Zero to Hero: Day 30 or “We happy few…”

Posted on February 1, 2014 by Andrew Seal

Day 30: Extend your brand, think about a bigger strategic plan for promoting your online presence, and set a goal for the next 30 days.

“We few, we happy few, we band of brothers…”

(…and sisters of course, which goes without saying)

Congratulations everyone! We made it, and my thanks to those of you who have been following theotherpalette and for your comments and “likes” which have all been very much appreciated. And special thanks to Michelle (OK, I’m humouring you as requested!) and to all the WordPress team who have guided us along the way.

I thought for this final blog of the 30 days I would be a little creative with one or two of my posts and re-present them in a different form.

First, a final image to complement Siena revisited and my happy association with Magdalena’s Just Visit Siena, with a page from the journal I kept throughout our Italian “pilgrimage” in 1999, with more to come in the coming weeks.

Secondly, I have made our visit to St Antimo into a short video including that beautiful Gregorian chant. Since I do not have the video option on this site I have posted it on thechangingpalette and invite you to view it there; the same photos and music but in video form. Let me know your thoughts.

And finally, I have also converted the seagull images from my submission to Sonel’s Photo-Editing Challenge into a very short video, complete with sound, which I have now added to the end of the original posting.

Both videos were good exercises using iPhoto, iMovie, iTunes and the seamless video and sound options of WordPress.

Now that January and Z2H are over, theotherpalette will be on hiatus for a while with my goal for the next 30 days being to scan many of those old black and white and colour negatives that I wrote about on Day 29 into a gallery of the best, which I’ll post at the end of February. So stay tuned, and if you would like to continue following me on thechangingpalette, I will continue to submit regularly to the weekly photo challenges.

So until next time, happy blogging…

Zero to Hero: Day 29

Posted on January 30, 2014 by Andrew Seal

Day 29: Think through your idea editorial calendar. Bonus: develop a regular feature for your blog.

With one more day to go this is a good opportunity to take stock. Over the past month I have continued to post regularly on my other site thechangingpalette to various photo challenges, which have increased in number over the past few weeks.

The Weekly Photo Challenge

The Weekly Travel Theme

The Weekly Photo-Editing Challenge

The Monday Bouquet

At the same time, I have posted regularly on theotherpalette to the various Zero to Hero daily assignments, which has been a valuable learning experience, and many thanks are due to the WordPress team for guiding us along. Hopefully the blogging will continue to improve with more photo challenges to come.

One of my plans for 2014 is to digitize my old black and white as well as color negatives and color kodachrome slides, which I am happy to say remain in pristine condition, even though many of them are over forty years old. I suspect you have similar archival boxes of old photographic material, so why not join me and continue journeying towards blogging “herohood”; looking back as we go forward.

The negative for this image is over forty years old and yet it is as if I took this photograph of Prince Charles and Princess Anne riding through the streets of the City of London only yesterday.

I’m looking forward to getting started, with so much more to come…

Zero to Hero: Day 24 – dedicated to a fallen hero

Posted on January 25, 2014 by Andrew Seal

…I would like to dedicate my post and photos today to a real life hero, Tim Jones, who died suddenly and unexpectedly last Sunday . Whilst I never knew him personally, like so many others, I was aware of his remarkable leadership and heroism. He had been a volunteer with Vancouver’s North Shore Mountain Rescue Service since 1987 and over the past nearly thirty years involved in over 2000 rescues. I would encourage you to read about his life and the people whose lives he saved. Today he is being honoured with a parade through the streets of North Vancouver followed by a memorial service.

To the memory of Tim Jones, 1956 -2014, together with all our other fallen heroes

Zero to Hero: Day 22

Posted on January 23, 2014 by Andrew Seal

Day 22: Find a blogging event and throw your hat into the ring.

Through the Blog Events Listing I discovered the perfect event to throw my would-be hero’s “hat in the ring”: Sonel’s Corner Photo-Editing Challenge. This is Week 12 of the challenge and is entitled Unusual Angles – photos taken at an unusual or extreme angle or vantage point. Since I already regularly submit to the Daily Post’s Weekly Photo Challenge, I shall look forward to making future submissions to Sonel’s Corner.

My submission today is a photograph taken at the Vancouver Convention Centre and edited in Adobe Photoshop Elements, a program in which I do all my photo editing.

angles ii

Zero to Hero: Day 19

Gallery

Posted on January 20, 2014 by Andrew Seal

This gallery contains 7 photos.

Day 19: publish a post using a format you’ve never used before. …from a graduation address to the medical class of 2002… A Way of Life A ferry carries us across The sea of time to ancient Kos Where high upon … Continue reading →

Zero to Hero: Days 17 & 18

Posted on January 19, 2014 by Andrew Seal

Siena revisited

Having commented and activated a link to my twitter account I thought I would post something that came out of a happy meeting from my blog travels and comments yesterday. Siena is a city we love and have visited on two separate occasions. Its history, beauty, art and people make it a very special place indeed. How happy I was to come across Magdalena’s wonderful blog Just Visit Siena ! Everything you could ever want to know about this beautiful city is here. Explore Magdalena’s blog and you will be on the next plane, train or automobile!

Here is my comment to Magdalena:

So happy to have found your blog of one of my favourite cities; so many wonderful memories. I will never forget the remarkable frescoes by Domenico di Bartoli in the Ospedale Santa Maria della Scala. Looking forward to following you and to returning to your beautiful city again one day.

And here are a few of our photo memories to encourage you to go:

Zero to Hero: Day 14

Posted on January 15, 2014 by Andrew Seal

Day 14: Bloggers Choice

…Almost half way to becoming a blogging “hero”. A shoutout to all you other demi-heroes!

Yesterday I added a blogroll finally, and today I posted a comment on one of my favorites, Hills + Bridges in which Kristy submitted another wonderful post, this time to the Weekly Photo Challenge and entitled “she’ll kiss away your gypsy fears and turn some restless nights to restless years.” I love her combination of photography, writing and music. The photograph is gorgeous and I couldn’t resist commenting that, “I think I’m in love with your window”. Take a look and you’ll see why.

Since this is Bloggers Choice today, here is a submission that I was going to make to The Weekly Photo Challenge: Window

The small water colour of houses with red roofs and black windows was inspired by an altar in the Cathedral of Finale Ligure in Italy. The simple abstract quality of the houses in the centre of the marble plinth looks so contemporary and yet the altar itself is many hundreds of years old…

Zero to Hero: Day 7

Posted on January 8, 2014 by Andrew Seal

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

Posted on January 7, 2014 by Andrew Seal

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…