Tuesday 25 August 2009

Video Like Scorsese

When your passion and perhaps your livelihood is the creation of quality videos for people’s events, you probably have some heroes. Martin Scorsese is somewhat of an icon because he is known for his stylistic videography in his movies. Now, you don’t necessary need as much style as a Scorsese gets in movies that win him academy awards. But such professionals who are both precise and very good at their work and creative in how they get their shots are an inspiration to the rest of us.

So how can you go about becoming your own version of “Scorsese” in reaching higher standards of professionalism in the video you do for your customers or friends? Well, sometimes you just have to go back to basics

When you go on a shoot, think of yourself like you are going on an assignment into a war zone. Of course, hopefully, nobody will be firing guns at you. But like a battle, you have to be totally prepared going in. There is no calling “cut” if you are filming your son’s first baseball game. You will get it or not on the first take so your equipment has to be ready and you have to be ready. So think through some of your pre-shoot preparations for the big day.

Inspect, clean, repair and test your equipment the night before. Make sure you have any support materials such as batteries, lights for your flash or if you use a lamp to accentuate indoor shots. And think through the various ways your equipment may have to support you and how you can support it?

What if something needs electricity but is too far from the outlet? Bring extension cords. What if you need more electricity then plugs are handy? Bring power strips. What if have extension cords where people will walk? Bring duct tape. What if you have to get that duct tape up fast? Bring a good knife or cutting blade. It pays to play these situations out in your mind and be prepared as you go to battle.

Framing a shot so it looks good in the final cut takes some talent and skill to get what you want where you need it to happen. If the scene is very active, like a sporting event, you need to be able to move, set, shoot and break down and do it again and again all day long.

That means your equipment has to be light and self contained but you need to be armed to swap things out on your feet. A well prepared supplies bag that you can get into, swap out a lens, a battery or other needs on the fly is essential to being that mobile. And you have to know your equipment so well that you can literally lock and load in seconds so important shots don’t leave you behind. Some practice with your camera, tripod, lights, supply bags and anything else you have to have for such mobility will pay off big time during the shoot.

You may have cringed when you saw the word tripod but get used to it. Don’t cut corners on this “accessory”. The tripod should be as flexible as your body so you can drop it for a ground shot and have it up and set quickly each time you need to reposition. But despite the “bother” this might cause, the tripod alone may make your shots 100% more professional.

Knowing your gear and being prepared are the two top commandments of producing high quality professional video. It may not make you a “Scorsese”, but it will take you a long way in that direction in the improvement you will see in your work.

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Wedding Pictures with Style

Your wedding album will be one of the most precious memories of this big day that you will have. But have you ever noticed how so many of those “professional” pictures are all the same from wedding album to wedding album? In fact, one thing that jumps out about the wedding photographer is that for a little while on the wedding day, everything halts and it’s all about him.

You know the drill. The ceremony is exciting and fun and full of joy, some tears and plenty of meaning as the bride and groom kiss and become one family. Then it’s all over and everybody files out to go to the reception to dance, have cake and celebrate this union. But wait, the whole proceeding has to grind to a halt while the photographer stages the wedding party for as long as an hour or more to “recreate” the ceremony and make those perfect wedding photos. Meanwhile the reception may be getting underway and many of the guests that the bride or the groom or others in the family want to hug and share the joy with may have to go because they just can’t wait out a fussy photographer.

Somehow this complete disruption to the day has become accepted as just part of what the wedding day is all about. And the worst part about it is that the photographs, while nice and well staged, look like a bunch of mannequins being arranged for a store window. The joy and fun of the ceremony is over. For decades to come everybody will say they are beautiful and meaningful but if you look closely the wedding party looks nervous, uncomfortable, bored and like they wish they were somewhere else.

Well maybe its time to throw that tradition out and put some creativity into how the wedding photos and the wedding photographer works in your wedding. By finding a photographer who will put together some wedding pictures that have some style, some creativity and some sense of inventiveness, you will have that wedding album that really is full of memories worth remembering.

To get that kind of photographer, you are going to have to start early. You have to find that maverick photographer that “gets it” that the wedding is about the people, not the gowns and the hall and that his photographs must shout out “this was a wonderful day and we celebrated this union.”

You may have to look outside of the conventional “wedding photographers” listing in the phone book. An artistic photographer may be more appropriate. But be patient and find one that is just as professional as any photographer in that yellow pages but can bring some creativity and investment of getting to know this wedding party to the job of taking your important wedding pictures.

That wedding photographer should become as much a part of the wedding party as the groomsmen. After all, if he is going to capture the personality of this couple, he will have to get to know you. Spend some informal time with him and share those fun memories of when you met, those special times while you dated and certainly those very special places where important moments in your relationship took place.

Armed with that kind of creative individual in charge of your wedding photographs, you will look forward with great anticipation to what he comes up with. Many of the best shots will be created before the wedding, at some of those special places and he can Photoshop them to blend them with wedding day moments.

Above all that wedding photographer will understand that he is there to serve this wedding and capture those special moments as they occur. Sure, you may “pose” for a picture from time to time but this whole business of bringing the wedding day to a grinding halt to take stilted pictures of bored wedding party members will go out with the trash. The outcome will be wedding pictures with style, with life and a lot of love in them to reflect the love that was exchanged in those vows and the love of family and friends as they enjoyed this magical day with you.

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What Do You Know About Stock Photography

Stock photography, groups of photographs that people take, grouped and licensed for selling purposes. Instead of taking new pictures every time they need pictures, many people use the stock photography method. People that work for magazines, as graphic artists, and advertising agencies sometimes use public pictures instead of hiring photographers for individual projects.

Alternate names for stock photography is picture libraries, photo archives or image banks. Typically, in order to use these pictures, although publicly available, there is a small fee or a purchasing of usage rights that comes with a fee in order to use the pictures. Sometimes a membership purchase allows you to have access to a particular group of stock photography.

Saving time and money, stock photography is a great way to enhance newsletters, blogs, advertisements, company brochures and more. It is obviously less expensive than putting a full time photographer on staff and takes less time if you need images of something specific. Many times, it is as easy as using a search engine or checking an email.

Sometimes full rights and usage is available for purchase. Other times, full rights are limited. In those cases, photographers might be requiring that they receive a certain percentage of sales and or royalties of usage. Agencies usually hold the images on files and negotiate fees. With the technology and easy access that the internet provides, negotiations are quicker and easier.

The cost of using stock photos depends on how long the pictures will be used, what location the images will be used, if the original photographer wants royalties and how many people the photo will be distributed to or seen by. Prices for stock photography can be anywhere from one dollar to two hundred dollars.

There are several different pricing arrangements. Royalty free stock photography allows the buyer to use photographs multiple times in multiple ways. When you buy royalty free pictures, there is only a one-time charge for unlimited usage. When the images you purchase have a royalty free section, the agency is able to resell the image to others. If an image is rights managed, there is a negotiated price for each time that it is used.

Sometimes a buyer of stock photography might desire to have exclusive rights to the images. In that case, no one else will be able to use the pictures once exclusive rights have been purchased. It may cost thousands of dollars to purchase exclusive rights because agencies who handle the sales have to make sure that they are making a profitable sale. If a photograph would make more money staying in circulation, they would lose out selling exclusive rights.

Stock photographers sometimes work with agencies producing images for them alone. Different subjects and categories might need multiple varieties of images. Sometimes contributors work for multiple agencies selling their photographs for a fee. They work out arrangements for royalties or they sell their shots for full rights. This has proved to be a big business for photographers around the world.

Stock photography started in the early 1920s. It especially grew as its own specialty by the 1980s. Galleries hold hundreds, thousands and even millions of pictures available for purchase. Stock houses sprung up in many different places. By 2000, online stock photography became microstock photography, which we call photo archives online. Companies like istock photo and bigstock photo offer you the opportunity to purchase so many pictures and when you use them up you can add more credits for another fee. Photos that are distributed online are typically less expensive than those that are sold hard copy.

Websites like www.shutterpoint.com and www.fotolibra.com allow stock photographers to upload and sell their images. It is a great way to market pictures and earn money with photography. You can also purchase images at those websites as well. With all the stock photography sites available, one may find pictures you never even heard of before.

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Where to Go to Learn From the Photography Masters

Whether you are looking for the right path for your budding student photographer in your family or looking on how to jump-start your own photography career, the right school can make all the difference. There is no question that photography is an outstanding career path with many different directions that someone skilled with a camera might go.

The diversity of careers in photography is truly amazing. From the base talent in photography and a solid understanding of new and emerging technologies, the sky is the limit for a talented photographer with a solid education under his or her belt. That is because photography is both an art form and a solid technical skill. So the same school might produce an award-winning artist, a successful wedding photographer, a fashion photographer, a police investigator taking pictures of crime scenes, or a crack newspaper photographer.

So the question emerges as to what kind of photography school to pick for yourself or the student in your family that wants the best education possible. How you pick any school is very much influenced by both how you approach education in general and what your objectives are.

Some would advocate that you look to get into the finest artistic photography schools in the country. If you wish to go down that path, then for sure the Brooks Institute of photography or one of the elite east coast schools of artistic photography is a noble ambition. But there are three drawbacks to trying to attend such schools. First is, of course, the potential cost. Any elite school is going to charge elite prices. And if you are like most of us, you want to get the most education for your money. So doing some caparison shopping for a school is in order.

The second drawback is getting admitted. Most of the top-flight schools have waiting lists and tough entry requirements that may make that ambition more demanding than is necessary. But the most meaningful drawback is that these schools may not be the right choice for the career you or the photography student in your life may wish to pursue. So a good general set of guidelines on how to evaluate a wide variety of photography schools is in order. The guidelines might include…

. What kind of photography is right for the student? A program geared toward artistic photography that will result in pieces hanging in a modern art museum will have a very different approach than a program to train forensic photographers. Your student may not know right away what field they want to go into. If so, getting started at a generic school such as a photography emphasis at the local junior college may be the right choice until the career path becomes clearer.

. Is it a legitimate school? You want to avoid schools that are run from the internet or that you read about on the back of a matchbook. A legitimate school will produce a recognized degree that will be well respected in the industry and will help the student get jobs.

. What is available locally? Why go out of town or out of state if you have good local schools? Many state universities, junior colleges and local tech schools have find programs.

. How diverse and up to date is the program? Will your student get exposed to the newest of technology in the field of photography? Will they get trained in how to service many different types of photography assignments?

. How does the program’s job placement rating look? What percentage of graduates from this program get jobs? How well respected is this school by businesses who employ photographers?

These are solid evaluation criteria. And if you apply these standards to a couple dozen of the finest schools both locally and nationally, before long a short list of good schools will emerge. From there, some site visits and interviews with teachers and graduates will narrow things down. And you will be glad you “did your homework” to find the kind of photography school that will take you or the student in your life to the next level of success in their love of photography.

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Wildlife Photography, Catching The Animals By Surprise

Photography has been around for more than a century and our topics will never cease. There is portrait, landscape, wedding, and wildlife photography just to name a few. One of the most rewarding styles of photography centers on wildlife. It may take you several hours before finding the perfect picture and capturing it, but the reward is more than worth the wait.

Wildlife photography is perhaps the most difficult in the profession. You have to have the time, inclination, and of course the camera. Most wildlife shots are captured using a telephoto lens because the animal will not walk near you. Every once in a while you will be able to capture the fox, elk, bear or other animal as it comes through the woods in your path, however most of the time they are yards away and elusive.

Wildlife photography doesn’t wait for you to happen a long and snap a photo. You need to immerse yourself in the site you choose your camera at the ready, and set for the light of the day. Most automatic cameras work great on the preset for those who are just learning to take wildlife photographs. Photography has always been about the moment and the best photographers can catch the moment with a speed and agility of the animal they are capturing.

Start with small subjects when you begin your foray into wildlife photography. Practice on your pet. Let them roam naturally and see if you can capture the wild and crazy moments on film without the photograph ending up blurry. All great photographers have studied and practiced. They also use more than one shot. Making sure your camera has a quick shutter speed will help you take more than one shot as your move with the animal. When you have the subject in your site you need to follow it while focusing and then quickly snap as many pictures as you can before they move out of site. This technique is known as panning. Rather than the subject coming to you, you follow the subject.

When you have mastered your pets you can begin to explore the outdoor world of wildlife photography. Some of your subjects will be standing still and this is another practice technique. Be aware of the lighting and placement while trying not to disturb the animal. It is most easy to get a squirrel when they are intent on eating or foraging for food. If you stay silent and walk carefully you can often get pretty close.

If you are choosing a larger subject such as a deer or bear you will want to stay far enough away to get the shot, and not draw attention to yourself. Bears are dangerous creatures, but they can be photographed if you use common sense and don’t tread upon their territory. Wildlife photography and thus the photographers have a code of ethics when attaining the perfect shots. You will want to follow these ethics for your safety and the animals.

Wildlife photography is a waiting game for the perfect picture to sprint across your viewfinder. It takes patience and a lot of practice, but the reward of having a family member or friend go, “ where did you get that photograph? I have got to have one,” will sweeten the deal.

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Will Camera Phones Destroy Photography?

In any “photo op” moment any more, it is impossible to miss the invasion of the camera phone. Where it used to be easy to tell when a camera was around and if people had them handy, now anyone with a phone could be a clandestine photographer. Even at occasions that used to be ruled by the professional photographer such as weddings and the like, we now see those dozens of hands going up snapping photos with camera phones that seem to dominate the scene.

Conventional photography is a highly developed art form and profession. The precision of the equipment and the ability of photographers to deliver a high quality product to their customers is well known and the result of decades of evolution of the craft. But today it is possible for anyone to become an amateur photographer using that tiny cell phone in their pocket or purse.

The question needs serious consideration for three audiences. For the professional photographer, is this the end of your profession? Will digital phones wipe out your customer base and make you obsolete? For the aspiring photographer, what about your future? Should you even invest in learning to use the sophisticated equipment that makes professional photography so superior? Why bother if camera phones are going to make it all obsolete? And for you the consumer, can you get the same quality of photographs with using camera phones as you can by hiring a photographer?

These are valid questions. It is very common when a new technology begins to make inroads into a profession for the old guard of that profession to feel threatened. It happened when television came along and the media called it the death of radio. It happened when talkies and then color was introduced to movies and television and at each technological improvement in the music world. And with each dire prediction of the demise of an industry, the opposite took place and that industry adjusted, evolved, got better and prospered all the more.

So there are good reasons not to worry that camera phones is going to destroy photography as we know it including…

* Camera phones cannot achieve the same levels of quality. There is a good reason that the professional photographer has invested in the highly sophisticated equipment that he has in his studio and that he or she takes to a shoot. The many years and decades of research have surfaced the problems with quality that primitive equipment could not deal with. Modern photography equipment has precise instrumentation to handle lighting issues to properly frame each photograph and to produce a professional quality outcome that people want from a wedding, a portrait or any kind of professional photography. You can bet that forensic photography, fashion photography and photography for publication will ever be willing to accept the low standards of quality that are the outcome of camera phone pictures.

* It’s an amateur game. When you see kids holding up their camera phones at a concert to steal a picture, you know that device is not going to result in a professional quality shot. This is especially true in a live setting like a concert where there are myriads of issues such as lighting, visual noise and other problems that have to be overcome with sophisticated instrumentation just not available on a camera phone. Camera phones are an amateur photography device. And they will always occupy that niche.

* Standards of the final product would be compromised. And high standards of quality are what make professional photography a value to it’s customers.

This is not to cast camera phones in a negative light. They have their place and they are great fun. But we in the professional photography world have nothing to fear from the growth of this technology.

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Where to Find Anger Management Support Groups in Connecticut

Anger management is a concern all over the world. Most areas have support groups and outreach programs for people who struggle with anger issues. Realizing how many problems anger can cause, abuse, violence and recklessness being a few, organizations and government programs are designing anger management programs to help rectify the problem.

Connecticut provides many programs for those dealing with anger problems, individually or in a family setting. Finding anger management support groups in Connecticut shouldn't be too difficult since this area has many terrific programs designed to help people of all ages with anger management issues. The Child & Family Agency of Southeastern Connecticut has a website on the Internet which provides plenty of information about anger management programs such as support groups. A quick search for their site through a search engine such as Google or Yahoo would produce valuable details for an individual coping with anger problems.

Connecticut appears to have a big concern for youth in the area with anger issues. There are many anger management support groups in Connecticut for young people in the form of camps and special schools. These support groups are broken down into different groups. Some of these programs are for boys and girls, for boys only, for girls only and of course different age groups. One such anger management support group in Connecticut is Bonneville Canyon Retreat. This program is designed for young males aged eighteen years of age and over. This anger management program offers an environment which is supervised as well as controlled. Bonneville Canyon Retreat provides counseling and teaches positive reinforcement, independent living and goal setting. It also prepares young males for the work through schooling and teaching them job skills. This retreat has been in place for quite some time and has been successful in the treatment of behavioral and psychological issues, as well as social problems.

Another great form of anger management support group in Connecticut is the Falcon Ridge Ranch. Located at Virgin, Utah, this program is a treatment facility for adolescent females, ages twelve to seventeen. This program provides supervision of the girls twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. This program is designed to help these young females with behavioral and emotional problems. If looking for information on Falcon Ridge Ranch, the Internet provides plenty of detailed information regarding the program and location.

These are just two anger management support groups in Connecticut for young people. There are many others such as Buxmont Academy for youth, ages 12-18, Cedar Breaks Academy for girls, ages 12-17, Colt Schools for boys and girls, ages 12-18, Eagle Valley Ranch for girls, ages 12-17, Future Men for your men, ages 16-19, Meadowlark Academy for girls, ages 12-17, Red Rock Canyon School for boys and girls, ages 12 -17 and Tipton Academy for boys ages 12-17. These are all forms of anger management support groups in Connecticut. Some are school, others are camps and retreats but each of them offers anger management support for young boys and girls and young men and women. There is information regarding all of these programs on the Internet. When searching for anger management support groups in Connecticut, the Internet is a great resource.

Government Grants for Alternative Energy

In his State of the Union Address for 2007, President George W. Bush called for a 22% increase in federal grants for research and development of alternative energy. However, in a speech he gave soon after, he said to those assembled, I recognize that there has been some interesting mixed signals when it comes to funding.

Where the mixed signals were coming from concerned the fact that at the same time the President was calling on more government backing for alternative energy research and development, the NREL—the National Renewable Energy Laboratory of Golden, Colardo—was laying off workers and contractors left and right. Apparently, the Laboratory got the hint, because soon after the State of the Union Address, everyone was re-hired. The second speech of the President's was actually given at the NREL. There is almost unanimous public support for the federal backing through research grants, tax breaks, and other financial incentives of research and development of alternative energy sources.

The NREL is the nation's leading component of the National Bioenergy Center, a “virtual” center that has no central bricks and mortar office. The NREL's raison d'etre is the advancing of the US Department of Energy's and the United States' alternative energy objectives. The laboratory's field researchers and staff scientists, in the words of Laboratory Director Dan Arvizu, “support critical market objectives to accelerate research from scientific innovations to market-viable alternative energy solutions. At the core of this strategic direction are NREL's research and technology development areas. These areas span from understanding renewable resources for energy, to the conversion of these resources to renewable electricity and fuels, and ultimately to the use of renewable electricity and fuels in homes, commercial buildings, and vehicles.” The federally-backed Laboratory directly helps along the United States' objectives for discovering renewable alternative fuels for powering our economy and our lifestyles.

The NREL is set up to have several areas of expertise in alternative energy research and development. It spearheads research and development efforts into renewable sources of electricity; these would include such things as solar power, wind power, biomass power, and geothermal power. It also spearheads research and development of renewable fuels for powering our vehicles such as biomass and biodiesel fuels and hydrogen fuel cells. Then, it seeks to develop plans for integrated system enginnering; this includes bringing alternative energy into play within buildings, electrical grids and delivery systems, and transportation infrastructures. The Laboratory is also set up for strategic development and analysis of alternative energy objectives through the forces of economics, market analysis and planning, and alternative energy investment portfolios structurings.

The NREL is additionally equipped with a Technology Transfer Office. This Office supports laboratory scientists and engineers in the practical application of and ability to make a living from their expertise and the technologies they develop. NREL's research and development staff and its facilities are recognized for their remarkable prowess by private industry, which is reflected in the hundreds of collaborative projects and licensed technologies that the Laboratory now has with both public and private partners.

Pet Owners: The Benefits of Using an Air Purifier

Are you a pet owner? With the popularity of household pets, there is a good chance that you are. If you are a pet owner, what type of pet or pets do you have? Popular household pets include cats and dogs. Unfortunately, with many household pets, including cats and dog, many pet owners develop allergies to their beloved pets. Are you one of those individuals?

If you are allergic to your family cat or dog, or any other animal for that matter, what do you plan on doing? Unfortunately, a large number of individuals make the decision to get rid of their pets. While this will completely solve the problem, it can’t always be done. There are some individuals who love their pets too much to get rid of them. It may also be even harder to get rid of your family pet, especially if you have children. It has been noted that children attach quicker to family pets, when compared to everyone else. If this is the case with your pet and your family, you will not necessarily want to get rid of your pet, but you will need to look for alternatives.

One of the reasons why pet allergies are such as problem is because of the air particles that are created, from those pets. These particles often come from pet hair or droppings. To eliminate or reduce this problem, and maybe even your allergy, you will need to have cleaner air. While this may not sound like something that would be easy to do, the reality is that it actually is. All you really need to do is purchase an air purifier.

The easy part is making the decision to purchase an air purifier. The hard part comes when you need to make the purchase. It has been noted that all air purifiers are effective at eliminating air particles caused by pets, but they are not all the same. That is why it is important that you know what you are buying. A little bit of research online and you will walk away well informed. It may also be a good idea to examine air purifiers that specifically mentioned pets on their boxes or in their product descriptions. These types of air purifiers are often better, when it comes to eliminating harmful pet pollutants from the air.

Although an air purifier can help, there are also some things that you may want to do. One of those things is keeping your pets in a specific area of your home. Everywhere that your pet travels, pollutants and air particles will be left behind. Unfortunately, most air purifiers are not designed to treat a whole house. In fact, many air purifiers can only control the air in one room, sometimes three rooms, at the most. Therefore, the less space you allow your pet to invade, the easier it will be for you to keep the air in your home clean.

In addition to improving your home’s air, you can also improve other indoor air. For instance, if you operate a business that is centered on pets, you may also be able to benefit from the use of an air purifier, especially those with a focus on pets. Essentially, this means that whether you are a vet, a pet sitter, or a pet groomer, you should not only be able to keep the air in your home clean, but also the air in your office. There is a good chance that you would not be the only one benefiting from the purchase of an air purifier. Your other employees, as well as your customers may also notice the improved air inside your office.

If you like what you just read, you are advised to start shopping for an air purifier. As previously mentioned, you are advised to look for air purifiers that specifically mentioned pets. They will be your best bet, when it comes to creating healthy, breathable air for you and the rest of your family.

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Potentials of after school programs

With children becoming the primary focus of society, ways and means to
ensure their safety and development are being researched. The Government
too has pooled in to make a success of such programs. Here are some of the
reasons why after school programs have become so popular:

1) Preventing Juvenile Delinquency, crime and violent victimization:
About 10% of juvenile crimes happen between 3 P.M. - 4 P.M. Children need
to be kept safe and out of trouble at such times
2) Preventing alcohol, drug and tobacco use.
Risk-taking behavior that seeks to establish superiority in a clan is
mostly seen in 'latchkey' children. Children in their pre-teens, if they
have a meaningful relationship with a mentor, are less likely to indulge
in these kinds of destructive behavior
3) Decreases appetite for Television:
An average child watches about 23 hours of TV per week. When enrolled for
some activity, the child utilizes his mental and physical skills to meet
challenges.
4) Improving academic achievements
5) Improving school attendance:
More confidence in self and increased interest in school leads to greater
attendance in school. A program that helps children with their homework
also gives the child a much-needed feeling of self-achievement.
6) Improved behavior and inter-personal skills
Children who attend after school activities handle conflict better and
cooperate more with authority figures.
7) Closer family and community ties.

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Sunday 16 August 2009

Determining Quality and Low Cost Pay per Click Internet Advertising Services

As Pay per click’s name suggests, you only pay for actual click through to your web site. Inexpensive Pay per click internet advertising lists your web site according to your bid for a certain search keyword. Of course, Web sites which pay more are ranked higher.

Pay-per-click internet advertising can be a very reasonable cost compared to other manner of promotion on the Internet. You don't pay any amount until a visitor actually clicks on your listing and go to see your web site. The low cost pay per click internet advertising counts how many visitors click on your listing and takes the money out of an account you have set up with them.

You host the images to be used in your low cost pay per click internet advertising, so you can monitor and change the banner at anytime. Targeted advertising in pay for clicks will help increase the amount of customers you obtain at a controlled cost.

There are many low cost pay per click internet advertising solutions available in the internet. All you have to make sure is that the advertising solution guarantees your satisfaction and your web site’s traffic.

In determining good quality and affordable pay per click internet advertising service, make sure to run very carefully planned and structured promotions in order to boost the targeted traffic to your web site and increase guest conversion rate.

Make sure that the pay per click internet services you applied for studies your business as well as your competitors. Plus, don’t forget to give specific details regarding your target audience for your web site.

After the cheap pay per click internet advertising solution has finished studying and analyzing your business, research to produce the most appropriate keywords for your business. The pay per click internet advertising solution would then prepare an exclusive copy of the advertisement to be able to catch the attention of the would-be web site visitors.

For successful pay per click internet advertising, you and the solutions should identify appropriate landing pages. If needed, a number of changes are suggested to construct the perfect landing page which would work for an entry point to your website.

It is one great way to increase the visibility of your new web site. It is the fastest growing marketing tool there is today. Because of a wide range of companies servicing inexpensive pay per click internet advertising solutions, you must be careful to choose which company to trust. You should be able to research the service quality they are willing to offer.

Two Basic Parts of a Low Cost Web Site Promotion

Anybody could own a web site. Anybody could up sell their own products and services to their target audience. Anyone could try to promote their web site with a low cost. But there are not many web sites that have a truly successful web site with traffic all day through. What these individuals or companies lack is the most essential factor of success – a low cost web site promotion that really works.

If you have been trying to promote your own web site and you have received traffic every hour, my hands are down for you. But for those people who need assistance, who does not have the patience to promote their own product and services, and lacks knowledge to properly advertise themselves, here are some guidelines to help you achieve success with a low cost web site promotion.

Search Engine Submission and Ranking are the two basic parts to a low cost web site promotion. Both of the parts have the same effect on the market of the web site – for your products and services presented in your web site catches the people’s attention.

The first inexpensive method of web site promotion is the search engine submission. This first part is the act filing information and submitting your web site to search engines. There are two types of Search engine submission – manual and automatic. For a low cost and effective web site promotion, automatic submission is ideal because after filling up the information, a software program would forward this information to other search engines.

The second money-saving web site promotion is ranking. This refers to the numerical position in which your web site appears on a search engine, based upon the web site’s criteria. Some search engines rank the order in which your search results appear primarily by how many other web sites link to each page. The leading web sites on this order would eventually fulfill a low cost web site promotion.

Other types of inexpensive web site promotion you could use to boost up traffic on your web site are banner advertising, classified ads, text links and section sponsorship. Banner advertisements pop up above and below web pages, and sometimes in another window. Text links and section sponsorship may cost more, but these methods helps in promoting to your specified target audience. It wouldn’t harm your web site to try these methods.

Always remember that the effects of your not so costly web site promotion hits are increasing significantly each day. Don’t waste time; find an effective and affordable web site promotion of your choice today.

Effective SEO Comes Cheap

Search engine optimization or SEO is the hottest way to drive targeted traffic to your website. Maximizing the benefits of a well-SEO'ed website will yield lots of earnings for the marketer. However, SEO-ing your site might cost you thousands of dollars if you are such a newbie on this field.

But to tell you the truth, you can essentially get information on low cost SEO anywhere in the Internet. But only several really show you how to work out an affordable search engine optimization endeavor. And those few that really inform include this article.

1. Link exchanges

One cheap SEO method that can get you best results is through link exchanges or linking to and from other web sites. Depending on the websites that you would like to exchange links with, this tool could even cost you nothing at all. Contact the author or owner of the web site you want to have a link exchange with. You will be surprised with the eventual spiking up of your page ranking using this means of getting your website optimized.

2. Write or acquire key word rich articles

Writing truly informative and keyword-rich articles is one surefire way to make your Internet business more visible than ever. It's either you write your own articles or you get them from article directories that allow you to post these articles on your website as long as you keep the resource box or the author's byline in tact. Just don't stuff your articles with keywords that even idiots would get bore of reading them. The readability and freshness of your articles will still be the basis of whether your writers will keep on coming back to your website or not.

3. Catchy Domain Name

What better will make your target visitors remember your website but with a very easy-to-recall domain name. Something sweet and short will prove to be very invaluable. Registering your domain name is not for free. But creativity is.

4. Organize your site navigation

Providing easy steps in navigating your site is one way to make your visitors become at ease with your site. This, in turn, will improve the flow of traffic to your website.

Low cost SEO is always evolving like any other approach in information technology. There are many methods that can very well land you on the top ten rankings of Google or on any other search engines. Some may cost a lot but there are methods that can give you the same results at a low price or you can even do on your own such as those mentioned above.

"Pay-Per Click" Ad Campaign: Earn More by Spending Less"

What is "Pay-Per Click"? "Pay-Per Click", is an easy to understand advertising strategy. There are around 300 million searches at major search engines everyday. This causes 80% of internet traffic. Placing your websites on these search engines is very important in reaching as many potential customers as possible. But in order to be seen and clicked most frequently, your website should be viewed at the top most of the search list. Most people only reach up to the third page of a search engine so the lower your rank, the lesser the chance you will be clicked. In "Pay-Per Click" advertising, you pay to be always visible on the internet. You select keywords or key phrases about your website, and the highest bidder ranks the best. There is no upfront cost. You only pay after a visitor clicks your link. This is why it is called "Pay-Per Click".

Everyday millions of people around the world click on Pay-Per Click Advertising Campaign. With the booming internet industry and the ever growing online business, an ad of virtually anybody on the planet can be seen on the internet anywhere in the world.

The "Pay-Per Click" advertising campaign is the premier growth area in online marketing. Last year, an estimated $741.2 million was spent on "Pay-Per Click" advertising. The usual search engine optimization can take weeks or even months to produce results. "Pay-Per Click" advertising can attract customers at an instant. Why? Because, this cutting edge ad campaign can be placed on any website and can be viewed by potential online customers, anywhere, anytime and all the time. The only challenge is placing the ads on proper websites that will attract possible customers for a specific product or services.

"Pay-Per Click" advertising campaign attracts the right consumers at the shortest possible time. This is the most cost effective way of marketing products or services. You can also monitor the customers who visit your site, what they are looking for and what they are buying. With the right creativity on using the right search-phrases, we can direct the right people who are willing to do business with us.
"Pay-Per Click" advertising can easily be managed 24 hours per day and 7 days a week through the internet. This allows you improve the campaign strategy by effectively responding to the activities of both customers and competitors.

So what are you waiting for? "Pay-Per Click" now and let your business take the fast route to success.

The easiest Way to Create Articles – Public Domain!

There are many webmasters that find writing articles for their site to be a very tedious task. Many people who need to write articles also procrastinate as much as they can to delay the amount of writing they need to do. Many people dread writing articles because they find researching for the topic and writing down original materials will be too taxing on them.

You need to have your creative juices flowing and simply downloading an article would be plagiarism or tantamount to stealing, not exactly. Have you ever heard about public domain? These are articles written down by many authors that have declared their works to be public domain, which means anybody can use it for whatever purpose they want.

While most authors would prefer to copyright their work for their rights, there are also a number who doesn’t mind sharing their work. Public domain articles are not owned by anybody and can be used and abused by anyone. The writers have waived their rights to their works and it is out there for the public to make use of.

You can use public domain articles in helping you write your articles. With the public domain articles you can simply edit them to your own style and rewrite them as you please to make it suitable for your needs. All the ideas are there already and its just a matter of finding the write article with the topic or subject you need.

This is probably the easiest way to write articles. You don’t need to scour around the library or the internet for hours for information and start an article from scratch. For webmasters who are looking for articles to fill their site and to generate a high ranking for their website in search engine results, they can just modify the article by infusing keywords and keyword phrases related to their site.

A webmaster or website operator do not risk any chance of getting sued for copyright infringement because they are public domain, once again meaning that anybody can use it. Writing articles by using public domain wont require as much work as writing one from scratch would. You save a lot of time also.

One good factor in using public domain articles for your site or for any project is that you save a lot of money. You dismiss the need to hire experienced and seasoned writers that some website operators use to write their articles. While a single five hundred worded article would only set you down 10 to 15 dollars, this cost will drastically increase when you need hundreds of articles to fill the needs of your site.

For those who needs articles to generate newsletters or an e-zine, public domain articles will be very beneficial. You do not need to count on your contributors or pay writers to write down articles for your newsletter or e-zine. You can fill all the pages without any cost or the worry of being sued and sought after by the writers. You can simply copy the articles and place them on your newsletter and e-zine.

Public domain articles are a virtual untapped resource that many people fail to realize the true value. The power of articles, keywords and keyword phrases have been deemed invaluable these past few years for many internet based businesses and sites that want to rank high in search engine results.

The number of article and content writers have grown significantly due to the rise in the demand for articles. As newer and newer topics and subjects have arisen, there are many demands for new articles to be written. An industry has been formed and this is a worldwide demand.

Public domain articles have given a great alternative for those who are cash strapped as well as do not have the time nor the skills to do their articles for themselves.

Searching for public domain articles is as easy as 1 – 2 – 3. You can search for them in search engines and do searches in many directories for the topic or subject that you need. Read them and simpy copy paste them to a word processing program and simply edit them to suit your needs.

4 Things ALL Articles Must Have - Don't Forget!

The importance of articles in today’s websites and internet based companies are immeasurable. They dictate a lot in the success and the drive of traffic into one’s site. It has become a key element in making a site work and earns a profit. A website operator and owner must have the good sense to include articles in his or her site that will work for them and earn them the many benefits articles can give to their site.

Articles have been known to be the driving force in driving traffic to a website. Articles are a factor in giving site high rankings in search result pages. The higher a site ranks the bigger slice of the traffic flow pie he gets. With a huge number in traffic flow, there are more profits and more potential for other income generating schemes as well.

But, it is not just about stuffing your site with articles; they have certain requirements as well. These requirements must be met to obtain the maximum benefits an article will provide for your site. A well written article will catch the eyes and interest of your customers and keep them coming back for more. They would also be able to recommend your site to others.

Here are some tips to help you and assist you in making your articles. Below you will read about four things all articles must have to make it successful and helpful in making your site a profit earning and traffic overflowing site.

• Keywords and Keyword Phrases.

An article must always be centered on the keywords and keyword phrases. As each website visitor goes to a site, there are those who are just merely browsing but actually looking for a specific something. When this happens, a searcher usually goes to a search engine and types in the keywords they are looking for (e.g. Toyota Camry, Meningitis, Tax Lawyer and Etcetera). It could be anything they want.

The Important thing is that you have an article that has the keywords that are related to your site. For example, if you maintain an auto parts site, you must be able t have articles about cars and their parts. There are many tools in the internet that provides service in helping a webmaster out in determining what keywords and keyword phrases are mostly sought out. You can use this tool to determine what keywords to use and write about.

• Keyword Density

Know that you have your keywords and keyword phrases, you must use them fully. An article must have good keyword density for a search engine to “feel” its presence. Articles should at least have ten to fifteen percent of keyword density in their content for search engines to rank a site high in their search results. Getting a high rank is what articles do best for a site.

Keyword density is the number of times a keyword or keyword phrase is used on an article. The number varies depending on the number of words used in an article. An effective article must have a keyword density that is not too high or too low. With a very high density, the essence of the article is lost and may turn off a reader as well as the search engines. It comes off as overeager. A low number may be ignored by the search engines.

• Good Article Content

Like what is stated above, you cannot just riddle an article with keywords. They must also be regarded as good reading materials. Articles must be able to entertain people as well as provide good information and help for their needs. Articles should be written well with correct spelling and good grammar. If you want people to trust you, make your work good and well thought out.

People respond well to figures, facts and statistics. Try to get great information and as many facts as you can. A good and well written article will boost your reputation as an expert in your chosen field or topic. As more people believe in you. They will be able to trust you and your products.

• Linking Articles

And another important thing to remember. If you are going to submit articles to ezines and/or contribute your articles to newsletters and other sites, DON’T ever forget to include a link to your site. A little resource box with a brief description of your site and you should always be placed right after your articles that you have submitted. If people like your articles, they will most likely click on the link directing them to your site.

3 Things You Must Do Before You Submit To Article Directories

To all writers and non-writers out there, now is the time to start digging up those creative writing skills back.
With modern communication technology comes the popularity of information-based marketing, which is one of the oldest and most effective techniques in getting targeted prospects to sites and converting them into buyers. This is why article writing, submissions and publications are also getting popular.
There are already many tools that people can use to make the process of distributing their articles more easily. Though this is invaluable in getting the contents more exposure, which is only half of the story.
Let us take a look first at the common mistakes that some people make before submitting their contents to article directories:
1. Confusing the reason to promote the articles with the reason to write them.
In article writing, there are three key benefits why you are promoting them; branding, lead generation and promotion, which are all part of your optimization efforts.
But there is only one reason why you write an article, and that is to inform your audience. If the article is not focused on this primary and most important purpose, it will fail to achieve the three promotion benefits because no one will be interested in reading them.
You need to figure out first how to get people to read what is in your article, then make them click on your resource box. You can achieve this by producing better contents.
2. Failing to maximize the promotional opportunities of article marketing.
You may know already that your articles can help you generate additional links back to your site. But do you know that you can get more visitors and better search engine results from that same articles?
Mention keywords at strategic places. Just be sure not to overdo them. Some are even using anchor texts which is also an effective method. But it is important to know that majority of the directories are not able to support this.
Remember that is not only about the links back to your site. Part of doing well in your article marketing is getting picked up by publishers with a large number of audiences and gaining the ability of leveraging other brands because of the quality of your work. Better search engine results also are great benefits.
But these things do not put much money in your pocket. There are other factors that can turn your article marketing efforts into an opportunity that can boost your earnings. Not just increase the number of visitors to your site.
Start out with a plan and see to it that your article will serve the function that you intended it to have.
3. Publishing content that does not help your readers.
Maybe in the process of writing articles, you are thinking that all that is you wanted is links back to your site. And any visitors it can generate are fine.
Guess what? Not all article banks and directories are going to accept your content automatically. Oftentimes, they have some guidelines and specifications on the articles that they are accepting.
You can double the number of sites you can submit to by writing articles that the directories want to share with other people. All it takes is one publisher with a hundred thousand readers to increase your potential audience overnight.
Write the articles that publishers want in their publications if you want your article marketing to work the most effective way for you. This also means you have to obey the standard guidelines, spell checks, researching on a good topic and even hiring a writer to produce a good content on your behalf.
In the end, it is all really a matter of choice on your part. You can start getting a little exposure from increased links back but on a very basic level. Or enjoy massive exposure from a little extra time making quality contents.
It will be your choice. You may not be aware of the fact that an article submitted on directories is not meant to have the same level of exposure as highly-targeted content ones geared on a narrow group of people.
Learn the difference between these two and it will surely help you know what kinds of articles to write and to submit.

Top Writers Around the World will write for you – outsourcing

The content of your site tells a whole lot about your website. They will basically describe what your site is about and also tell people what your site has to offer. Articles and website content makes a whole lot of difference in your site because they can catch the attention of your website visitors and keep them in there.

With good website content you get the benefit of clearly depicting what it is you want to share with people. Also, good content and articles can lead people to your site. With more traffic, you get to earn more from your site making it profitable. A sites success, be it for profit or not, is the number of the flow of traffic in your site.

So how does good content and great articles get you traffic? Well, many search engines rely on the keyword and keyword phrases of a site to put it in their results list. If your content contains a good number of keywords and keywords phrases, it may be chosen to be a part of the top listed sites in the search result pages.

But before you think of just plastering your site with all the keywords and keyword phrases it could hold, search engines also filter out that abuse. You must have good well written articles that incorporate the keywords and keyword phrases properly in their content and articles.

There are many of those who cannot afford the time to write their own website contents and articles. While writing content and articles specifically designed for the internet may take some getting used to and some researching and learning, there are many writers that can be found all over the world who could do it for you.

Many of us do not have the time to learn web content writing and article writing designed for the internet. There are writers who have great experience in doing this and charge only a minimal fee for such work. Writers like this can be regarded as experts in this style of writing and can greatly help your website to get that coveted spot in the search engine rankings.

Other than getting your site in the web results page of search engines, they can also provide your site with meaningful articles and content that can impress your website visitors and entice others to view your site. Every website could use the extra traffic website visitors could invite.

Then there are those who need papers to be done either for their school or office work. Top writers around the world are very knowledgeable and do extreme researching to get a job done right. They are also very adept in many writing styles that are needed to best suit the client’s need.

Many writers around the world charge a minimal fee depending on the type of writing job needed and the number of words needed in the content. Usually, a two hundred fifty worded article would cost from 4 to 8 dollars depending on the writers experience and ability. This is a small price to pay for having a content rich site or for a well researched and written paper.

There are also many sites that can offer you these services with their team of well trained and experienced writers. They offer many writing services to cover any writing needs. A writer can be based anywhere in the world and are guaranteed to offer good contents and articles. Each one are doubly checked, edited and proofread so that you would get your money’s worth.

Finding a good writer or a site that offers these kinds of services is simply done by searching for them in search engines. Type down your keyword or keyword phrase (e.g. Content Writers, Article Writers) and you will see a long list of sites that offer these services.

The top sites would probably be the best since they have done a good job of keeping their content at a high quality to get them high rankings. But you may also want to shop around and read some of their sample work to get an idea of how much it will cost you.

Finding Vintage Disneyana

Vintage Disneyana has become a personal passion of mine. I’ve been searching for it for years now. I attend art auctions regularly, but usually only find vintage Disneyana at a small percentage of them.

I found a darling 1938 Knickerbocker Mickey Mouse dressed in a Santa suit at an art auction a few years ago. This was an extraordinary vintage Disneyana find. There was some very fine crazing to the face, but no flakes in the paint.

I did some research after the art auction and it turns out that my vintage Disneyana has quite a history. This toy was a one of a kind Mickey Mouse toy made by Knickerbocker for a department store at Christmas and was given away for a contest. I was happy that the beard was real wool fur.

I searched for several years at art auctions until I found a Mad Hatter china teapot. This vintage Disneyana was made in 1951 by Regal for Disney. I always loved Alice in Wonderland and this teapot was very special to me.

My love of vintage Disneyana runs through lots of mediums. I buy figurines and paintings and anything else that strikes me as special while I’m at art auctions. If something is really rare or unusual and still has a whimsical feel to it, I’ll try to win it.

I found a painting that I fell in love with. It fit with my love of vintage Disneyana. The painting was created in 1949 and depicted the Cinderella castle. It was originally created for a Disney holiday card. I won the painting for four thousand dollars and felt like I had gotten a great deal.

The old Disneyland maps have become very expensive pieces of vintage Disneyana. I have been finding more of the old maps at art auctions, but they are usually not in good shape. The nicest map I’ve found was from 1958, which is also the year I was born.

The 1958 map of Disneyland was the first one that was made poster sized. The art auction I found this piece of vintage Disneyana at had numerous Disney lots up for auction that day. I had not expected to find such a great item. This map had been stored rolled and had never been folded. I paid two thousand dollars for it and it was worth every penny.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was my little sister’s favorite movie when we were kids. I look for vintage Disneyana that features it when I am art auctions. The best item I’ve found for her was figurines from the 1950s that were of Snow White and six of the seven dwarfs. There was one figurine missing, Sneezy.

My daughter has fallen in love with Bambi. She had me buy her the DVD and she has watched it over and over again. I was at an art auction and found a nice Bambi figurine while they were auctioning off vintage Disneyana. I gave it to her for her last birthday and she says that it is her most prized possession!

I was shocked at an art auction that I attended that had a wonderful 1930s Mickey Mouse lamp and lampshade. The art auction had not even advertised that they were auctioning vintage Disneyana. If they had advertised this item, I know that more people would have come to the auction. I won the lamp for five hundred dollars because I had no competition.

The most common vintage Disneyana that I find at art auctions is watches. I don’t like watches. I never buy any of the Disney watches. I am usually disappointed when an art auction advertises vintage Disneyana and all they have up for auction is watches.

I bought an autographed Fantasia album at a vintage Disneyana sale. The art auction had a lot of signed and autographed items and Disney items were among them. The signatures on my vintage Disneyana included Walt Disney, Leopold Stokowski (the conductor) and both of the original animators, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnson. This was a fantastic find for my collection.

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Writing the Resource Box so it Makes People click

The internet is the information highway, this phrase has been used so may time it should be nominated for the Internet Cliché Award. People that go to the internet are subdivided into groups, but generally, they are out to search information. Whether for gaming, business, fun or anything else the internet has provided us with information that has proved to be very beneficial.

Through the recent years many people have learned the secrets of Search Engine Optimization. More and more sites have seen the effects articles have done for the traffic of their sites. Some have even created sites devoted entirely to providing articles that could be read by their website visitors and have links that could lead to many sites that are related to the topics and subjects of the articles.

For example, the sites may feature many articles about a whole lot of topics. As a website visitor reads the articles they have searched for, they can find at the end of the article a resource box that can be clicked on to link them to the site that has submitted the article. Of course the article would be in relation to the site. Lets say if the article is about rotating the tires, the resource box may lead to a link to a site that sells tires or car parts.

A resource box is what you usually find at the end of an article. They will contain the name of the author, a brief description of the author, a brief description of the sponsoring site and a link. If a reader likes what they read, they would have the tendency to find out where the article came from to read more. The resource bow will be their link to the source of the article and this will entice them to go to the site and do some more reading or research for the subject or topic they are interested in.

But like the article itself, the resource box must also be eye-catching to demand the attention and interest of the reader. While the resource bow encompasses only a small space, providing the right keywords and content for your resource box will provide more prodding for the reader to go to your site.

Now we know what resource boxes are, what are the benefits of having a good resource box? Mainly its driving traffic to your site. Many sites would allow articles to be placed in their sites because they can make use of the articles to fill their pages. They also get affiliation with other sites that can be beneficial for them as well. For the sponsoring site, when you get people to click on your resource box, you generate traffic that can be counted upon as potential customers.

So what would be a good content for your resource box? Basically it is keywords, learning about the proper keywords that people are mainly searching for. There are many tools you can find in the internet that can help you in determining what keywords to use.

Resource boxes can also make use of all the creativity it can get. You only get a small space for your resource box so you better make the most of it. Try to catch the attention of your reader with resource box content that can make them give a second look. Unlike TV ads, you don’t have visual aids to drive your point in. But you do have the power of imagination of a reader. With the right content, you can make them think and intrigued.

Another tip is to use keywords that should be related to your site. Do not mislead your potential website visitors. Build your credibility so that more people would get enticed to visit your site and browse what you have to offer. Make the people click your resource box by providing resource box content that makes a lasting impression. You only get one chance to wow them and hundreds of chances to repulse them.

Never underestimate the power of the resource box. It may be small in size but they will provide a significant aid in driving traffic to your site. A boring resource box will never get a job done. Be fun and creative but at the same time show that you have a great deal to offer, too much to ask for something that couldn’t fit a paragraph? Yes and no, there are many tips and guides that can help you in doing this, the first step is realizing how important a resource box could be in making people click your link and be directed to your site.

Folk Art Auctions

Folk art auctions feature a wide range of objects that reflect the artist’s craft traditions, and traditional social values. Folk art is generally produced by people who have little or no academic artistic training. Folk artists usually use established techniques and styles of a particular region or culture.

Folk art auctions include paintings, sculptures and other decorative art forms. Some artists also consider utilitarian objects such as tools and costumes as folk art. For the most part, the category of folk art auctions exclude works by professional artists.

It has been my experience that folk art auctions have something for just about anyone. I found a folk art painting of a cat in a peach tree that was done by the artist Tascha. The artist also noted on the folk art auction that they create unique ceramic tile art.

My mother purchased a blanket chest for me years ago that I listed recently in a folk art auction. The chest was made about two hundred hears ago and is very beautiful. The original painted decorations are still intact.

I found an interesting folk art auction for a carnival knock-down dummy in the shape of a large cat. It was made around 1930 and is twice the size of similar items. I researched the item on a non-auction site and found that it is worth a lot of money.

My heart is still swayed by Americana folk art auctions. I recently fell in love with a painting I found up for auction of Elvis on a Harley in front of a large American flag. It was spectacular! The stretched canvas was painted with acrylics.

I especially like the Halloween themed folk art auction I found that was offered by Sister Raya New Orleans Folk Art. The title of the painting was Little Spooky the Cat – Awaiting the Great Pumpkin. The painting was painted in classic vintage style and used gold maple, red sapphire, blue pearl, white, pumpkin orange, sable brown, amber rust and jet black. I would love to have this hanging on my wall all through the autumn months.

Another folk art auction that I found and was sad to bid up past my budget was a handmade set of miniature dominos. The set was in a folk art decorated maple case. The set dates from the mid to late 1800’s. It was really exquisite and I’m sorry that I missed out on it.

I really liked another folk art auction that I found for a modern fraktur. A fraktur is a specific kind of Pennsylvania German folk art. The fraktur I found was a watercolor of a marriage record. It was very colorful and looked like it held very special significance to its original owners.

I found a wood box from Maine in a folk art auction that really appealed to me. It was rather small, but was painted chrome yellow and was trimmed in forest green. The paint was crazed and worn and it was made in the late nineteenth century. There were no visible nails and the hardware was reported as looking original.

The folk art auction that I missed out on that was way out of my price range was for an Andrew Clemens sand bottle. The sand bottle was date 1887 and was covered in patriotic decorations. It was an apothecary style bottle with a stopper and it contained at least ten different colors of sand. The bottle ended up selling for eighty five hundred dollars. I’m sure that it has ended up in an excellent collection of folk art.

I found an amusing folk art auction for three wooden carvings. The name of the piece was Three Articulating Folk Art Whimseys and were all made by the same artist. The carvings were accented with sheet metal neckties. The first carving in the folk art auction was of a cobbler, a blacksmith and a gentleman with a donkey. The second carving was a diminutive soldier and the third was a cobbler smoking a pipe. I think that this piece of Americana was purchased at a low price of three thousand dollars and was worth much more.

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Looking for Collectible Postcards

I’ve found that the best place to find collectible postcards is at art auctions. I was at an art auction in Eastlake, Ohio looking for stained glass and found them auctioning a lot of vintage collectible postcards. I bought the lot at the art auction and it contained almost three thousand beautiful collectible postcards.

About thirty percent of the collectible postcards were pre-linen. These are postcards that were all made before 1930. The linen collectible postcards were made from 1930 to 1945 and the lot I won at the art auction had thirty percent linen cards as well.

Forty percent of the lot I won at the art auction was for early chrome collectible postcards. Most of them were from the fifties and sixties. There were also collectible postcards from the British museum series from the seventies.

The collectible postcards that are my favorite are all turn of the century and were sent for holidays. Valentine’s Day collectible postcards from the early 1900s are very romantic. The Christmas postcards have some really nice artwork. I was really fortunate with the purchase at the art auction because the assortment was so varied.

My collection of collectible postcards contains many different themes. I like the non-US card. I found an art auction that had a shoebox full of these postcards and they were from places like Bermuda, Zurich, Rio de Janeiro, Dresden, Germany, Ireland and even Istanbul. I had never owned a collectible postcard from Niger before that art auction.

People who do not collect vintage collectible postcards just don’t understand their value. They are usually not even mentioned as being part of an art auction. I go to art auctions every other weekend on the off chance that there will be collectible postcards on the auction block.

I am always so pleased when I find linen ere collectible postcards at an art auction. The auctioneer at most art auctions does not even announce the lot as linen postcards; he usually just announces it as vintage or old collectible postcards. His lack of knowledge of the subject almost always works to my advantage.

I have various collections of collectible postcards within the main collection. I tried for awhile to complete a set of state views in all linen era postcards. I can’t even count how many art auctions I attended before I even had thirty of the forty eight states. I know that I finally tired of the pursuit and have just put it on the back burner.

The holiday collectible postcards go to collectors of more than just postcards. I’ve seen people buy holiday collectible postcards at an art auction just to frame and decorate with them during certain holidays. I actually found five really nice vintage Christmas collectible postcards at an art auction and had them framed for my mother as a Christmas gift.

I went to an art auction and estate sale of a man whose grandfather had been a colonel army officer. The collectible postcards that I found there were fantastic. The officer had amassed 353 different postcards from India. It was amazing. They had been tucked into an album and never used and were in perfect condition.

For awhile, I thought that I wanted to collect postcards from soldiers in WWI. I found a two hundred piece lot of this type of collectible postcards at an art auction in New Haven. The mix of cards was British, French and German. It was interesting because some of the collectible postcards were censored. I’ve never seen censored collectible postcards before.

The most I’ve ever spent on collectible postcards at an art auction was $530 for four postcards. They were all from 1904 and they depicted automobile racing. They were in pristine condition. I doubt that I will ever find any more even remotely like this the rest of my life. They were exceptional.

The lot of collectible postcards I found last weekend was really fun to look through. The art auction had a lot of things from a family that had emigrated here from Serbia. The postcards were all from either Serbia or Belgrade. This was a good lot and it went for the opening bid.

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Native American Art Auctions: Art Antiques

Whether traditional or contemporary, Native American artwork is both highly collectible and universally appealing. Native American art forms the basis of many exemplary public as well as private art collections. People that collect Native American artwork can be very passionate about their collections.

Older, more traditional Native American artwork and cultural artifacts are not merely revered and / or emulated by modern artists, they are also held dear as parts of art collections the world over.

Fine Native American art done by well known American Indian artists, such as Nampeyo, the Hopi potter, can raise the caliber of a private or public art collection quite significantly. Iris Nampeyo lived on the Hopi Reservation in Arizona. She made a good income making pots and selling them at local trading posts.

A remarkable aspect of Nampeyo’s work is that over time she became more ad more interested in making pots according to ancient ways, as opposed to the modern pottery that was being made by people at the time. The quality of her work, as well as her interest and use of ancient pottery techniques certainly add to the demand and high price tags of her work.

If you find yourself in the market for Native American art antiques, be prepared to pay the price. Particularly with Native American art, availability doesn’t correlate to demand or cost, as is the case with many other highly collectible art types.

Items such as early Plains beadwork or late nineteenth century basketry are certainly examples of what would be considered extremely rare finds in the world of Native American art auctions.

When choosing from various art pieces, compare styles, read and research. This is really the only way to educate oneself about the various types of American Indian art. Then it’s time to shop around. Just like anything else, you won’t know what’s available unless you take the time to comparison shop.

During the 1900s many of the Native American art and crafts that other peoples associate with American Indians began to be commercially produced, especially by Asian nations. These Native American fakes became so widely purchased that several millions of dollars were taken from the American Indian artists in the form of cheap imitation Native American art.

Before purchasing Native American art antiques it’s a good idea to perform additional research has to the authenticity of the piece or pieces. Unless you’re highly knowledgeable on the topic and have experience spotting fakes, this type of art can be extremely hard to verify by inexperienced sight alone.

All in all, collecting American Indian art antiques is just like collecting any other antique, the definitive and primary timeframe is anything that is pre-1950s. Although a name that is well known can seriously increase the value of an object, condition, workmanship and prevalence are factors that are just as important.

Increasingly, even seasoned art dealers that deal in American Indian art find it difficult to discern authentic art antiques from imitation pieces. For this reason, it is particularly important to opt for dealing with reputable sources. In order to ensure that your perfect Native American art antique is the real deal it’s worth taking the time to locate such a well known art dealer or museum.

There are specialized art museums and dealers that offer Native American art pieces. These organizations generally are most interested in promoting Native art and cultures. The better of these institutions and organizations directly invest many of the profits gained from the sale of art pieces back into the Native American community.

When it comes to collecting Native American art antiques or any other type of art, don’t buy it unless you absolutely love it. Your best pieces are going to cost a pretty penny. If you don’t fall in love with a piece, chances are you’re not going to like it any better once it’s on your wall. So hold out for the perfect piece, you’ll be glad you did.

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Quilts from Art Auctions

I’ve been traveling throughout California attending art auctions looking for unique quilts. I have had a lot of success. I have found so many quilts that you could tell were filled with thousands of hours of careful planning and stitching.

I was attending at art auction in Orange and found a wonderful quilt. The quilt was from the Civil War era and was made in the design of Blazing Stars. There was a wonderful appliqued red and green swag-like border. The center of the quilt has a feathered heart hand quilted.

The art auction that I went to in San Bruno had a fabulous quilt that was made in the 1860s. The quilt was hand appliqued using cheddar, red and green cotton solid fabrics. The background was white and the border has a meandering flowering vine. It was truly special.

I found a great quilt that was made in 1894 while I was at an art auction in Rancho Cucamonga. The style of the quilt was really fun. It was called a Victorian Crazy Quilt. There was so much elaborate hand embroidery over every seam and within the blocks, it was magnificent.

I was on vacation in Napa and attended an art auction that had several really nice quilts. The one that I won was made in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and was completed in the 1870s. I like the design called Ocean Waves. The chain had earth green and chocolate brown triangles that were pieced with exceedingly fine skill and precision. The border and background color was warm, cadmium orange.

The quilt I found at an art auction in Paradise was an 1840's thin, cotton Quaker quilt, which measures 108" x 88" and had 10 stitches per inch. It was a Quaker cotton wedding quilt. The top border, near the pillows, had a blue print and each side and the bottom had wide borders with North Carolina Quilt blocks in each corner. There were two rows of North Carolina Lilies in the center, and one row on each side facing outward.

The quilt made its way into the art auction because someone made the decision to sell some of the great historic heirlooms that were passed down through her family to her. I was very fortunate to acquire this heirloom that had passed through the many generations of Quaker families. Now I own one of the great Pennsylvania Quaker masterpieces.

Log cabin quilts are a design that I have always liked. My grandmother made a quilt using this design for me when I was twelve. I found one made in a similar fashion at an art auction Los Gatos. The quilt was made in the 1870s and was made by Mennonites.

I was lucky to find the art auction, it was difficult to find. The quilt is just fantastic. The light and dark design of this quilt has a red center on one side with two green bars, two cinnamon bars and two blue bars and then two red bars and on the other side of the red square in the center are two yellows, two black and white stripe, two lovely Lancaster blue bars, and two peppermint stripe bars.

There was an art auction in Huntington Beach that advertised quilts and I was really happy with the pieces that I found there. The quilt that I bought had a pictorial motif, like an album quilt, with a lot of interesting designs. Each block was quite different and special.

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Special Hummel Figurines

I find old Hummel figurines at art auctions all the time. I’ve been collecting them for my mother and her sister for a long time. They don’t have the time to go to art auctions, but they have the money to buy nice figurines.

The Apple Tree Boy Hummel figurine I found for my aunt last year was so cute. I attended an art auction about an hour away from my house and they had lots of decorative collectibles. I was able to find several items for my mother and also for my father.

My mother and her sister both want to have an Umbrella Boy Hummel figurine. I have only been able to find one at all of the art auctions I’ve attended. They share the piece equally while I’m looking for a second piece.

The whimsical Hummel figurine called Pleasant Journey is so cute. It was the first Hummel that mother and my aunt ever received. The scene is of two children pulling a third child in a wagon. My grandmother found it at an art auction and it reminded her of her children. She gave it to her two daughters on their shared birthday.

My dad sings in a barbershop quartet. My mother asked me to find an appropriate Hummel figurine at one of the art auctions I attend to give to him for his birthday. I actually was unable to find just the right item for over a year.

My mother was thrilled when I found the Harmony in Four Parts Hummel figurine at an art auction in our hometown. She presented it to him on his birthday and he really liked it. I think she may have liked it more, but that is okay with him. He has always been very supportive of my mother’s collecting.

My mother gave my son a Hummel figurine when he graduated from high school. I thought it was an odd gift to give a kid that had never expressed any interest in collecting them. She did choose a nice piece from her collection that I had purchased for her several years ago at an art auction. She gave him the Hummel figurine Little Fiddler because he plays the violin.

When my aunt went on a cruise, I decided to find her a nautical Hummel figurine. I had to attend four art auctions before I found one. I ended up purchasing the Hummel figurine called Land in Sight. She loved it.

Hummel figurine Let’s Tell The World was a special piece. It is really pretty and it depicts three children ringing a bell. My cousin has been going with me to art auctions looking for it. She thinks that we need to give it to our mothers to share like they do the Umbrella Boy.

I don’t usually collect Hummel figurines. I leave that to my mother and my aunt. The only exception to this is the “Can I Play?” Hummel figurine. I found it at an art auction and it reminded me of playing at my grandmother’s house when I was a child with my brother and my cousin.

The most expensive Hummel figurine that I’ve found at an art auction in the last couple of years was a vintage piece called School Girls. I got into a bidding frenzy with another collector and ended up spending a thousand dollars. The piece was celebrated with a party at my aunt’s house.

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Stained Glass Art Auctions

I have found some really beautiful pieces of artistic stained glass at art auctions. The worship committee at my church asked me to find some church window stained glass when I went to an art auction last fall. I found an excellent piece for them that was framed and 73” X 38.5”. The congregation loved it.

I found some wonderful stained glass at an art auction for a client that was trying to complete his new kitchen. The three windows I won were exactly right for him. The stained glass had a Victorian star design in shades of blue. The borders were all beveled and the piece was hand cut and soldered.

The modern stained glass windows sometimes come sandwiched between two pieces of tempered glass to protect them for years of use. The windows I bought at the art auction were framed in vinyl. Each of the stained glass windows was 30” X 30”.

Stained glass art auctions always include lampshades. I went through a period of time where I purchased every stained glass lampshade I would find at an art auction. I am a little more discerning, now. I found a stained glass lampshade not long ago that I purchased for my mother.

My mother just redecorated her bedroom in green and mauve. The stained glass lampshade that I found for her only had variations of those two colors running through it. It was perfect for her and she really liked it when I gave it to her.

I had a call from a client last week that asked me to find a piece of stained glass to hang in a picture window. She always had a curtain hanging over that window, so I had trouble picturing what it looked like. I stopped by her house and chatted with her before I went to the art auction so that I could get better idea of what would delight her.

I talked with this client for awhile and found out that she used to grow roses competitively, but that since her arthritis had gotten worse, she was no longer able to garden. She had a curtain hanging over that window so that she wouldn’t have to look into her bare backyard. I instantly knew exactly what kind of stained glass art piece she needed.

The art auction was a lot of fun and I found a large oval stained glass piece to hang over the picture window for my client. It was almost three feet tall and just under two feet wide. The red roses done in stained glass were just magnificent. She was so happy after the stained glass was delivered; she thanked me with coffee and bagels.

She hired me again to find a special piece for her bedroom window. She liked the idea of replacing the curtains in her home with stained glass pieces of art that I could find for her at art auctions. I looked at the way her bedroom was decorated taking special notice of the colors she used.

I found a fantastic stained glass piece for her at the art auction of a peacock with lavender in the background. It fit really well with her existing decorating. She hired my son to hang this piece for her. She was pleased with his work and has promised him future jobs that require more strength than she possesses.

I was asked by a friend of mine to find a special piece of stained glass for his office. I went to three art auctions before I could find something that felt right. His taste and furnishings run the direction of more contemporary than most pieces of stained glass usually represent.

The third art auction I attended had a contemporary piece of stained glass art that depicted a landmark in Anchorage, Alaska. I did not know it at the time, but my friend had family in Alaska and was actually familiar with this landmark. I purchased it because I liked the style and the coloring, but it turned out to be an even better choice because of its subject matter.

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Unique Faberge Eggs

Faberge Eggs have always been special to me. I’ve been searching them out at art auctions since I was in my early twenties. I did a term paper on the Faberge Company and their history of making eggs for the Russian Tsars between 1885 and 1917.

The first Faberge Egg that I ever found at an art auction was actually quite by chance. The Faberge Egg was not one of the advertised items and was actually a bottle topper. I instantly fell in love with it and took it home from the art auction for one hundred dollars.

I saw an advertisement for a tropical Faberge Egg from a collection St. Petersburg. It was set to be up for sale at an art auction in New York City. I knew that I was going to be unable to purchase it, but I wanted to see it in person and at least put in one of the lower bids.

The tropical Faberge Egg at that art auction in New York City ended up selling for over six thousand dollars. That is out of my price range, but I was happy just to have been in the same room with this masterpiece. The eggs themselves are just exciting to be near.

The first Faberge Egg was made in 1885. I know that it will never turn up in an art auction, but hopefully I will see it someday in an exhibit. The first one was commissioned by Tsar Alexander III and was given to his wife as an Easter present. The surprise inside the egg was a golden hen in a golden yolk. The hen was wearing a tiny crown with a ruby hanging inside.

The antique Russian Faberge Egg that I found at an art auction recently was so detailed. The silver enamel egg has rubies and eagles and is marked with Faberge hallmarks. I was able to win this egg because I was bidding with someone else’s money. The best eggs always end up with the richest people.

The piece that I want in my collection is a genuine Lillies of the Valley Faberge Egg. I found one at an art auction I went to ten years ago. I was unable to buy the one I saw, because I didn’t have the money at the time. I’ve been saving for the time that I see another one.

The Lillies of the Valley Faberge Egg is covered with pearls and pale pink enamel. The egg is on a stand that has legs of matte green-gold leaves with rose dewdrops. The gold-stemmed lilies of the valley have green enamelled leaves and pearl flowers. I will look for this egg at every art auction I ever attend.

This Faberge Egg is delightful. It is surmounted by an Imperial crown of rose crystals. There is a pearl knob that reveals the surprise of this egg. The surprise is portrait miniatures of Czar Nicholas II and his two oldest daughters. The portraits are framed in rose crystals and backed with gold panels. I have heard a rumor that one will be at an art auction next year in Miami.

The last art auction I attended I purchased a Faberge Egg called the Imperial Clover Egg. It was for my personal collection and I won it for under a thousand dollars. I felt like it was quite a steal at that price.

The Imperial Clover Faberge Egg was originally made with a four leaf clover inside of it that had portraits of the four daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra. The portraits went missing during the Russian Revolution. The egg that I bought at the art auction had a stem of clovers standing upright. Two clovers in green enamel and the third, a four leaf clover, was done in diamonds. The diamond four leaf clover is a pin that can be worn.

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Upcoming Trip to Sotheby’s

I am planning a trip to an auction at Sotheby’s in June. I have a real interest in 20th century British art and they have an art auction scheduled. I have spent a great deal of time planning this trip.

While I was browsing the Sotheby’s online catalog, I found a signed Sickert named South Façade of St. Jacques. I saw this painting once in London in 1971. It has been in Canada since its purchase around that same time.

The painting is thought to be painted around 1900 after the artist had been in the town of Dieppe for two years. He found a great deal of beauty in this medieval place. He loved the architecture and it was the subject of a lot of his work. Sotheby’s has several pieces of his work up for auction at this event.

I also noted in the catalog that Sotheby’s will be auctioning off a watercolor of a cat by the artist Gwen John. She painted a lot of cats and also portraits of seated women. She was known to paint the same picture over and over again like Monet did.

There was another lot listed in the Sotheby’s catalog that interested me. I really am partial to Sickert and there was a painting that he completed in Venice while he was there with his wife. There are stories of marital troubles between them and the trip to Venice is thought to have been taken to repair their marriage.

I can’t wait to see the painting Thunder in the Mountains by James Dickson Innes. His watercolors are really splendid. The painting is thought to have been painted in 1910 in the mountains of North Wales. Sotheby’s has such an extensive catalogue for this auction.

I’m anxiously awaiting my trip to London. I love Sotheby’s art auctions and going out to expensive restaurants at night. I plan to go to the Mango Tree while I’m there. It is the best Thai food, hands down, that I’ve ever eaten.

My business partner was really taken with the Landscape Near Lyons painted by Sir Matthew Smith. I liked this oil painting as well. The Sotheby’s catalogue reported that the painting was done in 1922 and that there is a still life of flowers on the reverse. My partner will be unable to make this trip and has asked me to bid on it for him.

I have a small private collection of pencil drawings. I liked the Flower in a Glass Vase that was penned by Christopher Wood in 1925. I think that it would display nicely with other still lifes that I have. I think that this pencil art may well go for twelve thousand dollars. My favorite pencil drawings have all been found at Sotheby’s auctions

I have a patron that is very interested in a lot at the Sotheby’s auction that contains Poppies by Ivon Hithchens. She has authorized me to bid up to sixty five thousand dollars for her. I hope that I am successful in acquiring it for her. I know that this Sotheby’s auction will be well attended because they all are. It is too much to hope for that no one will notice this fantastic painting.

After looking forward to this trip for so long and poring over the Sotheby’s catalogue so intently, I must say that I have my heart set on Broomswade by John Piper. I absolutely must have this watercolor. The person that is selling it has been the only owner. He bought it directly from John Piper in 1966. If I win nothing else, I will win this painting.

The only other painting that I plan to bid on at the Sotheby’s auction is one by William Turnbull. There is a collector that I know that desperately wants this painting. He owns several of this artist sculptures and has now started to collect his paintings.

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