PhotoShelter

by Grover Sanschagrin

History is made in Spain, and one PhotoShelter member has images that document it; another combines tattoos and infrared photography; Harry Potter images are still popular; Americana is vanishing; and another photographer gets an image selected as "Photo of the Day". These things, and more, make up an exciting selection of Shouts.

Shout-Outs are a regular Friday thing, and you can be part of it too. Send us suggestions! If we think it's worth shouting about, it will show up here in the blog on a Friday. To submit something, scroll to the bottom to see how.

AN END TO BULLFIGHTING IN SPAIN
Charlie Mahoney, a freelance press photographer based in Barcelona, Spain, has an incredible collection of bullfighting images in his archive.

"In the 1900's Barcelona was one of the world's most celebrated bullfighting cities," Mahoney writes. "With its three bullrings, it hosted more bullfights than any other Spanish city."

On July 28, 2010 the Parliament of Catalonia, an autonomous region in Northeastern Spain, voted to abolish bullfighting in the region. This will force the closure of Barcelona's Plaza Monumental, Catalonia's only remaining active bullfighting ring.

Barcelona's Plaza Monumental was Catalonia's only remaining active bullring. An animal rights group, Prou (pronounced "pro"), forced the debate after gathering more than 180,000 signatures.

by Andrew Fingerman

Seems like we're all spending a ton of time online these days "promoting" our businesses through social media.  So, is social media working for your photography business as a viable marketing channel?  If you're not sure, you're probably not alone.  We're connected with thousands of photographers on sites like facebook and twitter, so we took a little look around, and have diagnosed 7 big reasons why some photographers are likely not finding success.  Read on to determine if you're suffering from one of these symptoms, and hopefully our "tough love" suggestions will help turn things around.      

Spending a ton of time promoting your photo business through social media but not feeling the love in return? Started to feel lonely all over again?  We'll help you diagnose what you're doing wrong. (Photo: Allen Murabayashi)

• #7 You don't have a goal.
• #6 You're a self-centered loudmouth.
• #5 You're a terrible listener.
• #4 You're a garden gnome.
• #3 You have a volume problem.
• #2 You're missing a yardstick.
• #1 You've got 140 characters and no soul.

by Grover Sanschagrin

Aaron Johnson is the artist who creates the popular What the Duck cartoon strip. I've been following his work for years, and have found myself regularly consuming his sense of humor - the central character being a duck photographer (a "shooting duck?")

Johnson comes up with a new cartoon strip 5 days per week, rain or shine. As much as I appreciate all the fun photographer humor, I also respect his ability to come up with a continuous supply of new creative ideas.

How does he do it? I decided to ask. I think photographers, like any creative individuals, can benefit from his answers.

by Grover Sanschagrin

One PhotoShelter user scores big with images in a Ken Burns film, another shoots haunting images in an abandoned asylum, another goes back in time to the 50s, and we found the best t-shirt ever. These are some of the things we're shouting about this week.

Shout-Outs are our regular Friday thing. You can send us suggestions, as well. If we think it's worth shouting about, it will show up here in the blog on a Friday. To submit something, scroll to the bottom to see how.

HELLINGLY ON EARTH
Photographer Viveca Koh has a gallery of images titled "Hellingly Asylum," which includes images made inside the East Sussex County Asylum (later named Hellingly Hospital), which opened in 1903. It was closed in 1994, and has been falling into disrepair and decay ever since.

Her images are haunting and dramatic.

Hellingly Asylum - Images by Viveca Koh

"Having been working on these pictures for days now, I am deeply immersed in Hellingly at the present time," she said. "As I look closely at the details of the decay feel a deep sense of sadness that such a beautiful building has ended its days smashed up and unloved, prior to being bulldozed into the ground."

I've been to Kansas City before, er, on the Kansas side -- and it wasn't so pretty. So as I touched down into the KC Airport after multiple flight delays, the only thing I was thinking about was dinner. But Michelle and I were in town for a two day workshop that was co-produced by Brud Jones and our good friends at Digital Labrador.

Over 100 people assembled in the very large studio of Kansas City commercial photographer, Austin Walsh, which is situated in the former Firestone building in downtown KC. And what can I say that you don't already know? People in the midwest are awfully nice, and the people in this crowd had a real genuine interest in photography that I found refreshing and inspiring.

The theme of the event was "passion," and after I spoke, Austin showed a bunch of passion projects that he had completed. Many of these projects ended up turning into commercial work down the line, so as Tim Mantoani explained in his webinar, passion projects not only stoke the creative juices, but they can be real spring boards for paying jobs.

The final piece that Austin showed was a multimedia piece that he created specifically for the workshop about a local tattoo artist named "Whispering Danny" of Exile Tattoo. I was quite frankly blown away. We didn't explicitly ask Austin to create new work for the event, and certainly not a multimedia piece. But he took it upon himself to assemble a team of very talented people to record sound, colorize, edit and even create a custom soundtrack. You really need to see this:



If that doesn't inspire you to create passion pieces, I don't know what will. Austin is incredibly talented and gracious, and I think he's going to have many great years of commercial success ahead of him.

Last week the official PhotoShelter WordPress plugin was born - a free, public download that allows PhotoShelter users to streamline their blogging workflow by embedding photos and slideshows directly into the body of a blog post without leaving WordPress. Here's a rundown of the main features of the plugin, plus a short review of how I use the plugin to save lots of time and improve my SEO. Also way down at the bottom, I include 22 other fantastic plugins for photography blogs.

Features of the official PhotoShelter WordPress Plugin:

• Embeds any publicly visible PhotoShelter image or slideshow directly into a blog post without leaving WordPress. So, no need to separately log into PhotoShelter to copy and paste image links into WordPress - a HUGE time saver.


• Creates "blog-ready" versions of your photos from the high resolution files in your PhotoShelter archive. The plugin dynamically generates a resized, sharpened and (if you choose) watermarked version of your photo that will fit the content area of your blog perfectly. In other words, you'll never have to create, upload or manage separate "blog copies" of your photos ever again. Since the photos are created on-the-fly at PhotoShelter, they don't take up any space on your hard drive or blog server.


• Embeds images that automatically click-through to the version of the photo that lives on your PhotoShelter website. This feature allows blog visitors to buy prints, products or digital downloads with a click and creates backlinks (that search engines like Google need to find your photos) at the same time.


• Embeds your photos as HTML (using the <img> tag) or Flash objects for higher security (your choice).


• Allows you to search for images by gallery or by IPTC keyword, a feature that really comes in handy when you want to write a blog post about a group of related images from different shoots. Example:  The 10 Best Hamburger Photos I've Ever Taken.


• Automatically copies the IPTC description into the ALT text of the image embedded in your blog by reading the metadata of your high resolution photo.. This is great for SEO. (Since search engines like Google can't actually "see" your photos, they look to the ALT text of your images to tell them what they are.)

What's the Bottom Line?

I've been playing around with the plugin for about a week and I have this to say - although it's still in the public testing stage, the new plugin is the best way for photographers who use PhotoShelter to add images to their WordPress blogs. It's painless to install, simple to use, it's good for SEO, and it can save you a lot of time.

If you're interested in specifics on how the plugin has improved my own blog workflow the following overview should help.

by Grover Sanschagrin

Do professional photographers really use point-and-shoot cameras? Surprisingly, yes. 

Using Facebook and Twitter, I just completed a little of my own unscientific research. I wanted to find out which digital point-and-shoot is the camera-of-choice among professional photographers. Just over 50 professional photographers responded, and most of them are included here.

Some well-known photographers responded to my call, including: Pulitzer Prize-winning photographers David Hume Kennerly and Brian Smith; "Strobist" David Hobby; Washington DC photojournalist David Burnett; Outdoor/Adventure photographer Corey Rich; and Lifestyle/Advertising photographer Tom Hussey.

I asked each photographer the same questions: What camera do you use; what gadgets and add-on accessories do you use; do you have any pro-level advice for others using this camera; and I asked them to supply a picture they shot with the camera.

(For example, the picture on the above/right is one that I shot with my iPhone and the Camera Bag app. Even though I own a Canon G9, I hardly use it now that I have an iPhone.)

Thanks to all the photographers who participated in this fun little project. For anyone else who wasn't included, please add your own information in the comments area, so we can keep this going!

I listed them here in reverse order - for maximum dramatic effect. Judging by the responses I got favoring specific models, you can see which point & shoot cameras these pros like best...

We spend a ton of time talking about marketing photography online - helping photographers extend their reach through websites, blogs, social media, etc. So, it should be no surprise that we often get questions about protection.  There are some amazing resources for photographers to learn more about protecting their copyright.  We've taken a stab at gathering up *some* of the best resources we've found - mostly from industry organizations, government and nonprofits, and a few voices of wisdom in the industry.

Yes, getting your work online exposes you to risk of theft. And yes, uneducated web users generally have a severe lack of respect for photographers' copyright and image use restrictions. To avoid this risk you can simply not participate. Shut everything down and only share images when asked directly by a potential client. This is obviously a really bad idea, and the worst long term solution for your business. Your customers are doing business online, linking up in social networks and browsing the web, so it's where you and your images need to be if you care about getting new work. So, you'd better understand your rights and the tools at your disposal to both protect you from theft and prosecute when theft occurs.  The following should give you a good start...      

If you know of articles and resources to add to this list, please share in the comments section below. 

US Copyright
United States Copyright Office
A Brief Introduction & History
Frequently Asked Questions
Registration of Photographs
Copyright Office Fees
eCO - Electronic Copyright Submission

PhotoShelter tutorial: Electronic Copyright Registration for Photographers

International Copyright
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Directory of World Copyright Offices
Legal Pitfalls in Taking or Using Photographs of Copyright Material, Trademarks and People
WIPO Intellectual Property Handbook
World Intellectual Property Statistics

by Grover Sanschagrin

Congrats are in order for one PhotoShelter member who found success on the Apple iTunes store, and a whole bunch of really nice photography gets featured in this week's shout-outs.

Also - heads up to all Northern California peeps! I'm going to be speaking in San Francisco this coming Thursday (7/22/2010) at 6:00pm. My presentation at ASMP Northern California is titled "Extreme Makeover Photography Website Edition". It's free, and we'll probably drink beers afterward - so there's no excuse not to attend.

Shout-Outs are our regular Friday thing. You can send us suggestions, as well. (In fact, we like suggestions.) If we think it's worth shouting about, it will show up here in the blog on a Friday. To submit something, scroll to the bottom to see how.

Thanks to everyone who joined Tim Mantoani and me for a tremendously inspiring webinar last night. Unlike some of our previous webinars, Tim chose to focus less on technique and gear, and more on how he finds inspiration, and how personal projects often translate into commercial work.




What is YOUR dream photo project? Please add to this story by leaving your comments below.