In my website development for the new Monkey Valley Resort website I am exploring my own ways of doing things – here an example of how to present a restaurant menu online:

How to Present a Restaurant Menu

Of course, it was easy to just type the restaurant menu out… and that’s what I did initially after receiving it from Darren Byrne… the usual copy/paste scenario, correcting little errors and/or beauty issues… and that’s it! Especially as I had designed a special slide to announce that the Sunday Lunches are back at Thorfynn’s Restaurant – requested by many… and of course with LIVE Music.

However, I wanted to find a personal touch even for a simple issue like this… meaning how to present a restaurant menu with style.

Branding Darren Byrne

Branding Darren Byrne, Restaurant Manager at Thorfynn’s, is increasingly important. So here’s for a start: you will see “Recommended by Darren Byrne” with everything relating to the Restaurant… and I may even shoot a photo where he smiles at us… but typically he always checks that his customers are happy, meaning looking down at their plates and glasses !

I am still waiting for the Booking Sytem so I can link it and visitors can book with one click. For the time being it’s still via email and the telephone – or use the Comment Box or the Contact Form on the website.

We’ll get there …

Photographed in the early morning hours in my garden in Noordhoek, South Africa, this white Dietes Bicolor Flower Photo came to me like a tender morning kiss!

Dietes Bicolor Flower Photo

On the above Dietes Bicolor Flower Photo – which is rather a white blossom unfolding with many tiny droplets covering the fine white flower petals like an acqueous network that fashion designers would dream of as an exquisite material – just think of wedding gowns – it was this fine texture that fascinated me as it was giving the flower an absolutely magic texture.

Today, with the sun up already, the same dietes bicolor is a light yellow and standing strong on its long stem turned into the full sun. No good time to take a picture…

Best WP Photo Blog Theme

If you wonder how to present your photos online in a personalized way (without building content for social networks) and in an optimized way – meaning that you can gain visibility on search engines like Google, then I recommend the Best WP Photo Blog Theme as I set up recently HERE, just as an example.

As mentioned earlier, my pictures are resized to small formats and reduced in weight for faster loading times. The best originals will be available as Stock Photography in due time. It’s mainly a matter of loading time, as my connections here are so pathetically slow now that it even takes many attempts covering often as much as 5 minutes with many time outs and spinning browsers to upload a simple under 100 kb photo as the one I am showing here on my blog.

This Flowering Quince Photo I just took in my garden in Noordhoek, South Africa, shows that spring is here! See it, feel it, taste it, smell it and… of course: hear it!

Flowering Quince Photo

This white Flowering Quince Photo was taken in the early morning as the first sun rays crept over the mountains and filtered softly through the trees. I used my simple NIKON Coolpix P90.

Best WP Photo Blog Theme

To present this image in a personal and optimized way, I will add it to the little online photo collection I am building on the Best WP Photo Blog Theme powered by Semiomantics HERE.

Of course, these photos are always presented much smaller and the quality is tuned down to make the photo lighter for fast loading times. The original will be available as Stock Photography.

Welcome to my new “South Africa Photo Album Online” under construction! As I am South African, live in South Africa, love South Africa and breath South Africa – and each of my photos reflect exactly that – I think my new Photo website deserves that title! It’s only got started… but being surrounded by the most stunning Nature on this planet, my topics are clear… and there will be those amazingly talented, beautiful and smiling people of the rainbow nation… so that’s the journey! As my personal slogan is “Web Design with Passion” and we only talk online environment, here’s something new and exciting evolving…

South Africa Photo Album Online

While being a little bit stuck on a little devilish issue on my Photo Blog HERE, but eager to start a different version for a “South Africa Photo Album Online”, I abused of one of my existing Semiomantics Web Design websites to follow through and experiment featuring a Crowned Crane Photo I took in the World of Birds in Hout Bay, South Africa as well as Insect Photography from my garden.

These are just examples. All this serves to demonstrate how to create your own Photo Album Online.

While I will show the website at a later, more evolved stage (as it’s still a play- and exercise-ground), the basics are to show a large photo – ideally a slide rotator. In fact, I also tried to do this as a sprite which also works perfectly. People clicking on this large picture – or a collection of rotating images – follow links to dedicated pages or even other Photo Websites or Photographic Blogs.

Instead of a navigation bar, I again used a sprite I had created already following an Ycademy Workshop.

The idea is that people can choose the topic of their interest on this mysteriously ‘darkened’ image menu, which illuminates once you hover over them (see lower image and compare with the top)… something we ‘baby boomers’ remember from the good old days with 35 mm slide shows and corresponding light-boxes!

Presenting Digital Photography Online

What is important when presenting Digital Photography Online is that your Photo Album or Photo Blog opens fast; you therefore have to scale the pictures down until you come to a point where you still have enough quality but the image is as light as possible, thus opening fast. It’s quite an art to get there, but crucial online – especially in countries with slow Internet connections… and then don’t forget the booming mobile market. It’s also a protection; once a picture is released onto the online circuit, it’s open for grabs… copyrighted or not … that’s just as it is, learn to live with it. That’s OK… but no professional can or would work with low resolution photos, so I think it’s not worth being that paranoid and rather enjoy to create something beautiful and enjoyable for all. In any case, living in such a beautiful natural environment I feel it’s just right to project a bit of that onto the screens for everybody to share. Never thought of that: bringing Nature into the virtual world… a rather philosophical idea… gotta think about that one!

Stock Photography is a business and a totally different ball game alltogether where you get what you pay for; we will be back with Photo Media Stock one day…

Stay tuned; I will keep you posted on further developments!

How to Present Pictures Online

If you like Digital Photography and taking photos yourself, the question is how to present your pictures online?

Obviously, the most exciting way is a Semiomantics Evolution Flash Website as you can see on the example of my Bookcovers HERE.

How to Present Pictures Online

However, there are fabulous tools out there that help you present your pictures online in a very attractive and flashy way as well – as you see here… just as a static example for the time being.

Semiomantics XO 2011

The program used here will be just one of the many benefits of the upcoming Ycademy Seminar November 2010 this coming weekend – besides the brand-new release of the best WordPress based Theme: Semiomantics XO 2011!

More soon. . .

Valentine’s Day Gifts

Here’s wishing everybody a “Happy Valentine’s Day” on 14 February 2010!

While it’s a bit late to start looking into preparing more sophisticated Valentine’s Day Gifts today, it’s never too late for Valentine’s Gift Ideas that go beyond buying a red rose, a pack of funnily formed chocolates or a bottle of Schnaps!

Valentine’s Day Gifts – Elegant DVD Packaging

Why not consider some Elegant DVD Packaging for your Valentine’s Day Gifts next year? Or for any other upcoming occasion like a Birthday, Promotion, Easter…?

In my example here, I wrapped up a collection of beautiful digital pictures I took this year – my most precious moments on Noordhoek Beach South Africa 2010. I added some “unaccomplished music” that fits this spectacular high tide scenario perfectly – if you know which one I mean -  and dedicated it to “My Valentine” in the Title.

Quality is obviously always the most important criterium. Firstly of the photo or background image and of course the typography. There are free fonts and those we pay heavily for – and the difference becomes especially obvious once we leave the virtual world and go into the Printing process! I was quite pleasantly surprised how well the two free fonts came out here.

In the detail above I took a screenshot of the original Valentine’s DVD Packaging Image I created and rendered at just medium quality (40) to keep the loading speed down. It’s all part of the ongoing learning process; experience – sometimes pretty painful – and attentive observation are my best teachers… and of course I have an absolute admiration for the real “Masters” !

Just click on the images and they will open in a bigger format in the overlay… takes just a few seconds.

Valentine’s Day Gift Packaging

Valentine’s Day Gift Packaging is just another product item that will grow over time and feature in my SHOP for anyone to choose from.

I so much enjoy doing any form of Graphic Design or Digital Artwork… and letting my ideas hijack my creativity and refine my skills!

Photoshop Ycademy Workshops

Here I present the original and untouched image as well as a black and white version. Depending on the atmosphere, ambience or mood we want to achieve to suit the special occasion, the color can be easily adapted and changed and even manipulated or wrapped around another shape, ebook, box or jewel case for instance.

Being well equipped with the right Graphic Design Tools and the knowledge and skills taught in Photoshop Ycademy Workshops there is no limit to our imagination in pampering those we love with something personal and special – even on Valentine’s Day!

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Presenting Web Design Graphics

In today’s madly media oriented virtual world it’s important to integrate good quality pictures and images into our Websites and Blogs, ideally based on our own digital photography and/or Graphic Artwork.

Within that context and with improving Internet streaming and connectivities even down here in the sticks in South Africa, the ‘packaging’ of anything we present gains in importance. Just as in the ‘real’ world… the ‘look’ is what counts most. This means that we as Web Designers and Graphic Artists have to adapt our skills to be Presenting Web Design Graphics in a professional and appealing way.

Presenting Web Design Graphics

Presenting Web Design Graphics can be done the long and more elaborate way – depending obviously on the effect you wish to achieve as some are really just done in a few mouse clicks if you know the brilliant tools in your Adobe Photoshop CS4 – but for those who want to present their photos and images in a clean and pleasant manner without having to dig through complex Photoshop Tutorials, there is a smart way saving lots of time: Actions or Action Scripts.

Well, it’s what today’s Pro’s use anyway… as time is money and why reinvent the wheel?

How to Create a Reflection

In my Photoshop Series on “How to Create a Reflection” in September 2009, I introduced you to the more complex route – although this one was easy enough.

In the above example I simply used an Action Script to create a Reflection. This example is a simple one and I would say I personally would do it just as fast the ‘normal’ route, however, when it comes to automating hundreds of steps for items we don’t necessarily do every single day… WOW! this is just Magic!

One point I want to emphasize though: we always need good material to work with – sharp big photos, good quality images. It’s jsut a rule and not to be disputed.

Photoshop Ycademy Workshops

In yesterday’s Photoshop Ycademy Workshops we looked into additional Action Scripts and did some Action Script Troubleshooting.

One important point to remember was to not change the image size until at the end. Don’t even try this! I did… and had a beautiful product at the end of Step 1 – however, there was no way to render it!

Why did this happen?

Dali Through My Eyes

I had a specific picture in mind, however, as the Artwork I wanted to integrate – Dali Through My Eyes – was of much smaller size than what was dictated by the Action Script, I just decreased its size so I had a perfect fit!  Well, so thought I !!!

But that made the rendering via the Action Script impossible and, seeing that I cannot enlargen my original Artwork without losing pixels and quality, I have to abandon the idea alltogether. Yeah… any Actions Pro may have a laugh here… but this is part of the learning curve and we will get there!

Of course, I could do it in the ‘old’ way – however… as we approach different markets now – including Printing – , we need BIG pictures of HIGH quality. It requires a different way of thinking and planning… and it’s very exciting!

For the time being, I tested another Action in terms of a Cast Shadow on that well intended DVD Cover… and, of course… that attractive reflection :)

In tonight’s Photoshop Ycademy Workshop we will look into ways of dealing with Portraits and Landscapes – so look into your image folders and have some good, big pictures ready to be ‘manipulated’ for better presentation within your websites and blogs.

And to answer your question: YES! I am and have always been a fan of that great Surrealist painter… Salvadore Dali!

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