You are reading photosavings.co.uk

Photosavings is always on the look out for new and exciting services for busy professionals - especially those that save us time and money!

Well the team at hireacamera.com, headed up by Managing Director Guy Thatcher, have just the answer to your equipment rental requirements - what about a reasonably priced service that delivers direct to you at home or office?

The Sussex based company send all rental equipment out by courier so that it reaches you the day before (by midday) the hire period begins to ensure your gear is with you well in time for the start of your assignment. To return the equipment you simply call up and arrange pickup.

Hireacamera stock a full range of Canon, Nikon and Fuji SLR’s and Lenses as well as accessories and lighting. For example Canon 350D though to Canon 1Ds MkIII, Nikon D70 through to Nikon D3’s are all available. You can also book out packaged rentals ideal for wedding photographers needing flash gun, multiple lenses and a camera body.

Booking and availability is all done online to open an account you will need to provide proof of ID. Hire charges also cover the equipment for the time it is in transit.

Finally why not also try hireacamera’s Fly Away Thursday deal which works in much the same way as booking a last minute holiday - all you do is take a chance on whether the equipment is still available by booking on a Thursday for hire over the weekend. In return hireacamera reward you with a 25% discount over the normal weekend hire charge.

by clicking this link below you are also supporting photosavings

You are reading photosavings.co.uk

Customers visiting MyMemory this Thursday 19th June 2008 will be treated to a 20% discount on all Kingston products - including their entire range of USB Flash Drives, digital camera memory, mobile phone memory, and ValueRAM. Use the link below with the associated offer code.

My Memory is a fast growing Digital Memory Card retailer. Based in Jersey they are already widely known as the first choice for professional photographers and the amateur snapper. Their location enables them to be able to offer considerable savings unavailable elsewhere.

by clicking this link below you are also supporting photosavings

Offer code: kingsday08 (enter this coupon code at checkout when purchasing your Kingston products)

You are reading an article from photosavings.co.uk

PhotoSavings has already reported on Doug Boutwell’s Totally Rad Actions, well now there is a freshly launched update called Totally Rad Actions 2.

Totally Rad Actions 2 (TRA2) is the cutting-edge new action set from the creators of the beloved Totally Rad Action Mix. TRA2 is a completely new set of actions for Adobe Photoshop that work together as a system, giving you an unprecedented blend of convenience and flexibility. This action set will unlock countless possibilities for making your photos shine, from dramatic black and whites, to vintage color effects, to everyday utilities to enhance your images. TRA2 is also the perfect compliment to the original Totally Rad Action Mix, adding powerful tools to your arsenal, while working seamlessly with the tools you already know and love.

TRA2 also improves on the things that made the Totally Rad Action Mix great. By keeping even more of the actions steps in separate layers, control freaks can now tweak the look of their images even further. And the experience and feedback we’ve received on the first set has been put to good use, creating actions that are more intelligent, and that work well across an even broader range of images.

There are 57 brand, spanking-new actions in the set, and they’re available right now for $159.00 USD.

by clicking this link below you are also supporting photosavings

Technorati Tags: Totally Rad Actions, launched, Totally Rad Actions 2, TRA2, Totally Rad Action Mix, Adobe Photoshop, vintage color effects, utilities, enhance your images, powerful tools, separate layers, doug boutwell, totally rad, photoshop, actions, boutwellstudio

You are reading photosavings.co.uk

Ok this website is not only about great services and useful advice it’s also about great offers.

This week I’m highlighting a really great deal on a Canon EOS 40D kit that includes the 40D + EF-S 17-85 + 70-300 lenses - link at bottom of post. It’s aleady at a great price plus there is also a cashback deal still running. Here’s what you get:
Canon EOS 40D (SRP inc VAT £800)

Power and versatility in one supremely equipped tool for the discerning photographer. Step up to the challenge of 6.5fps, 10.1 Megapixels and a host of features designed to help you raise your game. Designed for enthusiasts and semi-pros it’s the successor to the EOS 30D, and continues Canon’s 18 month cycle for this product line. The 40D boasts 10.1 Megapixels, improved viewfinder, anti-dust spot features, 6.5fps continuous shooting, AF system and weatherproofing. The camera’s RAW files are now specified at 14-bits, there is a bigger 3inch LCD monitor with Live View facilities. The Canon EOS 40D has ISO sensitivity settings of between 100 and 1600 with a Hi option in the menu to go up to 3200 ISO.
Features
10.1 MP APS-C CMOS sensor 6.5fps, 75 JPEG image burst High precision wide area AF 3.0″ LCD with Live View mode DIGIC III processor EOS Integrated Cleaning System Picture Style Magnesium alloy body Compatible with all EF/EF-S lenses and EX Speedlites

EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM (SRP inc VAT £530)

Another one of Canon’s EF-S lenses designed exclusively for the 400D, 450D 30D and now 40D. This 17-85mm model is aimed at advanced amateur photographers as an extended standard zoom lens. Real freedom of framing in a lightweight, compact and fast-focusing lens. The Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM is an excellent all-purpose lens for EF-S mount EOS cameras. Excellent resolution holds up throughout the focal range and the IS system helps a lot in low light.
Features
Exceptional zoom range for all EF-S mount bodies Superb image quality Lightweight and compact Image Stabilizer - up to 3 stops compensation Fast near-silent USM AF Super Spectra coatings Circular aperture Optional exclusive lens hood

EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM (SRP inc VAT £470 )

The Canon EF 70-300/4-5.6 IS USM is the replacement for the EF75-300/4-5.6 IS USM. The new lens uses a low dispersion optical element for better image quality, digitally optimized coatings to lower flare. This lens also now has faster autofocus. The advanced 3-stop Image Stabilizer (IS) technology of the EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM lens makes it the ideal telephoto zoom when shooting in lowlight and at slow shutter speeds.
Features
Affordable and powerful 3-stop Image Stabilizer UD lens element improves image quality Super Spectra coatings suppress flare and ghosting Circular aperture provides pleasing background blur Fast, quiet auto-focus

The manufacturer’s suggested retail price for all three bought separately is £1,800 inc VAT. Today’s offer via 7dayshop is £1,139.00 inc VAT, what’s more is a cashback offer of £140 is available on the package if purchased before June 30th 2008. Here is the link to 7dayshop:

by clicking this link below to the offer you are also supporting photosavings

Technorati Tags: Canon EOS 40D, EF-S 17-85, 70-300, 6.5fps, 10.1 Megapixels, improved viewfinder, 6.5fps, Canon EOS 40D, EX Speedlites, Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM, EF-S mount, IS system, Canon EF 70-300/4-5.6 IS USM, Image Stabilizer, 7dayshop, cashback, canon

You are reading photosavings.co.uk

Many photographers are unaware that simply publishing pictures to a portfolio website does not form a strong enough online business strategy. Attention has to be paid to an effective internet marketing (IM) plan - without it you’ll go virtually unnoticed.

Here I’ll give you some top tips on increasing your chances of getting noticed through the e-clamor by the right people online - art directors, ad agencies, art buyers - the ultimate goal in building a successful online presence for your photography business.

First in this series is a quick ‘how to’ on Search Engine Marketing - subscribe to the PhotoSavings feed so you don’t miss the upcoming Social Media Marketing and Blog Marketing articles.
SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING (SEM)

SEM is the promotion of your website by increasing is visibility (pagerank) on popular search engines. This is achieved through the use of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategies. These SEO strategies include:

• Use of meta tag ‘keyword’ - choose good keywords to describe your site and more specifically your specialities. The keyword ‘photography’ is far too broad = 376,000,000 references on Google! Try thinking about your strengths, be more niche e.g ‘abstract photography’ = a mere 171,000 references, ‘abstract tree photography’ = 7. Try the free tools at SEOBook or KeyWordDiscovery for more keyword help.
• Avoid ’splash pages’ or ‘click to enter’ as the top level page on your site, also avoid website designs based round HTML frames. Splash pages are a main entry page with either a large graphic image and a link instructing visitors to “enter” a Web site; or a Flash animation with a link to skip the animation, and a redirect to a new Web page after the animation is completed. You really want your top level page to act as a table of contents for the rest of the site. Splash pages lack keyword rich text and anchor text apart from maybe ’skip intro’. Most search engines ignore redirects, splash pages are generally based on redirects.
• Do not publish a website that says it is ‘under construction’, you might find it gets indexed in this state and it will not get re-indexed when the real content appears
• Most photographers have little or no copy whatsoever on their pages. Write and design your site using the words your target audience types into search queries - keep your portfolio and gallery sections away from the top level pages, as good as search engines are they can not tell what type of photographer you are from your images.
• Avoid Flash for the same reasons mentioned above, although you may have typed loads about yourself in your 100% flash based site, the search engines won’t be able to see a single word of it. It’s a movie, search engines can’t retrieve words from movies either.
• Keep a check on your linked referrers - a link from another page to your own website should contain keywords in with the anchor text of the link. Google weights its Search Engine Results pages towards the anchor text of links to a page.
• Tag your gallery/portfolio images with keywords - this will help search engines that have image search features pick up your images - after all your images are your product, make sure they get indexed too.
• Submit your URL to the search engines - you can either do this manually, use a free submitter service such as Submit Express or use a paid service like the one provided by NamesCo (clicking this link supports photosavings)

Where do I go for more information? The Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) is a non profit industry organization for search engine marketing. SEMPO’s mission is primarily one of education – to demystify the various aspects of search marketing, to drive awareness of its incredible efficiency and marketing potential, and to help members and nonmembers to grow as professionals.

Finally give the SEO Page Tester Tool below a try, enter your URL and the keyword to test and see how your website performs.

Is your web page optimized? Test it now: URL: (Example: www.domain.com) Keyword: Web site promotion tools

Technorati Tags: internet marketing, Search Engine Marketing, SEM, SEO, Splash pages, Flash, photographers, anchor text, optimise

You are reading photosavings.co.uk

Sara at Tocco has forwarded me the latest trade price lists for their range of professional Canvases & Acrylic prints. Please click the links at bottom of this post. If you are ordering please quote the follow ID number 144502.

Tocco Canvases Trade Price List
Tocco Acrylics Trade Price List

Technorati Tags: Tocco, professional Canvases, Acrylic prints, Canvases, Trade Price, printing

You are reading photosavings.co.uk

The 5D rumor mill rumble on…and on….and on…. (click the pic to link to full story on Photography Bay)

You are reading photosavings.co.uk

As many a small business owner will tell you keeping on top of ‘the books’ takes up a great deal of effort and time - in fact time that could be spent finding work and following up leads - Photographers are by no means any different.

If you are anything like me then you will probably have an Excel spreadsheet with a worksheet for generating invoices, another worksheet for some kind of balance sheet, and worksheets for all your expenses and tax. You occasionally find yourself having to add functionality to the worksheets and/or finding problems.

Imagine being able to free yourself from this spreadsheet hell. This is where a web-based service called FreeAgentCentral comes in. FreeAgentCentral is a simple, versatile, and user friendly tool for Freelancers, Sole Traders and Small Limited companies that easily achieves financial organisation and management. You can either use the data from FreeAgentCentral to help you complete your own tax returns, payroll, profit/loss accounts or give your professional accountant his/her own separate login.

FreeAgentCentral has a powerful Invoice design and layout tool. It tracks money in / money out from your uploaded QIF, OFX and CSV bank statement file. There is also VAT, Dividend and Payroll management. Other features include auto-allocation of monies you draw between expenses, salary and company dividend.

All accounts start with a free 30-day trial. Costs are: sole traders £15 per month, UK Partnerships/LLPs £20 and Ltd companies £25. However clicking the link below will get you a 10% discount. FreeAgentCentral has recently gone universal too so it can be used outside the UK. Highly recommended.

You are reading photosavings.co.uk

Hands up who knows what a Ninja is?

Well by rights most of you should new have some rough image of a martial arts expert dressed in black pyjamas (or a turtle shell) jumping about with throwing stars. Cool, huh.

So hands up now who knows what a Nodal Ninja is?

Nope it’s not a IT proficient warrior who fixes networks. For those who have a passing interest in using their camera gear to produce panoramas or QTVR presentations there will a nodding recognition of the word Nodal being the correct pivot point for panoramic photography. So here it is the Nodal Ninja Professional Spherical Panoramic Tripod head by Fanotec (NN5 for short).

Previous incarnations of the NN were lighter, smaller but slightly less stable than the current NN5. The new beefed up version has addressed the shortcomings of those earlier models and is now quite a performer.

The price of panoramic heads in general is a hot topic of discussion - try looking up the price of a Manfrotto pano head for instance. Whilst previous versions of the NN were pitched at a budget market for around £60-£120 the newer beefier NN5 is around £200.

Like the previous Nodal Ninja heads, the NN5 is beautifully made and presented. It rotates very precisely on engraved increments. It also has the ability to accommodate large cameras and lenses. It also packs flat in three sections in it’s own foam lined case.

Photographers serious about their panoramic photography who are considering purchase of a panoramic tripod head should have Nodal Ninja 5 on the short list. Click banner below for more details and full reviews of NN5 and also the smaller NN3.

See the Nodal Ninja group on Flickr for some exciting panos by Nodal Ninja customers.

You are reading photosavings.co.uk

There’s lots of tasty treats cooking in the Calumet oven this bank holiday weekend. Click the links in the list below to see what I mean…. Enjoy the holiday!

1. Nikon Coolpix with Free Nikon Cases

Buy a Coolpix from our selected range and get a FREE Nikon case worth up to £24. Whilst stocks last.

Further Details Here »

2. Sony HDR SR12E High Def Camcorder

Record stunning, incredibly detailed video footage in the clarity of 1920 x 1080 full HD resolution at our new price. Was £899, now £815, save over £80.

Further Details Here »

3. Canon Summer Bundles

Get yourself into one of our fantastic Canon Summer bundles with a FREE Domke PhoTOGS Vest worth over £100. We’re also bundling in a SanDisk Extreme III 2GB CF Card to make this an exceptional offer not to be missed.

Further Details Here »

4. Epson P-5000

Transform the way you view, store and manage digital photos and movies while saving over £50. Was £449.99, now only £399.99.

Further Details Here »

5. Metz 58 AF-1 Flashgun (Nikon and Canon Fits)

A powerful and resourceful flashgun and an absolute bargain at only £150. Save nearly £90 but only whilst stocks last.

Further Details Here »

6. Bowens 200/200 Events Photographers Kit

Gear up to capture the new season event days with this specially created kit for only £699 and save over £50.

Further Details Here »

7. Calumet Web Shooter Special Offer

Everything you need to capture perfect product images. Only £69.99, saving you over 20%.

Further Details Here »

8. Sony DPF V900B 9” Digital Photo Frame

Only £149 and in limited stock so act quickly on Sony’s fantastic new digital photo frame.

Further Details Here »

9. Brilliant Paper 3 for 2

Brilliant Supreme Gloss A4 25 sheet packs. Get 75 sheets for the price of 50.

Further Details Here »

10. Sony CD-RW 80min 700MB 10 Pack

Stock up on essential storage at a fantastic price.

Further Details Here »