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Best Photos of 2018 by JMG-Galleries Blog Readers

I’m excited to share the results of my 12th annual Best of Photos project.  115 photographers from around the world (amateur and professional alike) have shared their best photos of 2018.  I’m always amazed at the quality of work shared and I hope it’s a source inspiration to you for the coming year. For those who are new to my blog project, photographers taking part span the gamut of photo enthusiasts to professionals. The great thing about photography is that no matter what your skill level we all can relate equally in our love for the art of photography and visually exploring. With that in mind I encourage you to reach out to photographers whose work you enjoy to keep sharing & growing as an artist.  I am incredibly thankful that this tradition has been embraced and enjoy seeing how familiar faces have evolved their work & grown over the years.  I hope reviewing your best photos of the year and comparing them to years pasts keeps you inspired and aware of your progress as a photographer. If you’d like to take part next year and be informed when submissions open for the “Best Photos of 2019” blog project add your name to my mail list. You won’t be spammed. I send out newsletters quite infrequently. Thank to everyone who took part!  I invite you to visit each link below as I have and introduce yourself to many of the participating photographers. Best Photos of 2018 Jim Goldstein – Best Photos of 2018 by Jim M. Goldstein Michael Russell – My Top 10 Photographs Of 2018 Dave Wilson – Best of 2018 Joseph Smith – 2018 Favorites – A Baker’s Dozen Randy Langstraat – My Ten Favorite Photos of 2018 Chuq Von Rospach – Chuqui 2018 Best Of Photos Rachel Cohen – Best of 2018 Lucy Autrey Wilson – A Thousand Words Romain Guy – Best of 2018 Alexander S. Kunz – My Favorite Photos from 2018 Stefan Baeurle – Top 10 Favorites of 2018 QT Luong – 2018 in Review Jenni Brehm – Best pf 2018 – Changing Perspectives Sean Bagshaw – My Favorite Photos Of 2018 Johann A. Briffa – 2018: A Photographic Retrospective Exploring Light – 2018: A Year In Review Drake Dyck – Top Ten (favourite) Images of 2018 Richard Wong – Fine Art Photography Prints – 2018 Ramen Saha – 2018 – Ten moments Martin Quinn – Quinn Images 2018 Favorites TheDarkSlides – TheDarkSlides Best of 2018 Denise Goldberg – top photos :: 2018 Peter Carroll – Favourites of 2018 Jeff Hubbard – Ten Favorite Photos 2018 Gary Crabbe – My Favorite Landscape Photos of 2018 – A Year-End Retrospective Harold Davis – Harold Davis – Best of 2018 Werner Priller – My Favorite Images of 2018/ Phil Colla – Natural History Photography – Best Photos Of 2018 Aaron Hockley – Tech Photo Guy: Best Photos of 2018 Dan Baumbach – 2018 in Review Jao van de Lagemaat – Jao’s best images of 2018 Pete Miller-USKestrel Photography – Favorite Images of 2018 Shikha – Eastern Sierra – My favorite images of 2018 Bruce Leventhal – Reflecting on 2018 Christopher Sheppard – The Stories Behind My Favorite Photographs of 2018 Alan Majchrowicz – Photo Highlights 2018 Tom Whelan – Nature Diary Todd Henson – Best Photos of 2018: My Favorites of the Year Khürt Williams – Island in the Net Patricia Davidson – My Top 10 Favorite Photos of 2018 Russ Bishop – 2018 – The Year in Pictures Jim Coda – Some of My Favorite Images from 2018 Steve Cole – Birds Eye View of 2018 Fred Mertz Photography – Best Photos of 2018 Martijn van der Nat – Best of 2018 Graf Nature Photography – Twenty Eighteen Wanderings Scott Thompson – My Top 10 Tahoe Area Photos of 2018 Kyle Jones – 2018 Favorites Clint Losee – My Best Landscape and Nature Photos of 2018 Caleb Weston – Caleb Weston – Dubland Media Greg Clure – Best of 2018 Rick Holliday – Favorites from 2018 J.J. RAIA – J.J. RAIA Best Photos of 2018 Francis Gagnon – Francis Gagnon Best Photos of 2018 Mike Chowla – My Ten Best of Images of 2018 Carl Donohue – 2018 in photos Kurt Lawson – 10 Favorites of 2018: From Lava Rivers in Hawaii to Yosemite Snowstorms William Bean – William Bean T.M. Schultze – My Favorite Photographs of 2018 Andrew Thomas – Aerial Adventures – Best of 2018 Matt Conti – 2018 Top 20 Photos Daniel Leu – Favorites – 2018 Carol Schiraldi – Best of 2018 from Carol’s Little World Alan Dahl – 2018 Favorite Photos Milan Hutera – 2018 in Pictures Kathy Barnhart – Flickr Sensing Light Best of 2018 Album Greg Russell – Alpenglow Images 2018 Year in Review Derrald Farnsworth-Livingston – Top 10 Favorite Images from 2018 Kevin Ebi – Living Wilderness: Best of 2018 Jackson Frishman – Favorites of 2018 Greg A. Lato – My Favorite Photos of 2018 Mike Shipman – Mike Shipman’s Best of 2018 Beth Young – Best Photos of 2018 Dale Grosbach – My Favorites – 2018 Brent Huntley – Photography and Travel Charlie Russell – Best Wildflower Photos for 2018 Bryan William Jones – Jonesblog Tony Wu – Favorite Photos of 2018 Adrian Klein – 2018 Photo Retrospective Scott McGee – Top 10 of 2018 William Neill – My Favorite Photographs of 2018 Thomas Yackley – Yackley Photo Anne McKinnell – Best Photos of 2018 Holly Davison – Top Ten of 2018 Brian Knott – Brian Knott Photography 2018 Year In Review Anna DeStefano – Affirmation Photography’s Best of 2018 Ingeborg Fernau – Magicalglow Photography Blog Emil Powella – Top 10 of 2018 Elduro Tuco – Elduro Tuco Eric Chan – Favorites From 2018 TP Chapman – Best of 2018 Ilias Katsouras – Okrivadas Molly Dean – Best Photos of 2018 Sarah Marino – 2018 Wrap-Up and a Few Favorite Photographs Michael Frye – My Top Photographs of 2018 Jim Stamates – Memories of 2018 Tim Aston – Favorites from 2018 Samantha Decker – My Best […]




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Blog Project: Your Best Photos From 2019

It is time to kick off the 13th annual best photos of the year blog project! I’m proud to say over the years that hundreds of photographers have taken part (see Best Photos of 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008 and 2007).  It’s great to see the community of photographers that have developed around this blog project. As always I hope the exercise of picking your best photos helps improve your photography (10 Ways to Top Your Best 20xx Photographs). So without any further delay here is how you take part to submit your best photos of 2019. How to Participate (Read Carefully) Review & select your best photos from 2019. Note: Photo edit carefully narrowing down your results to your best 10 or 5 photos. Reference Pro Tips: Photo Editing with Gary Crabbe for pointers. Create a blog post on your website or a Flickr set containing your best photos from 2019. Complete the form below by Sunday JANUARY 5th at 11:59PM PST to take part. The following Tuesday, or thereabout, I’ll post a link to all submitted sites and photos on my blog. Throughout the week I’ll also share the results across all my social media accounts. Spread the Word! Feel free to spread the word of this project on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, photo forums you frequent and/or your blogs. All who are interested in taking part are invited. Loading…




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Best Photos of 2019 by Jim M. Goldstein

Thanks for checking in to see my best photos of 2019. This year for a variety of reasons I didn’t have many opportunities to get out and pursue photography to the degree I’d have preferred. Some of the reasons why were good (new house, settling in, kid activities with both boys being in elementary school for the first time, etc.) and some were downright bummers (passing of my grandfather, getting used to this aging thing, etc.). Through it all though I got the kids out on some bigger trips this year beyond our regular trips to Yosemite. We drove from California to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming and Glacier National Park in Montana. With my focus on the boys having a great experience my normal serious photographic endeavors were kept on the sideline. As always I felt good with that decision after hearing how much they loved Glacier National Park, especially given Glacier it is a personal favorite of mine. In 2020 I’m looking forward to exploring more of my favorite locations with them and seeing it all a new through their eyes.  All that being said enjoy my best of the year…   Landscapes & Wildlife Much of my time outdoors this year was spent showing the boys more of my favorite locations and experiencing the great outdoors while indulging them with great views and of course many evenings of campfires and s’mores. The following view at Two Medicine lake in Glacier National Park was incredibly memorable as we explored the shore and skipped rocks.   Of all my time at Glacier National Park I’ve never once seen a Pika… until this year. Not only are they well camouflaged and hard to see, but they’re incredibly fast. Being small even photographing them with a 400mm lens isn’t nearly enough magnification. The first photo below is a severely cropped photo taken at 400mm. The uncropped photos, 2 down, is included to give you an idea of how hard it is to find them in a rock pile. Add in their constant state of running, to forage food for the winter, you have an even tougher subject to photograph. That said I do have a good number of Pika butt photos now.   While in Glacier National Park it’s always fun to see marmots scurrying about. On a hike at Logan Pass my boys and I saw several. One of the more interesting was perched in a tree surveying his territory.   Adventures with the Kids My boys enjoying a brief encounter with a curious ground squirrel was amusing. Even more amusing was the play structure my youngest son built for him with rocks near his den.   My youngest still has not shaken his interest in photography. While he wasn’t as steadfast about using a tripod this year he still seemed to enjoy taking some ‘serious’ photos.   A brief moment my kids weren’t a blur from running around, tackling each other, and/or tackling me.   A personal favorite of mine taken by a passing hiker. Thanks unknown hiker, I salute you and your ability to capture a well framed photo while maintaining focus. You’d be surprised how hard it is to get that even with an iPhone. Thanks for checking in and Happy New Year!




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Best Photos of 2019 by JMG-Galleries Blog Readers

I’m excited to share the results of my 13th annual Best of Photos project.  112 photographers from around the world (amateur and professional alike) have shared their best photos of 2019.  I’m always amazed at the quality of work shared and I hope it’s a source inspiration to you for the coming year. For those who are new to my blog project, photographers taking part span the gamut of photo enthusiasts to professionals. The great thing about photography is that no matter what your skill level we all can relate equally in our love for the art of photography and visually exploring. With that in mind I encourage you to reach out to photographers whose work you enjoy to keep sharing & growing as an artist.  I am incredibly thankful that this tradition has been embraced and enjoy seeing how familiar faces have evolved their work & grown over the years.  I hope reviewing your best photos of the year and comparing them to years pasts keeps you inspired and aware of your progress as a photographer. If you’d like to take part next year and be informed when submissions open for the “Best Photos of 2020” blog project add your name to my mail list. You won’t be spammed. I send out newsletters quite infrequently. Thank to everyone who took part!  I invite you to visit each link below as I have and introduce yourself to many of the participating photographers. Best Photos of 2019 Best Photos of 2019 – JMG-Galleries – Jim M. Goldstein My Top 10 Photographs Of 2019 – Michael Russell My Ten Favorite Photos of 2019 – ADVENTR – Randy Langstraat Favorite Photos of 2019 – T.M. Schultze My Favorite Photos from 2019 – Alexander S. Kunz Best of 2019 – Dave Wilson Harold Davis—Best of 2019 – Harold Davis 2019: A Photographic Retrospective – Johann A. Briffa Top 10 Favorites of 2019 – Stefan Baeurle My Best Natural History Photos of 2019 – Phil Colla My Best Photos From 2019 – Daniel Brinneman Best Photos of 2019 – Peter Tellone Rétrospective des meilleures photos de l’année 2019 – Francis Gagnon Best of 2019 by Rachel Cohen – Rachel Cohen Photo Highlights 2019 – Alan Majchrowicz My Top 10 Nature Photos of 2019 – Greg Vaughn 2019 – The Year in Pictures | Russ Bishop Photography – Russ Bishop 2019 Favorites – A Split Year – Joseph Smith My 12 Favorite Photos of 2019 – Chuq Von Rospach Wild Drake Photography – Drake Dyck Matt Payne Photography – Matt Payne My Favorite Images Of 2019 – Werner Priller Favourites from 2019 – Bryn Tassell My Favorite Photos of 2019 – A Year-End Retrospective – Gary Crabbe / Enlightened Images 2019 Favorite Photographs – Pat Ulrich Without reflection we go blindly on our way – Bjorn Kleemann 2019 – Ten moments – Ramen Saha top photos :: 2019 – Denise Goldberg Changing Perspectives – Best of 2019 – Jenni Brehm Island in the Net – Khürt Williams Best Photos of 2019: My Favorites of the Year – Todd Henson My Ten Best of Images of 2019 – Mike Chowla 2019 Favorite Photos – Alan Dahl Tech Photo Guy – Best Photos 2019 – Aaron Hockley 2019 Favorites – Martin Quinn Best of TheDarkSlides 2019 – TheDarkSlides 2019 Jim Goldstein Project – J.J. RAIA My Favorites of 2019 – Rich Greene My Favorite Images of 2019 (aka ‘Best of 2019’) – Pete Miller 2019 Year in Review, Decade in Review – Robin Black Photography Under Pressure Photography – Scott McGee My favorite Slovenia photos of 2019 – Luka Esenko 5 Moments in Time – 2019 – Gavin Crook My favorite photos of the decade – Matt Payne My Ten Favourite Images of 2019 – Jens Preshaw 2019 in Pictures – Milan Hutera Twelve from 2019 – Tom Whelan My Favorite Photos of 2019 – Jeff Hubbard 2019 Favorites – Rick Holliday Best of the Best 2019 – Richard Valenti Best Landscape and Nature Photos of 2019 – Clint Losee Best of 2019 – My Favorite Images of the Year – Rob Tilley 2019 Year in Review – Greg Russell | Alpenglow Images Best of The Decade Including 2019 – Adrian Klein Best of 2019 – Brian Knott Natural History Photography – Highlights from 2019 – Gabor Ruff Best of 2019 – Jeff Dupuie Top 2019 – Eric Chan Best of 2019 – Greg Clure Twenty Nineteen: In retrospect – Charlotte Gibb Favorite Blog Photos of 2019 – Jim Coda My Favorites 2019 – Beth Young Living Wilderness: Best of 2019 – Kevin Ebi 2019 Favorites – Mike Cleron Best of 2019 – Romain Guy 2019 Favorite Images – Sam Folsom Michael Katz Photography – Michael Katz Twenty Nineteen – Mark Graf 2019 in Review – and Happy New Year” Photography & Travel – brent huntley Top 10 Favorite Images from 2019 – Derrald Farnsworth-Livingston My Photo Highlights of 2019 – Caleb Weston Lagemaat Photography – Best images of 2019 – Jao van de Lagemaat Favorites from 2019 – Kyle Jones A Baker’s Dozen – Mike Christoferson 10 Favorites of 2019: An Amazing Year – Kurt Lawson Top 20 Photographs of 2019 – Year-End-Retrospective – Landscape Photography Reader/David Leland Hyde Favorite Photos of 2019 – Deb Snelson Favorites – 2019 – Daniel Leu Best of 2019 – Steve Cozad Fog from Above in 2019 – Andrew Thomas Favorites of 2019 – Mick McMurray Some Favorites from 2019 – Josh Meier Top 10 Images of 2019 – Stephen L. Kapp Top Ten of 2019 – Holly Davison Best 2019 – Barbara Michalowska The Creative Photographer – Andrew S. Gibson My Favorite Photos of 2019 – Patricia Davidson A Thousand Words – Lucy Autrey Wilson 2019 Top Twelve Photographs – David J Grenier Urban Dinosaurs – Steven M. Bellovin Best of 2019 – Thomas Yackley Carol’s Little World – Best of 2019 – Carol Schiraldi My favourite shots of 2019 – Catalin Marin Top 2019 Photos – Matt Conti Top Ten 2019 – Phyllis Whitman Hunter Favorites from […]




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Top 10 Best Courses on Domestika (in English)

For those professionals looking to share not only their projects but to connect with other creatives, learn from them, and even find employment in the creative field, a new option entering the English market is Domestika. With its expansive forums and thousands of projects being shared by creatives from all over the world, Domestika is an amazing resource to explore. One of their biggest features is their online courses to help you learn new skills and with that in mind, we wanted to shine a spotlight on the 10 Best English Courses on Domestika so you can jump right in and get started! So, if you’re ready, let’s get started! Bundle 3 Courses & Save 30% (Ends May 6) Domestika are offering a further 30% off if you bundle 3 courses. » Click here to start bundling.    Top 10 Best English Courses on Domestika Logo Design: From Concept to Presentation with Sagi Haviv – $19 Transforming your creative ideas into personal projects – $15 Creativity Face to Face: A Playful Collage Journey – $12 Digital Painting for Characters: Color and Light – $14 Creation of an Original Logo from Scratch – $14 The Art of Record Covers: Illustration Meets […]




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GoCopy – The Best Adobe InDesign Collaboration Tool

GoCopy is the simplest way for copywriters and designers to collaborate better on Adobe InDesign content. Get your copy free!




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The Best Way To Improve Your Business Skills

Are you thinking about running a business after getting a degree? This article will help you find the best ways to make your business skills more efficient and useful. The Best Way To Improve Your...




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Top 5 Best Internet Live Support Extension To Increase Customers Interactions

Creative interactions call for creative measures - numerous extensions reduce, minimize or dilute the frustration of the customers and resolve issues quickly without the customer support team need....




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Why Choosing The Best Web Hosting Is Crucial For Your Business

Not many business owners think about hosting when building a new website for their business. But failing to choose the right web hosting can have a great impact on your website and, of course, your...




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Our WFH Best Practices

Our first remote office opened in 2007 when a designer and a developer left our HQ office and moved to Durham. Ever since we've been fine-tuning our ability to collaborate across locations. Today, we have team members across the country in our four offices, and we have fully remote employees in Charleston, Kansas City, New York City, Dallas, and Charlottesville.

Because of the coronavirus outbreak, a lot of people recently started working from their homes across the world, the country, and Viget. We wanted to share some of our best practices for being great teammates and doing great work, regardless of locale, and we’d love to hear yours in the comments.

Communicate Often and Write It Down

We want every person at Viget to be informed and connected. We do this in a few ways. We have a company Knowledge Base, which contains critical information including HR policies, office processes, brand guidelines, project resources, etc. We also have a well-organized Google Drive that everyone can access.

My favorite communication tool we use, however, is our Internal Lab Report. Every week, we create a Google Doc with HR updates, birthdays, upcoming events we’re attending, relevant publicity we or a client received, and timely updates on projects, sales, and recruiting. This report allows the entire team to have the same information, regardless of PTO schedules, and it provides a record that can be referenced weeks, months, or years later.

I have also found our Slack habits really helpful. We try to make our availability easily known, mostly via a passive Slack status. We each update our status daily, sometimes multiple times, so people can see if we’re working from home, out of the office for an appointment, in a meeting, or offline for a personal phone call. We also have a few Slack Channels we use very specifically to announce PTO, important announcements, and recently, one that is specific to the updating coronavirus situation.

My work from home station.

Figure Out Your Boundaries

This looks different for everyone and can be an ever-changing target. Understanding your boundaries requires you to be honest with yourself – Are you easily distracted? Can you successfully work in pajama pants? Will your dog actually allow you to get work done? Does working from the couch result in good work, or do you need a designated work spot? For some, working from home requires setting boundaries to ensure the work gets done. For others, working from home requires setting a start and stop times to ensure you don’t overwork yourself.

Viget has a flexible work policy, so many of us work from home fairly often and have gotten our routines set up. As such, we have written about this before! Check out Trevor’s article about working remotely.

Show Your Face

When I first started at Viget, I’d never worked anywhere that used a Google Hangout for nearly every meeting. At first, I was tempted to call into meetings and leave the camera off because I found it exposing. Now, I can’t imagine not using it, and I’ve even embraced it in my personal life with friends and family. I realized the value in face-to-face conversations even in virtual form, the ability to see body language, and the connection you establish when you see each other's faces — even if your hair isn't perfect or you haven't arranged your plants just-so in the view behind you. Whenever possible, use your camera during a meeting. It increases trust, communication, and in my personal-not-backed-by-science-opinion, lightness, which frankly, I think we can all use a bit more of right now.

Here's a screen shot from our Saint Patrick's Day Happy Hour.

Create Shared Experiences

As a company with project teams often distributed across our four locations, cross-office experiences are vital to our culture, and we’ve spent years working to keep our remote offices in sync. A few of our ongoing group activities include a monthly virtual Book Club, our weekly full-team Free Lunch Friday tradition, Donut for Slack, and, of course, our Pointless Weekends.

The current global health crisis now requires almost all of the company to work remote, so we’ve gotten creative with our attempts to increase non-project time together, in order to keep up the vibes we’ve worked hard to create.

What we’ve recently started:

    • Last Weekend this Morning - Monday mornings, we have an optional virtual coffee, where anyone who’d like to chat can join and share the latest gardening lesson or bingeable tv show. It lets us start our week off as we would when we’re all in the office — saying hello to each other.
    • Virtual Happy Hours - We are a company that likes to socialize, and a bit of distance doesn’t stop us. This week, we set up an after-hours Happy Hour for St. Patrick’s Day.
    • Daily Lunch Table- If you’ve ever visited our HQ office in Falls Church, you’ll notice our large kitchen table. We have an informal tradition of gathering around noon to eat together, whether it’s just a couple folks or the whole team. We now do this lunch virtually. So far, we’re mostly taking turns discussing who is eating what, and of course, sharing said recipes.

I crowdsourced some ideas from the Viget team, and here are some noteworthy takeaways:

"In remote meetings, minimize all your other windows and be fully present. It’s easy to allow your attention to accidentally drift if you see a new Slack channel light up, especially if you’re in a larger meeting. Suddenly, you find yourself multitasking. Treat the meeting as if you were there in person: unless you’re taking notes, minimize your other tabs, and give the conversation your full attention."
- Paul Koch

“I try to reach out to more folks I don’t consistently work with. Since there’s less interaction in general, I want to be more intentional about staying connected.”
- Laura Sweltz

“Good habits are hard to form and bad habits are hard to break, and it’s often hard to find the right time to make a change. Most of us are experiencing a disruption to our usual behaviors right now, but that doesn’t have to be entirely bad. Be deliberate now and when this is over, we might all end up with some new work habits worth keeping.”
- Emily Bloom

“I’ve found it helpful to create a physical space similar to the one I had at work. While this isn’t exactly possible, small things like setting up a laptop stand and second screen make it so I’m less likely to get distracted and wander to the couch or kitchen (aka the snack danger zone.).”
- Aubrey Lear

“It’s easy to get stuck in one spot all day, so be proactive about moving around, or creating excuses to do so. Whether that’s making yourself a cup of coffee, eating lunch away from your computer, or going for a quick walk outside for some fresh air. This will help reduce the risk of going stir crazy.”
-Zach Robbins

True to Viget form, our remote work is all about “Progress, Not Perfection.” While remote collaboration is ingrained in our company, we’re looking for opportunities to fine-tune our approach and improve our habits.

We’d love to hear from you: What are your best practices? Lessons learned?






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The Best Free Zoom Backgrounds to Make Your Video Conferencing More Fun

If you’re a remote worker, you may have plenty of experience with video conferencing as a way to communicate with clients, team members, or other colleagues. But with millions of additional...

Click through to read the rest of the story on the Vandelay Design Blog.




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10 Best Restaurant Menu Plugins for WordPress (Compared)

Want to add a food menu to your restaurant website? Publishing your restaurant menu on your website comes in handy especially if you’re providing an online restaurant reservation or online food delivery. That way your users can figure out the available food options without having to walk into your restaurant. In this article, we’ll show […]

The post 10 Best Restaurant Menu Plugins for WordPress (Compared) appeared first on IsItWP - Free WordPress Theme Detector.




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12 Best GoDaddy Alternatives for Domain & Web Hosting (2020)

Are you looking for the best GoDaddy alternative for domain registration and web hosting? Without a doubt, Godaddy is one of the most popular names when it comes to registering domain names and hosting your business online. Over the last 22 years, GoDaddy has managed to establish a stronghold in the market. In this article, […]

The post 12 Best GoDaddy Alternatives for Domain & Web Hosting (2020) appeared first on IsItWP - Free WordPress Theme Detector.




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9 Best Staging Plugins for Your WordPress Website (Compared)

Are you looking for a good staging plugin to test your experiments before it goes live? A staging site is a replica of your website where you can experiment with new features, plugins, and updates before you push them to your live website. That way you can find and fix bugs without having to worry […]

The post 9 Best Staging Plugins for Your WordPress Website (Compared) appeared first on IsItWP - Free WordPress Theme Detector.




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6 Best Divi Plugins That Work on Top of Divi Builder

Are you looking for some good Divi plugins to extend your site features? While you can certainly use any plugins with the Divi theme and Divi Builder plugin, the Divi community has created some plugins specifically for the Divi users. In this article, we’ll show you some of the best Divi plugins that let you […]

The post 6 Best Divi Plugins That Work on Top of Divi Builder appeared first on IsItWP - Free WordPress Theme Detector.




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WPForms vs. Google Forms – Which One is Best? (Compared)

Looking to build an online form on your WordPress site? Not sure whether you should use WPForms or Google Forms? Both WPForms and Google Forms are two great options for small and medium scale businesses. But when you dig deeper, you’ll find a few key differences between these 2 form builders. To help you find […]

The post WPForms vs. Google Forms – Which One is Best? (Compared) appeared first on IsItWP - Free WordPress Theme Detector.




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For Veterans with TBI and PTSD, Finding Your Best Path in College

Whether taking classes online or finding a seat in a lecture hall that makes you feel safe, Adam shares ideas for vets with TBI and PTSD returning to school.




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Best Alexa Skills That Will Actually Surprise You

Technology has changed the way we live. A few decades back, we couldn’t even imagine making a video call to a person sitting in another corner of the world. With every technological advancement, mankind is treading towards greater development. From smart gadgets to machines, every invention has leveraged the human lifestyle.  There’s no doubt in […]

Original post: Best Alexa Skills That Will Actually Surprise You

The post Best Alexa Skills That Will Actually Surprise You appeared first on Daily Blog Tips.




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Our WFH Best Practices

Our first remote office opened in 2007 when a designer and a developer left our HQ office and moved to Durham. Ever since we've been fine-tuning our ability to collaborate across locations. Today, we have team members across the country in our four offices, and we have fully remote employees in Charleston, Kansas City, New York City, Dallas, and Charlottesville.

Because of the coronavirus outbreak, a lot of people recently started working from their homes across the world, the country, and Viget. We wanted to share some of our best practices for being great teammates and doing great work, regardless of locale, and we’d love to hear yours in the comments.

Communicate Often and Write It Down

We want every person at Viget to be informed and connected. We do this in a few ways. We have a company Knowledge Base, which contains critical information including HR policies, office processes, brand guidelines, project resources, etc. We also have a well-organized Google Drive that everyone can access.

My favorite communication tool we use, however, is our Internal Lab Report. Every week, we create a Google Doc with HR updates, birthdays, upcoming events we’re attending, relevant publicity we or a client received, and timely updates on projects, sales, and recruiting. This report allows the entire team to have the same information, regardless of PTO schedules, and it provides a record that can be referenced weeks, months, or years later.

I have also found our Slack habits really helpful. We try to make our availability easily known, mostly via a passive Slack status. We each update our status daily, sometimes multiple times, so people can see if we’re working from home, out of the office for an appointment, in a meeting, or offline for a personal phone call. We also have a few Slack Channels we use very specifically to announce PTO, important announcements, and recently, one that is specific to the updating coronavirus situation.

My work from home station.

Figure Out Your Boundaries

This looks different for everyone and can be an ever-changing target. Understanding your boundaries requires you to be honest with yourself – Are you easily distracted? Can you successfully work in pajama pants? Will your dog actually allow you to get work done? Does working from the couch result in good work, or do you need a designated work spot? For some, working from home requires setting boundaries to ensure the work gets done. For others, working from home requires setting a start and stop times to ensure you don’t overwork yourself.

Viget has a flexible work policy, so many of us work from home fairly often and have gotten our routines set up. As such, we have written about this before! Check out Trevor’s article about working remotely.

Show Your Face

When I first started at Viget, I’d never worked anywhere that used a Google Hangout for nearly every meeting. At first, I was tempted to call into meetings and leave the camera off because I found it exposing. Now, I can’t imagine not using it, and I’ve even embraced it in my personal life with friends and family. I realized the value in face-to-face conversations even in virtual form, the ability to see body language, and the connection you establish when you see each other's faces — even if your hair isn't perfect or you haven't arranged your plants just-so in the view behind you. Whenever possible, use your camera during a meeting. It increases trust, communication, and in my personal-not-backed-by-science-opinion, lightness, which frankly, I think we can all use a bit more of right now.

Here's a screen shot from our Saint Patrick's Day Happy Hour.

Create Shared Experiences

As a company with project teams often distributed across our four locations, cross-office experiences are vital to our culture, and we’ve spent years working to keep our remote offices in sync. A few of our ongoing group activities include a monthly virtual Book Club, our weekly full-team Free Lunch Friday tradition, Donut for Slack, and, of course, our Pointless Weekends.

The current global health crisis now requires almost all of the company to work remote, so we’ve gotten creative with our attempts to increase non-project time together, in order to keep up the vibes we’ve worked hard to create.

What we’ve recently started:

    • Last Weekend this Morning - Monday mornings, we have an optional virtual coffee, where anyone who’d like to chat can join and share the latest gardening lesson or bingeable tv show. It lets us start our week off as we would when we’re all in the office — saying hello to each other.
    • Virtual Happy Hours - We are a company that likes to socialize, and a bit of distance doesn’t stop us. This week, we set up an after-hours Happy Hour for St. Patrick’s Day.
    • Daily Lunch Table- If you’ve ever visited our HQ office in Falls Church, you’ll notice our large kitchen table. We have an informal tradition of gathering around noon to eat together, whether it’s just a couple folks or the whole team. We now do this lunch virtually. So far, we’re mostly taking turns discussing who is eating what, and of course, sharing said recipes.

I crowdsourced some ideas from the Viget team, and here are some noteworthy takeaways:

"In remote meetings, minimize all your other windows and be fully present. It’s easy to allow your attention to accidentally drift if you see a new Slack channel light up, especially if you’re in a larger meeting. Suddenly, you find yourself multitasking. Treat the meeting as if you were there in person: unless you’re taking notes, minimize your other tabs, and give the conversation your full attention."
- Paul Koch

“I try to reach out to more folks I don’t consistently work with. Since there’s less interaction in general, I want to be more intentional about staying connected.”
- Laura Sweltz

“Good habits are hard to form and bad habits are hard to break, and it’s often hard to find the right time to make a change. Most of us are experiencing a disruption to our usual behaviors right now, but that doesn’t have to be entirely bad. Be deliberate now and when this is over, we might all end up with some new work habits worth keeping.”
- Emily Bloom

“I’ve found it helpful to create a physical space similar to the one I had at work. While this isn’t exactly possible, small things like setting up a laptop stand and second screen make it so I’m less likely to get distracted and wander to the couch or kitchen (aka the snack danger zone.).”
- Aubrey Lear

“It’s easy to get stuck in one spot all day, so be proactive about moving around, or creating excuses to do so. Whether that’s making yourself a cup of coffee, eating lunch away from your computer, or going for a quick walk outside for some fresh air. This will help reduce the risk of going stir crazy.”
-Zach Robbins

True to Viget form, our remote work is all about “Progress, Not Perfection.” While remote collaboration is ingrained in our company, we’re looking for opportunities to fine-tune our approach and improve our habits.

We’d love to hear from you: What are your best practices? Lessons learned?




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Best of 2016

This year went by in a hurry and now it is late December already and Jim Goldstein is running his blog project again, asking for galleries of everyones best photos of the year. Of course I knew I had to […]




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Best of 2017

As in years past Jim Goldstein is running his annual “Best Of” photography blog project in which I have participated since 2008. Usually I had a few thousand images to sort through. This year has been a rather sparse photo […]




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Best of 2018

Another year has almost passed and as has become tradition Jim Goldstein is running his annual Blog Project. You can find my entries for years past right here on my blog. This year I took a lot of images early […]




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Best of 2019

Another year – and in this case another decade – coming to an end. I haven’t had many chances to go take photos this year. In fact my battery charger got lost for months… just so you know how little […]




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5 Best Practices for Breadcrumb Navigation 

Breadcrumbs are a subtle element of a website that helps improve usability and navigation. They’re a utility that often receives little acknowledgment; however, breadcrumbs can have a large impact and provide a plethora of benefits, such as lowering bounce rate, increasing conversions, and improving user satisfaction.   Imagine you’re in a regular grocery store, except […]

The post 5 Best Practices for Breadcrumb Navigation  appeared first on WebFX Blog.




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5 Lead Generation Website Design Best Practices

Are you looking to generate more leads and revenue with your website? If so, it’s time to consider web design for lead generation to help you create a website that caters to your audience and encourages them to become leads for your business.  On this page, we’ll provide you with five lead generation website design […]

The post 5 Lead Generation Website Design Best Practices appeared first on WebFX Blog.




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6 Best CMS Software for Website Development & SMBs

Are you looking for a content management system (CMS) that will help you create the digital content you need? With so many options on the market, it’s challenging to know which one is the best CMS software for your business. On this page, we’ll take a look at the six best CMS’s for website development […]

The post 6 Best CMS Software for Website Development & SMBs appeared first on WebFX Blog.




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Best of Broadway announces its 2020-21 season for Spokane, featuring Cats, fiddlers and, finally, Hamilton

We've known that Hamilton was going to be part of the 2020-21 STCU Best of Broadway season for a while, but now we finally know the exact dates, as well as the rest of the featured shows for the season. Granted, the whole world has changed since WestCoast Entertainment announced Hamilton was coming to town back when they announced their 2019-20 season — a season that's been roiled, along with the rest of our lives, by the coronavirus pandemic.…



  • Arts & Culture

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Best of Shopping

Best Bank WASHINGTON TRUST BANK "What's your awesome?" runs Washington Trust's latest advertising tagline.…




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Best Mixologist: Crystal Bertholic of Ruins, Hunt and Eyvind

[IMAGE-1] Crystal Bertholic has been a leader in the region's craft cocktail revival since the beginning. Before she got her start shaking, stirring and straining mixed drinks, Bertholic was steaming milk and roasting coffee; then pouring craft beers.…




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Best Beer Bar: Community Pint

It's all right there in the name: "Community Pint."…




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Best Local Coffee Roaster & Best Local Coffee Chain: Thomas Hammer Coffee

During the late '80s, Thomas Hammer got a job at the mobile coffee bar outside Nordstrom in downtown Spokane.…




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Voters' Best Reasons to Visit... Post Falls

[IMAGE-1] The days of Post Falls being merely an exit you point out to your restless kids to assure them you're almost to Coeur d'Alene are over. In the next 20 years, the little town is projected to explode to 100,000 people.…




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Best Local YouTube/Internet Star: Genus Brewing

[IMAGE-1] If you think about it, the art of brewing beer is as visually interesting as it is delicious — the way the hops and the yeast and the grain all swirl together to create that sweet amber-colored goodness. Spokane's Genus Brewing has taken full advantage of that, and they've taken their passion for beer to the internet with great results.…




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Voters' Best Reasons to Visit... Spokane Valley

[IMAGE-1] Visiting Spokane Valley is a little like when a child visits their grandparents' place: At first you don't understand why you're there, but after you leave with new toys, clothes and a full stomach, you can't wait to go back. And the Spokane Valley Mall has all of that.…




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North Idaho's Best Charity Event: The Showcase

The Showcase celebrity golf tournament attracts big-time athletes and pop stars each year.…




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Best Podcast: SpoKast

You could say that SpoKast winning Best Podcast was about quality, about personality and charisma, about the chemistry the three hosts have, about the way they capture what's so great about Spokane.…




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Voters' Best Reasons to Visit... The North Side of Spokane

[IMAGE-1] It's not surprising the most popular destinations for Inlander readers in North Spokane involve shopping — NorthTown Mall and the Garland District were the top vote-getters in this year's poll — but looking at the overall results, one quickly realizes the region north of the river has a lot going on. Riverside State Park and the Little Spokane River were popular picks, too, along with Mt. Spokane Ski & Snowboard Park; clearly people love to get outside up north in between their trips to Bon Bon or Buffalo Wild Wings.…




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Best of Sandpoint

How cool is it that for every Sandpoint category, there were three amazing entries?…




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Best of the Arts

Best Local Play or Musical of 2019-20 THE SOUND OF MUSIC, SPOKANE VALLEY SUMMER THEATRE For three weeks last July, the Valley was alive with The Sound of Music.…




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Best of Inland Northwest People

Best Athlete KILLIAN TILLIE, GONZAGA BASKETBALL…




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Best of Local Drinks

Best Local Winery ARBOR CREST WINE CELLARS A great wine is as much about context as flavor.…




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Best Outdoor Concert: Snoop Dogg at Northern Quest

[IMAGE-1] Anticipation for the show by West Coast rap legend Snoop Dogg was clearly high (pun totally intended), since he sold out his gig at Northern Quest Resort & Casino so quickly that they added a second night. All told, Mr. D-O-Double-G sold darn near 10,000 tickets to his two shows that, combined, had him on stage for roughly two hours.…




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Best Band: Indian Goat

[IMAGE-1] It isn't often that you see a local band selling out most of their gigs, but Indian Goat does. The duo of Garrett Zanol and Travis Tveit formed a few years ago and almost immediately struck a chord with Spokane audiences: Their live shows are usually raucous, sweaty, beer-soaked affairs, with rooms crammed full of people rocking out in unison.…




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Voters' Best Reasons to Visit... Midtown Coeur d'Alene

[IMAGE-1] Midtown Coeur d'Alene. The pedestrian-friendly strip of restaurants and shops that runs north-south along Fourth Street in between Garden and Harrison avenues.…




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Best of the Inland Northwest 2020 Hall of Fame

AMC River Park Square…




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Best Ski Instructor: Katrin Pardue, Mt. Spokane

[IMAGE-1] Katrin Pardue, as she says it, is "not your average kind of sports person." Pardue's been skiing since she was 2.…




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North Idaho's Best Golf Course: Circling Raven

For people who love playing, a day on the worst possible golf course is better than any day not swinging the clubs.…




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Best of the Palouse

The line of customers stretched out the door, around the corner of the building and down the block when the Cougar Country Drive-In reopened last fall after a change in ownership for the iconic 47-year-old Pullman restaurant.…