Look at your scenery and decide what’s more important to you: the sky of the foreground. The more beautiful your sky the more of it you want to ban on your photo. In general it’s of good advise to follow the rule of thirds.

The first image above features two horizons: one in the foreground and one in the back-ground. The foreground horizon is placed about on the lower third line, while the back-ground horizon is at the boring 50% level. The sun is on the first third line from the left.

The second photo focuses clearly on the sky. The horizon is just below the one third line from the bottom.

Applying the rule of thirds will help to focus on the essential aspects of the sunset and adds tension to the image. Of course there are always exceptions and you may find yourself in a situation where the totally balanced and centered approach will reflect tranquility and desired harmony; as usual, it will depend on the story you want to tell.

The Composition

The sunset is spectacular and usually it becomes more spectacular if it’s seen in an interesting context. The foreground is what often gives the special touch” a few palm trees, a jetty, a bridge, people or most any object which adds a scale to your picture.

For the purpose of this post I add a photo from Kavouri beach in Vouliagmeni, where the focus is on the busy foreground.

Your creativity is the limit.

It seems to be a commonly accepted rule, that foregrounds are represented as dark silhouettes, herefore your flash should be set to “off”. In some cases however it may be interesting to capture some reflections from a foreground, such as the ones you can see on the cars parked at Kavouri Beach or the small reflections from the town in the foreground of the first image from Agios above. Context matters and adds expression.

The Frame

This is part of your composition. Experiment with the frame; make it wider or narrower depending on the story you want to tell. It’s better to frame when you take the picture than to cut the image in Photoshop or any other image editor. If you use zoom, make sure to remain within the range of your optical zoom and don’t use the digital zoom to preserve a maximum of quality, data and image size.

In Agios I thought there was an interesting frame focusing on the sea, separating the island of Evia from the main land (Attica).

The image is full of harmony, smooth gradients and tints around the golden reflection of the sunset in the sea. The sky is of no importance here; it’s all a matter of light and tints in for my taste, very nice proportions.

The Exposure

This is probably the most important and also most difficult issue, namely with digital cameras. In automatic settings, digital cameras most often use matrix metering which is reflected by an average exposure and results in under-exposed photos. The issue is due to the huge extremes between highlights and shadows.

For best results, it’s recommended to use a a metering device and meter the two extremes as well as the environmental light and average in function of the priority set by your composition and the story you want to tell.

The best advise is: just experiment! There is never just one right exposure as different exposures will produce great results, however the effects are different. Again, it’s a matter of what you wish to express with your picture.

Professionals use bracketing and so may you. Most digital cameras have a bracketing function; when you shoot,the cam will take 3 pictures: one as per automatic or manually set metering, one with one F-stop higher and one with a F-stop lower. Say you take the picture at 1/60 s at f/8, the cam will take a shot at these settings, then one at 1/60s at f/5.6 and one at 1/60 s at f/11. You will then be able to select the most expressive shot.

The trouble is in the highlights. Digital cameras’ sensors are very sensitive to light. The danger consists thus in overexposure of highlights which boils down to a reduced dynamic range in the light areas of your picture (lack of gradients, texture and structure).Your digital camera may have a iHighlight function,which may remedy or different presets for the white balance.

Sunset pictures as well as night photos are interesting subjects for HDR photography: shoot multiple shots from your tripod at different settings and mash them up in Photoshop with the HDR feature. The trick may help as the extreme light zones and the extreme darks may your camera cause to think for you (and that you definitely don’t want …) and select either priority. The camera’s choice will most often result in a loss of dynamic range throughout the spectrum, namely if you are shooting with a lower end point and shoot cam.

Digital Photography Ycademy

This month’s Ycademy calls will deal with digital photography and on improving our quality as photographers and photo editors

Also we are working on Digital Photography with the purpose of building a high quality Stock Photo and Media Portfolio which will serve the needs of many a website developer as well as graphic designers in the need of new, fresh, unique and exclusive media content.

Our daily calls start at 8 pm London time (GMT +1) and they take place at our easy to use online live conferencing center.

For more info and joining Ycademy, contact Bianca Gubalke  directly from here:

Name *

Email *

If you want to submit this form, do not enter anything in this field

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Where is the Truth and what’s the Story

Editing a Photo has basically two aspects:

1. Technical editing which consists in applying calibration and recovering a maximum of data from the image.
2. Tell your story by enhancing the expression.

This post will deal only with the first aspect using a Photo ©2010 Laetitia Paris.

The Photo

Tree ©2010 Laetitia Paris Original

Tree ©2010 Laetitia Paris Original

What comes out of the camera is fundamentally good however the bright sky representing about 40% of the frame has it’s negative influence on the metering. The sky looks over exposed. The question is whether the camera sensor has captured color data which can be exploited.

Focusing on the sky

Tree ©2010 Laetitia Paris Recovered Sky

Tree ©2010 Laetitia Paris Recovered Sky

The difference may appear small here in this down-sized image, however on the full size image it is substantial. The increase of blue tones in the sky impacts on the perception of the greens.

Painting the sky

Of course Lightroom allows to intervene on selected areas; you can paint and tint your sky as you like (or use the Dark Skies Plug-in).

Tree ©2010 Laetitia Paris Painted in Sky

Tree ©2010 Laetitia Paris Painted in Sky

Working with Saturation

Tree ©2010 Laetitia Paris – desaturated

Tree ©2010 Laetitia Paris – desaturated

Lord of  The Rings

Lord of the Rings

Lord of the Rings

Firenza

Firenza

Firenza

Autumn Glow

Autumn Glow

Autumn Glow

The above exaggerated examples show how the mood and expression changes depending on how we deal with the photo in the post editing process. The important question remains: what’s the story you want to tell and how can the photo best express the essence of the story, mood or atmosphere.

We will talk about the expression at the Monday call.

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Today’s Call: We edit a Photo

To make things more transparent we will edit a photo step by step during tonight’s call. In fact we will all edit the same photo. Zo has sent in a Picture, the kind you just shoot out of your window towards the neighbor’s house, which is perfect for the purpose. As you will see the photo bears all the strong and weak points a ‘normal’ photo can have.

The Photo

Photo by Zo

Photo by Zo

We will spend one hour editing this picture using Lightroom. As the case may be we will find the time to do some post editing for various purposes.

Zo Image Color

Zo Color Image

Zo Old Timer

Zo Old Timer

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Smart Editing Digital Photos

At our recent calls we have been trying to crystallize a smart way to quickly edit digital photos. This post will resume the 3 steps we are following.

1. Camera Calibration

The camera calibration serves to correct systematic deviations inherent to the type and model of the camera. If you camera returns images which are too yellow or green, this can be corrected; the same applies to other lens corrections, like sharpness or distortions as the case may be. The corrections are saved as a Calibration Preset in Lightroom.

All photos you import from your camera can be automatically filtered with this calibration preset.

Astir Beach Snorklers

Astir Beach Snorklers on September 2, 2010

2. Photo Editing 1

This steps purpose is to recover a maximum of available data from your image. The image is brought down to a balanced close to ‘what you saw’ state whereas we try to recover data namely in the over exposed areas as well as in the shadow areas.

Most of the corrections are standard corrections by type of image (low-light, bright-light, sun-set and so on). These corrections can be saved as personal presets in Lightroom and you may then apply them to the corresponding type of calibrated image imported.

The corrections under this step do not yet tell the story or max-out the expression of the picture. They prepare the picture for best post-editing.

3. Tell the Story – Enhance the Expression

A good photo tells a story. If you shoot a landscape just before a thunderstorm, you may emphasize the the dramatic clouds with your editing tools for example. It’s about making the photo more expressive. When you shot the photo, you took it because nature was telling you a story; you ban that story in a photo and you try to express what triggered in you the emotion when looking at nature. If your picture can trigger that kind of emotion in a third person, then you have probably a good picture.

Seagull

Seagull at Astir Beach

Don’t forget: the picture works only with visuals while in nature you are also experiencing sounds, temperature, humidity, smells and so on. Your visual image must therefore compensate for the absence of these additional sensations. Visual enhancements help to trigger a maximum degree of emotion or impression without exaggerating the effects. If you overdo effects, your image loses in credibility and you shift from photography to “art”, or “illustration” or what ever people often call  their messed up production.

Also: keep in mind that editing for printing requires good density and saturation levels. The use online at 72 dpi means automatically a loss of 50% to 75% of points per inch; therefore, if you start out with a “thin” picture, it will only get thinner and flatter when publishing for the web.

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Astir Beach is the Best Beach in Greece

From my previous posts you guessed it: Astir Beach is my number one beach. And every day the dedicated staff and management confirm this statement… since 1960.

Basketball World Championship Live at Astir Beach

No reason to stay at home to watch the basketball World Championship at a vulgar boob tube; Astir’s mega screen with exceptional luminosity and resolution is simply the best.
SIpping your Mojito, connecting with the world through the Wi-Fi net, watching the Greek team winning and all this while doing maintenance on your sun tan … Is that what crises means in Greece?
All photos live by iPhone.

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Some clouds over Astir Beach in Vouliagmeni and great light create ideal photo conditions for the iPhone 4.

Astir Beach iPhone 4 Photos is a post from: iPhone 4 Photos
All content Copyright © 2010 Yorgo Nestoridis. All rights reserved.
Contact mail: iPhone (at) yorgo.net

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Calibrate and recover a Maximum of Data

The purpose of this exercise is not to reach a final result but to prepare the image for editing and post-editing. When calibrating, we try to correct systematic shortcomings of our camera. When we edit, we try to drive a maximum of data out of our image, namely because the camera delivers jpeg files which compress away quite some data of which some can be recovered.

Once we have the best possible set of data, we can apply filters and presets with a foreseeable result.

Photo © 2010 Ute Schaedler

The Original

Photo © 2010 Ute Schaedler original

Photo © 2010 Ute Schaedler original

Edited Version

Photo © 2010 Ute Schaedler edited

Photo © 2010 Ute Schaedler edited

BW Version

Photo © 2010 Ute Schaedler edited bw

Photo © 2010 Ute Schaedler edited bw

Post-edited Version

Photo © 2010 Ute Schaedler post-edited

Photo © 2010 Ute Schaedler post-edited

Enjoy!

Photo © 2010 Bianca Gubalke

A somewhat more difficult sample in the sense that this image is not ideal for calibrating because of the color range and because it’s zoomed (114 mm in 35 mm equivalent). The image is therefore not at maximum sharpness or detail.

However, it’s a nice bird, worthwhile to spend some time on :-).

The Original

Photo © 2010 Bianca Gubalke as shot

Photo © 2010 Bianca Gubalke as shot

Edited Version

Photo © 2010 Bianca Gubalke edited

Photo © 2010 Bianca Gubalke edited

Edited Version 2

Photo © 2010 Bianca Gubalke edited 2

Photo © 2010 Bianca Gubalke edited 2

Edited Version 3

Photo © 2010 Bianca Gubalke edited 3

Photo © 2010 Bianca Gubalke edited 3

Post-edited Version

Photo © 2010 Bianca Gubalke post-edited

Photo © 2010 Bianca Gubalke post-edited

No comment, let the yellow bird tweet!

More later.

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Image Editing made Transparent

Tomorrow, our call we will focused on Image Editing. For this exercise we need one photograph in original format as shot.

Preparation for the call

I order to be able to advise call participants individually, I would like to ask you to select your image (can be most anything, landscape, monument, animal, flower, portrait) from your collection and attach it to an email and send it to my email at yorgo(at)yorgo.net. Please make sure you send a photo as shot without any editing, cropping or clipping or filtering. Don’t even add Lightroom camera calibration filters.

Please send a shot which has been taken without zooming. In the worst case just set your cam on automatic and take a shot out of your next window without zooming and send that one.

The earlier you send your picture, the bigger the chance that we will have time to edit it and to help you with presets or filters which may serve your camera calibration and ’standard filtering’ for quickly develop and edit your pictures.

Sample:

Recco Italy Image

Recco Italy Photo

Recco Italy Photo © 2010 Yorgo Nestoridis

Recco Italy Image

Recco Italy Photo © 2010 Yorgo Nestoridis

Recco Italy Image Black and White

Recco Italy Image Black and White © 2010 Yorgo Nestoridis

Recco Italy Image Post-edited

Recco Italy Image © 2010 Yorgo Nestoridis

Image 1: as shot and delivered by the camera.

Image 2: basic editing – rotate the picture as the horizon was not horizontal and the verticals bend to the left side; a global vitamin pack gets the pic up to speed. As this is a heavily zoomed image, the sharpness and details cannot be recovered as should. That’s why we would like to get a image without zoom.

Image 3: Black and white version of version 2.

Image 4: Some post-editing to remove crane and construction works. This post editing job can be done much better: in this case I just blew in 3 strokes with the content aware healing brush from Photoshop CS5 – this takes exactly 3 seconds!

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Registration for Ycademy Seminar Participants

Today as planned we will start populating the Photo Media stock platform. The pre-launch is reserved for Ycademy August Seminar Participants. Those concerned will receive a personal invitation by mail from Bianca later today.

Vouliagmeni from the Marina

Vouliagmeni from the Marina

Beta Tests

During the next few days we will beta test the site extensively with the help of all venture partners. Today we focus on the sign-up procedure as well as on the identity verification. Also we will test upload capability as well as the resizing engine.

During the testing, the site will not yet be officially accessible from the home page link; please use the link contained in your invitation email.

Today’s task: Register with the site from the “Become a Seller” link on top right of the site and submit 10 Pictures for evaluation.

Administration

Bianca Gubalke and Zo Nicholas are the site admins whereas Bianca is focused on the Commercial end while Zo looks after Technical issues and Maintenance.

Tonight’s Call

Join tonight’s Ycademy call where we will analyze the site’s behavior and give support where needed. Also we will set up your Venture Partner’s accounts based on your registration.

I am looking forward to a great venture!

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Testing HDR Imaging with Lightroom 3

High Dynamic Range Imaging (HDR) is a ” set of techniques that allow a greater dynamic range of luminances between the lightest and darkest areas of an image than standard digital imaging techniques or photographic methods” (Wikipedia).

The below exercise is a simple test, using only two images with different exposures.

Image 1 – Balux Glyfada

Balux Glyfada 1

Balux Glyfada 1

The image has been taken inside a room exposing it to feature the colors of the interior. As you can see, the consequence of properly exposing the interior leads to over exposed areas, namely on the table and then all over the background where we basically see only white.

Image 2

Balux Glyfada 2

Balux Glyfada 2

The interior is underexposed, however the background or the exterior area shows colors and details as the metering is set to render a clear image in the background.

The HDR Image created in Lightroom 3

Glyfada Balux HDR

Glyfada Balux HDR

After the merger we end up with a nice compromise which can be adjusted in post editing. Lightroom did a good job on the background as wel as on the table where we get now some of the blueish shine as a reflection from the external tones.

HDR Image post-edited

Balux Glyfada edited

Balux Glyfada edited

For the purpose of this test I have just darkened the tonal range of the highlights a bit to see a real contrast to the previous image.

Conclusion

HDR imaging has become an easy task with Lightroom 3, even for beginners. The difference between the first and the last photo is simply smashing. The ability to edit HDR in Lightroom with just a few mouse-clicks will help many amateurs to get a more professional look to pictures featuring interiors.

Of course it’s also a great feature for night photography or anywhere where improved dynamic range cannot be reached with just one shot.

This and more we will demonstrate live and exercise with the participants at this week’s Ycademy calls as an add on to the Ycademy Seminar which took place during the past week-end.

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Adobe Lightroom 3 Presets

Just 4 samples using some of my Lightroom presets for the purpose of the Ycademy Seminar.

Enjoy.

Ermoupoli Syros, Greece

Ermoupoli Syros, Greece – Original

Ermoupoli Syros, Greece

Ermoupoli Syros, Greece – Preset 1

Ermoupoli Syros, Greece

Ermoupoli Syros, Greece -Preset 2

Ermoupoli Syros, Greece

Ermoupoli Syros, Greece – Preset 3

Ermoupoli Syros, Greece

Ermoupoli Syros, Greece – Preset 4

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Lightroom 3 at Ycademy Seminar

Smashing the new Lightroom 3 from Adobe. While many features useful for the professional photographer have been improved, Adobe has also thought of hobby photographers and laymen. The new edition of Lightroom makes online publishing a Sunday walk.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3

Smashing namely the new slide-show function which provides a quick solution for people who have little time and great ambitions.

Here is my test run, loaded to YouTube

www.youtube.com/watch?v=epj_xS-aiSI

Quick Lightroom 3 Slideshow Quality

Lightroom 3 lets you export slide-shows in different formats; unfortunately there is not much flexibility there and the presets are 3:2 formated. However you can get 720p and 1080p as well, producing thus a YouTube HD movie as per above.

You can also export your slides in PDF format.

The images used are 4000 x 3000 pixels. Lightroom crops and compresses and in as much as I am concerned, much of the actual quality and detail is lost. here is an excerpt of one of the pictures as it came out of the camera:

Original Excerpt

Original Excerpt

When looking through the pdf or the YouTube clip, you will easily notice the difference. The images are not crisp, nor sharp and color gradients are washed away. The pdf is better than the YouTube version which is due to the YouTube compression.

Note also the Copyright mark in the slide-show frame on YouTube: I should have used a bolder face type.

In spite of the above, I am convinced that with Lightroom 3 will be a great help in publishing for many people and save a lot of time in the work-flow related to basic web publishing.

We will experiment with Lightroom 3 at the Ycademy Online Seminar which will start in just about 3 hours.

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Clacton Airshow 2010 Images

The Clacton Airshow 2010 attracts again loads of spectators and hobby as well as professional photographers. Taking a picture is one thing, getting it to the top of Google is yet another story.

Zo Nicholas has beaten them all with the publication of her images, using a Semiomantics XO Publishing Framework.

Clacton Airshow 2010 Images on Google Top 10

The topic is still hot and there are a lot of changes on the Google Top 10 on Clacton Airshow 2010 Images.

Clacton Airshow 2010 Image

Here the first hot screen-shot I took last night:

Clacton Airshow 2010 Images on Google Top 10

Zo comes in right after the BBC and ahead of YORGOO on Google rank 2. Note at the bottom Ycademy.com on rank 10!

YORGOO Publishing Network on Google Top 10

Zo Nicholas site is hooked to the YORGOO Publishing Network and she contributes to various publications. The effect is evident: the publishing power of the network assures rapid deployment and high visibility of content.

As you saw above, 3 top 10 entries in just a few hours. However the deployment was not over at this stage.

When I looked at the issue early this morning, the face had changed:

Clacton Airshow Images on Google Top 10

A second wave shows still 3 top 10 positions with Garden Route Publishing on the number 2 spot (Garden Route Publishing has just been upgraded to the brand new Semiomantics XO Media Framework which will be released later this year).

Surprise, surprise, there comes a good old YORGOO Blaster in as well on rank 2! and finally Ycademy, this time on rank 9.

Just an hour later, this is what I get right now:

Zo Nicholas on rank 5 and YORGOO Publishing on rank 10; and I am sure it will change again during the day as the deployment is not finished yet. Also I would expect this post to become visible soon, as well as another post I loaded the Destinations Expo :-).

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Syros Ermoupoli by Night

Not easy to take pictures in the busy streets of Ermoupoli. The great atmosphere and the pulsing life in Ermoupoli, the main town of Syros and at the same time the main town of all Cycladic Islands give you the impression of being far, far of from the stressed day to day life.

Syros Ermoupoli by Night

Syros Ermoupoli by Night on YouTube

www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7c5jMYXqY4

Best viewed in Full-screen mode and HD. Enjoy.

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Photo Media Stock Seminar Information

This week-ends Photo Media Seminar has a busy schedule like all Ycademy Seminars and to anticipate some of the issues I would like to invite participants to prepare the following:

Adobe Lightroom 3

We will introduce and work with Adobe Lightroom 3. There are some amazing features and improvements of the software which will make our work easier. Amongst the improvements you will  find:

1. Superior Noise Reduction
2. Support for DSLR video file formats
3. Improved Image Watermarking
4. New Image Importing Interface
5. Perspective Correction
6. Tethered shooting
7. Lens Correction
8. Improved Slide-shows with Music

and more.

Please download and install the 30 days trial version from Adobe: Click HERE.

DO NOT install unless you have attended last night’s session.

We will install and custom configure the software at tonight’s Ycademy call.

Camera Calibration

As far as I am aware of, all participants use cameras which out-put jpg format images, compared to RAW formats. We will therefore do an empirical calibration based on what we see. For this reason, we work with a few images shot with our camera as follows:

• 3 images daylight, normal conditions
• 3 images low light conditions
• 3 images flash (indoors, party, rooms,…)

Please load the pictures to a blog post or a page as wide as your column allows (for most 460 pixels).

Example before and after:

iPhone 4 Photos as shot:

Syros Ferry

Everybody knows the Vodafone red …. for my taste the above is too warm, too orange tinted.

Blue and White

Same here, the white is yellowish and the blue drifting off to a hazy warm blue.

Syros Ermoupoli

Again very warm and yellow …

I have used the above iPhone 4 Photos to create a calibration preset in Lightroom 3. Then I re-loaded the images again and applied the preset to obtain the following results:

Syros Ferry Calibrated

Purified mid tones and cooler tonal range, a bit of sharpening and the photo looks pretty much as I remember the scene.

Calibrated iPhone 4 Photo

The cooling provokes ‘blueish’ shadows … still better than yellow. The white on top of the image is closer to the real white.

Calibrated iPhone 4 Photo

Cooling helps a lot here; the countryside in the background has its real color. The walls of the buildings on the foreground are yellow in reality and dominate the color range. We are here pretty close to reality.

I have taken a similar photo with my P&S Leica V-Lux-20:

Syros with Leica V-Lux-20

You may notice that this Photo before editing is better than the edited version of the iPhone Photo … or a more zoomed version:

Ermoupoli with Leica V-Lux-20

As unreal as it may appear, these blues really stick out. However calibrating this camera, I would rather reduce the blue impact and create a preset which is less cool.

Note the church on the last image is also visible on the third iPhone Picture. The two pics have been taken from about the same location and distance. The optical zoom of the Leica provides a smashing result considering that we are talking about a camera about of the size of a box of cigarettes.

Size

You like this picture? Pretty sharp huh … that one has been taken with a credit card size Leica C-Lux-3 Point and Shoot camera. Nice details … you see all the dust and finger prints on the cam and the iPhone.

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How to reach Google Top 10 with your iPhone

I have tried for a while: blogging from the iPhone using just the normal WordPress application and then expecting results. here is the problem: when you use the iPhone appi to post to WordPress, your editing tools are limited. If you are used to Semiomantics standards when editing, the WP Application is definitely  insufficient… or was I wrong?

Astir Beach Black and White

Semiomantics Converter Site

The new Semiomantics XO Media script can act as a converter.

Here is my test set-up:

in stead of posting directly to my main site, I post to a new Semiomantics XO Media site, which is configured to convert the post into a Semiomantics standard format. That converted post is then fed into the main blog.

Result: It works brilliantly!

Integrated Semiomantics Converter

Of course the next challenge was then to build the converter directly into the destination site. Test site is my Yorgo Nestoridis site.

Result: absolutely smashing.

The first test post was this after-noon’s McDonald’s joins Garden Route Directory. Target key-words: “McDonald’s (or McDonalds) Garden Route” and we hit the top of Google right away!

McDonalds Garden Route

Half an hour later, when the post has propagated half way through the YORGOO Publishing network, the result changed …

McDonalds Garden Route on Google Top 10

It changed, but not really that much and by tomorrow it will change again. Worth while noting: the original post has been published first at Yorgo Nestoridis (.com).

With this successful conversion Semiomantics reaches a new milestone in ‘mobile publishing’.

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McDonald’s on Garden Route Directoty

The news reached me at the beach: McDonald’s has chosen to advertise on Garden Route Directoty.
This decision comes as no surprise to me since Lalakoipublishing Publishing and online Media Networks provide the most (cost) effective marketing for any business in the Garden Route Area.

Hanno Coetzee (Lalakoi), the owner and driving force, provides customized solutions for high online visibility and performance.

Lalakoipublishing Publishing and Garden Route Directories are equipped with high performance semantic publishing frameworks from Semiomantics.

Contact Lalakoi at http://lalakoipublishing.com.

Picture: Ancient Greek predecessor of McDonald’s :-).

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Vouliagmeni Full-Moon

Shooting at the moon with a Point and Shoot camera is not an easy task and the limits of the camera become quickly obvious. Yesterday I have taken some shots as a test for tonight’s full-moon night.

Full-moon in Vouliagmeni

This above is about as close as I got and I have tried out different settings.

How to take a picture of the Moon

Equipment used:

• Tripod
• Point and Shoot Camera

The canm used is a Leica V-Lux-20 with 12 MP on a 1/2.33 Sensor.

1. Automatic Settings

With automatic settings, the moon just came back as a white disc on a black background. The cam did not distinguish between the different shades and reliefs on the surface of the moon.

2. Zoom

The camera has optical and digital zoom systems as well as an extended optical zoom system.

The camera comes with a 12 x optical zoom and and extended optical zoom up to x 23.4. The extended optical zoom uses only a reduced part of the sensor to produce the picture. The photo can then be enlarged accordingly. The camera also uses an  intelligent zoom system. This is a super resolution technology by which the zoom ratio can be increased by 1.3 times with about no deterioration of the picture quality.

Check out your camera menu, you may find iZoom or something similar there.

Make sure, when you shoot at the moon, that the macro zoom is switched off.

3. Manual Settings

In view of the limited zoom range and the small size of the sensor, I put the emphasis on settings where a maximum of quality (detail) is preserved, rather than on speed or zoom (size of the moon in the frame).

To achieve this and to prevent noise, I am a friend of low ISO numbers. Considering the use of a tripod, time is no problem, so if low ISO numbers trigger longer exposure, the tripod will prevent the shake effect.

The camera will consider the moon as a whole at infinite distance; blurs due to the spherical shape are not an issue with my material. However, too low F-stop numbers will increase exposure speed and from what my tests show, it’s preferable to compromise between aperture and speed.

I have started out with f/11 at 1/100 and I just got a white disc on black background.

The above shot shows a possible compromise:

- Aperture: f/4.9

- Exposure time: 1/250 s

- ISO speed: ISO-80

- Spot metering mode

- Focal length of 49 mm which is the equivalent of 399 mm in 35 mm format

- The program selector was on Aperture Priority.

The best advise is: start with some settings and then play with aperture and shutter speed moving them gradually and then select the best picture.

Blue Moon Vouliagmeni

The blue-moon has been achieved by tinting one of yesterday’s photos blue and by cleaning the whites.

Blue Moon Vouliagmeni

More tomorrow.

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Destinations Expo Live

Our new site “Destinations Expo” went live last night with some minimum content.

Destinations Expo Cape Town

Inspired by the Destinations Expo Cape Town which takes place these days we thought about creating a permanent Destinations Expo Online. The idea is simple: we open the site to Traveling and Tourism related business and publish selected Destinations throughout our publishing networks.

Advertising completes the content.

Destination Sea

Destinations Expo Online

We are not yet sure about the final form and shape to give the online Destination Expo; however we believe that a Destinations Expo online, sorted by Countries or Places could be an interesting approach.

The combination of the main site and customer sites will provide advertisers and customers an unequaled marketing advantage. For the time being we are testing category structures and Google response.

Destinations Expo South Africa

To start with we will test Destinations in South Africa. Thereafter we will look closer at Greece and other countries.

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Destinations Expo Branding

A little search on Google returns the following for Destinations Expo and related search terms:

Destinations Expo

The generic term, Destinations Expo returns roughly 1.6 million results; here are the Google Top 10:

Destinations Expo

Destinations Expo on Google

The South African Media site comes first under this generic terms. Note that even under this term, 2 sites of the YORGOO Publishing Network show up on Top 10.

Destinations Expo 2010 Cape Town

This seems to be the correct full name of the event we are looking at.

Destinations Expo 2010 Cape Town

Destinations Expo 2010 Cape Town on Google

Note the total absence of the Official site hosted by the South African Media Company, owners of the Expo. This site here takes ranks 1 and 2, while the YORGOO Blog and Garden Route Publishing  sit on number 7 and 8. Interestingly all tourism authority sites are beaten.

Destinations Expo 2010

This short phrase returns an interesting result as well:

Destinations Expo 2010

Destinations Expo 2010 on Google

Two of our sites make it while the key phrase is dominated by tourism oriented authority sites. The official site is completely absent again.

Destinations Expo Cape Town

Google Top 10 for Destinations Expo Cape Town shows the following:

Destinations Expo Cape Town

Destinations Expo Cape Town on Google Top 10

The official site makes it to the top while we get ranks 2 and 6. The tourism authority sites are all beaten again.

Conclusion

The Destinations Expo is not solidly branded online. I would expect to see the official site on top under all the above keywords. The local authority sites do a good job, however their SEO does not live up to the SEO standards of Semiomantics Frameworks used on all featured sites of our publishing network.

I am wondering now what a Semiomantics XO on a keyword related domain will do :-). Look forward to Destinations Expo our site under construction.

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Destinations Expo 2010 Cape Town

Subsequent to my previous post about the Destination Expo 2010 in Cape Town, I received some comments pointing to a video clip on YouTube about the event.

The Destination Expo 2010 Cape Town — a School Case

I have used the example of the Destination Expo as a study case for Ycademy, our online business coaching center. The idea is to analyze the way the Expo Organizers use the internet to promote their event, considering namely, that tourism related low tech events are of interest to a global audience reachable through the internet.

YorgoMan at the Tavern

YorgoMan at the Tavern

My first observation was, that searching Google, I could barely find more than an invitation text release and the opening hours. I concluded that the organizers were not really interested in promoting the event using the Internet and I also concluded that the way the Expo is promoted is to no benefit of the Expo participants in as much as the Internet is concerned.

Destinations Expo Website

After some research I found a domain destinationsexpo.co.za. How surprised was I to find that the domain is redirected to a domain called cadek.co.za/des. There we find a  website with informative content pertaining to the Destinations Expo 2010 in Cape Town. We learn on the site that:

“The Destinations Expo is owned and organised by:

CADEK Media
P.O. Box 5111
Helderberg
7135
South Africa”

There you go: the destinations expo website serves the purpose of promoting CADEK Media rather than the expo or its participants. The site does not have a very professional touch in spite the brochure gimmick. In any case the Internet as promotional medium is not exploited for the benefit of participants. From the tariffs we see that there is no online promotion available to participants …

Destinations Expo Cape Town Experiment

It’s easy to criticize sitting at the beach here in Greece. As said above, the purpose is to look at the Destinations Expo as a study case for the purpose of Ycademy. I therefore will also try to experiment with some ideas.

My research shows, that the Top Level Domains of “destinationsexpo” are all available! How surprising. Local domains (co.za may be fine, but when you have international or global ambitions, you want to grab the .com and maybe some other TLDs). In fact the local domains have lost their significance to a large extent during the past few years as developers notice that people have just a .com-reflex. Also, one always loses visitors to the .com … Brand protection starts with grabbing the main TLDs, which is a rather cheap affair as you get the domains for just a few bucks.

For the purpose of this experiment I have registered destinationsexpo.com with YorgoDom and then I set up a hosting account at Hosting South Africa at 1 Rand per Day. I will load a Semiomantics XO 3.x Publishing Framework and shoot at some related keywords, respectively I will show how participants could easily profit from an online promotion reaching far beyond the duration of the low tech Expo in Cape Town.

For the purpose of the exercise I will find my inspiration at the excellent Garden Route Directory as well as on other brilliant Projects, such as the Monkey Valley Resort Project by Bianca Gubalke from Noordhoek.

More about this experiment later. Let me install a site first :-).

Thinking about a website project:

Destination Expos take place all over the globe and one could even create a Destinations Expo Global Directory, inviting all such Expo organizers to join forces for marketing purposes and later may be for networking  (just an idea :-)).

Destinations Expo 2010 Cape Town on YouTube

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfUJhcUQrP0

The Destination Expo Cape Town YouTube Clip has some great content and footage. Too bad the stitching of the pieces, namely of the first clip from Cape Town Tourism leads to distortions. (Would need to be post-edited again).

Shooting some sequences at this years event could lead to a more lively, less sterile video, whereas the production could be financed by the participants who are featured in the clip or who provide mini clips to be inserted. Lalakoi Publishing from the Garden Route is working with Customer Clips to provide high visibility to advertisers or site owners.

I could imagine that a Semiomantics Evolution site could be a great support for promotional clips linked to a dynamic content CMS.

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Seagull Stock Photo

In an attempt to edit a photo for Stock Photo purposes, we are exercising on a Seagull Image. Checking Google, I just noticed that Bianca has loaded her Stock ready copy to her blog.

Seagull Stock Photo

Here below you ind two versions of the Seagull Photo ready for a Stock platform such as Photo Media Stock.

Seagull Stock Photo

The above version has been post-edited by Bianca Gubalke.

Seagull Stock Photo

I have edited this version for the purpose of the exercise.

You may notice that both pictures are quite similar and the same editing measures have been taken to make this picture Stock Platform ready.

Stock Media Seminar by Ycademy

The Ycademy Online Seminar in 10 days will help you to get your images ready for Stock platforms and show you how you can convert your photographs and add them to your long term income streams.

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Seagull on Google Top 10

Our earlier post made it!
Our Seagull made it to Google Top10 and more to come!

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Stock Photo Seagull

Tonight’s Ycademy call will focus on preparing an image for Photo Media Stock our new Stock Photo and Media Portal.

The call will highlight proper image titling, tagging and description as well as other properties such as those pertaining to Copyrights. We will also have a look at different versions of a Seagull Photo.

Seagull Image

Seagull Photo Image

This is the Seagull picture as shot reduced to 1000 pixels wide and 80% jpg quality. When taking the photo, I didn’t frame too closely as the subject was moving. Zooming has its price: you need more aperture and often speed to compensate for the shaking hand and you may lose more detail and gradients.

Seagull Photo Edited

The first step was to re-frame the picture without cropping it.

Seagull Photo

Then a bit of editing and cleaning… and a test with a bit of vignette for my own fun:

Seagull Image 2

Stock Photo Seagull

Stock Photo Seagull

The Stock Photo Seagull comes without vignette or edge treatments. Also I have re-sized it (without cropping) to 3:2 making it 930 pixels x 620 pixels.

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Motor Yacht AlumerciA

The previous post showed some pictures of the Motor Yacht AlumerciA taken yesterday at Astir Beach. We also launched a challenge about Google Top 10 ranking and media publishing capabilities of Semiomantics Frameworks.

Motor Yacht AlumerciA by Yorgo Nestoridis

But before showing the immediate results (within 5 min from publication), here another smashing view of the Motor Yacht AlumerciA (right):

AlumerciA at Astir Beach Sunset

The image was shot with the hand-held Leica V-Lux-20 with a focal length of 49 mm which is equivalent with a 340 mm tele lens (35 mm). Shutter speed was at 1/1000 and F-stop at f/6.3 at ISO-80. Amazing!

AlumerciA on Google Top 10

Here we go with our test results. To make a long storry short, we beat the reference authority site 2 times out of 3:
<a name='1. Alumercia at Astir Beach on Google‘>

1. Alumercia at Astir Beach on Google

Alumercia at Astir Beach on Google

<a name='2. AlumerciA Image on Google‘>

2. AlumerciA Image on Google

AlumerciA Image on Google

3. Motor Yacht AlumerciA

Motor Yacht AlumerciA on Google

Conclusion

Media tagging and semantic publishing is one of the many strong arguments in favor of Semiomantics Framework! The test returned amazing results in spite the fact that we don’t have a special category for Yachts or such like.

The test also reflects the improved media publishing capabilities of Semiomantics scripts; a new Semiomantics XO is in preparation for release towards the end of the year; media optimization will be one of the major improvements compared to the 2010 release.

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Moto Yacht AlumerciA at Astir Beach

Astir Beach in Vouliagmeni, Greece is known as one of the nicest spots on earth, privileged by the select elite of Super Yacht owners. AlumerciA arrived yesterday in late after-noon at Astir Beach.

AlumerciA Image Astir Beach

Motor Yacht AlumerciA Image

AlumerciA Specifications

Find the list of specs at Super Yacht Times

Publishing AlumerciA Yacht Images

One of our concerns is the semantic publication of media, namely of photos. Having tuned and optimized the Semiomantics Publishing Framework used on this site for high performance on media which are not readable by Search Engines, we are testing the visibility with this post.

For the purpose of the test, I have loaded an image of the AlumerciA to a highly specialized site with top authority in the field, Live Yachting. The site is a Wiki type of authority site dealing with Yachts and the life around yachts.

The question will now be, whether the Semiomantics Framework can match or beat the authority site on Google Top 10. The risk I take here is obvious: I will tell you the search terms we target: AlumerciA at Astir Beach and Motor Yacht AlumerciA as well as “AlumerciA Images”.

Of course there are sites with multiple posts about the AlumerciA with loads of great content; however, my aim is to measure the performance based on the image and its handling by the Semiomantics Framework.

Look forward to the result.

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Aquarius ex My Shanti at Astir Beach, Vouliagmeni, Greece

It’s an insider tip for Super Yacht Owners: Astir Beach is one of the nicest spots on earth. All year long Super Yachts spend a day or more right in the exceptional bay profiting from one of the nicest swims on the planet as well as from 5 Start Services provided by the Astir Beach Hotel Complex.

Yesterday we spotted the Super Yacht Aquarius, ex My Shanti. Completed in 2007 the Super Motor Yacht has been constructed my Amels Holland BV.

The first owner, Shari Arison, Israels richest woman sold My Shanti in 2009 for a reported $ 103,000,000 to its new owners in the USA. The name was changed to Aquarius.

Super Motor Yacht Aquarius

Super Yacht Aquarius ex My Shanti

Aquarius Specifications

Some of the specs:

Length overall: 64.50 meters or 211.61 ft

Engines: 2 by Caterpillar

HP: 2,230 hp each

Cruise speed: 15.6

Fuel Capacity: 160 000 liters  42,272 Gallons

Water Capacity: 50 000 liters  13,210 Gallons

Crew: 18

Guests: 20

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iPhone 4 Photo

The above features the Beach Bar of the Grand Resort Lagonissi; in fact the bar is surrounded by the sea and the platform serves also for launching water sports. Above the roof, two powerful speaker boxes used for mainstream music plaid by more or less famous DJs.

The photo has been shot using a free B&W app for the iPhone by Hanna Mobile. This iPhone 4 Photo looks quite crisp to me with a good degree of detail and nuance. Unfortunately the use of the application kills the EXIF information. When downloading the image no camera details are visible. This may be one of the limitations of the free version of the app, however I am not sure about the specs of the paid B&W app.

Posted from Kalyvia Thorikou, Attica, Greece.

Grand Resort Lagonissi is a post from: iPhone 4 Photos
All content Copyright © 2010 Yorgo Nestoridis. All rights reserved.
Contact mail: iPhone (at) yorgo.net

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iPhone 4 Photo

The image shows the far end of the beach bar at the Grand Resort in Lagonissi from where water sports are launched. The scenery is gorgeous and generous, typical for the coast of Attica between Vouliagmeni and Cap Sounio. The Beach is part of the 5 Star Grand Resort Lagonissi and accordingly well equipped – 5 star service included. A brilliant place for the whole family.

This black and white version has been achieved by post editing, whereas I have just converted the original above into b&w with Photoshop. The conversion with Photoshop of the iPhone Photo looks better to me than taking B&W pictures with the B&W App from Hanna Mobile. The disadvantage: you cannot just shoot and send a B&W immediately to the net or by mail.

Posted from Kalyvia Thorikou, Attica, Greece.

Grand Resort Lagonissi is a post from: iPhone 4 Photos
All content Copyright © 2010 Yorgo Nestoridis. All rights reserved.
Contact mail: iPhone (at) yorgo.net

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iPhone 4 Photo

This photo shows the beach at the Grand Resort Lagonissi; the iPhone 4 photo does not really reflect the clear, translucent waters and for once the colors are too cool. Nice setting however with the Resort’s Bungalows in the background.

Some of the data:

F-stop: f/2.8

Exposure time: 1/1885 s

ISO speed: ISO-80

Focal length: 4 mm

Posted from Kalyvia Thorikou, Attica, Greece.

Grand Resort Lagonissi is a post from: iPhone 4 Photos
All content Copyright © 2010 Yorgo Nestoridis. All rights reserved.
Contact mail: iPhone (at) yorgo.net

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Dominique de Villepin on August 13, 2010

Coincidence or paparazzi? Taking a shot of a friend at the Beach restaurant of the Grand Resort Lagonissi with the iPhone 4, I noticed the former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin in the background when viewing the shot.

Wikipedia teaches us that Villepin’s full name is Dominique Marie François René Galouzeau de Villepin, a whole dictionary by itself. Mr de Villepin, unlike other “people” preserves also in shorts his ‘alure’ as a states man. The Grand Resort Lagonissi sure is a great place to relax with friends and family. Great idea, Mr Villepin to choose Greece and the Grand Resort Lagonissi.

Below just some black and white excerpts of some other shots from the same day and place.

This is not an iPhone 4 Photo. The focal length is 49 mm corresponding to a 400 mm tele-lens on 35 mm equivalent, shot with a speed of 1/500 and f/4.9 at ISO-250 with a Leica V-Lux-20.

Same camera and settings as before but with ISO-160. A 400 mm equivalent hand-held optical zoom is difficult to stabilize at 1/500 as the pics show. It was worth the try and the sensation of being a mini paparazzi .

Images Copyright 2010 Yorgo Nestoridis -  iPhone4Photos.net – All rights reserved.

Posted from Kalyvia Thorikou, Attica, Greece.

Dominique de Villepin is a post from: iPhone 4 Photos
All content Copyright © 2010 Yorgo Nestoridis. All rights reserved.
Contact mail: iPhone (at) yorgo.net

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YaBanaki may sound Japaneese but in fact it means “for the little bath” and is Greek. At this beach in Varkiza, just a few kilometers south of Vouliagmeni, all names start with ‘Ya…’ such as my preferred ‘YaOuzaki’ which is the name of the tavern (for the Ouzo). The’…aki’ at the end designs a diminutive.

iPhone 4 Photo

This iPhone 4 Photo has been color adjusted to get rid of the over warm rendering by the iPhone.

Posted from Greece.

YaBanaki Varkiza is a post from: iPhone 4 Photos
All content Copyright © 2010 Yorgo Nestoridis. All rights reserved.
Contact mail: iPhone (at) yorgo.net

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The picture shows some of the Beach Beds at YaBanaki in Varkiza; they are probably inspired by the good old Greeks or Romans . The fact that they are about 5 feet above the level of the sand where the masses enjoy the beach, gives them a somewhat imperial or divine dominant position as seen on old paintings.

iPhone 4 Photo

The iPhone automatically used the following settings:

F-stop: f/2.4

Exposure time:  1/2320

ISO speed: ISO-80

Focal length: 4 mm

Metering: Average

The metering mode gives us a uniformly sharp or blurred picture. Focusing with the iPhone is easy: by tapping the touch screen the camera focuses on the part of the image addressed.

Posted from Vari, Attica, Greece.

YaBanaki Varkiza is a post from: iPhone 4 Photos
All content Copyright © 2010 Yorgo Nestoridis. All rights reserved.
Contact mail: iPhone (at) yorgo.net

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The above iPhone 4 Photo has been color adjusted. As mentioned earlier, the iPhone 4 renders pictures in a very warm tonal range, namely under outdoor high light intensity conditions such as at the beach. While the sky was blue and the small clouds just about visible, the original picture looks completely hazy, yellowish and out of the real tonal range.

The adjustments concern tonal range and a 2/3 blue color gradient.

iPhone 4 Photo Before

Posted from Vari, Attica, Greece.

iPhone 4 Photo Colors is a post from: iPhone 4 Photos
All content Copyright © 2010 Yorgo Nestoridis. All rights reserved.
Contact mail: iPhone (at) yorgo.net

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Monkey Vally with New Smashing Surf Experience

Looking for Accommodation near or in Cape Town? Or, looking for a Retreat, a Resort middle in the beauty of Cape Nature? Monkey Vally Resort provides you with all you desire, need and dream of.

Up to now, insiders and former guests only could imagine the beauty, atmosphere, the smell and the taste and the sounds and the light of a stay at monkey Vally.

Monkey Valley Resort New Online Experience

I could get hold of a smashing site still in project mode, Bianca Gubalke is designing for the Monkey Valley Resort in Noordhoek, near Cape Town in South Africa. Frankly, this is the first time I see a Hotel Site with true heart, touch and feel.

Hotel sites are either sterile, directory like, unprofessional, boring, informative, glossy like glossy magazines … in a way they all resemble each other depending on stars and budgets.

L1050049sunset_1200

Here for the first time I am touched by a particular, a very special atmosphere, an “ambiente” which makes the Monkey Valley Resort unique. It’s all in the pictures, the clips, the presentation, the composition and the smashing rendering by a flash driven website (Evolution Script tuned by Semiomantics).

As the project is not yet released and finalized, here is a sneak preview of what a great Hotel Online Presentation can look like when there is more than just web design involved, when there is the focus on heart, emotion and empathy and when the site visitor feels as if he was already in paradise.

Mind you, there is no fake and the place is as you can see it on the site. There is no exaggeration and there is no hype; Monkey Vally does not need that.

Monkey Valley on YouTube

While surfing the project, I have just switched on my recorder to share with you what I found. Give it a shot and if you have a fast connection, don’t hesitate to go for full-screen HD, it’s worth it.

The link? No, I cannot give you that but one day soon this project will go officially live and everyone can enjoy the feel and touch of one of the exceptional places around Cape town. For the time being it’s your privilege to be amongst the first to see and sense Monkey Valley online.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtPs2Hh7gck

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Monkey Valley News

Monkey Valley in Noordhoek, South Africa is a unique set-up in the beautiful area of Cape Town. Environment conscientious the owners and management have forged a solid reputation in South Africa’s Eco Tourism.

Monkey Valley Resort or Retreat

For some Monkey Valley may just be a future oriented resort, for others a retreat inviting to meditation, peace of mind and harmony between man and nature.

L1040725_seagull_1200

Seagull Image by Yorgo Nestoridis

New Monkey Valley Internet Presence

Recently New Monkey Valley related websites have attracted our attention. Away from the standard aseptic mass tourism oriented  08-15 websites, we have spotted a new image of Monkey Valley reflecting the atmosphere the resort is actually offering to its visitors. Large size Photographs, rendered in Flash, clips and sounds, inspirational comments and a new eye catching presentation based on high quality photography and web design are brilliantly produced by Bianca Gubalke.

Monkey Valley Resort News Trailer

The most exciting element we noticed today is an extremely well designed Monkey Valley News Trailer also produced by Bianca Gubalke.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7Pz3wPRYr8

Please comment on YouTube.

Monkey Valley New Online Image

Extremely important for those who have never had the chance of staying at Monkey Valley near Cape Town, the web presence is of the utmost importance, namely if the resort can be found on Google under the most compelling keywords, important to quality, eco oriented tourists.

The more media oriented image of the Monkey Valley Resort will surely help the resort’s promotion on social network, such as facebook!

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Your Photos take you to Google Top 10

Proper image tagging and publishing is beneficial for photographers and publishers. This applies for printed publications as well as for online publishing.

Today when looking up my name on Google, I found on position 13 Charterworld.com which published two of my pictures about the destruction of the super-yacht Madiblue D.

From the same publishing house, other publications have picked up the images, namely the Best European Magazine for Motor Boats and Yachting. And then the following websites:

http://www.synfo.com/news/allnews.asp?news=&id=15421#

http://www.charterworld.com/news/yacht-madiblue-on-fire-in-greece

http://www.thecrewreport.com/superyacht_crew_news.asp?id=16846

madiblue-5

Copyright Notice underneath the photo.

madiblue-2

Copyright Notices underneath the Photos

madiblue-4

Copyright Notice …

madiblue-3

Copyright Notices …

madiblue

Copyright Notice.

If you magnify the images you see underneath each photo the copyright notice, which Google is happy to pick up. The Copyright Notices are embedded as Caption. In fact if you inspect the element of the last sample, you will find that the publisher uses the whole caption in the title or name of the image. This is of course a good promo for the photographer and helps the publisher to get higher visibility just due to the image.

Image tagging

The above is a nice example of efficient image handling by a professional publisher.

Photo and Media Publishing

There are different ways of publishing photos, the most common being as illustration to a text for your own purpose. Then there is publication of media for the purpose to serve other publishers with media to illustrate their texts.

The second case requires different publishing; the main objective is that interested parties can find your picture easily when searching on Google for example. There are also agencies and stock platforms which have high visibility and which have the connections to the end-user.

The above example shows, that interesting materials can be a source of income, provided the materials can be found by interested people. It is therefore of paramount importance to handle our pictures with the utmost care and then to publish them in the most efficient way.

If your site is not a high impact site with high authority as the above, it is often difficult to gain visibility quickly. Also, the Google image search is one of the most polluted search engines in as much as too many top search returns are completely irrelevant.

The Semiomantics Media Publishing Solution

In view of the above, we have been thinking for years about solutions for people who wish high visibility with media. Semiomantics Publishing Frameworks based on WordPress provide users the necessary platform to gain high visibility with media without the need to spend money on Google Ads and without giving away a high percentage to the owners of Stock Platforms. Semiomantics is specialized and second to none when it comes to reach Google Top 10 positions with media content.

Google Top 10 with Semiomantics

Semiomantics Frameworks have their origin in Search Engine Optimized WordPress based scripts. Immediately after the release of the first frameworks under the name of “The Magic Search Traffic Formula” we became aware of the almost shocking performance of the scripts: posts reached easily Google Top 10 Positions. We then moved on to other publishing elements, such as tags and images and later to other media. Since the necessary optimizations needed special tuning of the scripts as well as the creation of a ’semantically evolving dictionary’ for each site we created the Semiomantics SEO Module which runs behind the most professional Semiomantics based publications.

With success, as you can see from my Madiblue D experience.

Media Publishing with Semiomantics

At present we are working on a new framework and formula to satisfy the needs of mobile publishers. When sending a picture or a video from a smart-phone to a website, there is little that can be done to optimize the tagging beyond the data automatically attached to the picture. It is therefore important, to automatically translate some of the data and convert it to optimized tags on the receiving site. An interesting challenge for Semiomantics.

For example: some smart-phones automatically use Geo Tags; these can be translated and projected to a map and then additional keywords can be extracted therefrom. Other features concern traveling and trip information which is available on cameras and smart-phones. Notes, descriptions and such like help as well.

At present we are testing the new Semiomantics Formula for Mobile Publishers using the iPhone 4 and our site at iPhone 4 Photos. The first results are promising. The advantage of the iPhone are the numerous applications which can be used for advanced image editing and tagging; in the extreme case, we may need to write our own application to suit the exact needs when used with Semiomantics Frameworks.

Another test ground is the Leica Mapping. With the release of the Leica V-Lux-20 Leica provided their customers with a portal for automated mapping and smart-tagging of photos, based on the data automatically attached to each picture by the V-Lux-20. Other camera providers have similar projects. While the idea is brilliant, the projects lack punch and optimization to make them an interesting playground for us.

Remain free image portals, such as Flickr or Picasa. The downside of those are their terms and licensing policies; on the other hand you can use them to reach Google Top 10 positions by using the full tagging potential when publishing on the platforms. This applies for manual loading, not to mobile uploading.

The Flickr tag based search works quite well, provided people search on Google for the keyword and add “flickr”. Example Syros Flickr returns 8087 uploads, whereas on the first page which displays the top 24 returns, 12 are iPhone 4 Photos from my production  (or better, 9 of the top 10 are from iPhone4Photos.com).

flickr-syros

PS: On Google under Syros Flickr the above tag page is not only Top 10, but number 1, meaning that the way you publish may also help Flickr to gain Google Top 10 Positions :-).

Learn and Earn with Ycademy

All about Media Publishing at this month’s Ycademy Seminar. Get more info from HERE

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Photo Media Stock News

Our new Site Photo & Media Stock is up and running. Today we will finalize the basic configuration and semantic optimization. At the same time we are testing the features and pipelines, as well as the community tools.

Photo_Media_Stock

Photo & Media Stock

Release Date

Officially Photo Media Stock will go public on September 1, 2010. At this stage, the site will have already an extensive inventory, namely of stock photos.

Pre-release Task

• Testing and adjusting features
• Implementing privileged accounts for Ycademy Seminar Participants
• Site content creation and implementation
• Terms and Conditions, Licenses
• Set up and training of Admin
• Training for users
• Quality specifications of stock media
• Uploading and organizing stock media
• Promotion

Some of these tasks will be dealt with at the Seminar, namely promotion and marketing issues as well as linking to Semiomantics Frameworks, Social Networks and so on.

Other tasks will need to be taken care of as from today.

Pre-Seminar Tasks

1. Admin

We are at the point where we can start with admin trainings. There are three levels of admin tasks:

• Website Admin and Maintenance
• Quality control
• Financial matters

Admin is responsible for the site content and the smooth operation, trouble-shooting and collection and pay-outs.

We are looking for the right managers for the above and will inform you as soon as the positions are filled. If you are interested in any of these, please contact Bianca Gubalke at bianca(at)ycademy.com.

2. Seller Accounts

There will be three subscription levels to the site: Basic, Standard and Professional. Depending on the level, sellers have more or less freedom or can profit from more or less capabilities of the site and of server capacity.

For Ycademy Seminar Participants (August 2010 Seminar) we will create special full-featured accounts. This implies manual configuration and it is therefore necessary to know the list of participants as early as possible.

3. Buyer Accounts

Implementation of buyer accounts and pricing policy, licenses, terms, testing.

Trainings

Admin trainings will start as from tomorrow, Media Producer Trainings will take place daily as from next Monday. To be able to participate in such trainings you need a Producer account on the site which we need to set up by the end of this week to provide you with the due privileges.

Quality requirements and control

Photo Media Stock provides High Quality Media. Admin will therefore exercise a tight quality control on ALL uploaded media. Also, new photo publishers will have to submit to admin a sample of 10 pictures for appraisal before being accepted. As from the release of the portal on September 1, 2010, the conditions for admission will change as well as the reward levels for new media producers who want to join the portal.

The Privileges and Seminar

All about the seminar and features HERE.

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Ycademy Online Seminar August 2010

The schedule of the the Ycademy August Seminar is rather big and will take a lot of preparation. As we are building a new site for the purpose of commercializing Stock Media, we would appreciate to know as soon as possible the names of the Seminar Participants in order to be able to create the privileged accounts before the event.

Agios Dimitrios, Syros, Greece

Photo Stock Media Website

The new website, Photo Stock Media is built on an extended server cluster on which we host this site as well as Hiod. You may have noticed a somewhat bumpy ride these days, the reason being the additional server capacity which needs to be added. I cannot guarantee, that the troubles are over, but we are doing our best to build the site and to make it available as soon as possible.

The load of the Photo Stock Media Seminar imposes some pre-seminar calls to get acquainted with the software and its behavior. We will invite Seminar participants as soon as we have the registrations to open test accounts on the new site.

Semiomantics XO for Photos

I am pleased with the behavior and look of the Semiomantics XO customization at iPhone 4 Photos. This is a niche site focusing on photos taken with the iPhone 4. Similar niches can be created for other purposes using Semiomantics XO. The interest is in the fact that the pictures are hardly ever commented and yet find their way to Google Top 10, be it from iPhone4Photos or through the Publishing Network. The site under it’s main keyword ranks just within the top 40 amongst 425 000 000 search returns.

This site helps us to improve the semantics used in connection with media, especially with photos and video. Also we are testing linking the Photo Media Stock site from and to Semiomantics scripts.

Seminar Registration

If you experience problems with your registration for the August seminar, please contact Bianca; she will find a way to accommodate you. As the HIOD site is hosted on the same server where we are building all the goodies for the seminar, temporary down-times are possible. Nevertheless we will need the test team to start exploring the site before the end of this week.

Enjoy this call free week … but keep following up the news on the blog.

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Nice contrasts and color; details could be better. The sharpness and details are heavily influenced by the degree of zooming.

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This iPhone 4 Photo has been shot with flash and little zoom to get straight verticals. I am not very impressed by the details.

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Good light conditions and yet, the whites are typically yellowish. iPhone 4 Photos seem to be pushed to warm tonal ranges and from what I can see from my tests, it’s extremely hard to end up with clean white.

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The iPhone 4 Photo Camera Specifications

Apple has improved the camera on the iPhone. The high expectations were however met only partially.

Technically speaking, the iPhone 4 Camera is a 5 megapixel camera with a 5x digital zoom and built in LED Flash. Precise other data have not been officially published, however an interesting analysis can be found at the Falk Lumo Blog; the comments reveal additional data to complete the post.

The specifications could be the following:

• 5.0 Mpixels (2592 px x 1936 px)

• 1/3.2″ back-illuminated CMOS sensor

• 4:3 aspect ratio

• 35 mm film camera crop factor: 7.64

• Low ISO 80

• 3.85 mm lens focal length

• f/2.4 lens aperture

• Autofocus: tap to focus

View from My Office at Astir Beach

These specifications put the iPhone 4 at the lower end of 5 MP p&s (point and shoot) cameras, but still ahead of ordinary mobile phone cams. Even if the market tends to develop into higher Megapixel Cameras, Apple kept it at 5 MP which is preferable, namely also for the video function: better fewer large pixels than more small pixels. You guessed it, in the end it’s all a matter of the quality and size of the sensor and the lens.

The megapixel race is meaningless except for the output format (the actual size of the image); it does however not determine the quality of the image. Considering the limitations of the size of the sensor in a mobile device and the short focal length it is preferable to keep the number of MPs low to get a crisp picture.

iPhone 4 Photo Camera Zoom

The absence of an optical zoom has it’s implications: zooming with a digital zoom results in a cropping process to keep the preset output size: the zoom frames in on a smaller area on the sensor and the software blows the resulting picture up to the expected 2592 px x 1936 px. This process, like in p & s cameras leads to a dramatic loss of detail. Exceptions are the Intelligent Zoom functions from Leica for example.

As my experience with the iPhone 4 shows,  zoomed images lack sharpness, often luminosity and almost always depth. Of course on the incredibly precise screen of the iPhone 4, these photos still look good; if however you publish them at say 800 pixels wide, the lack of quality is obvious.

On the other hand and comparing with low cost p & s cameras, the aperture of  f/2.4 allows for keeping the ISO low even when using the maximum zoom range.

When zooming in, it is obviously more difficult to hold the camera still; this is true in general for p & s cams. Many of them have built in shake reduction features; not so the iPhone. As digital zooming reduces in fact the rendered area of a full frame, you may get a better result by taking the pictures without zoom; you may then crop it accordingly. The advantage of this method: it’s easier to hold still and the picture is taken at lower ISO and there is thus less noise creeping in.

Unless you need a quick shot which you want to shoot up immediately to Facebook for example, there is no reason to use the zoom. In any case whenever you can, just move closer to the subject.

My Office at Astir Beach Vouliagmeni

iPhone 4 Photos at low light conditions

Shooting at low light conditions is not an easy task. Considering the wide aperture of f/2.4 I was expecting some great low light shots but I was rather disappointed, the reason being most likely the quality and size of the sensor as well as of the lens.

My 5 MB Sony Ericsson C902 Mobile phone does a better job on low light; I am not sure the sensor is better, but the Carl Zeiss lens has definitely higher performance.

Or, may be, I have just not yet found the best way of using the iPhone 4 cam in low light.

In any case the built in flash works automatically and does a good job in limited range of distance. The best range seems to be between 3 and 5 meters. No intelligent flash metering seems to be built in. The use as a fill flash helps to improve pictures.

iPhone 4 Photos Quality

From what you can see here on the site, the images rendered by the camera (without the use of post editing tools or apps) have all something in common: they come in a warm tonal range. In most of the cases there is too much yellow/orange. It’s about impossible to render white, even if you take a picture of a white surface.

Also it seems to me that the pictures are pushed for contrast and density.

iPhone 4 Flash

Unfortunately the flash is located right next to the lens which leads to increased red eye effects. Post editing is a must or you may mask the flash with tape … or your finger.

Conclusion and Tips

Besides all the practical aspects such as connectivity to various web services, the iPhone 4 Photo Camera does a pretty good job, namely compared to the performance of its predecessor. While not the best smart phone cam, the iPhone 4 is a nice tool for snapshots and images under normal conditions. It’s not a p & s camera but it reaches the lower end of the p&s scale.

Considering the use of the cam to produce media for web publishing, the iPhone does it’s job far better than most mobile phones.

In fact, I am more impressed by the performance of the camera than by the quality as a phone, not to speak about the lousy reception of the device.

All in all: if you don’t already own a smart-phone, the iPhone 4 is a great way to start getting mobile.

If you have an iPhone 3G and you are not a photo freak, there is not much reason to change, the more that you can load the new OS 4 to your 3G.

If you have a big photo camera and would like to have a small mobile device, the iPhone will not satisfy you as the image quality is way below p & s cams of a price similar to the price of an iPhone.

All in all I don’t regret the purchase of the iPhone as it is the most brilliant device for rapid mobile communication using media … for as long as you have reception and connectivity with a service provider.

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Flowers in Syros

A close-up with the iPhone 4 on some flowers which were slightly moving in the wind. The photo has been taken in Syros, Greece. The colors are quite real in as much as the red/green balance is concerned and the details are OK, considering the windy conditions which lead to some degree of “blur”.

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Syros Port shot with the iPhone 4; the use of the iPhone 4 under low light conditions is not really satisfactory. The warm colors are dominant while the blue disappears. Details are not recognizable. Nevertheless, the image reflects an atmosphere.

To compare I shot a second image with a point and shoot camera : the difference is obvious: here the colors are right and a much higher degree of detail is visible. The image was shot with a Leica V-Lux 20 (hand-held).

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This picture taken under normal light conditions show the quality of the iPhone 4 Camera. As no zoom is used, we get about the best possible result. Note that the colors are rather warm which is amplified under low light conditions.

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This Church in Syros has been shot with the iPhone 4 early in the morning. As the colors were too warm, a bit of post editing was done to reflect the actual light better.

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A good degree of detail, contrast and color fidelity on this one.

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Typically over-toned iPhone 4 Photo.

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Contrast, tone and color have been corrected on this image as the original reflects way too warm colors and not enough contrast. This is a window from Syros Greece.

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Early evening at Allou Gialou in Kini Syros. The iPhone 4 Photo is being cropped in PS. The effect created by the cropping tool gives an attractive frame. YorgoMan loves it .

Posted from Athens, Attica, Greece.

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMO53ux0bt8

This is a test with the iPhone 4 Camera. Looks not bad, namely in HD. Like the photo camera, the video features produces a too warm tonal range and the amount of detail is questionable namely in zoom mode.

This seagull has been shot at Astir Beach in Vouliagmeni about half an hour before sunset.

Posted from Vari, Attica, Greece.

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Motor Boat & Yachting publishes Madiblue

Europe’s leading Magazine for Motor Boats, the glossy Motor Boat and Yachting has published my picture shot in the morning after the fire got hold of the 153 ft super yacht Madiblue.

How to get published by such a prestigious Publication?

The experience shows, that the internet is an interesting source for the printed press. After my blog post about the Madiblue fire, the Deputy Editor Stewart Campbell contacted me via the blog and while I was absent, Bianca made the necessary arrangements and delivered the requested photos. Team-work!

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Motor Boat & Yachting August 2010

In the end it’s all about visibility. Proper tagging and careful editing and publishing using a Semiomantics framework increase the chances to be found and to be able to satisfy a need with our media or products.

Stock Media

Another great way to draw the attention to Photos and other Media is by publishing them to a Stock site which generates loads of interested visitors. The problem there is that very often the commission structure kills your ambition, namely if you are new to the site.

For this reason we have decided to build our own Stock Media Venture, Photo Media Stock. The starting point is the Ycademy Online Seminar which will take place on August 28 – 29, 2010. The venture will be a closed end venture and the promotion will be assured through our Semiomantics Networks which have the highest impact on Search engines.

PS: Its nice to see your own name printed under the photo’s references :-).

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How to sell your Photos, Videos and other Media online

This month’s Ycademy Seminar will take place on August 28-29, 2010 and focus on:

Creating, Organizing and Selling Stock Photo, Video, Audio, Flash, Vector illustration, Zip, Pdf files, Prints and other media.

Over the last few months we have been working on and with media content using Photoshop, After Effects, Flash, our personal or web camera, Camtasia and more. All these tools enable us to create and to edit media for our own purpose or for the benefit of our customers and beyond, to satisfy the growing need by developers and designers for properly licensed media.

When it comes to selling media, there are multiple choices: either through a personal shop, or through a third party stock media website, or through our own stock media portal.

1. Your own stock site: you are in absolute control but you have the work and cost inherent to managing and maintaining the site.

2. Third party Stock sites: you have no work besides uploading your media, but you give up up-to 80% of your commissions to the site admin.

3. Our own Stock Photo and Media Portal: we share cost, work, marketing and maximise the commissions (target 90%).
Ycademy Venture: Stock Media Portal

Seminar participants are invited to join forces to build together an exclusive Sock Media venture as per 3 above. Terms and conditions will be detailed in a pre-seminar call. The model is based on the assumption that after a while the site will be able to generate enough revenue to cover namely the hosting cost; therefore no financial input is necessary by those joining the venture at the seminar.

Ycademy August 2010 Seminar Agenda

1. What is Stock Media

2. What is a Stock Photo and other Media Portal and how does it work

3. Quality requirements by Media Category

4. Copyrights and Licenses

5. Editing Media for the purpose of Selling through a Stock Portal

6. The personal Account on the Media Portal

7. Uploading Media

8. Watermark

9. Quality Controls and Organization of Media on the Portal

10. The portals’ Community Features:

* Personal Blog
* Contact us
* Tell a friend
* Notifications
* Messages
* Comments
* Testimonials for sellers
* Friends
* Newsletter

11. Marketing: link the portal to your Semiomantics Network via RSS for automated campaigning.

12. Day to day practical use of and reward from the portal.

Ycademy Seminar Schedule

On both days we will start at 1 pm London time and close at 9 pm London time. Breaks as usual.

Pre-seminar calls

On Tuesday August 24 and Thursday August 26 at 8 pm London Time.

Tickets

Please read this carefully: The Stock Media Portal we are setting up with the Ticket Holders of this seminar will be the affair of a closed group in as much as conditions and support are concerned. We may accept at a later stage additional publishers who may buy into the venture at a multiple they would spend on a Seminar Ticket.

Price: As usual $80

Discount: as usual for Ycademy Pros $50

Please contact Bianca Gubalke for additional info and the Discount Code at: bianca (at) ycademy.com

Get your Ticket from HERE

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Syros Best Taverna Allou Giallou in Kini

It didn’t take long to discover Syros’ Best Tavern: it’s Allou Giallou in a place called Kini.

A mix of traditional and creative modern Greek cooking in a beautiful setting, friendly service, fresh products and then … all that Ouzo … it’s paradise on earth.

A must for Syros visitors.

Allou Giallou in Kini, Syros

Allou Giallou is sitting right at the beach …

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Best Tavern in Syros Allou Giallou in Kini

For further details, have a look at the below clip which is best seen in HD full-screen mode :-).

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ofSHHdftMU

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Syros Ferry Photos

The best way to reach Syros is by boat, namely by Ferry. The modern high-speed engines take you within about 2 and a half hours to the Island. Here below you find some photos featuring different ferries stopping in Syros.

Syros Ferry Highspeed 5 Interior (Hellenic Seaways)

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Syros Ferry Highspeed 5 Interior

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Syros Ferry Flying Cat 3 Vodafone

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Syros Ferry Flying Cat 3 Vodafone

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Syros Ferry Flying Cat 3 Vodafone

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Syros Ferry Flying Cat 3 Vodafone

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Syros Ferry Flying Cat 3 Vodafone

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Syros Ferry Flying Cat 3 Vodafone

Syros Ferry Aeolos Kenteris II

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Syros Ferry Aeolos Kenteris II

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Syros Ferry Aeolos Kenteris II

Syros Ferries Nel Lines

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Syros Ferry Nel Lines Aqua Jewel

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Syros Ferry Nel Lines

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Syros Ferry Nel Lines

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Syros Ferry Nel Lines

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Syros Ferry Nel Lines

Syros Ferry Anek Lines Artemis

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Syros Ferry Anek Lines Artemis

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Photos from Syros with Google top 10 rankings

Our earlier posts about Syros Boats and Syros Architecture made it immediately to Google top 10 positions and so did our slide-shows, loaded to YouTube. This is remarkable since the Syros is a tourist destination and Google is just invaded by all the international and national directories.

Semiomantics frameworks publish images more efficiently;y than anything I have come across and the development continues to make Semiomantics users get the best SEO when it comes to publish any form of media.

syros_-images

Syros Images on Google Top 10

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Syros Architecture

Impressions from Syros focusing on Architecture. The typically Cycladic elements consisting of white cubes and blue sky are dominant in this series where Blue and White and clear lines play their graphic games. Pass the mouse over the images to see detail and click to see large view.

Enjoy.

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Syros Architecture

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Syros Architecture 2

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Syros Architecture 3

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Syros Architecture 4

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Syros Architecture 5

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Syros Architecture 6

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Syros Architecture 7

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Syros Architecture 8

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Syros Architecture 9

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Syros Architecture 10

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Life in a Day on Google Top 10

Our somewhat different point of view about Life on a Day made it to Google Top 10 under Life in a Day News amongst 920,000,000 search returns!

lifeinadaygoogle

Life in a Day News on Google Top 10

Rank 8 with just one shot demonstrates once more the Power of Semiomantics Frameworks  as well as its Quality of Editing and Publishing of highly visible content.

Life in a Day News

As the Life in a Day project is a going concern, I would expect the topic to remain hot for a while, namely in connection with all the YouTube clips which attract quite some visitors.

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Life in a Day Experiment

While tanning my belly button in Syros, I missed the opportunity to participate at the Life in a Day experiment, launched by producer Ridley Scott and Director Kevin Macdonald. The fact that Google had decided to join the team has led to a solid buzz on YouTube and expanded the project to a new piece of new age slavery..

Life in a Day – a Business model?

Why should the Movie industry not copy successful business models from the internet?

While 400 Million people give away their work for free to build the value of Facebook and the owners’ wallet, the movie industry has continued to pay people for the work done. This is about to change with the Life in a Day project:

Thousands of people do the shooting for free to build the reputation of the Scott/Macdonald team. Brilliant. Sure there are some prices and invitations to the Premiere of the final documentary, but that’s peanuts compared to real production cost.

Life in a Day a Scam?

I would not call it a scam since in general people would not feel being scammed by such a project. Facebook, YouTube and others have already influenced the masses sufficiently so that modern kind of slavery (in fact it’s worse since slaves were fed at least) is percieved as an acceptable exploitation of men by men (and women) :-).

Life in a Day and Opportunity

You can also look at the project as an opportunity to get a piece of your footage into the final project and then you will be able to use that reference for further authority building. However: the final product is unlikely to express what your original footage was supposed to say and chances are that your footage is used to tell a completely different story from what you had in mind.

The experiment opens surely an interesting Opportunity for Scott/Macdonald when presenting THEIR documentary at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. I have not read a word about any rights or rewards you may have on or from the movie or the associated ads.

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Life in a Day by Yorgo Nestoridis

Your Life in a Day

If you really want to give Life to your version of Life in a Day, then you may be tempted to build your own clip and make it as hot as possible to create YOUR Buzz.

My Life in a Day

Well you see, while I was sitting at the beach I missed a great opportunity: not the opportunity to create footage for the benefit of third parties, but the opportunity to post these lines on July 23, 2010.

Life in a Day News

I like Bianca Gubalke”s Article about Life in a Day relating to Semiomantics. I will follow that thread and observe the performance and visibility.

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Syros Greece: Boats

How to quickly create and load a sideshow to YouTube

Back from Syros, I was running through my photos and wondered, how I could get them quickly and in large numbers to the net, while preserving a maximum of quality.

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Syros Boats

Here is what I did:

1. The camera output is 4000 x 3000 pixels. Without resizing I just knocked some 30 pictures into Camtasia.

2. I added an opening and closing slide.

3. I got Ravel’s Bolero from a Music Stock site and added it to the timeline; timing of the music clip fits perfectly.

4. I render in HD 1280 x 720 (which corresponds to the YouTube 720p HD format). The output is MP4 with 30 fps, audio streams at 96 kbps.

Each Syros Boat photo added to the project library has a size of between 6 and 8 MB, which adds up to above 200 MB. Camtasia does the resizing automatically and the final HD file is only about 50 MB which were loaded to YouTube.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUUWbHrueIU

In spite the compression, a good amount of detail remains visible and the photos still look good in HD full-screen view.

The whole process took about 30 minutes including uploading to YouTube.

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Problems with the iPhone 4 in Greece

When 3 week ago I got the iPhone 4 from the UK, I was excited and eager to test all the new features. Here are some of the problems I encountered since:

No Micro-Sim in Greece

My first initiative was to inquire with all mobile phone providers about a micro-sim; as you know, with the iPhone 4, Apple introduced the Micro-Sim, which in theory contains the same information chip as the standard Sim Card, however the dimensions of the chip itself is reduced to about 15 mm x 12 mm. It’s the same size as used in the iPad, however the iPad chip does not work due to different content and  configuration.

No provider can provide a Micro-Sim in Greece. Consequently I chopped up a regular Sim to stuff it into the Phone … and the experiment failed. 3 Days later I was in possession of an O2 Micro-Sim my friend Zo Nicholas had sent me from the UK and the device could finally be activated.

Roaming Cost in Greece

In spite the new European legislation trimming roaming cost across Europe I could not see any progress. After a few hours of testing features and links I was 20 Pounds down. What’s actually killing the interest is international data transfer. The next 20 Pounds held for roughly 24 hours whereas I was careful switching off data roaming after each targeted use.

A better experience resulted of course by using local WiFi and Hot spots.

Roaming Services in Greece

Most of the time I have been using Cosmote or Vodafone as local service providers. How surprised was I that it takes up to 24 hours for a sent email to reach the addressee! I don’t actually know if this is inherent to low quality services here in Greece or  if there is another cause, fact is, at this level mobile email is useless. Just for the record, I tested the email function in parallel from my desktop where it took just a few seconds to reach destination.

Connectivity – Antenna

While here in Vouliagmeni there is no connection problem as we are well exposed, my experience became a nightmare on Syros Island, the main island of the Cyclades. In the main town the reception was fine while just a few kilometers outside, the iPhone proved to be useless.

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iPhone 4 in Greece … Searching …

There I was sitting in the taverna at the beach, sipping an ouzo and proud of the first iPhone 4 in Greece (not verified statement :-)), and the device was just sitting there like a dead duck while all other customers were chatting away on their smart- and other phones. This had nothing to do with the way it was held or handled. We put multiple phones on the table without touching them, the iPhone 4 had no antenna while other Nokia, Samsung or unbranded junk phones were sitting at 3 bars.

Sure the iPhone was the star and from a popularity and communication point of view as good as solid six-packs at the beach – but you look like an idiot when then the hottest device on earth exhales it’s spirit when you need it most.

Apple discriminates Greece

The known antenna problem with the iPhone 4 triggered Apple to update the software and to launch the Free iPhone 4 Case Program. My experience shows that it is not just a matter of how the phone is held or whether it sticks in a case or not: the Apple iPhone 4 Antenna has an engineering problem and any car constructor would have to recall it’s concerned production.

Second: while the free case program is provided through an App, that Application cannot be accessed through the Greek App Store! May be it’s just because the iPhone 4 is not yet available for sale in Greece? In any case: the iPhone is a device for mobile people and the features allow to communicate from anywhere with anyone: why should apple not change it’s attitude to global and provide the same degree of service to all customers, irrespective where they live?

In the case of the case program it’s just a matter of a link and at least 1 case to be shipped to Greece – I am waiting for it :-).

By the way: I went to Apple support online to draw their attention to the iPhone 4 problems existing in Greece. No reaction so far, which is understandable considering the masses of complaints they get from their main markets.

A Positive Note

The iPhone 4 is a great step ahead in many respects and while not an Apple fan, I must admit: I love this device. It shoots nice clips and pictures, lets you organize your contacts, has a brilliant display screen, allows for multitasking, it can mow your lawn, you water-ski on it or you surf the wave at the beach, it gives you a shave in the morning, it pays your bills at the taverna, it plays a Serenade under the balcony of your sweatheart, it fixes your computer and repairs your car, it can even take you to the Moon and the stars …

… but it’s useless as a Phone, at least when you are island hopping in Greece.

PS: I comment on iPhone 4 Photography and Media on http://iphone4photos.net.

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Syros by iPhone 4 Photos

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Bistro Sixteen82 Photo

One more Image of the Bistro Sixteen82 based on the work of Biance Gubalke from Noordhoek: that Bistro Sixteen82 has the trendy look according to international standards. The remarkable Chandelier, a piece of Art, dominates the sceene:

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Bistro Sixteen82 Steenberg

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Bistro Sixteen82 Image

Bistro Sixteen82 Photo by Biance Gubalke

Great Image by Biance Gubalke of the Bistro Sixteen82 in Steenberg near Noordhoek.

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Edipsos Ferry Images

Last week-end’s trip to Evia lead us to Akritsa where we took the Ferry to Edipsos. Here are some images:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wY6YSzk3rms

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iPhone 4 Photos

This is a first test post from the iPhone to WordPress sending in a pic taken at Balux Glyfada with the iPhone 4.

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iPhone 4 Photos

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Digital Media Design Ycademy Online Seminar

Digital Media Design Basics deals with all the different types of media we have been focusing on at Ycademy: Text, Typography, Images, Video, Sound as well as 3D elements. We will keep it basic this month in order to gain more confidence using different types of media and melting them together to a single output, a short clip of 2-3 minutes.

Get all info pertaining to the seminar from Bianca Gubalke at bianca(at)ycademy.com.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOaKxpnqcZY