Black Shaman Blog » Graphics

Photo sharing – the most buttery smooth experience.

Alex Webley — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:32:13 +0000

We have all heard of Flickr and similar photo sharing services. Some of us may have tried some of the more professional applications.

Last year I needed to find a top class way of sharing my photos. I looked at many options, including applications which I could host on my own server, special software and numerous photo sharing sites. I wanted to share my photos in a highly professional manner, and in a way which did not involve lots of hassle and time wasting. What I found blew me away quite frankly.

Since joining SmugMug (I have a Pro account) I have had nothing but good experiences. Due to other projects taking priority I have not yet uploaded a lot of images yet though. You can see my photos here: www.AlexWebleyMedia.com

SmugMug is ideal for both amateur photographers and professionals. It is also an excellent tool for webmasters.

Really, it is hard for me to do SmugMug justice so I suggest you check out their fantastic site yourself. SmugMug have the most responsive customer service and the most buttery-smooth experience of any photo sharing site and you can find out more by checking out this Maximum PC review.

In the last few days I have been busy organizing a SmugMug account for Anoushka Newman, my step daughter. She loves photography (you can tell just looking at her photos) and has taken all of the photos on her SmugMug site apart from two. In my view, she is a very talented young lady. I registered a domain name for her and simply pointed it to her SmugMug account.

Check out Anoushka’s SmugMug site here: www.AnoushkaNewmanMedia.com

Anoushka Newman Self Portrait

Photo sharing – the most buttery smooth experience. is a post from: Black Shaman Blog

Good source of inexpensive images

Alex Webley — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 14:32:41 +0000

Within the last week I have written two other posts with a graphics theme. One was about a great source of ClipArt and the other about a free image resizing program.

Good quality images can make all the difference to a website. I always ensure that I put a lot of effort into picking the right images – usually the task only needs to be done once. When you build a house, good foundations are essential. It is the same with website development.

Today I will be writing about a key source of inexpensive graphics where you can find a large variety of Royalty-Free stock images. Thanks to the continual evolution and diversification of digital technologies, they are able to provide images of a very high quality at a very reasonable price. All the images are carefully scrutinized and selected, in order to make sure that only the best are included and that the range of subjects is extensive.

The high-resolution images that you download may be used for a variety of purposes, however be sure to check out the terms on the website because there are some restrictions.

This graphics resource is my favorite place to source images. The quality, service and range are superb and the terms are not onerous. Fantastic value too.

Check it out by clicking on the banner below.

Good source of inexpensive images is a post from: Black Shaman Blog

Easy image resizing.

Alex Webley — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 14:03:53 +0000

Following on from my blog post two days ago on Clipart:

Great source of Clipart

Here are some details about a very nifty free photo resizing program which will help you to easily create web and e-mail friendly versions of your images with reduced file sizes.

I have been using this program – PIXresizer – Free Image Resizer for a while now and it saves me loads of time too. I have lots of other ways to resize images, however this is the one I use for most cases. It means I can fly through my work when working with images. Why waste time? Have a think about what you are using and then give this program a try so that you can compare the difference.

PIXresizer is very easy for ‘novices’ to use. Even many old hands at graphic manipulation will probably find this program a big time saver.

The software developer; David De Groot, also has some other free and interesting software on his site – the home page is here.

In closing as the year 2008 comes to an end, I want to take this opportunity to thank all my readers, and to wish you all the very best for 2009.

Easy image resizing. is a post from: Black Shaman Blog

Great source of Clipart

Alex Webley — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 11:54:14 +0000

I love using images in my websites and blogs.

Besides being a very logical person, I have a really strong creative side, however my drawing age is stuck at around age 6 and a half. Ghastly! And no, I have none for sale! I am a very visual person and appreciate subtle variations and atmosphere. I really appreciate the talent that others have, including that of my wife who has a design degree and used to teach Art at school.

I recall not paying attention during art classes at school primarily because learning to draw or paint did not interest me at all – in fact I found it incredibly boring; probably partly because I was so useless at it!

That was one thing I did not like about school – being forced to learn stuff like art, Latin, French and music (I am deaf as well as tone deaf and wear plastic ears = hearing aids). I appreciate art – a wide taste, and music – another area with wide and varied tastes, however trying to actually do stuff I am no good at and have no interest in is in my view generally a waste of time. I was very good at Science and came top in my year for the 3 sciences combined – Physics, Biology and Chemistry. (I think I was top in 2 and second in Chemistry – top overall). Schools should in my view teach a lot more about life skills and make a bigger effort to tap into people’s potential so that they can help the world when they grow up by doing stuff they have a passion and natural aptitude for.

Anyway, back to the subject of the post – Clipart. I pay a lot of attention to getting the design of my websites and blogs to reach a minimum good standard. I love the way computers, combined with other people’s artistic talent, can enable an artistic retard like me to create something that looks good. My eye for design is not hindered by my atrocious artistic skills! People are very visual and a nice image makes all the difference to a website, presentation or any other digital or print creation for that matter.

I like services which besides being good quality, are good value, easy to use and not restrictive. I am one of those people who reads terms and conditions carefully because they can often trip you up down the track if you are not careful. Establishing good foundations for anything one does is the best policy. It takes more effort at the start but pays off in the long run.

When I was looking for a good source of images for my websites and blogs I was horrified to see how many ‘bulk libraries’ (websites where you can get lots of images for a low fee) had pedantic terms and conditions such as not being able to use some of the images in conjunction with mental health subjects for example. Because I am a counselor and life coach; and I consult in the areas of personal development and growth; that meant me.

As I continued to research possible vendors I came across iCLIPART – the World’s Largest Clipart Site with Over 7.8 Million Images! And such terrifically good value too. I got a whole year’s use for USD$29.95!

iCLIPART.com contains over 7.8-million royalty-free clipart images, photos, web graphics, fonts and sounds. Subscribe and receive access to the entire collection for one low price!

Every iCLIPART.com subscription includes professional-grade imagery in formats compatible with virtually all Macintosh and Windows compatible software. Just choose the format you need and click download. It’s that easy!

Use iCLIPART.com images in Web sites, newsletters, brochures, advertisements, announcements, signs — virtually any graphic design project you can think of! iCLIPART.com content is used by professional and non-professional alike for creating design projects at work, home, school, for sport, church, clubs and beyond.

Clipart and photo categories contain great content in popular categories such as holidays, religion, business, sports, animals, food, people and more. With 1,000s of new images added weekly, you’ll always be able to find the right image when you need it.

Great source of Clipart is a post from: Black Shaman Blog