PRESS RELEASE
DATE: March 2004
SUBJECT: NEW and IMPROVED! Taking Your Camera on the Road Website
VanFossen Productions, Lorelle and Brent VanFossen
“Taking Your Camera on the Road”
www.cameraontheroad.com
lorelle@cameraontheroad.com
Tel Aviv, Israel
Tel Aviv, Israel – You are receiving this email because you are 1) on our mailing list, 2) a friend, family, or fan, or 3) we goofed and included you by mistake because at one time or another you emailed us.
If you are a friend, family, or fan, skip to the next paragraph. If you are unfamiliar with us, we are Brent and Lorelle VanFossen and we host the web site called “Taking Your Camera on the Road” which explains our life spent living on the road full-time (currently in Israel) and doing nature and travel photography and writing which is published in magazines and online. You can visit our site at http://www.cameraontheroad.com and we apologize if this email is unwelcome.
Now, to the people who do care about us – first, thank you! Thanks for caring, thank you for your continued support and enthusiasm, and thanks for being there. Living so far from the people we love, you are “the wind beneath our wings”, our “you got to have friends” and we “long to be close to you” – but we’re stuck right now with email closeness and bad song clichis.
Yes! We’ve done it. We’ve completely redone our web site, almost 500 web pagespacked with too much information about travel, nature photography, our adventures, tips, tricks, techniques, and passions.
I have been hiding out, working long hard hours for the past four months to redo this entire site, and I’ve learned a lot. But my poor friends and family think I have abandoned them. A web site is such a nebulous thing, difficult to hold in your hand and show off to your friends. You can’t put it in your pocket or hang it on the wall, so to say that it has been an amazing accomplishment doesn’t mean much to those unfamiliar with the process. To put this accomplishment into some kind of tangible reality, I have spent the last four to five months writing at least 40 articles, editing and rewriting 500 articles, and editing, cutting, pasting, redesigning, and repainting about 200 oil paintings that have been sitting in the basement of a museum for 800 years. This is how it works when you are totally focused on making your dreams and all your hard work come true. My body hurts, I’ve had a headache for days, and I feel like I’ve aged a couple hundred years, but I’m just about done and you get the first chance to view the final product!
What’s New
We’ve totally revised our web site. Along with updated
articles, links, and information, we have dozens of new articles on nature
photography techniques, travel tips, and Internet and email advice and web site
development.
The Learning
Zone
Our Learning Zone is dedicated to
teaching and learning about nature photography, travel photography, the business
of nature photography and writing, and more. Our biggest section on our
site, we’ve included a lot of new articles and article series in this
section.
- web site Development – Checking and Validating Web Pages
- After months spent revising our web site, we have a lot of tips, techniques and advice to share in a new series of articles on web site development, web page design, site optimizing and validating for search engines, accessibility and faster access. Since most writers and photographers have web sites, we thought this information would be of particular interest.
- Introduction to Web Page Validation
- Web Page Validation: Start with Compliance
- Web Page Validation: Begin the Validation
- Web Page Validation: Ready for Search Engines
- Web Page Validation: Keywords Inside
- Web Page Validation: Optimizing Your web site
- Web Page Validation: Linkability: Link Popularity
- Web Page Validation: International Issues
- Web Page Validation: Final Optimization
- Close ups in Nature
- Close up photography or macro photography is a favorite nature photography subject for us. We’ve decided to share our class notebook online called “I Long To Be Close To You: Closeups in Nature”. This nine-part article series takes you inside the magic world of close up photography and the miniature world of nature photography, learning about the special photographic equipment required, techniques, and exploring various subjects of close up nature photography.
- How To? What For? Basics of Nature Photography
- Our book about the basics of nature photography is now completely online. It is available through our web site and also in PDF form so you can download it and print it at your leisure. We’ve included a lot of new exercises to help you learn the basics of nature photography step-by-step.
- Internet and Web Tips, Tricks, Techniques and Evil Email Doings
- Traveling on the road all the time, we are dependent upon the Internet and our web site to stay in touch with friends, family, and fans. Often we connect through borrowed telephones or wireless connections, making our online time extremely short. So we’ve learned a lot about viruses, trojans, worms, spam, email hoaxes and chain letters, spyware, popup windows, and all the annoying little things that haunt the Internet and our email inbox. We get asked a lot about how we do what we do on the Internet so we decided to share our tips and tricks and techniques for the Internet, web, file sharing, and email.
- Internet Tips and Tricks Introduction for Maximizing Your Internet Experience
- Introduction to the Internet Browser
- Browser Parts and Pieces: Learning Your Online Software Browser
- Web Page Plots – How to Find What You Want from a Web Page
- Working the Internet Offline
- The Search is On – How to Search the Internet
- Hot Searching Techniques for Speedy Internet Research
- Shopping the Net
- How to Download Files and Avoid Viruses
- Customize Internet Explorer to Maximize Your Online Time
- Tips and Tricks Links to Help You Explore the Internet Better
- Keyboard Shortcuts for Microsoft Internet Explorer
- Basic Information on Internet and Email Hoaxes
- Answering All Your Questions about the Internet and Web
- Avoiding, Stopping and Preventing Popup Windows
- Preventing and Stopping Spyware
- Stopping Spam, Spammers, and Unwanted and Unsolicited Emails
- Hoaxes, Rumor Mills, Chain Letters, and Online Trash
- Viruses, Trojans, Worms, and Other Email Miseries
- File Sharing: Kazaa, Kazaa Lite K++, eDonkey, Bit Torrent and More
- Having Fun and Games on Your Computer
- Outlook and Outlook Express Tips, Tricks and Techniques
- Shareware and Freeware Software: Some of the Best Programs are Cheap or Free
- Digital Camera Tips and Tricks
- Digital photography is here. With the recent announcement by Kodak to stop selling most of their print films in the United States, digital cameras are here to stay. We feature a new article on digital cameras and some tips and tricks for going digital.
- New and Improved Book Recommendations
- Our outstanding book references featuring nature, travel, and the business of nature photography books is now updated and improved. We get so many requests for information on where to buy the books we recommend, we decided to become an associate with Amazon.com to help you collect these wonderful resources much easier. We’ve expanded our book categories to include books that are inspiring and motivating, and books on the topics of general photography, the business of photography, stock photography, writing, selling and marketing your photography, travel photography and writing, and birds, birding, and bird watching. We’ve also included a wide range of nature and travel related magazines to keep the enthusiasm going month after month. For more books on nature photography, travel, and writing, visit our new online bookstore.
The Home Zone
In our Home Zone, we feature frequently updated information about our life on the road and news bits and information for the traveling nature photographer and writer.
- Newsletters Packed with Travel Tips and Advice
- If you haven’t signed up for our monthly newsletter for nature photographers and writers, do it now. We just completed our second newsletter in a series of three dedicated to travel for the nature photographer and writer. We have great information on how to plan your travels to maximize your photography, what to take with you when you go, and extensive information on security, carry-on luggage, security x-rays and film, and more the traveling photographer needs to know. Issue three on Travel will be out soon. Sign up now!
- Online Bookstore and More
- We’ve also added an online bookstore featuring our favorites and even more book and related offerings. So many people love our Book Recommendations that we thought we’d try opening an online store in association with Amazon.com to help you stock your library. This is new for us, so if you have any comments or recommendations, please let us know.
- A Weblog Journal: Journal Thoughts
- After emailing our road journals for years, you can now keep up-to-date with our life on the road through our blog called Journal Thoughts. We share what it is like to live in Israel, comment on politics around the world, and give tips and information on our life and lifestyle.
- Market Watch
- Serious about turning your nature photography and writing into a business, we can help. In addition to the wide variety of business related articles we have to offer in our Learning and Business Zones, we’ve started a new Market Watch section. Paying attention to topical news, events and articles can help increase your photo sales.
- Good News from Israel
- While those living outside of Israel seem to see nothing but bad news coming out of Israel, we also seem to be surrounded by the same bad news. So we decided to do a little hunting for some good news and we found some worth sharing.
The Going Zone
Thinking of going on the road traveling? We have updated many of our popular articles in our Going Zone including how to plan your nature-oriented travels and take it with you when you go and tips on packing.
The Living Zone
We’ve completely updated all of our articles on staying in touch on the road, including using wireless Internet connections, and working on the road. New articles include Storage Tips for RVers, Is Full-Time Living Right for You? and Choosing a Full-Time Recreational Vehicle for Nature Photography.
For more information on what’s new on our web site, Taking Your Camera on the Road, visit our What’s New page.
And thanks for all your support and encouragement over the years as we’ve taken our camera on the road.
Lorelle VanFossen
On the Road: Tel Aviv,
Israel
lorelle@cameraontheroad.com
COMPLETELY UPDATED:www.cameraontheroad.com
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For more information on who the VanFossens are and what are they doing as they take their camera on the road, visit their Doing Zone.