5AM FLASH 230712: Free photos – for creatives by creatives

Every now and then at 5am (probably posted by my clone) I will be bringing you a newsflash, update on what I’m doing, invited guest piece, or whatever takes my fancy, and today I’d like to mention a great site for free photographs…

Morgue File

At some stage in their writing, blogging, eBooking, writers need photographs. Some will have their own stash of ‘could be perfect’ shots they took thinking it might just come in handy one day but if that’s not you or it is you but you just don’t have what you’re looking for try Morgue File.

The home page is http://morguefile.com and shows their favourite photograph of the moment.

There are thousands (probably tens of thousands – there’s a great one of green icing cupcakes no. 542347 – http://morguefile.com/archive/display/542347) of free photographs to choose from and all you do it put a keyword (or more than one) and, unless you’ve picked a really obscure photograph, you get a gallery of thumbnail photos to choose from. Click on the ones that appeal and you have the option (on the left, under the photo) to download it.

Licence

Most free photo sites restrict your use but Morgue File is the most flexible I’ve come across. They say… “You are allowed to copy, distribute, transmit the work and to adapt the work. Attribution is not required. You are prohibited from using this work in a stand alone manner.” And they don’t mind if you use it commercially.

Do take a look though at the photographer’s comments underneath that licence statement as they usually love to know that you’re using their photo (as we writers love to know that someone’s read our free stories ). For instance the photographer of our green cupcakes says… “Let me know if you use my photo I would love to hear about your project. Thanks and enjoy! http://photodaisy.blogspot.com.”

Why is it called ‘Morgue File’?

As the site explains, “a ‘morgue file’ is a place to keep post-production materials for use of reference, an inactive job file. This morgue file contains free high resolution digital stock photography for either corporate or public use.

The term “morgue file” is popular in the newspaper business to describe the file that holds past issues flats. Although the term has been used by illustrators, comic book artist, designers and teachers as well. The purpose of this site is to provide free image reference material for use in all creative pursuits. This is the world wide web’s morguefile”.

Picture origin

I would recommend making a note of the reference number (i.e. the end of the photograph’s website address, the 542347 of our cupcakes) because should you use a photograph somewhere and its origin be challenged* you have a record so I rename the file e.g. green cupcakes 542347. I found that photograph, by the way, from a keyword search of ‘pretty’.

* http://www.roniloren.com has an interesting article on that subject.

File size

When you download the photograph you’ll probably find that it’s a huge file size. This is fine if you’re creating something like an eBook cover and you need it to be a certain size and clarity but for day-to-day (for instance I use a picture for my daily 5pm Fiction slot) you can shrink it (I use Preview or PhotoShop and reduce it to c. 100×150 pixels), crop it, whatever you want to do with it really.

So, whatever you need your photograph for, or of, you’re bound to find something on Morgue File and I couldn’t recommend it highly enough.

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You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything… and follow me on Twitter where each new posting is automatically announced. You can also read / download my eBooks and free eShorts at Smashwords, Sony Reader Store, Barnes & Noble, iTunes Bookstore, Kobo and Amazon, with more to follow. I have a new forum, friend me on Facebook, like me on Facebook, connect with me on LinkedIn, find me on Tumblr, complete my website’s Contact me page or plain and simple, email me.  I also now have a new blog creation service especially for, but not limited to, writers.

Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I have a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them)  on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are weekly episodes, usually released Monday mornings UK time, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.

 

Guest post: ‘Setting up a spoken word website’ by Rachel Cochrane

I’m delighted to bring you this guest blog post, today by Listen Up North’s Rachel Cochrane.

Setting up listenupnorth.com a spoken word entertainment website

Ten years ago I gave up a professional post in the NHS to realise my ambition to become a scriptwriter. Many years and countless rejections later, I was determined that the next thing I wrote was going to find an audience.  This decision coincided with the advent of digital media and for the past year I have been setting up spoken word entertainment website listenupnorth.com showcasing my own and other writers’ work.  Visitors to the site can listen online or via downloads to radio plays, short stories, poetry and book extracts.

Having built up content and a following, I am now exploring ways of monetising the site to make it a viable concern including advertising and sponsorship. I would like to share with you 10 things I have learnt along the way:

1. Be prepared to be out of your comfort zone – I am not the world’s most outgoing or confident person but to achieve what I want I have had learn to fight my corner, become self-assured about what I am doing and shout it from the roof tops.
2. Take responsibility – You have to be the driving force that ensures that your project is on course and comes to fruition.
3. Networking – Many writers spend solitary lives avoiding communication with others!  You need people that can help you build and support what you are trying to do both creatively and as a business venture. Find network groups that are not just other writers.
4. Numbers matter – Not only is it very satisfying to get your work out to an audience but the number of hits and especially subscribers matter when you wish to attract funding, whether from public or private sponsorship or advertising.
5. Publicity – There are lots of ways that you can raise awareness of your work without spending huge amounts on marketing.  Encourage those involved with your projects to spread the word about what you’re doing. Try a workshop on how to exploit social media for business.  Whom are you trying to attract?  Where can find you find them?  How you can target them? Networks made on social media can pay dividends at this point.  Are there any current topics or issues that your creative work can hook into?  Any blogs posts you can write for other sites? Don’t forget traditional media: a story in the local newspaper, a guest spot on local radio, a talk to local groups in village halls.
6. Look for opportunities – I undertook a creative entrepreneurship course to learn business skills and then a digital fellowship to develop my digital awareness.  Both these university-based schemes had mentor support.
7. Be prepared to learn new skills – To make my radio dramas and other recordings, I had to learn about directing (i.e. just stand there and sound like you know what you are doing!), producing and I undertook a course at a local college to learn technical skills such as recording and editing.
8. Collaboration – Some projects, whether business or creative, are too big to manage alone and this is where networking is invaluable.  Other people may have the skills and knowledge that you need and vice versa.  It is important to establish at the outset the role of each party, what they expect to achieve and any boundaries. At present I am collaborating with another writer on a joint package to attract advertising to support both our businesses.  My soon-to-be-released short film Celia was a joint venture between myself, a producer / director and an actor, each of us looking for a vehicle to showcase our talents. Click here for a link to the trailer for Celia.
9. Run it as a business – Money should not be a dirty word to creative people! Make sure that what you are doing does not just become an expensive hobby.  Fact: without bringing in money I cannot hope to maintain what I have worked hard to create not only for myself but also for other writers.
10. Make sure you still find time for your own writing!

Hear hear! Thank you Rachel.

After many years of scriptwriting full-time and several shortlists, Rachel decided to bypass the cumbersome commissioning process and take advantage of the advent of digital media.  After being selected for the Creative GLEAM scheme at Durham University Business School and a DigitalCity Fellowship at the Institute of Digital Innovation, she has now set up a spoken word entertainment website listenupnorth.com, recording her own dramas and inviting other writers to submit their quality work for you to enjoy.  Rachel is about to launch the pilot episode of her webdrama Celia, the deliberations of a middle-class, middle-aged woman which bears no resemblance to her own life – honest.  Catch the trailer http://listenupnorth.com/drama-page/338.

You can find more about Rachel and her work via the links above and you can also find her on Twitter and Facebook. You can also email her at enquiries@listenupnorth.com. I shall be interviewing Rachel later this month but in the meantime you can read her author spotlight.

If you would like to write a writing-related guest post for my blog then feel free to email me with an outline of what you would like to write about. If it’s writing-related then it’s highly likely I’d email back and say “yes please” (while quietly bouncing up and down in my seat with joy!).

The blog interviews return as normal tomorrow morning with novelist Laura-Wilkinson – the one hundred and eighty-ninth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, bloggers, autobiographers and more. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. And I enjoy hearing from readers of my blog; do either leave a comment on the relevant interview (the interviewees love to hear from you too!) and / or email me.

 

Guest post: Is Your Web Page Accessible? by DV Berkom

I’m delighted to bring you this guest blog post, today on developing a multi-user-friendly website by fantasy, mystery and suspense / thriller author and interviewee-to-be (no.166) DV Berkom.

Imagine a potential new reader who happens upon your beautifully designed website, whether by way of that blog post you wrote about your fabulous, just-released novel, or because someone they know told them about you.

Become that reader. See your website as though for the first time. Notice the colors, the perfect fonts, the just-right images…Now, close your eyes. What do you see?

Got it? Now imagine that you can’t use a mouse. Or are colorblind. How does your website look now?

These are questions every writer with a website should ask her / himself. If you used a web designer, hopefully she understood the implications of accessibility and developed your site accordingly. If, however, you created your own website (like I did), and only vaguely understood what “accessibility” actually meant in relation to HTML and Cascading Style Sheets (yup, me again), then you need to read this article. Why, you ask? Because you’re missing a HUGE segment of the population (some put the estimate at tens of millions) who may enjoy learning more about you and the stories you create. And, it just makes sense.

Listen, we’re writers. We write stories. We love it when people are able to access our work. We love it even more when we get feedback. Why not use the following simple tips to make your website more accessible to another large segment of Internet users? Not only will these techniques make your website more accessible to those millions of non-traditional users, it will make it more accessible to an aging population, improve your odds with search engines, and improve readability and navigation on e-readers and smartphones. (Note: I’m making the assumption that if you’ve developed / designed your own website, you have at least a tentative understanding of HTML and will be able to follow the references in this article. If not, you may want to search HTML tutorials for more information on HTML and web design.)

Two of the most overlooked and easiest ways to make your website accessible are using headings (e.g., H1) and providing alternative text for images.

Alternative Text (alt-text) for Images: Providing alt-text for your images just means using a description in your code for the images on your website.  This includes not only .JPGs and .GIFs and .PNGs, but image maps, spacers, and even images used for navigation like bullets or buttons. When a visually impaired web user navigates to your site, they’ll more than likely be using a screen reader or talking browser, and the image text will be read to them. In Dreamweaver, the web design program I use, you can find the alt attribute at the bottom of the screen in Properties, to the right of Src. If you’re writing your own HTML, the alt=”description” goes after the image source (e.g., <image src=”images/image.gif” alt=”image description”/>

Look at the top (or side) of your home page. Do you use images for links (buttons) to different pages of your website? If so, you’ll want to provide alt-text for these elements, or the text-reader won’t recognize the navigation. If the image is a link to something, you’ll want to convey the reason for the link. For instance, say you have an image that links to your About page. You would use alt= “About” in the code. You don’t need to include “link to…” in your description. The text reader will let the user know when a link is encountered. Keep your description simple- preferably not more than a few words.

Now, look at your home page again. Are there images that are basically decorative and do nothing more than add a visual element to the page? Images that aren’t necessary for navigation should probably not have a description (although, there are good arguments for the other side so if you want visitors to know you have a picture of, say, a pug on your page, go ahead and use the text alt=”pug”. Your call.) Otherwise, use alt=”‘ (pair of quotes). This will indicate a non-essential element, allowing the text-reader to skip the description, saving your visitor time.

If you have an image map, each area should have its own description. Again, if you’re using Dreamweaver, each ‘hot spot’ has a box at the bottom of the design screen where you can enter alt-text. For those of you creating your webpage from scratch, the HTML would be similar to this image map for an imaginary web site for bath products:

<div align=”center”><img src=”images.jpg” width=”496″ height=”451″ border=”0″ usemap=”#Map”>

<map name=”Map”>

<area shape=”rect” coords=”102,9,193,148″ href=”loofah.htm”
alt=”Sponges”">

<area shape=”rect” coords=”199,11,288,148″ href=”soaps.htm”
alt=”Glycerin soaps”>

<area shape=”rect” coords=”395,373,481,445″ href=”fragrance.html”
alt=”Essential Oils”>

</map>
Notice the text after alt= describes the image’s link in simple terms. No need to go overboard and explain, for instance, that the loofahs are from an island in the Caribbean, hand-picked by sexy surfer-boys. (Hey – it’s my imaginary website <g>)

Headings: When I first created my author web page, www.dvberkom.com, I didn’t have a clue about CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and laboriously changed font size by hand as I created the pages. Didn’t use the H1 attribute. Didn’t use any kind of text attribute other than the default. If you design your webpage this way, a visually-impaired user will have to listen to everything on the page. And I mean everything.

The text-reader needs a way to differentiate the various areas on the page, or it thinks it’s all important. Yes, I know. YOU think everything is important, but put yourself in your visitor’s shoes. When you go to a web site, do you want to find the information you’re interested in with the least amount of navigation? Sure. So does everyone else. Visually-impaired users are no different.

If you use headings, the text-reader is able to skip to each heading without having to read all of the text in between. This way, if the visitor wants to find out about your new release, s/he can do so without having to listen to everything prior to that information. What if this is the second time the visitor has come to your website? Would you want to have to listen to all the stuff you’ve heard before, just to get to the piece of information you need?

Didn’t think so.

Here are some other issues to take into account when you assess your website: (Note: While there are many ways to make your website more accessible, more in-depth techniques are beyond the scope of this author and article. I’ve included links below if you’d like to learn more.)

• Avoid page elements that flicker. “Elements that flicker between the rate of 2Hz and 55Hz may cause seizures in individuals that have photosensitive epilepsy.” (http://www.doit.wisc.edu/accessibility/online-course/standards/flicker.htm) This means that cute little animated cartoon .GIF and marquis-style banners.
• Create accessible .PDF files with Adobe Acrobat, and revise existing PDFs for accessibility. (http://www.adobe.com/accessibility/products/acrobat/overview.html)
• Include captions / transcripts in multimedia: e.g., videos on YouTube, presentations, etc.
• Make your website navigable for non-mouse users (include the option of using the keyboard to navigate your site)
• Offer a “Skip Navigation” option at the top of the page for those interested in jumping directly to the main content

There are several more unobtrusive ways that you can design your web pages so that everyone can enjoy what you have to offer. While my website is far from completely accessible, I’ve begun taking the baby steps to create a site that will hopefully include, rather than exclude, non-traditional web users. Creating an accessible website isn’t just good business, it’s an opportunity to foster inclusiveness and good relationships with potential readers.

For more information:

Online accessibility courses (FREE):

http://www.doit.wise.edu/accessibility/online-course

http://jimthatcher.com/webcourse1.htm

Check your web pages for Accessibility: The following are links to accessibility toolbars to check your website.

• Web Accessibility Toolbar for IE: http://www.paciellogroup.com/resources/wat-ie-about.html

• For Firefox (web developer extension): http://www.chrispederick.com/work/web-developer

Web Accessibility Initiative: http://www.w3.org/WAI

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C): http://www.w3.org

About Section 508 Standards for Web Accessibility:

http://www.access-board.gov/sec508/guide/1194.22.htm

Thank you DV.

Author of the Kate Jones Bad Spirits series, DV Berkom grew up in the Midwest, received her BA in Political Science from the University of Minnesota, and promptly moved to Mexico to live on a sailboat. Several years and at least a dozen moves later, she now resides outside of Seattle, Washington with her sweetheart Mark, an ex-chef-turned-contractor, and writes whenever she gets a chance. You’re welcome to email her at dvb@dvberkom.com or chat with her on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/dvberkom) – she loves to hear from readers as well as other writers. For more information, you can visit her website at www.dvberkom.com.