Friday Happy Hour: 10 Secrets of a Successful Photography Website & More

Friday Happy Hour: 10 Secrets of a Successful Photography Website & More

Friday happy hour today brings a variety of news and shout-outs, from the announcement of Luminance – PhotoShelter’s first conference this September with a kickass group of speakers – to some awesome landscape photos taken with a good ol’ fisheye lens. The photography industry never ceases to present us with newsworthy stories, so let’s review some of the best from the past week.

10 Secrets of Successful Photography Websites

Previously offered only to new users, the 10 Secrets of Successful Photography Websites is now available to everyone and anyone looking to amp up their photo website. This free guide is an overview of the basic principles that make up a photography website that will appeal to your ideal clientele. It includes a walk-through of each of the 10 things that the best photography websites must have, and real examples of photographers using these tactics to find success online. Included in the guide are tips on:

  • How to define your online audience.
  • How to create a simple, uncluttered website.
  • How to create a SEO “keyword hitlist”.
  • How to ensure visitors can link to your content.
  • How to measure your traffic and see results.

Luminance 2012

This week we were really excited to announce Luminance 2012 – a very different photography event. Most photo conferences focus on gear and technique, but something more significant has been happening around us, and the creation and consumption of images has changed drastically in the past decade. We created Luminance to ask the question of how photography is changing and how society is responding to that change.

The conference is in New York City on September 12&13, and features two days of 20-minute TED-style talks from industry leaders in photography, technology, design, and social media. Our list of kickass speakers includes Joe McNally, Tumblr, Hipstamatic, Facebook, Lytro, Zack Arias, and more.

To learn more about the speakers and get info on location, schedules, and early-bird discounts, visit: photoshelter.com/luminance

Landscapes captures with good old fisheye lens

Surrealist landscape photographer Randy Scott Salvin uses a good ol’ fashioned fisheye lens to to take a series of pictures that he later stitches together into one jaw-dropping 360-degree image. The result is his “Alternative Perspectives Photography”, which captures stunning shots of his native New York City like the Empire State building, as well as other iconic American landscapes such as the Big Sur in California.

In an interview with The Daily Mail UK, Randy – who also works as a music video director – says: “When I began shooting landscapes, I was compelled to push the perspective. After experimenting heavily with panoramic photography, I developed a technique that could realize my desire to turn the real into the surreal…The photographing of the images is the actually least time consuming part of the process. What takes the longest is finding the places that are worthy of shooting and getting to the spot that’s best to shoot them from.”

As New Yorkers, this one of Battery Park is our favorite. What’s yours?

Photo by Randy Scott Salvin

Rawreporter wants to get photographers more work

What if you could receive photography assignments just by checking into your location on your smartphone? That’s what the new startup Rawreporter wants to achieve with its free app, which will send you location-based assignments from media partners and bloggers looking for imagery. Photographers and videographers can then send in their work for consideration. It’s an interesting business model for photographers who are looking for extra work, but it seems more geared toward amateur photographers and on par with players like CNN’s iReport, says Venture Beat. Check out their current list of content here and let us know what you think.

Mark A Johnson wins prize in the Defenders of Wildlife photo contest

Ocean stock and fine art photographer Mark A Johnson learned this week that he won second place in the Wild Lands category of the 3rd annual Defenders of Wildlife photography contest for his photo of Ke’e beach in Hawaii. Congrats to Mark and thanks for sharing!

Photo by Mark A Johnson

“A Cover Story” by Joe McNally

Joe McNally, who will be speaking at Luminance, posted an interesting article that starts off with full disclosure on the overall cut he got for an image that appeared on a Newsweek cover, but was sold through Getty Images. The breakdown is informative about percentage cuts and the like, but he goes on to talk nostalgically about how editorial rates have changed and the simple fact that it’s nothing new that some magazines have bigger budgets than others – and whatever magazine you shoot for puts you into their certain “group”.

Joe compares shooting for Newsweek vs. TIME: “TIME was the big boy on the block, ” he says. “As a shooter or an agent you could always expect more days, or bigger stock checks from TIME…I shot a lot more for Newsweek, the poorer cousin of the newsweeklies, and got used to doing more with less.” Perhaps not the romantic image of photojournalism you wanted to hear, but at least it’s real.

Nikon releases the SLR D3200

Yesterday Nikon announced the release of the Nikon D3200, its latest digital SLR equipped with a new CMOS image sensor and 24.2-million pixel count. The camera also offers an improved Guide mode, which was very popular with the earlier D3000 and D3100 models, that displays instructions for shooting according to situation types, scenes or subjects. For those unfamiliar with high tech, the Guide makes it easier to figure how to set up the camera and what settings to use when photographing. Definitely trying to tap the consumer market with this one.

Source: nikon.com/news

Google+ vs. Pinterest: What’s worth your time?

We’re all for keeping up with the latest in social media trends, but it’s important to make the best of what limited time you have and not spread yourself too thin across multiple platforms. So how do you decide which social media site is right for you? There’s a lot of components to take into consideration, like how many and what type of users you’d be interacting with.

Two of the hottest trends in social media right now are Google+ and Pinterest, so HubSpot has compiled a list of 35 facts to help you compare and contrast. Here are four of the most noteworthy:

  • Google+ has 170 million users vs. 10.4 million on Pinterest
  • Users spend an average of 3.3 minutes on Google+ vs. 97.8 minutes on Pinterest
  • 0.22% of referral traffic comes from Google+ vs. 3.6% from Pinterest
  • 63% of Google+ users are male vs. 80% female on Pinterest

So what’s the best choice for you? Do you use either site? You can also read more on Allen’s opinion in “Hey Photographers! Pinterest Is Not For You“.

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