Author Archives: Andrew Seal

Zero to Hero: Day 9

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Day 9: Head a Little Deeper Into the Blogosphere or The Ten Best Reasons to Travel There!

…This is a good day for blogging!  The Weekly Photo Challenge today was entitled “Window” a subject I love, as clearly do so many others.  My submission on thechangingpalette has been very popular and has resulted in my visiting, communicating and following many wonderful photographic bloggers today.  It also made me think more deeply about the beauty of the blogosphere and as a result have come up with the 10 best reasons that make travelling there so enjoyable:

  • No luggage, passports, visas or vaccinations required.
  • It never rains or snows and flooding is almost never heard of.
  • You can always get a window seat and the toilets are never occupied (well hardly ever)
  • There are no customs officers staring at you with piercing eyes and asking if you have a cross bow or snowboard in your shoulder bag.
  • If you live on a farm or plan to visit a farm, you should.
  • No need to worry about what to wear, ever.
  • You can even travel in your pyjamas and no one will ever know.
  • No time change and so no jet lag
  • Since you travel at the speed of light or sound or something equally as fast, hyper speed perhaps, you arrive before you have ever left.  Amazing!
  • Best of all, your travelling companions are people just like you, so the company is always the best.

How about creating your own list.  I would love to see it and when you do link it here so others can see it too. I might even add to my own list as I think of more good reasons to travel through the blogosphere…

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Zero to Hero: Day 8

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Create an About page, or revisit and improve the one you have; or How to make your About page Irresistible.

…So this is the one I’ve been waiting for with a certain degree of trepidation as I have never made an “about” page since I started blogging last May. This may well take a day or two for me to complete but I thought you might like to witness the process I am going through having read, a number of times I might add, the recommended article from the Daily Post About Page 101: Making Them Care, and feeling more intimidated each time I read it: must avoid “flowery verbs”, whatever they are;  no “unnatural chunks of snooze-text”; no creating “gut-wrenching yawns”. Oh my goodness I’m not sure I can go on…will I ever reach “hero” status in 30 days?

Since my blogs have been mainly photographic in nature I thought these images will show you how I am following the five steps of “About 101”, which address:  you, me, the blog, links and an opening sentence. I’m a long way from being there yet but when I arrive you’ll be the first to know (if you are interested in following me that is!)
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to be continued…

Zero to Hero: Day 7

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Today’s assignment: create and upload a simple header, or test out a few different backgrounds.

Today I tried out a few different headers as suggested using some of the stock images that come with the Twenty Eleven Theme as well as a few of my own photos.  I ended up using today’s new header image, a photo taken early one morning when we visited the Canadian War Memorial at Vimy, Northern France in  2012. After then trialling a number of background colors I felt that a teal blue looked the best, but after receiving Michelle’s comment I switched to the current blue grey, which is definitely a better choice I think, don’t you? Thanks Michelle.

After our memorable and very moving visit to Vimy I made a video using many of my photographs, which I was able to post on YouTube in time for Remembrance Day. The video opens with the full image of the header, and If you have a few minutes you might enjoy watching it and particularly listening to the beautiful Adagio from Schubert’s String Quintet, which plays whilst the photo gallery is showing and starts nearly two minutes into the video.  Enjoy…

Zero to Hero: Days 5 & 6 Unexpected revisited

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Day 5: Love Your Theme

…Welcome back, and if this is your first visit, thanks for dropping by.  So, the assignment was to try out at least three other themes including one we would not think of using.  I suspect this will remain an ongoing exercise, which I will continue on my private Test Blog where I can make all the mistakes I want to my hearts content and where only I know how lacking in blog savvy I really am. For those of you who are starting out I would recommend creating a similar blog that’s private where you can experiment as much as you like and not feel that someone is about to throw eggs at you for your perceived blogging incompetence!

As you can see I have changed my theme back to Twenty Eleven, which is the theme I use on my other blog, thechangingpalette. This way I can learn more about the theme here and hopefully apply new skills to use over there without the risk of making minced meat out of six months of blogging. I’m sure you have experienced working on something on your computer only to find you didn’t save it, or for some reason the back up wasn’t on, and hours of writing what would have undoubtedly won the Nobel Prize for literature is now floating somewhere, lost in the digital universe.

So Twenty Eleven it will be for a while; and now for Day 6…

Day 6: Publish a post that includes a new element

…Todays assignment is to introduce a new element into our posts, one we’ve not previously used.  I thought I would revisit one of my most appreciated photos from last year, that received more likes than any other, hence the title of this Day 6: Unexpected Revisited.  Having been inspired recently by a wonderful post from Kristy on her blog hills+bridges in which she added music to her beautiful photo of The Capilano Suspension Bridge in Vancouver, I thought I would add  a sound file to my waterfall image.  This allowed me to visit the WordPress Audio Support page to learn the steps I needed. For you new bloggers these support pages are absolutely invaluable and the best way to learn every aspect of blogging. (A heartfelt thank you shout out to all those at WordPress who make it all possible)

So here is Unexpected Revisited with sound and all…

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Look forward to hearing your thoughts as always.  Until tomorrow…

Zero to Hero

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…so you made it!  Welcome to theotherpalette my new home for the next 30 days and beyond.  Of course if you have arrived here for the first time let me explain.  I have just made the trip over from my other blog, thechangingpalette, which I started last May.  However Zero to Hero: 30 Days To A Better Blog seemed the ideal time to start a new blog with which to do some experimenting and in the process  hopefully learn to become a better blogger. We’ll see if that happens over the next month.  If you would like to read my postings for Days 1, 2 and 3 pop over to thechangingpalette and see what I had to say, which I have to admit wasn’t very much!

“To begin at the beginning” in the words of Dylan Thomas.  I know it’s not really the beginning, since we are already on Day 4, but it is the beginning of my new blog so I think the quote is permissible.  As an aside the Weekly Photo Challenge this week is “Beginning” and my submission featured something we all crave, “Amour”.

Right, enough of the commercial and on with the quest to become a “Hero”.

Day 4: Explore The Neighborhood
Follow five new topics in the Reader, and begin finding blogs (and bloggers) you love.

Ever since I began my blog last May I have used the Reader almost every day.  It has allowed me to follow some amazing  blogs, which now number 89!  Of course not every one of them appears each day but when they do there is always something new to see, whether it be a stunning photograph or gallery of photos, a brilliant quote or a  poetic text.  I learn something new from each and every one of them, and over the last few months these remarkable blogs have without a doubt helped me to improve my own.

Today, on Day 4, we have been asked to take this opportunity to branch out and find five new topics in the Reader.  I thought I would choose from categories under Freshly Pressed that I wouldn’t normally visit, and as expected I have found some wonderful and absolutely inspirational new blogs to continue following.  Here they are, and in no particular order:

What a great 4th day and I can’t wait to explore and follow the five that I have chosen.  If you have a look at them I think you will see why.

So that ends the first blog of theotherpalette.  Don’t be surprised if its look changes over the next little while as I take the opportunity to experiment with some of the themes.  You can let me know which ones you like the best in the coming weeks.  Now I think I’ll go back to “Finding true health, one delicious meal at a time”. See you tomorrow…