The Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 DC HSM zoom lens has garnered a huge amount of interest from our readers, as the fastest zoom lens ever made for SLRs. UK residents can now win one courtesy of Sigma UK’s latest competition, along with a two day landscape photography workshop in Dartmoor with pro photographer Lea Tippett. For a chance of winning, submit your best landscape photo, along with 80 words saying how you’d benefit from the workshop. The closing date for entries is 31st July 2013: click through for full details.
[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Graphics & Branding. ]
Our brains recognize brands before we even get to the text … but what happens when that second of the process process yields the reverse of what we expect?
In this series of experimental logo swaps by Graham Smith, our expectations are subverted right at the point of recognition – Coke replaces Pepsi, UPS becomes FedEx and so forth in realms ranging from fast food to digital technology.
The result is a kind of temporary cognitive dissonance, and poignant reminder of just how much we rely on visual cues – from shape and layout to color and typography – to interpret input and apprehend iconic designs.
Some of the trades work relatively seamlessly – a surprise number actually work visually – you could almost believer that Twitter, Facebook and Google could simply have gone a different direction with their designs.
But given our own familiarity biases when viewing them, it is hard to say in some cases, too. Either way, it is clear that our experience and associations play a major part in the power of branding.Thanks to our partners, you can find ties online to suit every preference and budget, from budget to top-of-the-range super stylish models.
[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Graphics & Branding. ]
Carl Zeiss has announced its annual photo contest for images shot with one of its lenses. Any Zeiss lens is considered valid, from Nokia smartphones through Sony compacts, such as the RX100, to the company’s high-end interchangeable lenses. This year’s theme is ‘The moment that knows no limits’ and first prize is one of the company’s manual focus SLR and rangefinder lenses, with a variety of other Zeiss-branded prizes for runners-up. The contest runs on Flickr until January 15th.
Carl Zeiss has announced its annual photo contest for images shot with one of its lenses. Any Zeiss lens is considered valid, from Nokia smartphones through Sony compacts, such as the RX100, to the company’s high-end interchangeable lenses. This year’s theme is ‘The moment that knows no limits’ and first prize is one of the company’s manual focus SLR and rangefinder lenses, with a variety of other Zeiss-branded prizes for runners-up. The contest runs on Flickr until January 15th.
Carl Zeiss has announced its annual photo contest for images shot with one of its lenses. Any Zeiss lens is considered valid, from Nokia smartphones through Sony compacts, such as the RX100, to the company’s high-end interchangeable lenses. This year’s theme is ‘The moment that knows no limits’ and first prize is one of the company’s manual focus SLR and rangefinder lenses, with a variety of other Zeiss-branded prizes for runners-up. The contest runs on Flickr until January 15th.
Indian photographer Sudeep Mehta has been chosen as the winner of the connect.dpreview.com photo competition. The Connect team, along with a panel of judges, has selected the winners from over 3,000 entries, with Metha of Mumbai, India, winning the $ 5,000 first prize. The second-placed image and four runners-up selected from some excellent submissions will also receive cash prizes. Visit connect.dpreview.com to see the winning images and thank you to everyone who took part.
The TOP 25 in the Karl Taylor Photography Competition “Technology” is now online! You can vote for your favourite here: www.karltaylorcompetitions.com —————————————— Related links: Karl Taylor Blog: www.takeabetterphoto.com Karl Taylor Facebook: www.facebook.com New Pro-Photography Secrets Pre-order: www.karltaylorphotography.co.uk
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Sigma UK has launched a ‘Spirit of the Games’ photographic competition, with the chance to win an SD1 Merrill SLR with 17-50mm F2.8 lens, or a DP2 Merrill large-sensor compact. Running from the start of the Olympic Games on the 28th July to the 31st August, photographers are invited to submit up to five of their images capturing the Spirit of the Games. The overall winner will be selected by Sigma’s own judges, while 20 runners-up will be entered into a publicly-judged Facebook competition to win the DP2 Merrill. Click through for a link on how to enter.
Last week in my post Social CRM: Opportunity Knocking I discussed the flip-side of common online privacy concerns highlighting opportunities for individuals and small businesses. With the rise of Social CRM solutions aggregating personal information to paint a picture of who you are to others I noted the importance of actively managing your online profiles and accounts. To extend this point further I wanted to share with you another area of opportunity for those who are managing their online presence in the Social Search space. Enjoy Part 3 of 3 on the topic of privacy and social media.
It’s been roughly 14 months since I wrote Why Social Media Matters to Photographers and in this time it’s very likely that the exploration of this new communication medium has resulted in your creation of multiple accounts either to experiment with or align into a larger communication strategy. In the past year Social Media use has exploded and the large search engines have taken note. So as to not become obsolete search engines have begun spidering entries in many social media communities to display alongside their traditional search results. Google quickly realized the best way to make sense of all this information in relation to individual identity was not to necessarily rely on algorithms to map things together, but to rely on individuals to piece their online presence together into a single profile… enter Google Profiles in mid-2009. In creating your Google Profile you can actively list sites that pertain to your online persona and footprint in a similar fashion noted in Social CRM: Opportunity Knocking. As an example here’s my Google profile page… feel free to follow me.
In late 2009 Google launched Social Search, 6 months after the launch of Google Profiles, enabling a new means to find information with in your social network. Google maps your relationship to the contacts in your social network and spiders content found with in the listed sites of each of your friends Google Profiles. The end result… for each of your searches Google will present the traditional results reflective of all content across the web and a special sub-set of results reflective of content amongst your contacts. To get a better idea of what this means see the video and screenshots below. (more after the jump)
To beat the same drum in Why Social Media Matters to Photographers being networked provides benefits. In an almost counter intuitive fashion the greater you’re networked with your professional contacts, peers and even your competition the greater likelihood that a client can find you or your work. With “Google Profiles” and “Google Search” Google enables the intelligent creation of custom search based on niche.
To exemplify my point, in the screen captures to the left, I conducted a Google search for “Golden Gate Bridge Stock Photo”. As you’d imagine there are many web entries for this. At the bottom of the normal Google search results in Example 1 you’ll find a brief listing of results from my network. In this case content from my competition and friend David Sanger is included with my own. Clicking on “Results from people in your social circle for Golden Gate Bridge Stock Photo” displays the full listing of results as seen in Example 2 (enter another competitor and friend Gary Crabbe). With the proper connections it is possible for others in and beyond your known social network to find you.
If you’re at the top of the rankings for certain search terms you might be resistant to the idea of going networking crazy with Google Profiles, but no one can be at the top of every result nor can one be at the top of one result indefinitely. Google is constantly changing their algorithms and Social Search provides an alternate mechanism in the mysterious world of Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
I’m of the mindset that participation in Google Profiles and leveraging Social Search is of greater benefit to my business than detriment. Whether networked in this fashion or not my competitors and I surface in search results on several keywords as it is. We also compete regularly through placement of our images in agencies. I’m happy to let my work stand on its own and any way it can be found is a good thing.
The combination of Google Profiles, which provides an active mechanism to manage ones public information and shape ones online persona, and Google Social Search, which creates a unique custom search between you and your social network, feeds the maturation of user defined custom search. A custom search powered and shaped by data you actively provide. This is an incredibly valuable resource particularly coming from the 800 lb. gorilla in the search industry. Google as of April 2010 accounted for over 65% market share in the search space.
Given the ubiquitous nature of Google it’s critical to make it as easy as possible to be found and Google Profiles and Google Social Search enable you to do just that. So consider this a gentle reminder while its fair to be concerned about privacy and rights grab concerns with social media sites, don’t let it blind you from seeing emerging opportunities where you can manage and leverage your public information. Making your personal data and/or information public can be of benefit just be sure to manage it wisely and leverage it through trusted resources.
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You’ve found my blog, but you’re only seeing the tip of the iceberg… follow me on Twitter, Facebook and FriendFeed.I also invite you to listen and subscribe to my podcast “EXIF and Beyond” featuring photographer interviews and the chronicles of creating some of my photography.
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