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.

SiteStats2010-Site-Visits-Month1.jpg

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.

KodachromeBox.jpg

“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.



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.


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PhotoShelter co-founder and GM

There are 5 comments for this article
  1. shane srogi at 6:07 pm

    I couldn’t mean this more when I say moving from a flash portfolio website to Photoshelter was the best decision I made for my business in 2010. More than that the Photoshelter blog has upped my awareness and involvement. Happy New Year to everyone at Photoshelter and looking forward to 2011 with you guys!

  2. photohumorist at 6:16 pm

    I head off for a few days up in the hills seeing old friends to come back and see my shot featured on this blog. It’s wonderful. Thank you. I hope to spend a lot of time on the streets of London in 2011 making shots like this. Thanks, Grover. Paul Treacy.

  3. Freeman at 10:46 am

    “Getting rid of that Flash site was a VERY smart move…visitors to his website has seen a sustained 6x increase within just 7 months..the WordPress ..smart SEO planning was indeed responsible for a lot of it.” He made 9 blog posts in Jan-April, none in June or July and then 58 August onwards. He had a blog before but didn’t use it much. Flash has very little to do with this and everything to do with your fixation. WordPress works – flash has its place too. Can we cut the crap? Oh, and use facts to produce unbiased blog posts rather than re-enforcing your biases..

  4. Grover Sanschagrin at 11:45 am

    I don’t feel that my posts are “biased” in any way. The truth is, I’m just saying something that makes those who invested heavily in Flash websites a little uncomfortable. But it would be irresponsible of me to ignore the fact that photographers with Flash-based websites receive LESS backlinks than those with HTML-based sites. And, backlinks are the number one factor that influences search engine rankings. It is in my best interest is to provide informed and insightful advice and information to photographers — even if the truth hurts. You can continue to make claims that say I don’t know the facts, but I would have to respectfully disagree. Through PhotoShelter, I work with thousands of photographers, and I know what works and what doesn’t. I also don’t hate Flash. I think it’s a useful tool if used properly. Tell a story with Flash. Create a video with Flash. Create interactive content with Flash. These are all fantastic ways to use Flash. But to build your entire website in Flash is not a proper way to use it. And that’s just the honest truth.

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