Border collies are known as herding dogs, especially sheep. They are excellent watch dogs, love children and they are often described as the most intelligent dogs.

According to some information, a border collie had learned 1,022 words – reacting to them when spoken! Watching our inventive hooligan’s non-stop activities all day long it doesn’t surprise me… and tons of exercise and mental stimulation they definitely need, and this on an ongoing basis. It’s really a continuous dialogue – and a very endearing one as Holly has a very attentive and loving nature.

With one of her eyes being a clear blue – due to heterochromia (multi-colored eyes) – she catches everyone’s attention anyway!

Actually, Holly from Noordhoek lives in Cape Holly Road as you can see here, taken early this morning before our walk up into the Silvermine Mountains:

She will always make sure I follow and comes back to see that I’m fine – that’s just her nature:

Definitely lots of space to run – :

That’s our favorite morning run… tanking fresh air and energies before getting back to the computer and… Web Design with Passion!

Theunis Minnie, ‘n fotograaf in die Mosselbaai omgewing, het geen bekendstelling nodig nie. Sy werke pronk al vir meer as 5 jaarin verskeie gallerye, huise en in verskeie trou albums. Tog is Theunis beter bekend vir sy unieke wyse waarop hy verskillende dele en onderwerpe wat eie aan Suid Afrika is weergee. Sy werke handel oor van Karoo Landskappe tot ou motors, geboue, windmeule en nog vele meer.

Dit is iets heeltemal uniek en boeiend. Staan jy en kyk na die fotos van Theunis Minnie se mees onlangse fotografie projek is dit kompleet asof jy weg gevoer word en ‘n wêreld betree wat net in elk van Theunis se unieke fotos bestaan.

Ongeveer 5 jaar gelede het Theunis Minnie begin om ‘n reeks fotos met soortgelyke onderwerpe in sepia formaat te bemark. Hy het onlangs besluit dit is tyd vir iets nuut en opwindend en dit is met dié, dat hy op sy besonderse unieke konsep van sy nuutste projek afgekom het, “die Reisende Stoel.”

Theunis vertel met smaak vir my die storie agter die konsep van die “Reisende Stoel”, en dit word vining duidelik dat hierdie ‘n projek is wat hom na aan die hart lê. Volgens Theunis het hy verlede jaar tydens die Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees oppad na Oudtshoorn verby ‘n plaashuis met ‘n soortgelyke sitkamerstoel voor die huis gery. Dit het dadelik sy oog gevang weens die uniekheid van die “uit sy plek staande stoel.”

Hy het besluit om verder te gaan met die konsep van die stoel en afgekom op die perfekte stoel in ‘n tweedehandse meubelwinkel in George, min het die stoel geweet wat alles vir hom voorlê.

Tot dusver was die Rooi Stoel al in die Knysna Woude, die baie bekende Cango Grotte, op die strand, tussen ‘n trop olifante asook in dele van die Klein Karoo. Theunis beplan om die land vol te toer met die stoel.

Die Reisende Stoel is n konsep wat baie mense aan die praat het in die Tuinroete. Maak seker dat jy jou eie kopieë  van hierdie gewilde fotografie projek van Theunis Minnie aanskaf.

Once you know how to instal fonts on CS5 on 64bit it’s real easy!

As I had saved all my professional fonts in a folder that I had imported into a font folder on my new system, all I need to do is find the ttf file (standing for true type font) or the otf file (standing for open type font), right-click and ‘instal’.

That’s it! Go check the fonts on your Photoshop… and if it’s open, you may have to close it first and reopen it. All will be there and ready for you to use and design great stuff!

And to answer the question of where the fonts actually go now, it’s under “Appearance & Personalization” in the Control Panel. Normally, you download fonts as a zip file that you want to unzip and then navigate to the files as per above.

Where do you find many great fonts for free download?

Simply go to dafont.com and select what you like.

Once you work really professionally with fonts and especially if you prepare material for printing – say for a customer -, consider to select and buy a good font. While it may be costly in the beginning, it will pay off over time and simply gives you the professional look.

Remember: even on the internet you get what you pay for.

We grow through our struggles… but inbetween I just imagine myself being that happy, fat and buzzing bumble bee in my garden floating from flower to flower and living in complete bliss!

To get Web Design with Passion back on a new PC meant and still means installing each and every program from scratch. Not that this isn’t an interesting and instructive exercise nor is it the first time I do this – but it’s time-consuming and often frustrating especially when there is such a huge list to do!

However, starting out from scratch has its merits that can be compared to the annual spring clean-out: unless you are an obsessive gatherer and collector, it’s a good time to get rid of everything that’s superfluous and not absolutely necessary and becoming lean and light with lots of potential to move forward with a new and speedy lightness of being and let the creative juices flow. I’m not quite there yet as too puzzled by some mysteries noone else knew an answer to so far – but here’s my first post ‘after the storm’ and it can only get better and faster!

YEBO GOGO – this is about being a student for life!

Bird sanctuary websites offer online bird watchers information and insight about the bird life found in a specific bird park or area, opening times, entry fees, special events and perhaps membership possibilities etc, but what everyone is probably most interested in are pictures and images of birds, our favourite feathered friends.

If you have a garden that’s frequented by many different birds and you love to watch and photograph them, you may consider publishing your personal birding website or blog to share your thoughts, impressions, photos, perhaps sketches and whatever you want to include, with fellow birding afficinados. You may even invite other bird watchers to join you to gain a broader and even more interesting spectrum!

Your personal bird lover website could be designed in such an attractive way that it captures the interest of like-minded bird watchers from other parts of the country if not the world! The world of birds is truly without limits!

The Internet offers us such wonderful and affordable possibilities for individual expression today where we can create something that can be enjoyed for generations to come.

Why not pass on the wonder, joy and privilege of living in our magic world today?!

Well, meanwhile I know most if not all of those pictures were illusions… and that we can all achieve with some good original photo material and a little bit of Photoshop! Ha!

What you see here is definitely the full moon I photographed in that night – around 11: 45 pm – and it stood like that in the pitchblack sky. No halo, no softness – like cut out.

And this was Noordhoek Beach in the very early morning where the full moon was hardly visible – now it is!I mean it was !

The fact is, I photographed the ‘real thing’ on 24 July 2010 and wrote about it HERE. And there was no manipulation involved whatsoever – it was huge, red and definitely super and extraordinary in many ways!

While we may all have our favourite hangout spots and like to follow our friends’ suggestions when visiting a new one, Restaurant Websites help to find new places when travelling to another town or an unknown area.

For this reason, a restaurant website needs to indicate what it specializes on in terms of food (seafood, country cuisine, Thai Food etc…) and it must offer clear directions, possibly through Google Maps or good photography of the environment.

Friends, real ones and those we collect on Social Networks, suggest… but then Pictures sell the Restaurant and Menu!
It’s through the way a Restaurant Blog communicates its atmosphere, service and – of course – mouth-watering menus, wines, cocktails and specials – that we are attracted to one or another. Often these reactions are spontaneous and following our belly!

Restaurant websites and blogs serve as a brilliant, easy and fun way to be and keep in touch with the restaurant clientele, inform them of what’s new on the menu or which ‘Specials’ are on when and where, especially also around major annual festivities and events like for Christmas Dinners, New Year’s Dinners or for Valentine’s Day or linked to certain activities and festivals in the area or town, eg music concerts, sports events and the like.

Restaurants should ideally have a “Wine and Dine” Fanpage on Facebook that’s kept up-to-date with what’s happening, where questions are answered and where there’s continuous conversation.

Besides, and most importantly, a restaurant must be easily reachable on the Mobile Web. People want to see what’s on offer and hit the booking button fast – often just minutes before they arrive !

We at Web Design with Passion develop and design elegant, user-friendly and extremely Google efficient websites and blogs exclusively on WP based Semiomantics – have a look and get in touch HERE to discuss what you may be needing.

Restaurant Websites Sell!

Portrait Shooting

Based on Digital Photography Ycademy 9 we are able to plan our pictures depth of field. The only remaining problem is: you may have a camera which does not allow for A settings (manual Aperture priority settings).

Don’t worry, there is a way to at least partially compensate for this shortfall.

The below gallery can best be viewed HERE (opens new window).

Depth of Field in Portraiting with a low end Camera or Mobile Phone

Remember, we said that the depth of field is function of aperture and distance. Hence, we can use the distance trick which works with most any digital camera or mobile phone.

First we try to compose our picture in a way that the person is not glued to a background, such as leaning on a wall. Position the person at least 2 meters off the next background. Then frame clsosely from maximum 1.5 meters (without zooming). The result may be better if the background is even further away to fall out of the metered focal range (corresponding to infinity settings) which is at about 10-12 meters.

Now shoot your portrait: the autofocus will grab the face and apply the distance, which in it’s turn will trigger the aperture and shutter speed in function of that distance and light. By setting your camera presets on Portrait, the camera does this as well, whereas a narroc depth of field is forced.

In any case, you will end up with a sharp portrait and a more or less blurred background.

Portrait Post Editing

If you have taken your picture according to the above, then your post editing is a sunday walk. Just apply some of the great lightroom presets or photoshop actions. Some of these professional tools will lift the quality of your mediocre picture dramatically and clearly digg a huge canion between you and the competitors in your camera’s class.

Here an example: the below picture has been taken with my 4 years old $50 supermarket camera according to the above rule. Then I just pulled it through some professional filters such as stuff from from Kubota, Davis and onOne. This is a matter of just seconds :-).

Join tonight’s YcademyWorkshop for more tips and tricks.

Author: Yorgo Nestoridis, Media Marketing & Publishing, Founder of YORGOO Publishing, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.

The issue here is – as discussed in my earlier article on  “iPhone Simulator”  (or ‘iPhone Emulator’ as it was called in the Ycademy Workshop) – :  how to actually see what you design when doing the mobile setup of your blog when you do not have access to an iphone or smartphone and none of the iphone simulators or emulators found on Google seem to be helpful, in other words: when you can’t see what you do.

While I enjoyed Zen Shooting with Bow & Arrow, in Web Design I prefer to see exactly what I do :)

Once you know the answer it’s always simple: when you make your website mobile without owning or having access to one of those spiffy mobile devices, the answer is to download the Safari Browser and then, at the top under DEVELOP and > USER AGENT > choose the iPhone or iPad or whatever you need to test your work!

What you see here are first results when using exclusively the settings in WP Touch Pro – no CSS stylesheet at this stage. First, I wanted to see what’s there and experiment with it, learning the lessons from trial and error and getting an understanding of what should ideally be changed or adapted and for what purpose. Our customers are all different and have other priorities. The mobile web has become crucial for attracting potential clients for those who run a business and have products and/or services to sell.

Important: Thumbnails don’t show if you leave them on “Custom Field Thumbnails” in the Dashboard (WP Touch Settings); you have to select “WP Thumbnails” as you can see on the above top example. I did not change the size nor take out the reflections.

My next excursion will be into the stylesheet… but first let’s greet another absolutely stunning day to begin a week filled with promise!

And publishing regular original content is crucial for the success of an Author Blog.

If you look at my Author Blog, you find anything related to Art, Media Design, Website Development and Design, Photography, Nature and… of course South Africa. This is where my heart and focus are and this leaves me a lot of scope for things to investigate, research, be enthusiastic about and share in form of any kind of expression that’s possible online.

While many people believe they can get away in a ‘free’ way by just using their Facebook accounts to write and express themselves, they don’t operate from a position of freedom – like if they would be owning their own website or blog where they are in full control. Social Networks work for themselves and make and change the rules, they possess your content – be it written or in form of photos – and even sell you without your consent or vote nor giving you a fair share.

If a herd mentality is what you like, this will not bother you and you gladly pay the price.

If, however, you wish to be independent and build your own reputation online, based on your name, your talents and your services and/or products, there is no way around having your own personalized Author Blog or website.

Think about it and get started – for instance on a free WordPress Blog. If you want something more sophisticated, have a look at my SHOWCASE and – if and once you’re ready for your own driver’s seat online – let’s talk!

Hakamela Africa Tours will be at INDABA 2012, one of the leading annual marketing events in African Tourism, that has won the prestigious World Travel Award for Africa’s best Travel & Tourism Show two years in a row.

INDABA will take place from 12 to 15 May 2012 at the Albert Luthuli Convention Centre in Durban, South Africa.

We will report on our website development of this exciting project in due time – don’t miss our SHOWCASE.

There aren’t many better ways to advertise than to have clients drinking coffee out of a mug with your company logo printed on it. ECBeads in Mossel Bay offers great prices for great quality products. No matter the design, ECBeads will be able to assist you with the printing on mugs. This is ideal for gifts, such as corporate gifts, Mother’s Day gifts etc. Cost R 50.00 per mug

ECBeads in Mossel Bay are proud to announce that they can now cut out wooden blanks in any shape according to your specific needs. Wooden Blanks are used for Mosaic and Decoupage projects and are popular for children’s rooms, letters for room décor as well as wording for menus as well as slogans. Bring your design to ECBeads or let us design something for you.

There aren’t many better ways to advertise than to have clients drinking coffee out of a mug with your company logo printed on it. ECBeads in Mossel Bay offers great prices for great quality products. No matter the design, ECBeads will be able to assist you with the printing on mugs. This is ideal for gifts, such as corporate gifts, Mother’s Day gifts etc. Cost R 50.00 per mug

ECBeads in Mossel Bay are proud to announce that they can now cut out wooden blanks in any shape according to your specific needs. Wooden Blanks are used for Mosaic and Decoupage projects and are popular for children’s rooms, letters for room décor as well as wording for menus as well as slogans. Bring your design to ECBeads or let us design something for you.

Get your nails done by our nail technician, Erna Williams. Erna does Gel Nails, Acrylic Nails, Manicures, Pedicures as well as beautiful nail art. Henita Hair Classics use only Calbrook and Bio Sculpture’s products.

Natural Nails such as French Manicures done by Henita Hair Classics Mossel Bay

Henita Hair Classics are known in Mossel Bay for doing perfect manicure and pedicures in French and other natural colours and styles.

Visit us in Field Street Mossel Bay and get pampered in our stylish and relaxed atmosphere.

My prime objective when preparing a Conferences and Events Website will be speed and user-friendly interaction. When a customer needs Conference Management Services he firstly has to find what he is looking for fast, then like what he sees and lastly be able to get through and book fast. This means the conferencing website has to be well positioned on Google Top 10 – from a content point of view and, increasingly, as an image. And it has to be reachable via the mobile web.

Above you see one of my Conferences and Events Images on the first page on Google Images, competing with 443 million serach returns! Yes – one’s got to learn this and use the most efficient WP based Semiomantics script! Ask me how!!!

Clients should be ‘king’ in an absolute sense when it comes to Conference Management Services – that’s what will make the success of one’s conferencing and event management business.

Customers need to be able to fully focus on their objectives to achieve maximum results and productivity. This means preparing workshops, presentations, speeches, educational and media material etc etc … and a lot of their energy will go into attuning to all the different personalities and characters attending the event, the questions coming up and the discussions to be held.

Once the operation budget has been agreed, the Conference Manager is expected to deliver professional services in terms of:

> Planning the Conference or Meeting (dates, format, committee meetings..);

> Arrangements for locations, eg. hotel bookings, conference venues, lodging including all requirements;

> Liaison between client and speakers and presenters including preparational gettogethers;

> Promotion and advertising, materials for print, press and online event websites (if requested);

> Registration procedure – taking care of all communication and payments, prepare name badges etc;

> Facility management – function room setups, electronic setup and equipment, additional staff and operators etc;

> Coordinate food and beverages incl. special menus, recreational and team building activities;

> Clear signs to the conference venue, info packs, continuous liaison for all requests and contingencies;

> Clear check-in and check-out procedures;

> VIP lounge and services on request;

> Accommodation and partner program (eg. sightseeing) if spouse accompanies.

> Follow-up: review and approve invoices for payment, provide meeting summary and financial report;

> Gratuities to staff, ‘thank you’ messages to presenters and attendees

> and much more…

This is just a quick list from my head having attended, talked at and organized many conferences and events in the past…

Baseline is: all must be prepared, planned, negotiated and arranged according to prior agreement and budget limits and quite simply at their fingertips! No worries for your customer, not even a thought!

Even go a little extra mile if needed… I do that each day :)

The question is really: which one?

The first sketches I designed for going mobile where featured in my post HERE. Already then, I knew well what I wanted, but I simulated the look based on what I needed and what I had learned at the time.

Today… just a few months later… things have changed again… and especially after an Ycademy Seminar on WP Touch one really wants to get things done – but from all the iphone Simulators I came across so far, spending a fair amount of time to search and test, nothing was satisfactory and especially nothing showed the visual results I would expect to see after what I have set up! Really frustrating!

The iPhone Simulator above – testiPhone – shows my whole website, or rather what remains of it:

That’s really not the idea – so what’s the solution?

With so much heaviness and pain to be finding its angry expression over the course of this day in many parts of the world, some of us are determined to balance this with loving and peaceful vibrations… Make your choice – and follow your heart.

On another level, 1 May 2012 Results on Google are my main objective with this little article – namely where did yesterday’s post end up?

Hotels and Lodges Websites show an incredible amount of search returns on Google: 3,250,000,000 ! Sounds like counting the stars… and yet, as I checked the position of my featured images, I found two of them on page one as you can see on the screenshot! SEO results that talk!

There were more images from my Web Design Showcase at http://showcase.biancagubalke.com on the following pages, but what I want to illustrate here is the efficiency of my work in terms of Website Development with Semiomantics – nothing more, nothing less.

There are many stunning websites for hotels and lodges – the question is always: if and where do they show up on Google Top 10 and at what price?

Here’s with sunshine from South Africa and wishing you a peaceful 1 May 2012!

Of course, like in any website development, Hotels and Lodges Websites need to offer relevant functionalities and be user-friendly in terms of navigation. Visitors want to see what they like and then surf quickly to a Booking Form where they get a quick overview in terms of availability and prices and where they have access to simple and reliable payment gateways.

Having said that, what remains as the most challenging part for the web designer is how to achieve top positions with a Hotel Website, meaning the website’s performance on Google against stiff competition in the Travel and Tourism Industry.

But this is exactly where we at Semiomantics excel: once properly setup and indexed on Google, your path to top rankings is assured – provided you keep the website dynamic and active. Our regular tests in terms of website optimization and performance proove it daily!

Save by performing better – have a look at http://showcase.biancagubalke.com  !

We did quite some research when creating a new website for Used Cars and Trucks for our customer Magnetic Transport Surplus in Cagayan de Oro, Mindanao.

Just as with any other website, cars and trucks websites want to achieve certain goals: to attract customers and potential buyers – in other words sell – and to build a reputation on the Internet and brand themselves.

Branding requires a lot of research and development, especially in terms of Logo Design and Icon Design. While there are brilliant and high-paid professionals doing exactly just that – and I have met some of the best – this demands budgets that are far out of reach for new or relatively young companies.

Accordingly, the web designer will often be asked to come up with integrated solutions that work both online and offline.

This is a service our professional Web Design South Africa Team can provide. Please visit our brand-new  SHOWCASE HERE  for the latest Web Design examples.

Before publishing this article, I checked “Cars and Trucks Images” to capture what is currently seen there – right now at 11:55 am:

Why?

People react more to images – visuals – than to text. While our original content remains the main issue in terms of keywords and especially tags, Google picks up our photos and pictures as well as you see on the above screenshot.

As my regular routine test, I will see where my Cars and Trucks Image will land in terms of ranking – and how fast – after I publish right now, at 12:30 pm!

It’s always an interesting exercise… so above we have the ‘before’ image and let’s see how it looks ‘after’ the publication of this article!

Wedding Album Websites are ideal when starting off a new family with a visual bang! and then developing the initial Wedding Website into a very versatile Family Album as is planned on this example here.

Clearly, you want to own your family website – but you may ask… why, if it’s ‘free’ on Social Networks, genre Facebook?

Well – firstly, nothing is free on the Internet, that’s unfortunately an illusion and you risk becoming disillusioned rather fast when you see how your content on social networks serves one major purpose: to build THAT network and taking control over YOUR content, even the most private and precious. If you have no problem with that and you don’t mind being caught in a herd that’s easily manipulated and even sold … fine.

If you rather want to be in control of your own online destiny and that of your future family – think of your wedding album images for instance – then look at this very affordable and elegant wedding album solution.

One investment will set you free – especially as a newly married couple!