September 5th, 2010 → 7:19 pm @ Zo Nicholas
By Zo NicholasThe summer holidays are almost over and the children start the process of going back to school and we slowly drift into autumn; the season of ‘mellow fruitfullness’ as so aptly put by John Keats.
During the summer we tend take advantage of the longer days, the warmer weather, spending more time outdoors. One of those pleasant summer activities is eating out, al fresco, feasting on the summer fruits, ice creams, enjoying a barbeque or two, picnics or just enjoying a drink in the warm sunshine.
Not only do humans enjoy feasting in the summer, where there is food we often tend to find annoying insects like the wasp. The more you try to get away from the wasp the more it will follow you and you could end up as an unfortunate victim with a nasty sting. Wasps aren’t aggressive by nature but do not like to be disturbed. Leaving them well alone it seems is the best remedy. Leave food around and they will congregate there.
Wasps just love to feast on our leftovers, watch them carefully and you will see how they tug and cut away a small chunk of food to take it elsewhere. It’s really fascinating watching these little creatures. If you have your digital camera to hand its worth giving it a shot.
On just such an occassion after a summer feast I managed to capture this picture of a wasp [Vespula germanica] with my digital camera having a go at some of the leftovers on a plate. This little creature spent quite a attacking this bit of food. The wasp did eventually manage to cut or tear a piece of the food of and fly away with it.
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Author:
Zo Nicholas, Media, Marketing, Publishing.
Co-Founder of YORGOO, Ycademy,YORGOO Press and Semiomantics.
September 5th, 2010 → 9:11 am @ Bianca Gubalke
Although it was an overcast and stormy day, I spent most of it in the magnificent garden of a friend and neighbour, here in the “Cpae Floral Kingdom” , taking pictures of his masterspiece of a home and garden.
Here I captured the stunning Protea “Pink Ice” that set an incredible accent in the ocean of greens that surrounded me in his garden.
Spring is a magnificent time to visit the Cape Floral Kingdom!
The above photo of the Protea Pink Ice just went through my minimum presets in Lightroom and I added a bit of a vignette – that’s all. This is the real colour – it’s breath-takingly beautiful!
In fact, the Proteacea family already attracted the attention of botanists visiting the Cape of Good Hope as far back as the 1600′s… and its ‘ancestors’ can be tracked back to Gondwanaland just 300 million years ago!
In fact, the Cape of Good Hope area is regarded as “…the richest floral Kingdom in the world”.
When I close my eyes and visualize the spectacular piece of Nature that enveloped me for many hours today, and this under dark and oppressive clouds rolling over the mountains, the explosive “Pink Ice” Protea appears immediately – a lasting impression!
What will it look in bright sunshine?
I will know soon . . . as I’ll be back there for ‘more’!
 Copyright © 2010 Destinations Expo Cape Floral Kingdom is a post from: Destinations Expo |
September 4th, 2010 → 3:10 pm @ Zo Nicholas
By Zo NicholasYcademy Trainings offer training in various subjects. Digital Photography and the preparation of photos for the new ‘Photo Media Stock’ site was covered during the August seminar. Following through on this theme Fridays daily training call was concerned with editing photos using Lightroom3. As all participants used the same submitted photo for the exercise it will interesting to compare the end results. The photo was taken the begining of April 2010 on a bright, sunny spring day.
No1. The original
No2. Edited Photo
No3. The black and white version
No4. A little bit of post-editing gives the same photo a very different feel.
Click on the images to see a larger view.
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Author:
Zo Nicholas, Media, Marketing, Publishing.
Co-Founder of YORGOO, Ycademy,YORGOO Press and Semiomantics.
September 2nd, 2010 → 5:37 pm @ Bianca Gubalke
“Crowned Eagle” at Monkey Valley Resort, Noordhoek, South Africa, is certainly the most spectacular amongst the Best Accommodation Cape Town South Africa when it comes to visitors who are looking for that special, warm “Out of Africa” ambience one hardly finds anymore… as so much has become sort of the same high international ‘standard’.
To promote “Crowned Eagle” as one of the Best Accommodation Cape Town South Africa has to offer in the UK and US, Monkey Valley Resort will market this gem of a villa – which is situated high up on the slopes of Chapman’s Peak and overlooking 8 km of pristine beach along the Atlantic Ocean – via a precious downloadable and printable brochure to their tour operators and contacts overseas – leading them to direct bookings or to their new website on Semiomantics Evolution.
As the German Tourism Industry is up, the German version of the brochure will be marketed in Germany, to reach out for some market share in the flourishing German Holiday and Travel Industry.
As many Germans and Swiss love Noordhoek and spend at least the German winter in their holiday homes down here, there may be some really positive response.
When looking at the search term ” Best Accommodation Cape Town South Africa on Google” we currently get 12,8 million returns. It’s certainly a highly competitive arena, especially when domain names contain these exact terms. However, when working on Semiomantics XO it’s never a question of getting there – it’s just a matter of how long it takes… a few minutes, a few hours or a few days? Which depends on how much we apply ourselves to the task… which depends how much we really want to focus on it.
Let’s see where we can get with a first shot – Lights Out! Action! Go!
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Copyright © 2010 Destinations Expo Best Accommodation Cape Town South Africa is a post from: Destinations Expo |
September 2nd, 2010 → 1:04 pm @ Yorgo Nestoridis
Smashing weather today again at Astir Beach in Vouliagmeni. Even an iPhone can take nice pics under these conditions.
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Copyright © 2010 Destinations Expo Destination Astir Beach is a post from: Destinations Expo |
August 31st, 2010 → 10:00 pm @ Zo Nicholas
By Zo NicholasThe last day in August turns out to be a glorious summers day which is a rare occurence this summer here in Essex where I live. If you saw my earlier posts about the local Airshow you will notice that the weather nearly let us down. However, today was wonderful with long spells of warm sunshine so much needed after so many dreary days. The garden was the best place to be today. What caught my eye glistening in the sunshine was a big spiders web just by the door. Down came the spider from his hiding hole to catch an unwary little fly. Having watched this for a short while I decided it was an opportunity not to be missed and got the camera out. What was really intriguing was that I was watching the spider from underneath, and not looking down on his back.
Well I think its a garden spider, if anyone would like to correct me on this one please do. By the time the camera was in place this little spider had consumed his prey and looked like it was wrapping it up and then sort of pushed it out in a little ball. I am no nature freak but this episode was absolutely fascinating. Here is the photo I shot of this spider with my Nikon Coolpix. With the sun shining directly on the web the little ball here looks like a blue gemstone.
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Author:
Zo Nicholas, Media, Marketing, Publishing.
Co-Founder of YORGOO, Ycademy,YORGOO Press and Semiomantics.
August 31st, 2010 → 6:08 pm @ Bianca Gubalke
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Cape Town, South Africa, is getting ready for spring… and naturally we asked Dumi Sakuinje what’s planned at Monkey Valley Resort for the new season, starting 1 September 2010?
Check out the brief projection below, recorded on a sunny but pretty windy afternoon – with nothing but the last few feet left on a NIKON Coolpix P90 digital camera – high up at Monkey Valley Resort’s gem, the “Crowned Eagle”, on what’s to be expected in terms of September Entertainment at the beautiful beach resort.
This little movie was edited in Camtasia Studio Pro with no really efficient tool to eliminate the background noise the amazingly sensitive microphone of the digital camera had captured. It is only 1 minute 35 seconds long and was produced in High Definition for YouTube. . . where it’s currently loading. It will take a couple of hours with our slow Internet connections… but here come some interesting details for those interested in movie productions for online presentations and YouTube.
As we are still testing the best conversion and production formats, my experience with “Monkey Valley Resort in September” was the following:
My NIKON Coolpix P90 is normally set to produce digital photos in 3000 x 4000 size. I did not change these settings to 16:9 for instance. I kept all 3×4.
When starting a new project in Camtasia Studio Pro we are asked to select our format preferences.
As I plan to load the movie in HD to YouTube, I selected 1280 x 720 – which immediately reduced the original images on my Camtasia editing screen, leaving me with a large black frame around the picture.
Once the clip was edited, I published it with my personal settings – which again are YouTube/HD, meaning 1280 x 720.
The result was the display you see in the top picture here. Length: 1:35 min, 30frames per second, 214 MB.
Hmmm… I found this pretty heavy for a tiny clip like this… but I remembered that in a previous discussion it was mentioned that the whole black frame counts in terms of ‘weight’ – at least, that’s what I had understood.
Accordingly, I decided to experiment and try another version:
I did not touch the edited movie, but changed the initial settings in Camtasia to the original size I filmed it, 640 x 360 (4×3). . . but then chose the same format for YouTube/HD, meaning 1280 x 720. Being aware that I changed the 4×3 to a 16:9 … I just wanted to see the result. One never knows unless one tries… and this is not the end of the story yet :)
However, now I got double the weight: 452 MB, same time 1:35 min and 30 frames per second.
What I like here is that the picture will be seen at maximal height as demonstrated on the second screenshot above, the way Camtasia plays the movie straight after publishing.
Of course, I’d prefer to have it lighter … without losing any quality. Maybe I will get there in the next shot. . .
27% loaded… 242 minutes remaining on YouTube – duhh… what would I do with 10 minutes???
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Copyright © 2010 Destinations Expo Monkey Valley Resort in September is a post from: Destinations Expo |
August 30th, 2010 → 8:10 pm @ Zo Nicholas
By Zo NicholasThe flying program at the Clacton Airshow 2010 included the famous RAF aerobatic team, the Red Arrows. There is nothing quite so breathtaking as watching this display team whiz through the skies and perform their aerobatics.
Here is a short video on Youtube of the Red Arrows aerobatics display at the 2010 Airshow in Clacton.
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Author:
Zo Nicholas, Media, Marketing, Publishing.
Co-Founder of YORGOO, Ycademy,YORGOO Press and Semiomantics.
August 30th, 2010 → 5:59 pm @ Bianca Gubalke
Ever thought of Destination Arctic Ice?
Visiting the North Pole or the South Pole?
My sister just returned from an extraordinary journey she’s always been dreaming of… a trip into a white world of silence and of serenity…
Still filled with her stories and waiting for the pictures, I wish to draw your attention to what I call “Destination Arctic Ice” – a world that seems to me is still relatively ‘untouched’, unspoilt, unaffected by human intervention, by human greed and destruction. It’s not far away on the moon or any other distant planet – it’s right here, right under our feet almost… and it’s still unexplored, virgin, complete. In my eyes – sacred.
And it should remain sacred.
Have a look at what no human eye has ever seen before – as I’m being told by photographer Gavin Newman who has built the ‘toys’ that enable him to go further than anyone else ever went underneath the Melting Artic Ice, filming “stunning life”… a habitat noone even expected, a habitat of grandiose beauty…
However, it already shows the scars of human greed by those desastrous trawlers… motivated by the overeating part of the world population. They have to be stopped – NOW!
It’s your and my Awareness that can do so, our determination to protect what we were given to care for – not to own, not to ‘possess’ nor to dominate. ‘Taking care of our house’ is part of our sacred contract with the Divine… whatever way you perceive it.
After all, we are all part of ‘it’… if we destroy what in a world of duality is perceived as ‘outside’ we destroy… ourselves.
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Copyright © 2010 Destinations Expo Destination Arctic Ice is a post from: Destinations Expo |
August 29th, 2010 → 3:42 pm @ Yorgo Nestoridis
Copyright © 2010 Yorgo Nestoridis. Visit the original article at http://yorgonestoridis.com/greece/lightroom-3-presets/.Just 4 samples using some of my Lightroom presets for the purpose of the Ycademy Seminar.
Enjoy.
Ermoupoli Syros, Greece - Original
Ermoupoli Syros, Greece - Preset 1
Ermoupoli Syros, Greece -Preset 2
Ermoupoli Syros, Greece - Preset 3
Ermoupoli Syros, Greece - Preset 4
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Author: Yorgo Nestoridis, Media Marketing & Publishing, Founder of YORGOO Publishing, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics.
August 29th, 2010 → 8:51 am @ Bianca Gubalke
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While the Destinations Expo 2010 in Cape Town, South Africa, had opened its doors to the Holiday and Travel Industry, passionate yoga practitioners and yoga teachers from all over the country united for a Yoga Workshop at the Chapman’s Peak Hotel, Hout Bay, lead by Shimon Ben Avi, highly respected and wonderfully inspiring yoga master from Israel and teacher of my cherished yoga teacher and dear friend Leora Leibovitz.
This Yoga Workshop Destination Cape Town was not ‘only’ about the physical positions necessary to reach into our stillness inside and release the social imprints, mind conditioning, emotions and pain we all accumulate over time – but a magic journey into the understanding and experiencing of the true essence of Yoga.
Shimon Ben Avi is a powerful yet very graceful teacher with 26 years of experience and extensive skills especially in teacher training. Just back from the Himalayas, he abounds with wisdom and stories of Eastern Philosophy – in which he holds a PhD… as well as in Mathematics. Going far back to the roots of Upanishad, Mahabarata and Hindu Philosophy – reading and teaching from the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali… a Hindu scripture and foundational text of Yoga – he first stimulates and challenges the mental and spiritual process before taking things to the physical level on “the mat”. While Yoga is in no way a form of competition, very much to the contrary – Shimon Ben Avi has a unique gift of knowing what’s needed in a student to reach certain initially daunting goals – starting with the mental attitude, self belief, the focus directed to the right spot and … action!
An Advanced 14-days Yoga Teacher Workshop will be running until Friday, 3rd September 2010.
The essence of our learning? To cleanse, heal, energize and flow on our continued path towards… unconditional Love.
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Copyright © 2010 Destinations Expo Yoga Workshop Destination Cape Town is a post from: Destinations Expo |
August 28th, 2010 → 10:21 pm @ Zo Nicholas
By Zo NicholasThe Claton Airshow still manged to attract loads of visitor this year despite the weather, although the numbers were slightly down on previous years. Each year the show attracts not only the aircraft hobbyists but also families with children. As the airshow is a free event it makes a great day out for all family, there’s always something for everyone. Airshow, sand, sea and funfair!
A chance for the young to see a model of a Spitfire close up.
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Author:
Zo Nicholas, Media, Marketing, Publishing.
Co-Founder of YORGOO, Ycademy,YORGOO Press and Semiomantics.
August 28th, 2010 → 9:29 am @ Bianca Gubalke
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When Florence Gotil (Cheng Cheng) from Mindanao in the Philippines and I met on the Internet highway a couple of years ago, we wouldn’t have thought to be meeting at the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, one day.
Yet, exactly this happened on Sunday 8th August 2010 as her mom’s dream had been: Destination South Africa! And the dream came true. . .
After a week of blissful sunshine, this was the day it rained… the only day she and her family from the Philippines and other parts of the world – a group of 17 touring the whole of South Africa – would be here. And we had prayed for this rain as Nature really needed it; never have we seen our dam that empty at this time of the year.
And then, while dark, errie clouds pulled over the rest of the Cape – the sun broke through the sky to bless our spontaneous meeting at Cape Point – not the most Southern tip of South Africa, but also known as the “Cape of Storms” or the “Cape of Good Hope”. And stormy and cold it was… and after that… it’s just Antarctica. . .
While we knew each other quite well in the virtual world, it was just wonderful to meet ‘live’, to hear about her flourishing truck and heavy equipment business, her future plans, her intention to market on a global scale using the Internet – for which of course Semiomantics Website Publishing is the answer to achieve the essential high Google rankings to start with.
Two women from different continents discussing real business at the end of the world over a plate of calamari fritti and hake… while baboons that were as cheeky as they were acrobatic snatched bits from the plates the moment one didn’t keep an eye on them! Too funny. . . and certainly a lasting memory for Cheng Cheng and her family!
While her tour continued, we communicated via the iPhone.
Meanwhile, she’s happily back home with many memories of her trip from Mindanao to Cape Town… when the Philippines and South Africa met.
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Copyright © 2010 Destinations Expo Destination South Africa is a post from: Destinations Expo |
August 28th, 2010 → 4:59 am @ Yorgo Nestoridis
The Clacton Airshow 2010 attracts as every year loads of visitors and as so often the Red Arrows are the absolute stars. The below images have been contributed by Zo Nicholas.
Clacton Airshow 2010 Image Copyright Zo Nicholas
Clacton Airshow 2010 Red Arrows Image Copyright Zo Nicholas
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWiTM5A0ilY
Nice shot!
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Copyright © 2010 Destinations Expo Clacton Airshow 2010 Images is a post from: Destinations Expo |
August 27th, 2010 → 5:18 pm @ Bianca Gubalke
Creating a modern Web Design for a client or a specific destination in today’s media-oriented virtual world means: Pictures! Pictures! Pictures!
Always carry a digital camera with you as – besides improving your photographic skills as a non-professional photographer – you just never know when your photographic Artwork is required. With good Digital Cameras within anyone’s reach we see many perhaps not excellent photos but certainly a quality we have never seen so widely spread.
Celebrating a special time at the relatively new Bistro Sixteen82 in Cape Town, South Africa, last week was just one of those occasions… The architecture, the style… everything is just totally captivating and deserves some Website Publishing… although the website of Steenberg Vineyards itself needs to catch up big time! Please click on the (compressed) image for better viewing!
Bistro Sixteen82 in Black & White or in Color… that’s the question, especially if you like the fine lines, volumes and light & shadow plays revealed without color interference. In fact… this gives me an idea for a black & white header for the DestinationsExpo Blog here!
As you see, there’s an incredible Artwork on this picture that needs color – especially the red and the green… representing white grapes and red grapes. . . the essence of a vineyard… and the story behind all of this will betold soon :)
Yes, I did posterize the colors a bit; I plan something specific with the exquisite originals; patience!
More on Steenberg Vineyards soon . . .
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Copyright © 2010 Destinations Expo Bistro Sixteen82 Cape Town is a post from: Destinations Expo |
August 27th, 2010 → 12:29 pm @ Zo Nicholas
By Zo NicholasFirst day of the Clacton Airshow 2010 provided a great opportunity to take out the digital camera to shoot some pictures of the days proceedings. Here are a couple of pictures taken of the Red Arrows aerobatics display on day one of the airshow.
and….
Notice the heavy cloud and murky sea, not really the weather you expect in August.
All pictures were taken with a point and shoot digital camera, a Canon Powershot A560.
Maybe just a slight improvement on the weather conditions for day 2 of the Clacton Airshow with some bright patches and a little bit of blue sky but not for long. The crowds again have gathered to watch the Red Arrows display at 12.30 today and the fly past.
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Author:
Zo Nicholas, Media, Marketing, Publishing.
Co-Founder of YORGOO, Ycademy,YORGOO Press and Semiomantics.
August 26th, 2010 → 11:03 pm @ Zo Nicholas
By Zo NicholasAlthougth the rest of East Anglia suffered some torrential downpours, down here around the coast of Clacton the weather remained relatively good enough for the Claton Airshow 2010 to go ahead. The weather was by now means the best, but at least good enough for the gathered crowds to enjoy the flying displays.
Here is a short video on Youtube, a small part of the Red Arrows display showing off their aerobatic skills.
Click HERE to watch the video.
The camera used in this instance is to take the clips is a point and shoot digital camera, a Canon Powershot A560 with a 4x Optical zoom.
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Author:
Zo Nicholas, Media, Marketing, Publishing.
Co-Founder of YORGOO, Ycademy,YORGOO Press and Semiomantics.
August 26th, 2010 → 1:01 pm @ Zo Nicholas
By Zo NicholasToday is the day of the actual Clacton Airshow, a 2 day annual event that takes place along the beach and greensward in Clacton, with a full air display taking place over the sea during the afternoon . An event that in 2009 drew over 100,000 visitors. This year is the 19th year of the show. Each year there is a full flying program of wing walkers, Battle of Britain planes and others and the biggest draw, a display by the aerobatics team of the Royal Aiforce the Red Arrows.
The weather here in August has not been very kind to all the holiday makers and today is no exception. With heavy clouds, wind and the constant threat of rain does not bode well for the air display this afternoon. We are all keeping our fingers tighly crossed and hoping for just a little break in the clouds with perhaps a little sun to brighten up the day.
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Author:
Zo Nicholas, Media, Marketing, Publishing.
Co-Founder of YORGOO, Ycademy,YORGOO Press and Semiomantics.
August 26th, 2010 → 10:33 am @ Yorgo Nestoridis
I tell you, it’s not worth talking about the match if not about the convincing performance of the US Selection for the Basketball World Championship which starts this week-end in Turkey.
In order not to be negative about the Greek performance … here below the highlights of the Greek performance ..:-). I hope the Greek team will show some real Basketball in Turkey!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H2VVU9DQ-Y
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Copyright © 2010 Destinations Expo Basketball Greece -- USA OAKA Athens is a post from: Destinations Expo |
August 26th, 2010 → 7:05 am @ Bianca Gubalke
Silvermine Nature Reserve – along Ou Kaapse Weg when coming from Cape Town, South Africa, and driving over the stunning Cape Peninsular mountain ranges towards Noordhoek – has just exploded with gold!
It’s spring!
Sweeping vistas from Silvermine Nature Reserve with a gentle mist dissolving in the early morning sunlight.
Although I experimented with filters in a couple of monochrome versions, I love the above untouched original digital picture from my simple Nikon Coolpix P90 as it’s so authentic and documenting a very special day.
Imagine with this a very soft breeze rustling through the leaves of the typical fynbos… the already withering ericas overgrown by strikingly energetic leucadendrons… and the occasional twitter of those beautiful little long-tailed sunbirds circling up into the crystalline air….
Magic!
Website Publishing is our main concern when firstly trying to reach Google Top 10 positions – and then holding them. This automatically means visibility and traffic – and from here it’s about attracting and keeping visitors, readers and potential buyers through captivating images, graphics and other forms of media – meaning a great Web Design – a Web Design like Semiomantics that is customized and optimized for each customer individually and prooves its efficiency every single day.
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Copyright © 2010 Destinations Expo Silvermine Nature Reserve is a post from: Destinations Expo |
