You are here: Home / Archives for lauren

Tips for Great Website-Geared Photography

July 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment
photographer

Photos can work wonders for your website. Or they can ruin it. The simplest site with fantastic photography can take your breath way. However, a stunning design can be destroyed with just a few poor images. So, you can do your website some big favors by learning a few tips for taking great web-geared photos. Your web photography can enhance your websites credibility with your customers as well as increase sales. The following tips will help you take great photos for your website. Camera Know your camera. Read the manual. Use the best camera available to you, but know that most cameras can take very good photos, as long as you know what it can (and can't do). Learn about your camera's settings. Use a tripod if you have one. Shutter Speed: Shutter speed is the amount of time that … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, photography, Santa Clara Design, Tutorials

10 reasons why your business should have a blog…

May 2, 2011 By 1 Comment
all about why your business should have a blog

When I say "blog" you might think of your cousin Pam who posts recipes and photos of her cat every three days. You may think that a "blog" has nothing to do with you, your life, your business or your success. Let me convince you otherwise. Your blog is the perfect place to share your thoughts and knowledge on subjects related to your business, create links to useful information, and post news and other announcements. Use your blog to give your business a personal face and voice. Allow your customers to get to know you and why you stand behind your product. A well planned and managed blog can help you build your professional reputation and gain your customers' trust. Sharing your viewpoint and participating in the ongoing industry discussions is alwasy a huge benefit to a … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Santa Clara Design

Giveaway for Catholic Blog, Ministry or Church

April 10, 2011 By 21 Comments
stclare

In honor of the patroness of my business, St. Clare of Assisi, I am offering a giveaway! Here are the details: You must be a Catholic ministry, Catholic Church or Catholic-focused blog You will get a free, custom designed WordPress site as per your design style and suggestions You will need to pay for hosting To enter, please follow me on Twitter, or like my Facebook Page and leave a comment here letting me know you have done that You must leave me your email address Entries will be closed at midnight on Monday August 15th I will use Random.org to select the winner I will announce the winner on Tuesday, August 16th St. Clare of Assisi is my confirmation saint. 9 years ago, I had my second child and decided that I needed to stay home with my children, but contribute … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, freebies, Santa Clara Design

10 Reasons Why You Should Switch to WordPress…

March 2, 2011 By 1 Comment
10 reasons why you switch to WordPress from blogger

10 Reasons Why you Should switch to WordPress from Blogger, Typepad, etc... Many people start blogging (as I did way back when) with a free blogging software like blogger, typepad or wordpress.com. These blogs are simple, they’re free and for some people, that’s all they need. However, many bloggers eventually come to the realization that they need “more”. They want more control over their posts, they want more control over their user experience, they want more control over design, security, SEO and a million other things. If you think this might be YOU, then read on. Let me convince you of the greatness of a hosted WordPress site. 1.     Self-Hosted When you switch your blog over to WordPress.org (learn about the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Santa Clara Design, WordPress Support

Giveaway ~ Camera Phone lens by Photojojo

December 2, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Become a fan on Facebook and leave a comment on the facebook post, and you enter yourself to win either the wide angle/macro OR the fisheye camera phone lens from Photojojo.  It's on MY Christmas wishlist - and I thought you might like one too! The lenses work with any camera phone and attach by a simple adhesive magnetic ring. Turn your phone into a even better tool for your website and/or social media with these super fun lenses! … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, freebies, fun stuff, Santa Clara Design Tagged With: , , , , ,

Gift List for Designers, Creatives and Web Geeks

December 1, 2010 By Leave a Comment
abcsofneworleans

Attention elves.... HINT, HINT! Here are a few gift ideas for any designer... or at least THIS designer... I've taken a few minutes to collect some Christmas gift ideas for those of you who just don't know what to get your geeky, creative, web designer loved one. I am here to help! Fisheye, Wide Angle and Macro Lenses for the iphone from photojojo.com. As if I don't spend enough time on my phone already! ---------------------------------------------------------------- The ABCs of New Orleans poster from Java Jane Designs on esty.com  Could anything be more lovely?? Each letter comes from architectural photography. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Camera Lens Mugs from photojojo.com. My cup runeth over! Canon and Nikon zoom lens … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, fun stuff, photography, Santa Clara Design Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Free vintage Thanksgiving postcard downloads

November 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment
thanksgivingscd1

Here are two lovely vintage Thanksgiving postcard freebies for you to enjoy this Thanksgiving. Print them, edit them, give them to family or friends or just take a look and smile! Be thankful! … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, freebies, fun stuff, Santa Clara Design Tagged With: , ,

6 free online sources for photo editing

November 16, 2010 By 1 Comment
gimp

One way to keep your website or blog looking sharp is to make sure that your photos are top notch. It may take a few extra minutes of work, but the effort is completely worth it. And, the good news is that there are many free options out there for you to choose from. Whether you need to crop a photo to fit in your Featured Content Gallery (one of my biggest pet peeves is stretched or squished photos forced to fit in a pre-defined space) or you need to brighten up a dark image, you don't need expensive Photoshop software to get good results. Remember, a well-edited photo can make all the difference on those important first impressions. Take a look at the following options. GIMP Great free resource. This is a free downloadable software for photo retouching and editing.  Works on Mac or … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, freebies, fun stuff, photography, Santa Clara Design Tagged With: , , , , ,

Ever had a font identification crisis?

November 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment
fontindentify

Recently, I did. I was working on a web design for a client who wanted to match his style and font to a print ad he had an ad firm create a year or so ago. All I had to work with was a pdf of the design. There were about 12 words, all lower case. And a font I couldn't recognize. Now, I'll tell ya, I pride myself on the fact that someone can point out a billboard or newspaper ad and I can usually name the font. I'm good. It's a talent. Not a talent that many value or would even want... but that's okay. I take what I can get... Anyway... This font, I couldn't name. So, what to do? I ran on over to fonts.com's Identify Fonts By Sight page. The interface asks a series of questions, assuming you have the font, or part of it, in front of you. They ask about the letter shapes, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, fun stuff, Santa Clara Design, Tutorials Tagged With: , ,

How to set up your Featured Content Gallery Plugin

October 14, 2010 By Leave a Comment
image

The Featured Content Gallery by iePlexus is one of the most popular plugins on WordPress. I use it in almost every one of my WordPress themes. I am going to walk you through setting up your gallery to link each gallery image to a specific page. 1. First, in your sidebar, go to “Settings” and select “Featured Content Gallery” Decide which pages you want to have images link to from your Gallery on your homepage. Most sites have too many pages to have an image link to each one. So, choose your most important pages: Contact Us, Products, About Us, Blog, etc… Determine the page ID number for each page. You can do this by either installing the “Reveal IDs” plugin, or simply go to your pages screen and rollover the page title with your mouse and take note of the page number that … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, photography, Santa Clara Design, Tutorials Tagged With: , , , , , ,
« Older Posts
Newer Posts »