DESIGNpebble

Let me start by saying that my role at work has changed, Initially I was hired on as a Web Designer. My tasks included re-designing websites, designing banner adverts, MPU’s, Skyscrapers and the occasional single page minis ad for Military Schools. My largest project was re-designing Police Oracle from the ground up and that project is currently in the early programming stage (something I’m VERY pleased not to have a hand in).

My role gradually shifted into Analysis. Monitoring traffic streams, Adsense & Affiliate revenue, traffic trends and the like; with the ultimate goal of increasing website value either through increased traffic, improving click throughs and even incresing product sales for Patrol Store.

Now however, my latest adventure is into the deep pond of Social Media. I make no claim to be a Social Media Guru, and I’m sure I still have a LOT to learn. It’s no secret that I am a huge fan of Twitter and the power it has in current affairs, news and conversation. So delving deeper into Twitter on a professional level has been interesting so far. Granted, I’m still only at the early stages of my exploration but already I’m finding that thinking about strategies and ideas to increase brand awareness and create an open dialogue about our core sites is certainly an exciting endeavour. I am wary, of course, of focussing too heavily on Twitter and am fully aware that it is not “the answer to all our needs”, it is a tool that when used properly can create new ways for our staff and our users to communicate and engage in open dialogue.

We shall see how it all pans out in the future. For now however, for anyone interested in Policing or the Policing community, you can follow @policeoracle and keep up to date with the latest Police news.

I FINALLY got my own DSLR camera!

Got myself a Canon 450D, not a hugely amazing camera, it’s pretty much entry level but that’s what I’ve been looking for. Had a bit of free time so managed to try out a few of the settings and such.

I used a tripod and the “bulb” setting to take these shots of my lighter sparking up. I really like how these came out, even if some are a little out of focus or blurry. Let me know what you think!

As always, the full set can be found on my Flickr page or in my photo gallery

Just a short update.

I’ve added some more photo’s to my Flickr account, these are from a Photography project for college in 2006

I finally got round to uploading some of my latest photos to my Flickr account and managed to get it synced up with my blog. Thank you Tan Tan Noodles.

There are a few pics displayed in the sidebar, but the full gallery can be found here or by clicking the photography link at the top of the page.

There are still a heck of a lot more photos I need to upload and I’ll be trickling them through over the coming weeks.
For now, check out the gallery or have a look at some of the pics below.

Dont forget to Digg me, tweet me, stumble me… anything, I’m an attention whore.

Oay, I got fed up of seeing my old theme on the blog, so I downloaded a new one and have it activated. I’m not sure how temporary it will be but I really don’t have any idea when the new site design will be up.

I’ll most likely be adding some new photos soon-ish, and possibly integrate with Twitter and Flickr a bit better. It all depends on time.

I’ve been a busy little bee recently, but true to my word, I’m aiming to keep the blog posts coming.

This past week I’ve had the joy of using a friend’s Canan EOS 400D, with an absolutely fantastic Macro lense.

After a lot of fiddling about and re-learning a heck of a lot of things about ISO, Exposure, Aperture and other camera nonsense (Not to mention learning how to set these things on the camera) I finally got round to taking a very large number of photos, some macro, some not.

I had a quick dabble with some light graffiti, over all I think the pictures came out well, (only one I have uploaded here), It isnt easy to do very good light graffiti pictures in the loft, with limited space to move.

I’ve always loved macro photography, dispite the fact that I’ve never owned a proper camera or macro lense. I have dabbled in the past, but never to any great result, however, this time I feel that I have some pictures worth sharing.

Have a look, let me know what you think, the first 6 are macro, the last 3 aren’t, all are quite large – You have been warned.

It’s been such a long time since I’ve blogged and I feel like I’ve almost forgotten how to do it.

I have been extremely busy at work lately, the Uniform Dating re-design launch was a success and people seem to be enjoying and using the site more. Police Oracle is the next huge project that I have my head firmly wedged into. Work is taking up an awful lot of my time and when I get home I don’t much feel like blogging, although I will try to make an effort to blog at least once a week from now on.

Haven’t done a lot of personal design work recently either, which is not good, I do feel a lot more inspired however, after visiting the TFM&A expo today. Not really a design based event, more about marketing and people peddling their e-wares, but some of the presentation packs and booklets are nicely done and look good.

I’m using Twitter a lot at the moment too, it’s a lot easier and quicker to keep updated. Follow me if you like: @shtev21

Bye for now.

Wishing everyone a safe and merry Christmas and a joyous new year.

As promised, here is a selection of my latest sketches and doodles. There is nothing absolutely amazing in here, It’s a lot of stuff that sort of just fell onto the pages, I didnt give much thought, just kept the pen moving.

And yeah, I was using a pen… I generally find working in biro a lot more comfortable for me, although it does tend to leave a lot of my sketches l a bit scruffy, since I can’t erase any mistakes, only go over them again and again. Still, It’s how I enjoy sketching out random stuff.

Got into a kind of Sonic mood here, after I’d finnished drawing, I dug out my Sega Megadrive and played the old Sonic The Hedgehog games for a few hours. Oh and the fish-headed dude… no idea what that was about but I kinda like him.

Hey all, Just a quick drop in to let you know that I am still working hard, I’ve got quite a few new sketches that I have yet to scan and post, but I will be getting that done soon (Sometime before the weekend hopefully).

I’ve been extremely busy at work and when I come home, I just feel like chilling out. I’ve been playing a fair amount of Red Alert 3 lately with Chris, going through the campaigns as a team, which is just fantastic fun.

My 30 day trial of Warhammer online has expired just the day I get the Kommisar’s hat and, although it is a fairly decent game, I don’t think I could commit myself to another MMO after giving up the life sucker that is WoW.

Keep an eye out for some of my new work soon.