We have a small piece of code you can add to the head of any page on your site:

<meta name=”pinterest” content=”nopin” />

When a user tries to pin from your site, they will see this message:
“This site doesn’t allow pinning to Pinterest. Please contact the owner with any questions. Thanks for visiting!”

This might be of note to those that don’t want anything on their personal websites to be pinned on pinterest via the web browser bookmarklet.  Of course, this isn’t going to stop people from right click save as, or screenshotting, and then uploading the images to pinterest directly… but I don’t think Pinterest users are going to want to go through all of that trouble.  The fact of the matter is, if you don’t want images from your blog being pinned, you should use this code on your personal blogs and websites.  Will larger corporations begin using this code?  I guess only time will tell.  I highly doubt many of them are anti-Pinterest, as it drives a lot of new traffic.  It will be interesting to see if a website as large as Flickr or maybe even Twitpic will begin implementing these anti-Pinterest measures.

We’re all for Pinterest – we have nothing against it, and actually love using it as a great promotional tool.  We do think that it’s very fair of them that they are giving webmasters and web content hosts the option of disabling pinterest on a per site basis.

Here’s a slideshow I wanted to share from a recent Spring time engagement session photoshoot with some friends of mine.  The location was a country New England orchard, and made for great scenery.  These images will soon be available for royalty-free stock photo licensing.

One of my favorite selects from the shoot is the photo of the diamond engagement ring wrapped around the wild onion grass.  I love it when you are working with a couple who is willing to add their own creative ideas and suggestions.  It’s easy to get lost in the photo shoot and to forgot certain details that you wanted to capture, so when I’m able to work with people who are also creatively minded, it helps us to push the shoot to an even higher level or variety.  We also were able to hang the ring on some apple flower buds, that was just starting to turn into tiny baby apples.  I really enjoy photographing engagement sessions, because there is a wide variety of things to capture – from the location and environment, the couple doing certain activities (such as tossing a frisbee, or riding a motorcycle), down to the very tiny details.

You can see a few more stills from this shoot here on our facebook page.

Another Reality Series?
Yeah, it’s another reality series, but we don’t have that many relating to the creative fields.  Sure there are cooking shows, bakery series like Cake Boss, and custom motorcycle documentaries like American Chopper; but it’s not often that we actually get a show relating to our field of marketing and advertising.  That’s what makes The Pitch so exciting!  In the first episode, we see two competing advertising agencies travel to Milford, CT to pitch their ideas to Subway on their next breakfast sandwich marketing campaign.  The two agencies literally are working head to head just to win the job.

What’s Cool
Celebrity Apprentice and The Apprentice are a little similar, because we get to see an entire marketing campaign from brainstorming sessions through the final branding and execution. With the The Pitch, these advertising pitches aren’t made up for the sake of a TV show.  This is the real thing – the big leagues in the marketing and advertising world.  We get to see the agencies’ branstorming sessions, the good ideas, the bad ideas, and even their creative processes. You get to see how they interact with one another.  We even see how some of the creatives’ ideas become things they are personally attached to, while other members of the team don’t always see the value in them.  You also see how hard these advertising professionals have to work, and travel.  It even gives us a glimpse into the private home life for some of them.  Let’s just say it’s not the type of job we’d all like to have.  Unless you like to work to live; working long hours, lots of travel, and

Advertising in a Show About Advertising
Not surprisingly, you have to remember that the point of all television shows and movies are created to also bring in advertising dollars. At one point in the Subway pitch episode you will see them browsing for stock images on the Getty Images website.  Getty is obviously of a traditional stock agency (non-microstock pricing) where iStockphoto is their microstock collection.  Not surprisingly enough, at the end credits, you’ll note that it says “promotional consideration by Getty Images and iStockphoto”.  Talk about a great advertising opportunity, because ever single advertising/marketing/graphic designing creative type (at least that I know) is going to be watching this show. Getty is smart to have added this paid product placement, but it would be nice to see if we could also see behind the curtain to when the ad agencies actually purchase from microstock agencies, as well.  We probably won’t, because that is what the promotional consideration Getty has paid for will mask.

Let us know what you think about The Pitch.  Leave a comment below, and please share this post!

Did you ever scan a photo or some film negatives on a flatbed or film scanner, only to realize that the image is covered in pieces of dust, pet hair, or lint?  Or maybe you photographed a closeup of an object only to find a bunch of obvious dust or scratches that were not very noticeable to the eye beforehand?  This Photoshop tutorial by the late Bob Mizerek will show you how to Photoshop out dust and scratches in a jiffy using this simple technique.

While the standard dust and scratches removal feature in Photoshop may be enough, you might find that many times that it takes away too much quality from the original image.  Using Bob’s method (as seen in the youtube video above) you will learn that dust removal can be a lot more selective using layers and masking; therefore preserving the important parts of the image, and all of its important details.

First of all, for those that might not be aware, you can sideload apps from the Android Market on your Kindle Fire.  Just about every app will work, due to the fact that the Kindle Fire tablet runs on the Android OS.  The problem is, the Amazon Kindle Fire app store doesn’t support all of the Android apps found in the Android Market.  I don’t know why they do this.  Maybe it’s due to the fact that the Kindle Fire’s hardware is slightly different, but it’s pretty annoying.  We wanted to put dropbox on my wife’s Kindle, just like we can run the app on our Android phones.  Back to the story.

We backed up a copy of the apps we wanted to transfer over, by using Astro file manager (a free app in the Android Market).  This placed a copy of the .apk files (from the programs we wanted) on the SD card, in a folder named backup/apps.  That’s how to get the .apk files for your Android apps.  Don’t trust downloading them off some shifty website on the web.  Copy them from your Android phone using this method I just described.  So next, we just had to plug the phone into the computer with the cable, copy the files to the PC, and then over to the kindle (via data cable).  Another method, which is a bit easier, is simple emailing the files as attachments to an email account you can access on your Kindle.

The first .apk files we tried, we copied over from the Droid X.  No beans… it didn’t work at all.  We got the dreaded Parse error “There is a problem parsing the package”.  The first thing that popped in my head is, “I bet the Kindle runs on an older version of Android than the Droid X does.  Let me try copying the .apk files from my own phone, the LG Optimus V.”  So, I did exactly that, and the rest is history.

When you get the dreaded parse error on your kindle fire or nook, try copying .apk files from an older Android phone or device.  That’s what worked for us, so maybe it will also work for you.

My super brief mini review of The Kindle Fire:  It’s a pretty reasonably priced tablet, for all that you get.  Priced around $200 USD, it’s a little smaller than the iPads, and yet big enough to read on.  They made it to be book sized.  It’s reasonably fast, and the battery lasts a really long time.  Although you have to jump through a few hoops to get almost any Android app to run on it, it’s no more than a 5 minute process to do so. Don’t worry – you don’t have to root your Kindle Fire, to sideload apps. I’m not personally a tablet person (give me a solid laptop any day) but my wife really does enjoy the thing.  I’ve used it a handful of times, and can tell you it’s very user friendly, and easy to learn how to navigate.

Alt tags and title tags are the key. They’re there for a reason, so make sure you use them! Google’s bots and crawlers eat them up like delicious chocolate pudding cups. If you don’t use them, they might just see the default image title, which might be something like IMG_3535.jpg and they’re not really interested in that number (nobody is). The more you describe your images, the more you will be able to ensure they can be found in the search engine image searches. Related text in the post, and related keywords will also assist in getting them indexed and ranked in these image search results as well.

When people browse for images of a certain topic, they might just stumble upon a link over to your website. Then, they might just poke around a while, and like what they see. They might even buy your product or service. This isn’t a longshot, because think about it – you’re doing targeted marketing, all because of your specific stock image selections.  Make sure that when you’re writing an article about dogs that you don’t use a photo of a gorilla.  This is obvious.  Take the general gist of what the blog post is about, and use some royalty free stock images from that same theme or subject.

Blog posts filled with nothing but text might contain great information, great for SEO.  Rich content is always valuable to have.  As you probably already know, we really only have about 6 seconds to capture a web visitors attention, before they decide to leave.  Why not ensure that you aren’t losing people because of a lack of visuals?  You almost have to compare web surfers like toddlers or infants with uber short attention spans.  How long is a baby going to flip through a children’s book that has nothing but text in it?  The images are what gets them to keep turning the pages, as they browse and investigate further.

Here are a few pointers: Make sure the stock images you license for your blog are specific enough to what you are blabbing about. You want stock images that both look good, and that tell a story.  Generally, stock images that are smaller, lower resolution sizes are extra cheap. They are almost always more affordable than higher resolution stock photos or vector illustrations.  You don’t have to break the bank, to breath more life into your blog.  Not only will it be more aesthetically pleasing, but those little images will help drive more traffic to your website.

Here is a stock photo of a young man wearing thick black framed nerd glasses.  It’s funny (when you really think about it) that the styles from the 70s and 80s are all back, and many people see vintage and retro styles as cool again.  This is just what happens in the world of fashion. Everything has been done under the sun, so trends seem to repeat themselves after some time. Nonetheless, these nerd glasses series images have been licensed hundreds of times within the last few years.

Another example is hair feather extensions.  They are the hottest thing since sliced bread in the hairdressing and beauty world.  They might already even be on their way out.  Easy come, easy go.  Will women be clipping bird feathers in their hair a few years from now?  What about 10 or 20?  We can only wait and find out.

When producing royalty free stock images, we have to realize and acknowledge that images like these may or may not have a lasting shelf life.  While some looks and some models (including their clothing and hairstyles) will be able to hold up to the tests of time, others will fall flat on their face.  Not many graphic designers or art directors are going to approve of using stock images of business people wearing plaid suit jackets from the late 70s or early 80s.  Even photos of kids, or senior citizens with certain hairstyles can be considered.  How long until this royalty free stock photo of a skateboarder becomes obsolete?  There’s no way to tell how long skateboarders might be into wearing plaid shirts.

This is exactly why when you’re in the business of shooting and producing stock imagery, it is a non-stop job.  Images, themes, and subjects will require constant refreshing and updating on a regular, yearly basis.  Some of these stock images are going to have a shelf life (like an expiration date on a milk carton), some much longer than others, depending on how generic we can make them.  Covering stock image subjects with both the “cool factor” and the ability to withstand the tests and trials of time, are always on our minds.  We all know what is considered cool today might be dumb tomorrow.

If you’re a graphic designer, web or app developer, you probably have already heard about this sweet website called dribbble (with 3 B’s, yo).  Dribbble is amazing, but being restricted to spectating kind of stinks.  It’s nearly impossible to actually get an invite so that you can post your own work. I’ve been trying to find an invite to the big dribbb casually for a few years now, but they keep the gates tight on that place (and for good reason – they want to keep out the riff raff, like those pesky folks that like to post iphone photos of their cat).  Even without an invite, dribbble allows you to follow people, click like on their “shots”, and also to compile “buckets” (lightboxes or galleries) of your favorite works.  Here are some of mine, to get an idea.  Nonetheless, it’s an amazing place to view the work of other creative professionals, and to get inspiration from.  But, what if you want to actually participate more, by posting some of your work right now?

Here are 5 of our favorite websites similar to dribbble that you can post your design work to without an invite.

favwork
The first cool site, very similar to dribbble called favwork. I definitely have to post some more of my own personal graphic design portfolio, once I can get around to it. The only main difference to is that there are no gallery or lightbox creating options, and you can’t follow certain artists. You can like pieces, comment on them, and even rework them just like on dribbble.  The traffic is decent, as I’ve been following it regularly these last several days.  It’s not as hopping as dribbble, but I think it will get there once people keep spreading the word.  You would think that this would be the “dribbble for all of the misfits” but I think you will be really impressed with the selection of work on the website.  The site is called favwork for a reason – you’re only supposed to post your favorite and best pieces, for discussing.  Favwork is my favorite dribbble alternative

behance network
Ease of upload on Behance net isn’t as smooth as the others, but the social design community is crazy big, and covers a slew of creative fields.  If you’re a photographer, videographer, illustrator, painter, this website covers it all.  You can submit your work as much as you’d like, without an invite.  This is also another one of my favorite places to browse when I’m bored for inspiration, or just for fun.

deviantart
It’s another website similar to behance, but with a lot more anime and teeny boppers mixed in.  I call it the myspace of creative social networks.  Behance would probably be more like the linkedin of design social-networks.  Deviant is still a fun one, and really well trafficked.  If you haven’t at least browsed the site in a while, we’d highly recommend it.  They have everything from crazy retouching examples, to cool photography, awesome vector illustrations, pencil sketches, paintings, and even more traditional artwork.

forrst
I’ve applied but have to wait to see if I get in to forrst. You can do the same.  While I was waiting, I had a few friend send me an invite.  I am loving Forrst!  This is probably the best dribbble alternative I’ve found, to date.  The community is hopping, and you’ll get lots of honest feedback and critiques.  The site is very easy to use, and allows you to enable email notifications, if you care about that sort of thing. 

psdbucket
This place is similar to favwork, with very quick and easy signup and uploading.  The main difference is (this coming straight from the owners on twitter) “Psdbucket is more to promote your best work/sell good items and favwork is more to get feedback”.  So there you have it.

Honorable mention:

Coroflot
This website has been around for a while, and is more of a personal portfolio tool.  It also allows users to follow one another, leave comments, and like each others’ work.

Yes, there are many other places similar to these we’re sure, but these were the major ones that stood out.  Graphic design related forums can also be a good place for feeback, but the problem with most internet forums is they’re full of trolls (at least most of the recent ones we’ve visited).  We hope you enjoy these free online services for sharing your work and hopefully getting the type of quality feedback and criticism you yearn for. Have any thoughts about these places, or want to link up with us? Chime in below with a link to your profiles on each.

Pinterest is one of the hottest social bookmarking networks right now, along with Tumblr as another major blogging and bookmarking platform.  Both platforms are really cool, and many actually enjoy using them.  Another similar one is VisualizeUs, and there are probably a slew of others.  What’s the big deal about them?  These websites make it a cinch to “reblog” or “repin” anyone else’s posts.  That means you can easily take; no wait, “SHARE” someone else’s post with a few clicks of the mouse, so that you will then have that content on your own page.  You don’t know where the content of the post really originated from, but it’s all in good fun… right?  Sharing and hotlinking random images with these services right now might seem innocent to most.  If you have a Pinterest or Tumblr account, you’ve probably done it yourself.  Maybe you’ve reposted a cute comic, or a photo of an adorable kitten playing with string.  Maybe it was that really cool car photo, or the hilarious stock photo that nobody can find any real use for, other than to laugh at it.  Guess what?  This is going to change a lot about the way most people think about hotlinking.

Issues arising over content posted on individual websites- that’s nothing new.  AwkwardStockPhotos is a blog that shares some of the funniest stock images people come across.  They were hit with a DMCA claim from a stock photo industry giant, over the fact that they were posting their stock images there.  Maybe it was embarrassing to them, or they felt their product was being insulted.  Other onlookers, myself included, thought that this was a major over-reaction.  These blog posts no doubt led to a lot more traffic to their stock image website, and probably even to a lot more sales.  Many times I’ve gotten a kick out of images posted on these funny stock photo blogs, but just as many times I’ve also found some amazing stock images that I could actually envision a practical use for.

I see posting images to websites like this: if someone shares our stock images on Pinterest or Tumblr, it’s free advertising for us.  They are 99% of the time posted with links leading over to the image licensing page, and this is always a good way to promote our links.  We watermark the snot out of our stock images, so that there is no doubt where they came from.  Sometimes we even get the ball rolling, by posting and pinning our images in as many places as we can online.

Anyone in their right mind knows that you can’t just take random images off of the internet and use them for commercial purposes… or do they?  Surprisingly enough, I know for a fact that a lot of people out there still take images from Google image search that are unwatermarked, and use them for whatever purposes they want.  That’s the absolute riskiest thing you can potentially do, if you’re using them for commercial or public purposes.  If you are one of those people, be warned.  Don’t wait until you get a legal letter in the mail, sent right to your doorstep.  Should you share anything you can find on the web via Pinterest?  Should you share anything you find on Tumblr, without checking out the legitimacy of the content origin? That’s for you to decide.

Now this wasn’t intended to be a blog post about legal mumbo jumbo or copying and pasting from the Pinterest or Tumblr terms of service.  You can do that on your own spare time.  In the meantime, if you don’t want your images hot-linked or shared at native web sizes, then you can do any of the following 4 things:

1.  Don’t post anything on the web you don’t want to see reposted anywhere else in use on the web (especially high-resolution, which could be used in a lot more applications, from printed commercial products to billboards).  It’s only a matter of time before it happens to your image, your audio, or your video; whether you wanted to make money off of it, or not.  Avoid posting on busy places like Flickr, Facebook, Twitpic, Instagram, etc.

2.  Modify your website’s htaccess files so that hotlinking will not even be possible.  Please note: this does not stop screen capture ability.  Anything posted on the web can be captured, be it a still or video.  Right click can also be disabled, for those that aren’t savvy enough to figure out how to screenshot stuff.

3.  Thoroughly watermark your content, so that even if someone wants try and share it, post it, or distribute it in any way dishonestly, there will be no doubt that it originated with you.  Watermark your videos, and even use audible “sound watermarks” when dealing with music or audio content. Worried about posts with your content potentially losing the link back over to you?  Then include your url in the watermark, or somewhere in your audio / video clip.

4.  Strictly note around your content with outright and blatant terms relating to how you want to allow your content to be used and/or distributed, if and when.  Creative Commons licenses offer the most universally accepted guidelines for proper sharing.

Lean towards #3 if you’re worried about possible lack of attribution of your content, because #1 doesn’t really matter as much.  Whichever method someone shares content, be it through a hotlink, or a screenshot, or a capture of any other sort… how they got it isn’t the point.  They could have acquired it ignorantly, shared through hundreds of prior individuals.

In the end, and after all of this hype and hubbub floating around about “Pinterest is evil” or “Tumblr is the devil”, we all need to be responsible with our own “digital stuff”.  There are two ways of looking at the matter.  All you need to do is this: Be responsible with your content.  If you don’t want to ever find it shared somewhere, then abstain from posting it in the first place. Learn from the story of Noam Galai and his story of The Stolen Scream.  Yes, Pinterest and Tumblr are going to change the way people look at rich content sharing a bit further.  Most of the users on these platforms are not there for commercial gain, however – they are simply having a good time, trying to share stuff they thought was unique or noteworthy, and almost always linking back to the originator of the content. Even before social bookmarking and blog sites became a big hit, there were these things called “search engines”, which snatched up your images anyway, displaying them for all to see.  How is this much different!? Rather than pointing the blame at them, I choose to embrace the change – and to see the positive side of these free social sharing services.  Large Fortune 500 companies are already staking out a presence on these networks, so it looks like they are seeing the benefits of them as well.

Yes, I do think momma would be proud.  At least they didn’t use the nose picker stock photo of me, this time.  I can add yet another feature to my jack of all trades resume: “Todd, Professional Gag Gift Model.”

For those that are looking to advertise their blog or website to increase traffic and brand recognition, they just might soon realize that internet advertising almost always costs an arm and a leg.  Not everyone has a huge budget for facebook, google adwords, or other banner advertising services.  Thankfully, there is a brand new free ad banner exchange called Miloads.  I gave it a shot a few months back, and it has generated some really decent traffic.  All you have to do is sign up, and then embed the tiny bit of code in your blog’s sidebar widget.  That’s it!  If you look at our lower right hand column, you’ll see the layout we chose (there are a variety of shapes, sizes, and customization options).  Having used facebook and google advertising in the past, I can honestly say it’s very similar.  You can customize your banner designs and ad content text just like the others.

It takes no more than two minutes to get everything up and running.  When you log in to the Miloads website you can view each of your ad campaigns, track your traffic, and see which ads are getting clicked on the most.  Anyone else who runs miloads on their website will be advertising for other users on the Miloads network, so your ads will appear all over the internet, instantly.  With over 2 million unique ad impressions already, Miloads is definitely an ad banner exchange that will get your ads viewed, and clicked on.  Our website has already had close to 1150 clicks and over 176,00 impressions, in just 2 months.  I’m very impressed thus far.  The statistics will continue to increase and improve as time goes on, as more and more users sign up; and the ad banner network’s reach will expand even further.  There’s no cost, so you have nothing to lose. Try out Miloads today, and see this powerful little link exchange tool can do for your website.

This is a powerful example of how rewording such a simple phrase gets an entirely different reaction. The blind homeless man has a cardboard sign with the words “I’m Blind – Please Help”. An onlooker stops and changes his sign to read “It’s a beautiful day and I can’t see it”, and then the spare changes starts coming in like money is falling from the sky.

Thinking outside the box (as cliche as that expression is) when it comes to slogans and advertising propaganda is definitely necessary. Sometimes being overly simple and direct with your message can cause your audience to overlook it. We all are being inundated with information on a daily basis; so much that we tend to zone most things out, sometimes without even realizing it. Think about this video on your next marketing project, whether you are designing a simple ad, or titling your next tweet or blog post; I know I will.

]]> http://arenacreative.com/blog/graphic-design/the-power-of-words-in-marketing/feed/ 1 http://arenacreative.com/blog/photography/featured-stock-photos/featured-stock-images-january-24-2012/ http://arenacreative.com/blog/photography/featured-stock-photos/featured-stock-images-january-24-2012/#comments Wed, 25 Jan 2012 02:54:49 +0000 ArenaCreative.com http://arenacreative.com/blog/?p=3045

Here is a new amazing photography website that helps anyone learn how to light.  Ever look at a photo and wonder, “I wonder what type of lighting setup they used?”.  Well, now there’s a website (and an app) for that.  Strobox is an entire website dedicated to the behind the scenes setups of each and ever image submitted.Here is a stock photo I had shot, along with the lighting diagram I just posted.  It took me a total of about 2 minutes to make the diagram and post.  I’m definitely going to be bookmarking this website for those days when I just feel dull, and need some strobist lighting inspiration.

It’s always good to have a network of friends and colleagues to push work back and forth to/from. Remember – one hand washes the other. When you “pay work forward”, it all comes back around. Whoever is too swamped at the time, or doesn’t want to do a particular job, will push it over someone else that might want it. This type of arrangement is highly recommended with regards to any type of freelancing position.  Sometimes you might not want to deal with a certain type of a client.  Dealing with the public can be trying, and not all of us handle certain types of people as well as others.  This is another perfect scenario of why you might want to shoot the job over to your colleague; not to dump them with a jerk of a client, but maybe you know they really could use the work.  “Beggars can’t be choosers”.  Wow, two old school expressions in the same blog post *facepalm*.

Great platforms for building your social work network such are twitter, behance, google+, linkedin; anywhere you can interact and connect with like minded creatives.  It takes constant effort, though.  You’ll need to actually keep in touch with your “creative network” somehow, and make sure you communicate regularly.  You’ll want to remember members of your network, and hope they remember you as well.  Keep each other updated on how busy everyone is, and who is in need of the most work at that present moment.

Do you already have something like this?  Please share your story in the comments section below.

I totally forget what I was searching for, but I just busted out laughing when I read these suggestions. “how often do chickens lay eggs”, “how often do people die”, and “how often do condoms break” are obviously on the minds of millions of internet users wordwide.  Hey… these are important issues!  Nobody wants to accidentally kill their pet goldfish or have the wrong expectancy for their egg harvesting.  Work, you chickens!  Also, nobody in their right mind wants to die sooner than they have to or have children when they’re not yet ready for them.  Good times, searching Google.  Try starting a basic search the next time you’re bored, and be prepared for laughter.  It’s almost as funny as those hilarious pet videos on youtube that we all love to pass around virally.

Psst… wanna win some awesome design and photography related FREE STUFF worth over a $200 combined value?

Although we’ve been selling royalty-free stock imagery and graphics for almost 7 years now, this is the first year we launched our own private storefront offering all of our professional stock photos at affordable prices.  We look forward to serving the needs of image buyers for the years to come.  We’ll be adding hundreds of fresh stock photos in batches throughout the upcoming years, so be sure to bookmark us and tell your friends.  Thanks again for a great first year! It’s almost a new one, so before the date turns over to 1/1/2012 we wanted to do something special.  Here are the details of our first big giveaway:

Big Kahuna First Prize Package:

- Free 2012 Norman Rockwell Saturday Evening Post wall calendar courtesy of PromosOnline

- Free one month subscription to ArenaCreative (a $50 value) good for up to 25 high-res stock photos, which you can use for any of your marketing, publishing, or design needs.

- Free full copy of the Trick Photography and Special Effects 2.0 E-Book + Video Course (a $97 value) – it has tons of creative photography and post processing techniques that I love – read my review.

- Free $25 discount coupon good for Lightroom Presets, Aperture Presets or Photoshop Templates from XposurePro

Here’s how easy it is to enter the contest:

Score 1 entry
for following us on twitter @arenacreative and for every time you tweet this message on twitter (the hashtag #arenacreativecontest is important, so that it counts and we can track your entry). Triple click to select and copy this bold text:

I’m entered! RT to win tons of FREE #design related prizes at http://bit.ly/vTiEr9 @arenacreative #arenacreativecontest

For every tweet, you get an additional entry!

Score 5 entries
by signing up for our newsletter mailing list between now and the last seconds of 2011.  We only send out email blasts once every great while, usually quarterly – chock full of  blog post highlights, tutorials, coupon codes, and newly featured stock images.

Score 10 entries
for any stock imagery purchase you make at Arena Creative between now and the last seconds of 2011.  Every cart order = 10 entries.  If you need some affordable stock images for your website, blog, or the latest piece you’re planning on designing, that’s our specialty. (Hint: be sure to use coupon code FRIENDSFAMILY25 for an extra 25% off your shopping cart, valid through the end of 2011.)

Score 20 entries
for a quality blog post or website review written about your experience with Arena Creative Stock Imagery and what we offer, linking back.  If you haven’t ever purchased anything from us, you can simply write a brief review about what we’re all about in your own words.  Feel free to use any of our watermarked images or thumbnails to glam up the post.  We’ll just need either a trackback url sent, or an email via our contact form to verify these entries.  This would be a huge help to us spreading the word about our brand.  If you’ve already written a review about us, and we’re just not aware of it – let us know!

but wait, there’s another way to win!

Comment Contest Prize Package:

- Free $15 discount coupon good at ArenaCreative.com on any royalty-free stock photo order.

- Free $10 discount coupon good for Lightroom Presets, Aperture Presets or Photoshop Templates from XposurePro

Just post a simple comment at the end of this blog post – it doesn’t have to be long.  Tell us why you want to win, or whatever it on your mind.  Say hello!  This contest is separate, only for those that comment on this blog post.

A special thanks goes out to Promos Online, XposurePro, and Evan Sharboneau with the Trick Photography and Special Effects ebook for helping us sweeten the pot of our 2011 giveaway.

Promos Online has been serving businesses for years, in producing custom branded merchandise for all of their clients’ marketing and giveaway needs.  Some of the larger clients they have served include Facebook, Google, Volkswagon, Cedar Point, and the list goes on.  You can order custom printed promotional items with any logo or design on them, at great prices.  They are great for your business and branding needs (of course), schools, clubs, leagues, houses of worship, family events and more. 

The winner will be notified via email and announced here in this blog post in the first week of January 2012 and will then have to provide their mailing address info to receive their prize.  Please be sure to share this contest with all of your friends and colleagues via the social buttons above or below. Oh, and while you’re here – do you see our social icons at the upper right hand corner of this page?  Please hook up with us in the social media world.  We’d love to chat with you about anything, whether it’s dogs, kitty cats, how much you love/hate your job, or even what you think about global warming.

Here are some more images and info about the prizes:

Norman Rockwell Calendar

In this visually stunning color photos and pad calendar, Norman Rockwell, the master of Americana, goes back to a simpler time with this nostalgic collection of thirteen illustrations. Straight from the covers of the beloved Saturday Evening Post magazine, these scenes of Americana will keep you smiling all year long. Each monthly illustration includes its own charming description. Runs from December to December. Can be combined with other themes, minimum of 100 per theme, all with same binding type.

XposurePro Presets & Photoshop Templates

Creative presets and templates to make your photos jump out from the rest of the pack, without having to spend hours in Photoshop.

Trick Photography and Special Effects E-Book and Video Course

It boasts over 270 pages of instruction and over 300 creative photographs made by some of the most talented artists around the globe.  Even if you never even use what you will learn how to do in this educational package, you will no doubt benefit from the inspiration you receive from it.

ArenaCreative Stock Photos

A unique collection of stock imagery that focuses on personality, diversity, and most importantly creativity. Our portfolio is constantly growing. You’re probably sick and tired of browsing through the same old boring stuff all of the time. That’s why we try to produce stock photos with spunk; imagery that will get your projects noticed.  At the moment, there are well over 7000 royalty-free stock images to choose from.  Here is a sample of the collection.  For more, browse the entire collection by clicking on our logo at the top of the page.

If you are interested in giving away a product or service in order to promote your website or business, and you think we would be a good fit for your target audience (business, marketing, graphic design, photography), feel free to contact us with the details.

Update 1/1/12: Contest winners have been announced!  Scroll to the top of this post to view them.

What do you think?  Was this a complete ripoff of a concepts, or are people over-reacting?  For more news, reactions, and info about this project, check out fry lights or search online with the term “fry lights”.

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Narrative

Many of the most memorable travel photos tell a story, or at least suggest one to the viewer. Take this into consideration when deciding which elements to place at the centre – and indeed the edges – of your photo. The key here is to force the viewer to get involved in interpreting the picture. Make them ask questions. ‘Where are they going?’, for example, or ‘What is that used for?’

This may be achieved simply through showing activities or objects likely to be unfamiliar to the viewer, or by including elements of uncertainty, contradiction or incongruity. For example, draw attention to a detail that looks out of place, an ambiguous facial expression or gesture, or use a partially obscured perspective.

People

Some of the most evocative travel shots are actually portraits – capturing places through faces, so to speak. Obviously there are any number of ways to take a portrait shot, but if your aim is to capture the spirit of a place, consider how you’re going to achieve that. Perhaps the person is engaged in an activity or showing a gesture or facial expression that conveys something about the local lifestyle.

One advantage of portraits is the potential to immediately engage the viewer with the image, particularly by focusing on the eyes through use of positioning, camera angle and lighting. In turn, the direction of the subject’s gaze or gesture can be a useful tool in directing attention to a particular detail or more generally into the rest of the scene.

If photographing people, you obviously have the choice of deliberately arranging, or simply capturing things as they occur naturally. Either can be powerful. Capturing people deliberately gazing head-on at the camera, for example, can be a fantastic way to engage the viewer, bringing them literally face to face with the subject.

Another tip here is to look out for visual echoes – recurrences of color and shape that strengthen the connection between the person and their surroundings. For example, a gesture may echo the shape formed by part of the landscape, or a piece of clothing echo the natural coloring.

Light

You don’t need any people or even a story if you have amazing lighting. Generally speaking the best time to shoot is either early morning or late afternoon. Those are usually the times of day when the light is softer, still providing enough warmth to bring out the richness of colours without being overly aggressive, and also generating shadows which provide contrast and depth. In urban areas, dusk can also be a good time, due to the combination of natural and artificial lighting.

Space

The range of an image can have a big impact on the effect or mood it creates. Think about what kind of feeling you want to convey about the place, and experiment with different ranges and perspectives to see how this is best captured. Think about where to position your viewer in relation to the image – surveying from above and beyond, or right in the thick of things?

In the simplest expression of this, a calm and peaceful place may be best captured in a wide-range landscape, while a chaotic, bewildering place may be better conveyed through a narrower, more limited vision – suggesting the whole through the parts.

Final words

Most photographers will tell you the single most important thing you can do is experiment. Try out new effects, exposures and angles. When you find a subject that interests you, shoot it in as many ways as you can. Look at the shots, decide which ones work and which don’t, and try to put your finger on the reasons for this – was it the lighting, composition, or maybe something about the colors? The more you do this, the more you’ll develop an eye for those perfect shots.