How to spend a safe Halloween

It's October! The countdown is on and Halloween will fall on the best of days, Saturday. So this is the year to go all out with your decorating and to host a super Halloween party!

Halloween is one of the most exciting times of the year for children, but sometimes the most hectic for parents. Nearly 94 percent of children between the ages of four and twelve participate in Halloween activities each year. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) reminds parents to take a moment to consider basic safety precautions that will make Halloween a safer night of fun.

1. CHOOSE bright, flame-retardant costumes or add reflective tape to costumes and candy bags so children are easily seen in the dark. In addition, carry a glow stick or flashlight.

2. PLAN a trick-or-treating route in familiar neighborhoods with well-lit streets. Avoid unfamiliar neighborhoods, streets that are isolated, or homes that are poorly lit inside or outside.

3. NEVER send young children out alone. They should always be accompanied by a parent or another trusted adult. Older children should always travel in groups.

4. ALWAYS walk younger children to the door to receive treats and don't let children enter a home unless you are with them.

5. BE SURE children do not approach any vehicle, occupied or not, unless you are with them.

6. DISCUSS basic pedestrian safety rules that children should use when walking to and from houses.

7. CONSIDER organizing a home or community party as an alternative to "trick-or-treating."

8. MAKE sure children know their home phone number and address in case you get separated. Teach children how to call 911 in an emergency.

9. TEACH children to say "NO!" or "this is not my mother/father" in a loud voice if someone tries to get them to go somewhere, accept anything other than a treat, or leave with them. And teach them that they should make every effort to get away by kicking, screaming and resisting.

10. REMIND children to remain alert and report suspicious incidents to parents and/or law enforcement.

"Child safety is important year round, but Halloween is an especially important time for parents and children to pay extra attention to their surroundings and not let their guard down," said Nancy McBride, National Safety Director of NCMEC. "It is important that parents exercise a few basic safety precautions to help ensure that Halloween is both fun and safe."

Make product presentation slideshow to boost your business

Nowadays B2C commercial mode has been more and more popular. How to present products online and attract more eyeballs is a big question to webmasters? Creating products presentation slideshow with music and transition effects is a good way to improve your business online.

I have seen a Real Estate slideshow which is made by Wondershare Flash Gallery Factory. And I found it's really so impressive, so I put it here to share with you hoping to give you more ideas.

Take best wedding photography to make wedding slideshow

Have you ever been asked to take photos for a wedding? For some, wedding photography is a casual affair. Take a point-and-shoot camera, then snap away when the opportunity arises. For others, it’s a serious, full-fledged business.


This article will teach you how to take better wedding photos and then make engaging wedding slideshow with your wedding photographies and upload on website for sharing with more people.

Take a look at the wedding slideshow sample first below and get inspired.


Preparation
One of the most critical elements in being a successful wedding photographer is preparation. You absolutely need to prepare ahead (at least 2 months’ ahead) of time. Get to know the bride and the groom, understand their needs and wants. Some good questions to ask are:

• How many photographers will there be?
• What type of photos would they like? Mostly formal group portraits? Or mostly candid shots of the couple?
• How many guests will there be at the wedding? Are they mostly family members or friends?
• Which locations will be used at the wedding? A church? Will there be a reception or a dinner?

Asking pertinent questions like these will help you understand the requirements for the wedding photos and thereby take better shots.

Locations, Events and Times
Once you’ve understood what the wedding locations, events and times are, find some time to go scout around those places.

For a church wedding, I usually like to go inside the church to check out the lighting, décor and environment. I try to find the correct places to position myself so I don’t mess up during the wedding day. Do take note that some churches do not allow flash photography during the wedding ceremony. So you may need to get a fast lens.
It’s also important to check out places like the reception area, or the podium where the speech will be made. If there will be a wedding dance, then check out the dance floor and the seating arrangement if possible.

Organize Your Gear
This is a critical step. I usually prepare 1 month ahead of the wedding date just to be sure I have time to get any equipment I’ve missed out. Here’s a list of critical equipment to bring for the wedding day shoot:

• Digital camera: This one is obvious. It’s good to have a backup analog camera as well, just in case.
• Camera Lenses and filters: Take along any special lenses or filters you want to use.
• Tripod: Another critical piece of equipment, important for indoor shots under low light.
• Memory cards: Bring at least two 1 GB cards. I’m not kidding – you won’t believe how many shots you’ll take during a wedding.
• Portable drive: This is critical in case you run out of space on those memory cards.
• Assistant: Try to bring along an assistant. It could be a friend or a help at the wedding. He or she can help you arrange the group before you take photos, taking a lot of stress off you.

On the Wedding Day
Ok, let’s assume the actual wedding day, has arrived. Here’s a typical sequence of events to help guide you on the wedding photography process.

At the House
If you’re taking shots of the bride getting ready, please be early. In fact, you should be one of the earliest to arrive so that you can set up your positions, tripods or whatever equipment you need to use.

At the Church
Once you’re at the church, find out where the priest will be standing. Position yourself in an appropriate position. Some critical locations where wedding photos must be taken include the entrance to church, the aisle and the place where the couple will stand.
And here’s another tip – it’s important not to get too excited about your shots so early on the wedding day. Remember, you have a long day for taking photos. I once did a wedding where I snapped so many photos at the church entrance, I nearly ran out of memory card space by the time the couple exchanged vows!
If there happens to be a church reception, make sure you’re out to the reception area faster than the rest of the guests, and perch yourself in the correct position. Receptions are a good time to capture candid and fun shots, so knock yourself out.

Formal Group Shots
If there are any formal group shots to be taken, be sure your assistant is there to help you. Try to start with the big groups, then slowly remove family members so that you can get the various combinations of family and friends required.

Cleaning up
What do you do after shooting the wedding photos? Well, plenty! You need to do some basic image editing, like removing red eye, cropping and rotating. You also need to burn the photos into CDs and DVDs, (usually in a slideshow format). If you’re in the wedding photography business, you should know that you cannot delay this step. Try to get the CD or DVD final package out to the happy couple as soon as you can.

Conclusion
Whew! That’s a lot of information about wedding photography. Do remember that while wedding photos are challenging to take, they can be very rewarding. Especially when you see the couple smiling and reminiscing about how wonderful their wedding day was. Try to keep the above tips in mind the next time you’re shooting wedding photos.

Flash Slideshow Software

Most of my weekend I was spent laboriously cating and consolidating my digital photo collection over the last 8 years. You would think that my nack for organization would have payed off in this area, but you’d be wrong. ;) It took combing through 4 old hard drives, multiple Ghost images, an Iomega Peerless Drive, and a Terapin Mine to consolidate my photos since 2000. I now have close to all of my 3,000 photos and videos accounted for.
I love software like Picasa for managing my photo collections and albums. However, I’m looking for something that can be easily viewed over the web. My thought was to use some simple flash-based photo/slideshow viewer to embed directly into the wiki. I’ve been collecting links for some flash-based slideshow applications and figured I’d give them a whirl. Here are the major ones that I’m aware of:
Flash slideshow maker - A wonderful photo slideshow maker which include 75+ slideshow templates and 220+ transition & Pan/Zoom effects. Enable you to add flash slideshow on website.
SlideShowPro - This application stuck me as quite impressive. The interface is visually appealing, Very nice! I decided to experiment with this one and see if it suits my needs.
WorldMap/TripperMap - This blew me away when I first saw it. Slideshows with Map integration. TripperMap supports FlickR right now, but support for other images sources is being developed.

How to create flash photo slider with hyperlinks

The tutorial is mainly about how to make flash photo slideshow with hyperlinks for presenting digital photos in a better way than just paste them in web page or stored in computers. What you need are some photos and a flash photo slider creator. Here I choose Wondershare Flash Gallery Factory as the flash photo slider creator.
The reasons why choose Wondershare Flash Gallery Factory are:

• Providing 60+ free ready-to-use flash gallery templates;
• Image caption/ image description and hyperlinks can be added;,
• Displaying time for each photo can be set by yourself;

 Now let's begin to make flash photo slider with hyperlinks in simple 5 steps.

Step 1: Install flash photo slider maker and import photos

Install your downloaded software and run it. After choose Mode, and the program will go to "Browse" tab by default .Click "Add photo" build in button to add photos or just drag selected photos into storyboard directly. Then click the "Add music" build-in button to add music if you want to add background music.

Step 2: Select template for flash photo slider

Flash Gallery Factory provides 60+ free flash photo slider templates.You can select your favorite templates. Background image or color can be changed as well. See below thumbnail to get more info..

Step 3: Add hyperlinks on photos

Double click on the photo, then it will turn out a pop-up page like below, select the "Properties" Tab and click on the "Hyperlink" item, input the URL you want the viewers to visit, it will be OK. Image caption and image description can be add on the image by click the "Caption & Description" item.

Step 4: Preview and publish to save your flash photo slider.

Preview your flash photo slider by click the start button in the bottom of the right screen. If you are satisfied with your work, publish it to swf, html, exe, or screensaver formats, or you can mail the flash photo slider to your friends directly as a gift.

You can also add the URL you want the visitors to visit after view the flash photo slider by open the "Publish Setting" pop-up window.

Done, watch the flash photo slider sample below to get inspired!

Created by Wondershare Flash Gallery Factory
Note: If you can't open the flash photo slider, please refresh your browser or wait a litter longer.
Mouse left and right to slide the photo in Manual Play Mode.

If you want to embed flash photo slider on website, please learn more on how to embed photo slider on website.