Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.  The following people are the random winners selected by my four year old cousin.

Photo Booth Winners

If you know them, go be their best friend or new business partner! A photo booth business is very profitable, but it requires some help.

1. Bryan Nguyen
2. Catalina Ayubi
3. Rafael Alcala
4. Natalie Paget
5. Michelle Yam

Slideshow Plugin Winners

A wicked slideshow is always a nice way to impress clients. Additionally, rather than loading 60 images onto a single blog post, which can be bandwidth demanding, use a slideshow to filter most of it. Vu Bui suggests to have only 10-15 stellar images and the rest tucked away somewhere.

1. Alfred Bertulfo
2. Amanda Montgomery
3. Amy Wass
4. Julie Cook
5. Jonathan Roberts
6. Mike Patterson
7. Owen Donnahoo
8. Stacy Brogan
9. Tanya Saenz
10. Tina Rawatta
11. Ricki Ford
12. Aric Becker
13. Laura
14. Scott Shoemake
15. Michelle Koh
16. Jamie Forestell
17. Rebecca Seauve
18. Lynette Johnson
19. Gabriel Mora
20. Stacy Hughes

Here is a little tip when you submit your information (as a number of people did not do this) – give me your first and last name.  Therefore, when I post about you, it’s free branding!

Your name is your brand.  You are not selling pictures because anyone can take those.  You are selling an experience!

For those not on the mailing list, make sure you are on it because I will doing more giveaways in the future. For those who are on it now, I am sending out a 50% discount link soon for probably my last square album designs (next post). I am working on something called the “Bleed Collection,” which is really cool.

Cheers,

Lawrence

P.S. I have a canker sore for about a week now and I will name it “Jerry”

Subscribe | Twitter @tofurious

FREE – Contest Sign-Up Form

Subscribe and I will pick at random 20 individuals to win this WordPress plugin – FREE! Deadline: 05-22-09. Those on mailing list already must subscribe again for contest.

The software geniuses at Made By Simple finished a premium version of the slideshow plugin for WordPress. It is really simple to use! Just upload your images and add one line of code and voila! Just make sure to add the slideshow code in your HTML mode (not Visual).  Here is a sample slideshow below using the new WordPress plugin.

Sample Images From Cancun

[mbspremium slideshow=1]

WordPress Slideshow Plugin Screens

Slideshow Usage and Installation

You can configure the slideshow in so many ways – timing, background colors, speed, size, image order, menu alignment, etc. Plus, there is a free version to try! The premium wordpress flash slideshow plugin is $9.99.

Installation instructions – here

Usage instructions – here

Any questions, please use the contact form at Made By Simple lest I will harpoon you.

Cheers,

Lawrence

P.S. “It’s never too late to be what you want to be…live a life that you’re proud of…have the strength to start all over again” -Benjamin Button

If you want to be a photographer [or anything else], follow your passion and just do it. Life is too short to squander it away doing anything less than what you dream. It is also all right to have new dreams!

P.P.S. Photography is my fourth career. [Light] programming is my fifth. Before that I did investment banking at JP Morgan Chase, insurance at AIG, IT work for UCLA and cyber cafe businesses in Los Angeles and Atlantic City. I am fortunate to have found photography. I am happy and proud to be a wedding photographer.

ANNOUNCEMENT:

The plugin is done! Please visit here

My buddies at Made By Simple created a trial plug-in for WordPress. Here are the limitations:

1. limited images
2. limited sizes (small and large)
3. MBS tag

The future version will have unlimited images and there will be more sizes to pick from to fit your blog. This is an awesome addition because you do not have to individually add 80+ images or something anymore. Just add one line and it magically makes you a slideshow – can’t complain about that! 

By far, the coolest feature is FULL SCREEN! Imagine your brides or clients looking at their images as a screen saver.  This is definitely wicked – agree? Just make sure to upload larger sized images like 1600px wide and etc. It is based off a 3:2 ratio so standard 35mm cameras.

[mbspremium slideshow=1]

The images are from a recent trip I took to San Francisco where I photographed Aaron Dieppa’s engagement session with his spunky and beautiful fiance Barbara “soon to be” Dieppa.

We were very fortunate to have Gene Higa and Ann Hamilton come along with us! Just from watching the two of them shoot, I learned so much!

Anyway, you can get your own slideshow plugin from http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/made-by-simple-slideshow

Make sure to import the zipped file through WordPress’ dashboard and follow the instructions from the link above. You can also rearrange pictures by hitting the “gallery” tab after uploading. The premium version is coming out shortly per our last conversation.

I will be heading to a wedding in San Jose tomorrow and then to Vancouver, so I will be gone for over a week. I know you all will miss me dearly (I hope haha), so please do not email me questions about how to use the plug-in. Read the instructions!

I will, however, make tweets so follow me on twitter – @tofurious as you know I will post pictures about my dining experiences hehe!

Also, please please please subscribe because my list is a little small and it makes me glum.

Have a good weekend,

Lawrence Chan

P.S. Please retweet to spread word –
RT @tofurious check out this awesome WP slideshow plugin! http://bit.ly/XFXsD

P.P.S. Got suggestions? Twitter / email me!