Tag Archives: Canon SD 800is

Many Colors

Many Colors
Photo-A-Day #1558

Today was a whirlwind day. First off I participated in a huge simultaneous blog post with #10Ways. Unfortunately I jumped the dang gun and posted at 9:00am EST not 9:00 PST like I was supposed to. That is okay I remedied that quickly and waited for the big bang. At noon the big bang went off and it was huge. So many people were part of this post and the tweets went off like crazy. I followed a bunch of new people today and suddenly I hit the 2000 followers limit and can’t follow anyone else. Huh? I guess I will have to wait till the people following me gets higher.

Today also when I got home I colored with Eva. It has been so long since I’ve used a crayon and drawn anything. She has some Disney stickers and I drew Donald Duck and a partial Mickey Mouse before she got bored with it. They aren’t even half bad. When I walked in the house from work Eva pointed to the Pop Photography magazine in my hand and said “camera” I didn’t realize that I had the magazine in my hand so I went off to get my Canon SD 800is camera. I don’t mind her using that one, it is rugged. I also got the little camera that Dina from Market Leverage got for her. I let Eva put the button and showed her how to hold the camera. That didn’t go so well.

I thought I’d be cute and let Eva take my camera and I’d take hers for the Photo-A-Day but that didn’t work either because I accidentally erased the pictures and I wasn’t able to get them off the camera. I will try again some other day. Eva was much more successful however and she took a ton of photos, mostly because she just kept pushing the button. I uploaded the photos to Flickr and you can check them out. I tagged them EvaBooShoots.

Later after I read Eva 5 books before bed I called a blogger who goes by the name Bad Evan. The other day he DM’d (Private Twitter) me his phone number and then tweeted that he should now change it. We bantered a bit and that was the end of things. Then some other bloggers got involved and we playfully bantered some more. Well tonight I gave Bad Evan a call. He’s a wicked nice guy. We had a few awkward minutes of conversation then we fell into a groove and talked for a good 15 minutes or so. He’s got some amazing project that he is working on and I am looking forward to seeing that as well as seeing him blog again soon. So if you DM me your Phone # I might just call you.

Speaking of blogging, I was interviewed by Laurie Burkitt from Forbes magazine for an article that I personally think was biased and terrible. She (Laurie) got the blog url of this blog wrong despite my sending her 8 links to posts on this blog and also having my blog url in the signature of my e-mail (we exchanged a few, follow up questions) . She also misquoted me stating “I make $6,000 more every year for my family.” That is incorrect. Since starting blogging with IZEA and their many properties, PayPerPost, PayPerPost v4.0, Sponsored Tweets and SocialSpark I have made about $6,000 in total through PayPerPost alone, that is over the course of 3 years. With SocialSpark I have made nearly $500 and PPP V4.0 $35.00 Sponsored Tweets $3.50. I’m not retiring anytime soon but the money certainly has helped my family in many ways. Seeing my blog url incorrect and being misquoted makes me seriously doubt the integrity of the piece overall. What other facts are missing and skewed.

10 Essential Items for IZEAFest 2009

This October I am attending IZEAFest 2009. I’ve been to many blogger conventions over the years (Blog World Expo, PostieCon, and IZEAFest) and I’ve come up with a list of essential items that you must have to go to one of these blogger conferences.

Did you know that you can Enter to win many of the prizes on this page. Enter BenSpark’s Ultimate IZEAFest 2009 Prize Pack Contest.

10. XShot – This simple gadget for your digital camera is the perfect accessory to have with you at a blog conference. I had the xshot 1st and gave it to some great bloggers. Ted Murphy has taken the use of this gadget to the next level though.

With an XShot you can make sure that you are in the photos with everyone. Being seen at blog conferences is very important. And being able to share photos of yourself with cool people like John Chow is fun.

XShot with John Chow

9. BluFrog Energy Drink – I’ve been drinking this stuff for the past month. I won a case from Martha Decker and also received one for Blogs, Brews and Belly Laughs from Jeremy Kendall. BluFrog Energy Drink is pretty amazing stuff.

I’ve done my own trials with it and I can tell you it keeps you awake and alert during meetings and on those boring days. Of course IZEAFest will be anything but boring. But the nights will be long so you are gonna need a healthy pick me up.

Swag Table #3

8. Digital Camera – So many cool things happen at blogger conferences and you are going to make so many great friends. So what better accessory to go with the XShot than a digital camera to capture everything. My camera of choice for a quick shoot is the Canon Powershot Digital Elph. I have a Canon SD800is and there are many newer ones out now.

Canon cameras are fantastic. There is even a group that has hacked the camera to run some great scripts. I use one all the time called the Ultra Intervalometer. This allows me to set the camera to take pictures at a specific interval. I’ve used this in a few creative ways. Like attaching it to the shopping cart to take Eva to the store.

7. ZINK Paper – ZINK paper is some pretty fun stuff because you can use it in interesting ways. I use this product with a Polaroid Pogo, my Canon SD800is and my XShot to take pictures with people. Then I print the image out, remove the back of the ZINK paper and stick it to my business card. That way the person has both my business card and a photo of themselves with me. It makes the interaction so personal and gives you at least a minute or two to talk with that person while the image prints and you put it on the business card. I did this at Blogs, Brews and Belly Laughs and will be doing it again at Blogs, Brews and Belly Laughs II. This is how I use ZINK Paper.

6. Portable Hard Drive – A small portable hard drive is a perfect thing to have with you because you can take a ton of photos and a ton of video and never have to worry about running out of space. I have a Simple Tech 320GB hard drive that weighs so little and is so small.

You don’t want to run out of space when you get that great video interview with Missy Ward or Chris Pirillo.

5. Power – We’re all looking for a little power but in this case I’m talking about power for your gadgets. I’ve had an iGo for years and after 7 years it gave up the ghost, that was seven hard travel years. I was able to power three laptops, seven cell phones, and various other gadgets. When the iGo died I got a Targus that did the exact same thing, in fact I was able to use my iGo peripheral charger with the Targus. With these products you can power up in the car, at the wall socket and even on the plane.

4. Flip Mino HD – HD is where it is at. And the Flip is a perfect device to have with you at a blog conference, it is small, it fits in your pocket and powers up so quickly. I was watching the cake plow at IZEAFest last year and John Chow was able to scoop the video of Ted Murphy being slammed into the cake. I had a different video camera and it wasn’t fast enough to catch that moment. If you want to catch a moment you have to be ready all the time. And even if you capture a moment you want to make sure you get that moment posted quickly. The Flip Mino HD has all the software you need to edit and upload your movies.

3. Business Cards – Two years ago I made 250 free cards with VistaPrint. They were good but sort of random. I had printed out 100 of my photo-a-day photos and stuck them to the cards. Creative but didn’t get my message across. This past year I made Moo cards with two designs one with my hands everywhere and the other of a rubber ducky that looks like me. These cards made a visual impact on everyone who got them. This year I plan to do something similar but to incorporate the PoGo, ZINK Paper and XShot into the mix.

2. Netbook – Portability and battery life are the two biggest concerns when at a blog conference, you don’t want to be weighed down with a ton of stuff and you don’t want to lose power when you have that great tweet to post.

Allison owns a Lenovo IdeaPad S10 she is able to do so much more now online because she is portable. She’s even applied for a job with Ravelry, I hope she gets it.

1 – A Ticket to IZEAFest 2009 – This is pretty much the most important thing that you need for IZEAFest, you need a ticket. You can buy one at $229.00 which not only includes an incredible lineup of speakers including 2 full days of amazing speakers and events plus a blogger takeover day at SeaWorld!


So is that the definitive list? No, there are many other great tings to bring, why don’t you let me know what some of them are in the comments.

And look here for a contest where I will give away some IZEAFest tickets. Heck I’d love to give away this complete list to some lucky bloggers, but I need some sponsors to help me out. Contact me through the contact form and let me know if you are interested in being a sponsor. I already have sponsors for the PoGo and ZINK Paper, XShot, IZEAFest Ticket and Flip Mino HD.

Today’s assignment for Day 2 of the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge is to write a list post. I’d been toying with the idea of this list for a while and the assignment gave me the push I needed.