Our IE 6 traffic has finally been consistently below 10% since the past few months, and just touched 6%. Just wanted to make it official, we will no longer be testing on/developing for IE 6 from now on.
Quick stats – over all IE still is the most popular. Chrome is blazing through every month.
| Browser | Percentage traffic |
| Internet Explorer | 35.04% |
| Firefox | 31.37% |
| Chrome | 25.94% |
| Safari | 5.82% |
| Opera | 1.07% |
15 comments December 6th, 2010 Posted by Animesh
Photography is a thing that we all love to do. And more specifically, it’s obvious that if you are reading this, you are most probably a photography enthusiast to a certain level. Lately, there has been a common question floating around us that how can one capture sensational photographs of one’s girlfriend/wife (we’re not biased in any form :P ). So we decided to share some tips and tricks of the trade that you might use to flatter your loved one by taking his/her beautiful photographs. While writing these tips, we are assuming that not everyone is a pro photographer out there having a thousand dollar DSLR and stuff. We are writing this keeping the average Joe as the reference point who carries his camera cell phone everywhere but also has a mid ranged point and shoot for special occasions.
So here goes the amazing tips and tricks collection:
It’s all about the concept
Beautiful photographs are not taken. They are created”.
We have seen zillions of people photographing their friends and loved ones in a same age-old and boring kind of pose. And it’s quite funny to see that the same pose acts as a de-facto standard for every photograph they take. And then there complaints! Boooo!!
If you take photographs every time in the same pose, they are bound to look similar (in a good or a bad sense). What we want to say is, unleash your creativity! Change your perspective. Change the pose. Experiment with lights. And you will see how amazing the same subject looks with the same camera you have!
Lights and Shadows
Lately, we have seen a very small number of people that actually understand how to use lights (and shadows) to give that effect in photographs. If you have always been thinking that you just had to press the shutter button anywhere and everywhere you want and the camera would take care of the rest, it’s not the case. Your camera is not intelligent enough to consider the factors that you can consider in your quest of making that amazing composition. So, stop relying on your camera computations and begin experimenting with lights and shadows. Always remember lights and shadows are everything in any kind of photography. Without lights, there is nothing.
Don’t Flash
Got obsessed with the amazing flash you got with your camera and then complaining about how easily it ruins your photographs? Well, you’re not the only one. Many people believe that using a flash will light up the whole scene and will make their photographs better. But actually, this isn’t the case always. Most of the time, flash ruins your photographs like hell. In my journey as a photographer, I don’t remember lifting the flash of my camera more than 10% of the time I shot photos and the reason being, it ruins the photographs. Simple! Using point and shoot and camera cell phones, you don’t have much flexibility with the direction of flash. Since we’re talking about taking photographs of your loved ones, you won’t obviously be shooting them at a distance of hundred yards. Mostly, you would be shooting them within some feet of distance. And in that case, try to avoid using flash as much as possible because a direct hit of light on the face will always have adverse effects. However, in low light conditions, flash may act as a life saver, use flash wisely.
Shoot Un-expectedly
This may sound a little awkward to some of you, but it is arguably the best method of getting the best photographs possible. What I mean to say here is that you should avoid getting the person in the picture “pose” every time you are taking one. Take natural shots. Shoot them while they are walking. Shoot them while they are smiling. Capture them when they are lost in deep thoughts. And you’ll surely be amazed on the quality of photographs you get following this strategy.
Well, those were some of our tips and tricks that would possibly help you taking flattering photographs of your loved ones. Do let us know if you find these useful. We would also love to see your creations. Happy clicking.
Photo credits :
1. http://www.flickr.com/photos/ericperrone
2. http://www.flickr.com/photos/byfer39
3. http://www.flickr.com/photos/notsogoodphotography
4. http://www.flickr.com/photos/heartfatality
5. http://www.flickr.com/photos/_-amy-_
 |
Guest Post by Rishabh Rishabh is musician and a photographer from heart and soul respectively. While doing engineering, he loves to do everything that’s irritating and interesting. He blogs at Shutterskills (http://shutterskills.com) and can also found tweeting around @rish404 |
-
4 comments September 20th, 2010 Posted by Animesh
Watch this clip from a show called “Mad Men”, set in the 60’s, around an advertising agency. I wish I could make a sales pitch like that for photobooks to all of you ;)
1 comment July 19th, 2010 Posted by Animesh
Hey guys, this new release has been in the works for a while and we have rebuilt it from scratch. While we have made significant improvement under the hood (which basically means you’ll won’t immediately notice them – it’s like getting your car a brand new car engine – and we don’t want to confuse you by tossing jargon like scalability etc.), we have also revamped our user interface. Here some great new features in the new iTasveer
We have a a new top navigation that gives you one-click access to your photos and products.
Simplified sharing using share pools
A fun new way to share photos with easy tor remember web addresses. Each address can have as many photos as you like.
COMING SOON – Multiple users can share photos of related events in the same pool (which is why they are called Pools!).
Shop by Design Themes
All our delicious templates, now at a glance. You can now shop by templates. Just visit our templates page and select a theme and product that fits the occasion.
The shopping cart – reinvented
A shopping cart completely rethought and designed for the complex needs of customizable products. It works well with extremely large orders as well as with small orders. So order a 1000 prints or a single coffee mug, you’ll be pleased with all the information at your fingertips. Minimal reloads, with complete pricing information is always shown. No need to press an update pricing button.
Improved workflow for photo print orders
Easier photo print ordering with size and finish selection before you add to cart. Select from our matte and glossy prints and mounts with pricing information right in the product selection pane.
COMING SOON – a larger range of paper finishes and more media like canvas, archival prints.
Besides the Albums view, you now have an all photos view where you can see your photos as a single stream.
Our new dashboard keeps track of your last order, and the sidebar will be regularly updates with new offers and discounts tailored especially for you!
Improved order tracking
Your will now receive email updates even when part of an order is shipped. All order update emails will have tracking links embedded to directly track your order online.
Customer support, faster and better than ever
Not all changes are on the front end. We’ve also made our site administration much better and we’ll be able to handle more queries more efficiently. So we hope to answer you quickly, even on our busier days :)
Phew! We’re glad that we could make all these changes just in time for our 4th birthday! And you know what that means right? That means you are about to avail some fantastic offers on iTasveer. We’re not telling when, we’re not telling what! Just wait and watch.
12 comments April 15th, 2010 Posted by Ashish
Given the nature of our business, we have always had to deal with couriers because of lost/delayed packages. We try and maintain these error cases to a fairly low margin, but at the same time we’ve also been eyeing this as an opportunity for a new delivery service to emerge.
We have been internally testing a new form of delivery service, and are pleased to announce that the results have been outstanding. We’re rolling out the service on iTasveer in selected cities and plan to start with the NCR region. Without further ado.. presenting the iTasveer DDS. DDS stands for dog delivery service, and we are proud to announce that we have been able to train a pack of dogs to make deliveries locally within Gurgaon.
Woofy - our mascot
Danny the dog carrying a mug safely to it's destination
Now for the juice on this. In our experiments we found that much like homing pigeons, dogs can also be trained to deliver to a particular location and return. The problems with pigeons was, that our packages were often too heavy for pigeons to carry for even short distances. The answer emerged from where we least expected it. Danny, our in house Alsatian, has always been super efficient at fetching the news paper. And the idea struck “hey.. wait a minute. if he can fetch the newspaper, can he also deliver it elsewhere”, thought Ashish. The experiments started, we tied a mug on Danny’s back and sent him off to our neighborhood residence. It worked!
So after some testing and getting convinced that this could really be a disruptive service, we’ve decided to launch it in limited locations. Let me tell you why this is so disruptive
1. It is environmentally friendly. No machines, no petrol.
2. Dogs are faster than courier trucks in heavy traffic. Or even in light traffic. Our dogs don’t have to take the road you see, they’re as comfortable offroad.
3. Dog is a man’s best friend. Who better to deliver your packages to you than your best friend.
So the next time you order from us, and see a faithful ol’ dog at your doorstep, don’t be surprised!
[update: now that we're past april 1, I just thought I'd specify that this was posted on april 1 :p]
10 comments April 1st, 2010 Posted by Animesh
Guys and girls, the valentine season is here and iTasveer has some great new products to help you express your love.
First, the biggie!
We are introducing super sized teddy bear for all you valentine love birds. The teddy is about 3 ft. tall and wears a t-shirt which bears your picture or message. And going by the hugs he’s getting from the girl in the picture below (thanks Bulbul for posing!), they already love it.
It’s a no-brainer girls love teddies (See What Girls Say) . Moreover even Himanshu, our design team member, fancies them and gladly poses away :P (No, he was neither threatened, nor promised any perks to do this – he willingly volunteered!)
![IMG_1058_thumb[5]](http://blog.itasveer.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/IMG_1058_thumb5.jpg "IMG_1058_thumb[5]")
When they say love is in the air, we say, well let’s make it a little more real – love is in the bear! So gift your valentine a super-teddy and get ready for super smiles and super hugs!
The cuddly and chocolate mugs
![IMG_1041_text_thumb[5]](http://blog.itasveer.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/IMG_1041_text_thumb5.jpg "IMG_1041_text_thumb[5]")
![IMG_1063_crop_thumb[3]](http://blog.itasveer.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/IMG_1063_crop_thumb3.jpg "IMG_1063_crop_thumb[3]")
We also have the good old cuddly – our smaller sized teddy bear, plus we are introducing some chocolate filled coffee mugs with some great valentine day themes.
The love book
![cutout_lovebook_thumb[14]](http://blog.itasveer.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/cutout_lovebook_thumb14.jpg "cutout_lovebook_thumb[14]")
There is even a special photobook book in a delicious love theme for you to chronicle your prem kahaani!
Oh and don’t forget: Get 20% off on teddies, and 15% off on mugs and photobooks with the coupon code VDAY2010 while checking out. More details here.
1 comment February 6th, 2010 Posted by Ashish
New year is round the corner – which means it’s a great time to make some photo calendars!
While we won’t tell you (just yet) what we have in store for you this new year, we bring you back some calendar themes that had gone missing, such as the rich black Colored Strings, the super fun Creature Creep, the paintsy Pastels and some more. Most of these are available across different calendar styles: Desk, Split, Wide and Wall.
And guess what, we give you a blog-and-social-media-exclusive offer of 15% discount on all calendars valid till 30 November. Use the coupon code CAL15OFF on the shopping cart to avail this offer.
Note: Photos for this post are courtesy of Photos India.
9 comments November 25th, 2009 Posted by Ashish
Hey everyone, hope all of your are enjoying the Diwali week with card parties, cracker bursting sessions, meeting friends, shopping sprees or whatever you love most doing at Diwali!
Besides the unique Diwali Photo Candle and offers we have for you (which are ending soon – so hurry :) ), we recently introduced three interesting new products:
The photo personalised Piggy Bank (or गुल्लक as we call it in Hindi),
This is made of ceramic and about the size of the classic white coffee mug we sell at itasveer.
A photo tray
This one’s a wooden tray with a black finish. Your design’s printed on the metal plaque that is fitted in the centre.
and the rather unique Silver mug
This one’s a 330 ml ceramic with a silver finish.
So which one’s it gonna be? Are you going to save with the photo piggy bank , serve on a personalised tray or sip in a sparkling coffee mug?
28 comments October 14th, 2009 Posted by Ashish
Ladies and gentlemen, we’re finally all set and Photo books are ready to be shipped off the presses. It has been an almost 1.5 year long road for us, from starting thinking about them to this day. We’ve tested over half a dozen different printers, totally redesigned Doodlepad, done endless testing on the product finishes and we’re finally sure that what we’re bringing is pretty much the best in terms of quality that can be done. As of now, following are the sizes and finishes
8"x8" Standard Square, starts @ Rs. 1399 for 20 pages (sides)
8"x10" Standard Landscape, starts @ Rs. 1499 for 20 pages (sides)
Both sizes available with the following specifications
Let me just run you through the process of designing photobooks real quick (most of you who’ve already used Doodlepad will be right at home)
Step 1. Select your size and other preferences
Step 2. Select your theme and the book will load up with blank placeholders
Step 3. Select the photos you want to add from the photos panel. You can also use your Flickr and Picasa photos directly from here
Step 4. Now just start dragging and dropping photos on to the placeholders. If you don’t even want to do that, just press auto fill and let Doodlepad fill up your photos across all pages
Step 5. Add your captions. Or add whole stories. Go wild!
Step 6. Voila! Your book is ready to be printed. You can flip through the pages in the preview. Make sure you haven’t missed out and left any pages blank.
Step 7. Take out your credit card and ka’ching! Sit back, relax and let us work the magic now. We promise to awe :)
So if you’re still wondering why you’d want a photobook at all, here are a few ideas. They’re great for keeping travelogues of your trips, complete with the photos you clicked on the way. You’re a budding photographer? then these are absolutely lovely for a printed portfolio that you can conveniently carry around. You’re a parent? how about a book of your kid’s birthday. Moms.. perhaps you’d want to do your own recipe book with all the sumptuous photos of your cooking! Not to mention the great Indian wedding lends itself particularly well to be captured in such books. Or maybe just your honeymoon. Well we could go on and on about the ideas. Also if you have a custom request, do not hesitate to contact us via our contact form here.
Feedback is very much awaited as always. Happy photobooking!
18 comments September 28th, 2009 Posted by Animesh
Guys, brace yourself. We are about to launch the next big thing in photo printing: Photo Books.
If you want splendid hardbound coffee-table books with your own photos, wait no more (Okay, just a few more days) !
7 comments September 19th, 2009 Posted by Ashish