Welcome to News from trif.com! First time readers, I am glad you're here! Returning readers, welcome back!

Greetings and welcome to our Newsletter! We wanted to share the many photos we have taken of places, people and things throughout the country and beyond. Each month our headline photo will be something new and different. The caption will present a small explanation. We hope you enjoy. Keep in mind, we don't want to waste your time. Articles will contain generally less than 250 words. Please have a look and give us your feedback. By all means, forward to a friend using the link at the bottom of the Newsletter. Thanks. Questions? Send me an email!

Create Your Own Website - Free

I have gone back to school part time to get better at Photography. I am taking a Portrait Photography class which requires students to create a website and post pictures we have taken and developed for class.

We are using a web service called Weebly. Weebly is a very basic template based web application that allows anyone with very little training or experience to create a web site instantly.

Sign up at www.weebly.com and create a home page and 4 additional pages at no charge. You start by selecting the type of site, blog or store, then you select a theme.

You can create your own domain name for a charge or use a sub-domain of weebly.com. For example, my site for my class is robertmckayjones.weebly.com or another I am creating to display photographs of Sterling, Massachusetts.

If you want to create more than 5 pages or add more advanced features, you can subscribe for as little as $3.29 per month and for as much as $19.54 per month. You can even set up an ecommerce store.

Give it a try. Let me know if you create a site!

C-Drive is Running Out of Space

The C-Drive is a throw back to the first PC's when the A and B drives were reserved for floppy diskettes. Some things never change. Now that the C Drive is the primary drive on every PC, space is essential and depending on how big your hard drive is and how the builder of your computer partitioned your hard drive, space may become a problem over time. Your disk fills up with files over time and keeping it clean can sometimes become an arduous task. Here are a few tips to pickup some space when you are in a jam.

• If you are running Windows 7 or earlier, remove your hiberfil.sys file. This is the file used to bring back your computer from hibernation. In a command prompt, type powercfg -h off and the file will be removed immediately picking up from 1 to 4 gigabytes.
• In Windows Explorer, right click on Local Disc (C:) and select Properties. The properties window will open and you will see a command button for Disk Cleanup. Click it and select those items that would return the most space. This would include Windows Temporary files and internet files, old setup files, clearing the recycle bin and offline web pages. You will pickup another 1 to 4 gigabytes.
• Remove unnecessary programs. New software is, by default, installed on your C-Drive. It is a good idea to review your installed programs from your Control Panel Programs and Features option. Don't delete anything if you aren't sure what it is.
• This is also a good way to see if applications have been installed like spyware or other annoying applications like Yahoo Toolbar, or Google Toolbar.
• Remove unnecessary files from your desktop. Your desktop and everything in it is saved to the C-Drive. Clean it up and then right click on your recycle bin to permanently remove.
• Move Onedrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, Apple Photstream to a secondary drive or an attached USB drive.
• Download a program that will help you find out where your space has gone. An example would be Treesize or Folder Size, both available at www.download.com.

Lastly, call for help! If all else fails, give us a call and we will help!

You Can Be An Author Too

This past month, I self-published my first photographic book. I produced it with software provided free of charge from Blurb.com. You can too! When I travelled to Sedona, Arizona earlier this year, I took more than 2,500 photographs. Over the months that followed, I went into post-production and selected under one hundred that I really liked. Some of the standard Sedona spots and some a bit off the beaten path. This took weeks. But that was a while ago. They have been sitting on a disk drive till now.

With the BookSmart software, you can select the type of book, layout template and then go to work. Create the cover page, add credits and dedications, and add information about the author. Place pictures on pages, arrange them, size them, write captions or add thoughts. Page after page, you review your work as you go. Move things around. Delete, add, delete again. And then you begin the publishing process. This is where the local copy of your book is uploaded to the blurb.com web site and processed. This takes a little time, but when done, you can review your final published book. I did this. Eight times! Because every time I reviewed it, I saw another glaring mistake. And even after I received my hard cover book (you have to order at least one), I found 2 more typographic errors..

It was actually a great experience but after producing the first book, I have just a few thoughts to share. These are things I will remember when I publish my next book, Alaska - The Inland Passage which will be available later in November.

• Don't rush!
• Have someone proof the book for you, they will see things to which you have become blind.
• Plan for at least 150 photographs, I selected around 85 for this first book and I think it is a bit too thin.
• Select the best stock and finish of paper without regard to cost. You will be glad you did.
• Black paper shows fingerprints.
• Don't include a picture if it has no meaning for you.
• Make sure your photographs are light enough for print. Printing is far different than looking at your photo on a monitor which is backlit. Dark coloring will turn to black when printed. A test print will help avoid this issue.
• Ask yourself, would you buy this book if someone else produced it?

It is a very rewarding experience, after all, it is a permanent record of your creation. Once produced, you can offer your book as a hard cover, a PDF, or an eBook for an Apple iPad or iPhone.

Good luck. Please let me know if you take the plunge! My book is for sale on blurb.com. Click here.