Blog Your Trip

Dear DMOs, CVBs, Businesses, and Bloggers – Quit Stealing Images

It should go without saying that you shouldn't steal from people. I'm an adult. You're probably an adult. I don't steal from you, you don't steal from me. It is not very hard.

Sadly, in the realm of content and new media, theft, specifically image theft, is rampant.

Fellow “bloggers” have stolen from us. My city's tourist office has stolen from us. My state's tourist office has stolen from us. So many people in new media and destination marketing cannot be bothered to learn what copyright infringement is, and real content creators (specifically, real bloggers- without quotes) are the victims.

This has to stop. 

As I have no patience for this kind of, please excuse me, bullshit, I'm airing out some grievances today.

Notes: All photos featured in this article have been stolen from us at one point in time with the exception of the response letter sent to us by our state. I am also not a lawyer and this article does not constitute legal advice.

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Tips to Improve Page Speed Insights Scores with a GeneratePress Theme

If you're like me, you're probably obsessive about your site speed. It doesn't matter the service, I want to do whatever I can to get the best possible scores, load times, and ratings- even if some don't really matter in the grand scheme of things.

Out of all of the services that are out there, one that is the holy grail is Google's Page Speed Insights (PSI) as it is one of the few tools provided by the search giant that gives clues on how website owners can improve. (Plus non-Google tools like WebpageTest at GTMetrix to round out further analyses.)

Naturally, we latched on to it and made it our quest to top out in the highest category on our sites.

Unfortunately, our site on our old theme (Elegant Themes) only took us so far, and we knew it was time to upgrade. We switched to GeneratePress, made some customizations, and both our desktop and mobile scores jumped (with mobile scores in the high 80s and desktop flirting with 100 most days).

Today, I wanted to share the techniques I used to make this happen as it won't come out of the box.

Note: Before we begin it is worth pointing out that at the end of the day site speed is king. Google PSI scores are mainly a suggestion. Although we're in the weeds with it you can have a fast site without a high score, and no one is really certain if a high score provides an SEO benefit like a fast site. Our interest in this is purely because we can optimize it over a more practical reason. This could change in the future and we'll update accordingly.

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What Happens if You Use a Full Frame Lens on a Crop Sensor?

There is a lot of confusion on the performance difference between lenses if used on a specific camera body, especially with regards to using full frame lenses on crop sensor cameras (like the Sony a6000, my camera, which uses a “crop” APS-C sensor).

Cameras like mine take lenses designed for crop sensors (naturally), but also take lenses that are rated for full frame cameras (like the Sony a7iii).

The confusion comes in to play in what kind of image these two lenses will produce at comparable focal lengths, as the discussion of camera “crop factors” is often used interchangebly with lenses as much as they are for sensors. Even I have to admit being messed up on it for quite some time (hence this post).

If comparing a full frame rated lens with a crop sensor lens on the same crop sensor camera body, the main difference is this: nothing.

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