Last month, I wrote about using Blurb's PDF-to-Book functionality to create a photo book. Photo books are not new, but I've typically considered them as items that soccer moms were ordering for their scrapbooking activities. But it's clear that a well-designed, well-executed book can be a great upsell item for professional photographers who have seen a decline in print sales.

Ingrid and our friends at AdoramaPIX also offer a book making service, and I took it for a spin.

Instead of going through the rigamarole of design and color profiles, I decided to approach it more from a consumer angle without worrying about all the various settings that were available to me. This approach would be more akin to the standard offerings from most companies in the bookmaking space.

Unlike many other services, there is no software to install on your computer. AdoramaPIX's book designer works completely in the browser. This is great if you want to upload the images from home, and perhaps work on the book from the office, or the road when you have more time.

Nice website, buddy.

Every week I see various message boards filled with critique requests from photographer who have recently launched a website. I always like to check them out, and I'm always disappointed to see that photographers still don't get it.

Yes, the photos are nice.
Yes, the layout is clean.

But many photographers can't answer basic questions about their website.

• Who is your intended audience?
• How are you going to get people to it?
• What do you expect them to do when they get there?
• How are you going to tell if your website is helping you?

Instead, these critiques are filled with high fives and terrorist fist jabs. "Nice photos, but it takes a long time to load," or "I couldn't see it on Firefox 3.1," which only goes to reinforce why your photography website is a big fat stinking black hole of time and money.


NASA Images

If you're asking photographers what they think about your website, you've already lost the battle. Photographers aren't your audience.

If you didn't consider Search Engine Optimization in the design phase, you're gonna end up spending a lot of time and money with direct marketing efforts to drive people to it. (And why the heck are you trying to build a website in the first place? Take pictures, outsource the other stuff)

If you only have a few galleries of images and nothing else, then what's the point? You hid your e-mail address and phone number so effectively, that no one can find it. And you don't have any e-commerce capabilities, so if I found an image that I like, there's no opportunity to purchase it. You spent time and money to bring me to your website, and all I can do is view 30 pictures, and read a bio you wrote in the 3rd person? Why on earth would you drive traffic to your website, then have a link that reads "to license my photos, go to Getty where they will take 70% of the sale from me"?

And finally, you have no idea what people are doing on your website because you didn't install an analytics package like Google Analytics. You have no idea what your most popular content is. You have no idea if people are navigating the site the way you intended. You have no idea if all that time you're spending on Twitter is actually increasing visitors, and nor do you understand if Twitter traffic is better than an e-mail newsletter.

If you can't measure what you're doing, how the heck can you determine whether your website is losing you money or not? It's like joining Jenny Craig but not weighing yourself, ever.

You're smarter than that.

Get our free 43-page guide that we've created called "Google Analytics for Photographers." The kit also contains a quick start guide and 5 basic marketing questions that Google Analytics can help you answer. Make marketing decisions based on facts, not hunches.

» Get it for free.

Craig Mitchelldyer is putting together a really informative workshop called "Taking Your Photo Business To The Next Level", to be held October 1, 2009 at The Oregonian, in Portland, OR.

"This is designed to give insight, ideas, and inspiration about the photography business and it's technical aspects for all levels of photographers, from the serious amateur wanting to improve, to established wedding, commercial, and editorial shooters or professional photojournalists who are thinking about becoming freelance," Craig said.

The workshop is the recipient of the "PhotoShelter Stimulus Plan Grant" for the month of October, and is free to attend.

More information about it can be found on Craig's blog, which contains the registration form for those who would like to attend.

I just checked the schedule and see that I am speaking at 9am, with my presentation called "Websites of the Future: The Future Is Now" - and since I am not exactly an early riser, this could get interesting.

Other presentations include:

Thomas Boyd - "Constant Improvement - Moving Your Photography Forward"

David Bergman - David will talk about his business and show his work as an editorial photographer. David will also take to the streets of Portland to give a lighting demo with Intervision, a popular Portland band.

Photography Business Panel Discussion - Moderated by Tony Overman, Past President of the NPPA. With Q & A from the audience as well. Panel Members: Grover Sanschagrin, Craig Mitchelldyer, David Bergman, Mike Davis, and Robbie McClaren

Bless the Internet for making it easier than ever to share photos with friends and family and license photos to clients. But even with all the technology, there is still something magical about a printed image. It's tangible, and there is a sense of permanence that doesn't exist with an image that appears on a webpage. Heresy from a guy who runs an Internet company? No, just a realization that we still covet things we can hold in our hands.

This summer I've had the opportunity to get out of the city on two occasions: a weekend in the Hamptons with a bunch of fellow Hawaiians, and a wedding in upstate Connecticut. As a photographer, I wanted to capture moments from those weekends with no other intention but to share them through my website, but when I reviewed the images, I decided to try to do something a little more permanent.

Blurb is well-known as a digital book-making company. Their CEO, Eileen Gittins, and I have had a chance to sit down last year when we were comparing notes about putting together a national seminar series, and more recently, we're both partners to the Magnum Expression Photography Award. PhotoShelter has used Blurb before to develop marketing pieces, and while the end result was good, I always had the desire to have more control over the output than their software allowed (I worked as a graphic designer in college).



So I was very pleased to find that they now support "PDF to Book" capabilities, which means I could design my own book using a product like Adobe InDesign. This new process gives a few distinct advantages:

• All design elements are controlled by me
• I can color profile the images to the HP Indigo Printers for more accurate color (their normal "BookSmart" software uses sRGB)
• I can size specifically and sharpen to my specification (BookSmart sizes for you, and uses generalized sharpening algorithm)

This is the process I followed:

We really like seeing photographers get together to help other photographers elevate their game.  NYCPHOTOWORKS is a new group doing exactly that.  Led by photographers Marc Asnin, Elbert Chu, and Joshua Herman, they're producing a series of photography workshops, portfolio reviews and one-on-one consultations with a whole lot of major photo editors.  And, don't be fooled by their name, because their consultations will be available to anyone in the world because they're using PhotoShelter in a unique way.


Photo by Elbert Chu

Workshops. Their first series of workshops kick off Sept 11-13 at Sandbox Studios and will focus on documentary, travel, or portraiture, taught by veteran photographers like Asnin, Rob Howard, and Ron Levine. Over three days, participants get hands-on experience on shoots with instructors in the streets and in the studio.  The course schedule is really intensive and great for photographers who want to deepen their skills in any of these three areas.  Then, NYCPHOTOWORKS follows up in October with a new series of editorial workshops featuring Crary Pullen of Time, Bruce Perez of Redbook, Chris Doughtery of People Magazine, plus a lecture by Kathleen Klech of Conde Nast Traveler.   

Portfolio reviews. From October 22-24, these guys have assembled a ridiculously impressive group of 60+ magazine photo editors and photo/creative directors to conduct portfolio reviews.  These sessions are not cheap, but the price guarantees access to your choice among 14 top photo editors.  We see titles like Business Week, Lucky, People, Vanity Fair, Fortune, ESPN, and so much more.  The key to ensure you maximize this opportunity is to do your homework in advance.  Learn about these magazines and the type of photography they need most, and do a real gut check to make sure you're a close fit. There's only one goal of a paid portfolio review session - and that's to move the photo editor to consider you or your images for an upcoming project.  These aren't coaching sessions.         

Online consultations.  These are the coaching sessions. Photographers work 1-on-1 with professional editors online, to get direct guidance on how to brand themselves, identify their editorial strengths, and perfect their portfolios.  They'll be using PhotoShelter to help facilitate these sessions remotely - no need to be in NYC to enjoy the benefits.    

We're working with NYCPHOTOWORKS because we really like how they're helping bridge the gap between photographers and photo editors.  Check out their schedule and join for a session that's right for you.

by Darren Carroll

I used to tell people that I thought golf was one of the hardest sports to photograph--but when their laughter got to be too much, I started to ponder their reaction.

Maybe they had a point. I mean, the player isn't exactly moving very fast, like, say, in hockey. You don't have to make any split-second decisions about which player to follow like you might at a football game. There's not really a ball to follow like there is in basketball, and the game isn't very cerebral (at least for a photographer), like baseball. It's all pretty much right there in front of you--player stands there, people get quiet, player hits ball, player walks to ball and does it again.

So I began to reconsider. And I arrived at the conclusion that I still give people who ask today. And it's this:

Golf is, in fact, the easiest sport to shoot. But the very reasons that make it the easiest sport to shoot make it the hardest sport to shoot well.

Now, I'm not saying that I have all the insight into photographing golf well, nor do I have the market cornered on it. What I've attempted to do below is provide a bit of information that will lay the groundwork for shooting golf--the easy stuff, if you will. Once you've digested that, you'll be in a better position to take the stuff I can't give you--your eye and your talent--and apply it to your work out on the course.

Anybody can photograph golf. Really. It's very simple to just stand there and shoot people doing the same repetitive thing over and over again, pointing a lens at a guy swinging a club and firing off a salvo of motor-driven frames as soon as he wraps the club behind his head. I see lots of people doing just that every time I cover a golf tournament.

It's another thing entirely, however, to shoot golf well,


Golf - Images by Darren Carroll

THE RULES
I'm going to start off with these to get them out of the way, because everything else that I say is going to be predicated upon your following the "rules" of golf photography. They're pretty straightforward, and when you think about it, they all boil down to one thing:

Do not distract a player. Ever.

That's it. Simple as that. Golf is a much different sport to cover than just about anything else--it's rather solitary, as the player is really battling himself more than anyone else, and he has no teammates to rely on; the crowds, while large, are generally quiet, and the players expect to be able to concentrate without distraction.

If you can remember that one simple concept, the rest is all common sense. But there are some things we can put down in writing to help illustrate the point.

First, stay close to the ropes. An "arm's length" is the accepted standard, and generally speaking that works pretty well.

Next, don't move until after each player has hit. There's always a tendency to forget that there's more than one player in a group with, say, Tiger Woods, in it. As soon as he hits, gallery and photographers alike want to head to the next shot, forgetting that there still may be other players in the group who haven't hit yet.

Stay out of what's known as the player's "line." If you can draw a straight line between yourself, the hole, and the player while on the putting green, you're in the wrong place.

Maintain some situational awareness on the course. Lots of times tee boxes and putting greens are right next to each other, and the noise from your camera or your moving around while following one group can distract someone in a group nearby.  So be careful.

And finally, there's something that I like to call "minimizing your presence." In other words, do as little as you can to remind the golfer that you're there, while still being able to do your work. Don't call attention to yourself. That means, for example, that you don't shoot during a practice swing. It also means that if a golfer is lining up a putt, it's okay to squeeze off a frame. There's no reason to rattle off ten in a row.

There is one rule, though, that I feel the need to separate out on its own. In fact, I think it needs its own section devoted to it.

The rule is this: Do not fire until the player has made contact with the ball.

Again, pretty simple. And as with everything, not as simple as it sounds. Which leads us to...

by D.A. Wagner

Being a seasoned professional means being an expert when it comes to lighting, directing, editing and post-processing an assignment because we are experienced with all the requirements of photography production. But where do we stand when it comes to reinventing ourselves, creating a fresh, new body of work, and marketing it effectively to a specific audience we wish to solicit? How do we find our strongest trait objectively and what do we do once we know what that is? And, most importantly, how do we know it's going to be appropriate for the marketplace now?


Photo by D.A. Wagner

I labored for months thinking about these questions, not getting anywhere. I was sure that I knew what to do; I just had to do it, as they say. Problem was, I didn't. I'm too close to my work, and marketing, well, marketing isn't my strongpoint.

In Richard Sennett's current book, The Craftsmen, he writes, "The good craftsman is a poor salesman, absorbed in doing something well, unable to explain the value of what he or she is doing." This was written in the context of the London Great Exposition of 1851 as a response to what an economist of the time called, "a first exercise in mass advertising" by large companies machine-producing products. Not much has changed.

It used to be that each individual modality in our industry had its experts, but that model has been changing faster than the transistors on the computer chips of Moore's Law. Ad agencies have more in-house services than ever before, and gone are the stat houses, the typographers and type setters, the production departments with drafting tables with t-squares, razor blades and rubber cement; even the messenger services have taken a big hit. Assignment photography, too, shrank exponentially, with the ad agencies going to stock photography with a serious vengeance.

It wasn't until an APA seminar at Calumet on 22nd Street with photo consultant Selina Maitreya called, This Much I Know Is True, that I began to understand clearly the challenges I faced as they apply to the commercial photo industry.

After years of producing elaborate, complicated photography projects, and an absence from the industry, I was aware that my older work, though interesting, was not relevant in today's ever more competitive marketplace. Next, I read Selina's book, How to Succeed in Commercial Photography, Insights from a Leading Consultant, in a second effort to do it myself. Once again, I didn't. Big surprise.

It was then that I took the leap and made the decision to contact Selina. Not a small investment by any stretch of the imagination, but instead of buying a new digital camera, I hired a consultant. This would turn out to be the smartest thing I've done in my career next to buying my first computer in 1984. But, like digital, there was a learning curve.

The first assignment Selina gave me was to create a very carefully chosen swipe file of four or five images of work I admired and would "kill for," to have as my own. It was hard, winnowing down dozens of images to five. For some reason I believed my new direction should look like the old direction and the "to kill for" swipes showed it except for one image: a simple, elegant image by painter William Harnett, a trompe l'oeil painter from the 19th century whose work felt familiar and somewhat spontaneous, and in ways whimsical. He even was busted by the U.S. Government for counterfeiting, which I found wonderfully entertaining.

by Chris Owyoung

The thought crossed my mind that all concert photography tutorials say the same damn thing: "use fast glass and shoot at a necessarily high ISO. Good luck." Since that's about as useful as a hole in the head, I'll skip the basics and write about some of the topics that matter most to the existing community of music photographers.


No Doubt performs at The Bamboozle Music Festival, their first major show in 5 years. East Rutherford, NJ. Photo by Chris Owyoung

The Basics (Only three sentences, I promise.)
If you own a digital SLR and a f/2.8 or faster lens, you can get by shooting a rock concert. If you're comfortable working with RAW files and can shoot in manual mode chances are you'll come away with some great images.

So, use fast glass and shoot at a necessarily high ISO. Oh and, good luck.

Equipment: Why does it matter? What do you use?
You needn't look further than the early work of Jim Marshall or Bob Gruen to know that equipment does not matter. A camera is only as good as the photographer holding it and a bad photo taken with a $8,000 camera is still a bad photo.

Having better equipment only makes the work easier. The only critical reason to upgrade your gear is if your current equipment is preventing you from creating the kind of image you're after. Your next "upgrade" could be a $15,000 digital back or a $5 disposable depending on your photographic vision.

All things being equal, photo editors do not care what equipment you use. You should consider the entire system of lenses, bodies and accessories offered by each company and choose a camera system that will grow with you.

I use the following questions to inform my own buying decisions:

Does the company make the equipment that I'll need a year or two from now?
Can I easily rent the equipment I need but don't own?
Is there a strong market for used equipment should I need to sell or upgrade again?
Should I upgrade now or wait a few months?

My current kit includes:

• Nikon D3 digital SLR
• Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 lens
• Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 lens
• Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 lens
• Nikon 50mm f/1.8 lens

 
Tom Morello - Rage Against The Machine, Audioslave, Street Sweeper Social Club. Photo by Chris Owyoung

Rent what you Need:
If you have internet access and a mailing address, there's no reason to ever go into a job without the proper equipment. With a day or two lead time, almost every lens or camera body from Nikon or Canon can be rented from reliable online rental companies like LensProToGo. Some lenses can be rented for as little as $15/day.

Getting Your First Photo Pass:
If you're starting out like I did, your first photo pass probably won't be All-Access for Aerosmith. My advice is to start local - take your camera to small, camera friendly venues and hone your skills. Once you've developed a photographic style and a set of good images, approach local publications with your work.


Hayley Williams - Paramore. Photo by Chris Owyoung

How do you find Publications/Assignments?
The easiest way to find publications to shoot for is to search the internet for concert reviews in your area. Once you have a list of magazines, newspapers and websites that are interested in concerts, assignments could be just an email or phone call away.

Above all, be persistent, polite and professional. Talent is important but it's not a substitute for being reliable and a pleasure to work with.

How Do you Find Press Contacts:
If your editor doesn't have the contact, your first stop should be the band's websites (Facebook, Myspace, record label and management). Look for contact information for the press representative, or anyone associated with the label or management. 

If no contact information is listed, a simple google search should lead you to an email address, mailing address or phone number to contact someone who can point you in the right direction. The "advanced search" link on Google (www.google.com) works wonders.

Useful search terms:

• artist name
• publicity
• pr
• client list
• tour dates
• record label name
• management name

Finally, don't be afraid to pick up the phone and talk to people.

Randy Santos specializes in Washington DC stock photography. Randy does not license his images through stock agencies and makes a very healthy living selling directly to clients. His images appear in coffee table books, calendars, hotels and restaurants, and corporate environments worldwide. We caught up with Randy to learn about how he succeeds in a highly competitive niche, and his approach to managing and marketing his photography business. We found Randy's advice and experiences pretty inspiring.

Where did you learn photography?  And what did you do before starting dcstockimages.com?
I've been shooting for a long long time - I started in high school but never had a formal photography education.  I'm 100% self taught, and at times a little self conscious about that.  But, I'm fortunate to have learned on a Canon FTB - when everything was completely manual and to be good, you needed to really learn the fundamentals of photography.

I've been blessed with an overstimulated, hyperactive brain. So I look around and think I see things differently - in terms of shape, light, patterns, and composition.  The camera is a tool for capturing what I am seeing.  This unique perspective has enabled me to (hopefully) become a good photographer. Lord knows what I'd do otherwise!


Photo by Randy Santos

I started shooting commercially at age 19 - when I talked my way into working for a well known commercial studio in DC.  Pretty quickly, I went from being a reckless teenager to photographing Ronald Reagan weekly, dignitary visits, and Capitol Hill. This was really valuable experience for me - mostly because I was exposed to the old-time DC photographers, and from them I learned real world business operations, and how to deal with clients professionally.  These lessons stuck with me and they're a big part of how I do business today.


Photo by Randy Santos

What led you to start dcstockimages.com?
I started my own business just over 20 years ago, initially focused strictly on local corporate and PR photography. I kept myself busy doing what I love, capturing creative images around Washington DC. But, it was hard to market and sell this stuff before the Internet came along.  About four years ago, I had some DC pictures on one of my websites, and got a call from an art buyer, who loved my photos because they featured DC but shot at much more interesting angles than typical DC postcard photos. They wanted to see more, so I shared the body of work I'd been developing over time.  This turned into a major hotel décor project - with my photos printed and hung throughout the lobby and guestrooms. The revenue I generated was a real eye opener, and I realized a way to turn this experience into an opportunity.   

After this project, I talked with the art buyer some more, keyed in on why she felt my images were different, and learned more about her needs.  Then I started listening to more art buyers, understood their own challenges, and saw the opportunity for a specialized business.  So I gathered up the images I had taken of DC, learned a little bit about writing code (and I am as low tech as they come) and bought every domain I could think of related to DC images http://dcstockimages.com/, and started getting my images out there.  Thanks to the web and a few traits I believe are critical for success, this thing blossomed and bloomed like you wouldn't believe.  

If you've been following the development of HTML over the past 15 years, then you're probably aware that the wizards the World Wide Web Consortium have been trying to separate "content" from "display." The CSS Zen Garden is the most widely known example site to illustrate how you go from this:



to this without changing any HTML code -- only the CSS file.



In our webinar on manual customization, we talk about tools like the Firebug Add-on for Firefox which helps web developers understand the structure of a page and how to use CSS to modify it. PhotoShelter user, Karen Joslin, took the information to heart and figured out how to change our Scribble style and make it her own with a custom border and logo.