drbexl.co.uk » photos

3 More Specs

drbexl — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 19:45:00 +0000

OK, I’ve had my sight test, and yes, my prescription is worse… -1.50 in each eye, so still not too strong! I stuck with my plan to allow myself a limited amount of time to think about it (so preferably this week), rather than exploring EVERY option, and there’s a couple in here that both the lady in the shop (and yes, she laughed at me in quite a few others) loved, and then a friend who was in Tesco, had a look, and thought they were good choices… so, further thoughts?!

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These specs are on 2 for 1, so could have 2 Tesco pairs… or find 2 Specsavers. I tried Vision Express the other day, and whoever the optical assistant was, just slouched against the counter wondering aloud if he could go home, and even though I was trying them on for about 10 minutes, no one came up to ask if I wanted any help!!

And he, he, found online ordering – was thinking I didn’t have any pics of me without glasses…

The online world, you have to love it…

New Specs?

drbexl — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 14:33:00 +0000

OK, I’m having my eyes tested this afternoon. Since I got my last pair of specs (in 2004 or 2005!) my prescription has changed, but I’ve been waiting to know that I had enough money to buy some! So far I’ve only tried Specsavers and Tesco (who are giving away free sight-tests in their new branch in Winchester), and picked out the following, but I’m not sure any of them are quite right (and one of the other customers when I put my own on, said “ooo, they’re nice”…!!) – all do strange things to my face Most stores are currently doing 2-4-1, but I really just want 1 pair, with a free upgrade to photochromatic – anyone know who might be doing that at the moment?

Which do you think are getting closest – which the worst – and excuse the expression on my face!

Specsavers

Tesco

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P.S. This is my current pair:

Image Sources

drbexl — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 22:31:00 +0000

Arranging a photo-shoot can be an expensive business, but websites look rather stark with no imagery (although I always believe the information must come first). Taking photos through e.g. Google’s image search generally means that you are using illegal images.

Microstock Photography
There are many different microstock photography sites, in which you can purchase Royalty-free (free from licence restrictions) images for as low as $0.20 per image if you sign up to a subscription plan. Pay as you go images are more expensive per image, and credits usually need to be used within a year, although the image is then yours to use. Check the small print as, for example, Shutterstock says that an image must be first-used within 6-months of download to prevent stockpiling.

Purchasing Credits
It is rare that you will find a site which will only let you buy a single image credit, so expect to buy several photos from each site if you sign up, usually with a credit card, sometimes with PayPal. All will let you sign up and add images to ‘lightboxes’ for free… in the hope that you will return and purchase them!

Bigstockphoto approx $20 for 10 images
Dreamstime approx. $20 for 22 images, but also provides free images
Fotolia from 57p – £3.99 for a single-image
iStockphoto starts at £9.00 for 10 credits, cost per credit decreases as more are purchased
Shutterstock £29 for 5 images, or by subscription
Snapvillage images from $1
Stock.xchng offers free images or refers you to Stock Expert where small web images are around $1 each.
Photobucket mostly designed for the MySpace user, but has some gems tucked away through the search function

For historical (and very creative recent) images Getty Images comes highly recommended. To search for images created in a particular era search for e.g. “Image created 1940s”. Royalty free images start at £39 for web-use only.

You Tube
You Tube is of the course the ubiquitous video-posting site, so I’ve set up an account there and just uploaded one small video!

Just a thought on Social Networking
Finding the Tagged site slightly freaky in that people (well, blokes) vote ‘YES’, send messages and WINK at me (I guess it makes a change from pokes), especially in the 20 minutes after I’ve just checkeed the site!