Friday Shout-Outs, New Year’s Eve Edition (2010)

This is the last Friday Shout-Out of 2010! Can you believe that we made it? In this episode, a photog who was included in a Friday Shout-Out comes back with some stats and something to prove, and another takes a trip down an analog memory lane. A photographer reveals his best-selling images for 2010, and another one keeps shooting images that make people laugh. And, if your hungry – we’ll close out the year with a little Italian food.

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.

WONDERLAND, INDEED!
Like most people, I secretly find great satisfaction in being told, “you were right.” And, like most people, I rarely ever get to hear it. Except for today.

A few months ago in a Friday Shout-Out, I pointed to the newly redsigned website of photographer John Dunne – and I called his new website an “SEO wonderland.” He made the smart decision to dump his Flash-based website, and go with a WordPress-PhotoShelter combo.

I had no idea that John was actually keeping score – but he was, and the results are in. He created a very interested blog post called “2010 in numbers (or Stats, Stats and more Stats)” and in this post, he has a section about his website traffic.

Getting rid of that Flash site was a VERY smart move, as the visitors to his website has seen a sustained 6x increase within just 7 months, and the combo of the WordPress (HTML-based) site and smart SEO planning was indeed responsible for a lot of it. Best of all, his website continues to be an “SEO wonderland” and maybe next year I can be right again.

PLEASE DON’T TAKE HIS KODACHROME AWAY – UH OH!!
Legendary photojournalist David Burnett wrote a tribute to the end of Kodachrome, titled “Adios Amigo….” that’s worth a read. He takes us all back through the ages, before, during, and after Kodachrome ruled the land.

“Film, for all its charms, just couldn’t compete in the world of the breathless 2 minute news cycle,” he writes. “So as with most things worth preserving, Kodachrome was given the ax, tossed under the bus of progress.”

Thanks, David – for the nice romantic analog stroll down memory lane. I played Paul Simon’s song in the background as I read it – for added effect.

BEST SELLERS
We’ve been talking a lot about print sales lately, and Todd Bigelow, a Los Angeles, California based editorial and corporate photographer, just put together a cool collection of his most popular prints. I don’t know about you, but I always find it really interesting to see what photogs are actually selling.

“Taken from a vast array of assignments, these are the most requested images for printing,” he writes.

Which images are his best sellers of 2010?

Bigelow sad it’s a “dead heat between world record 2006 skateboard jump & Erin Hills, site of 2017 US Open (above).

KEEP MAKING ME LAUGH, PLEASE
If you like your photographer with a sense of humor, then you should follow the work of Paul Treacy. One great image that’s got a funny touch to it is part of his “STROLL LONDON” gallery — a man on a poster appearing to be looking up at the moon – one of his personal favorite images of the year.

Hey Paul — I personally appreciate the humor you’ve dished out via your photography this past year. Please keep it up!

WHO WANTS SOME RAVIOLI?
Ever wonder how to make ravioli pasta? Me neither – but if I ever get the urge, I know exactly where to go.

Long-time travel photographer Bruno Paolo Benedetti shot a series of images that show exactly how it’s done, step-by-step.

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I am always looking for things to include here in our Friday Shout-Outs – so if you have anything you think is worthy, let me know. One great way to do that is to post a note to Twitter with my name in it (@heygrover), and that way I won’t forget it later. Don’t have Twitter? Email me: grover-at-photoshelter-dot-com.