Live photos from our 2009 Holiday Open House

December 4th, 2009 Nico Toutenhoofd

We do this every year and each time we try to come up with a new twist on automated photo uploading technology to deliver images in real time. We are shooting these images with a Canon 5D, which is transmitting images over FTP to my laptop in my office with a Canon WFT-E1 wireless transmitter. The files are stored in a folder on my HD, and this nifty little Python app called uploader.py checks the folder every minute and uploads files to our Flickr account. This year we’ve also found a nifty site called Flickr Slide Show that will take images from your Flickr account and turn them into a Flash photo gallery.

And I give this a 50/50 chance of working, but here’s out live Java cam… It uses a GoPro HD Helmet Hero camera and an Eye-Fi card:

Or if you’d prefer you can view these images directly on Flickr here.

Enjoy!

Posted in Insight News, Web Marketing, Web Technology | No Comments »

Professional Photography - Consider It.

June 4th, 2009 Ellie Childs

Whoa there. Just because you snap photos all the time doesn’t make you a  professional. Sorry, it’s the truth. There’s no doubt in my mind that you’ve got a hard drive full of great shots. Little Johnny at Halloween, Debbie building sandcastles on the beach, a first birthday party, the family reunion… they’re all amazing. However, when it comes to your business, you’ve got to step it up a notch.

True: Every business can benefit from professional photography.

False: Professional photography costs millions of dollars and is only an option for large-budget projects.

Let it shine. Whatever your business, as a company, you believe in your product. If you’re an architect, you spend years and months on a single project. After all the hard work, you owe your work a glamour shot. If you’re a clothing company, you obviously want people to see how great your clothes are. You need models and a professional photographer to make them look their best. These are obvious examples, but every website can benefit from quality photos. Whether it’s a stunning image on your home page that illustrates the concept of your business or a simple shot of your office building on your contact page, professional photos give the impression of a professional business. Who doesn’t want that?

Say cheese. There’s no better way to make your staff look like the put-together, presentable bunch that they are than to hire an experienced, skilled photographer to take their pictures. You’ll be amazed at how wonderful everyone looks in a professionally-composed shot… sans red-eyes and with a well thought-out background.

Can’t afford to hire a photographer for a custom shoot? No need to sulk in the corner. Try using stock photography. It’s an inexpensive way to get quality photos for your website.  Sometimes a stock photo search can lead to a concept you didn’t even know you were looking for!

Examples of sites we’ve built that use professional, custom photography:
www.sierradesigns.com
www.dcla.net
www.lazebratulum.com
www.concreterevolution.com

Examples of sites we’ve built that use stock photography:
http://www.f2fl.com
http://www.ncwit.org
http://www.gorillalogic.com

Posted in Insight News, Web Design, Web Marketing | No Comments »

We took a stab at video production….

May 15th, 2009 Ellie Childs

We’ve obviously made websites. We’ve designed logos, brochures, t-shirts, banners and more. But until today, we’ve never made movies. Feeling adventurous and a little egotistical, we set out to show the world what a creative, talented and - at times - completely unskilled bunch we are. Check us out. And it’s okay to laugh.

Posted in Insight News, Web Marketing, Web Technology | No Comments »

Protecting Your Name

April 30th, 2009 Beth Krodel

A friend recently turned me on to this site - namechk.com - where you can check your username availability at scores of social networking sites. It’s super simple. Just go to the site and type in your business name, domain name (i.e. insightdesigns - without the www or .com), or personal name (i.e. bethkrodel - no space between first and last names), then click the “chk” button. The site then checks 72 of the most popular social networking sites (including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and MySpace) to see if anyone is already using that username.

For some of you, it might just be interesting to see who else is using your name. For others who care about controlling, promoting and protecting your online identity, it’s probably worth going through the hassle of registering your branded name across all social media sites. (For example, we at Insight Designs wouldn’t want someone else posting questionable videos on YouTube under our name or making derogatory comments on Twitter under our sig. You probably wouldn’t want that either.)

My friend Jerry Nordstrom, CMO of San Diego-based Lead Discovery, says not registering your name with social media sites today is “akin to not registering related domain names for your business in the 90’s.” The cool difference is that in this case the registration is free (meaning the social networking sites don’t charge you to sign up as a user).

And if you don’t have the time to do the registration work yourself, there’s a site - knowem.com - that will fill out the registration form on 120 social media sites with your username and information for $64.95.

One drawback — extra email. Whether you do the registration yourself or you pay a service like knowem.com to do it for you, you’ll get emails from almost all of the social media sites. Be sure to go onto each site and edit your preferences to ensure that you’re only getting the emails you want.

Posted in Web Marketing, Web Security, Web Technology | No Comments »