Welcome to FotoCare’s featured Photography Blog Series, where we explore interesting examples of how photographers are creating more immersive experiences to share their work and/or vision with their friends and fans, clients and prospects, and photo enthusiasts. Ways that are more engaging then the standard static portfolio website. We hope you find this inspiring. We welcome your suggestions for Photography Blogs that you love. Just reply via comments below and maybe your suggestion will be our next FEATURED Blogger.
Nathan Kensinger publishes two photo essays a month that capture the lower depths of New York’s urban landscape giving us a backstage pass to places that are typically off-limits to the general public. Often times he “finds a way” to access these places. Essays range from a sneak peek into underworld of Grand Central Station to traces of life under the Coney Island boardwalk, images of the worlds oldest subway tunnel, to an array of happenings at Gowanus Canal. These are just a few examples of the city you will explore through the lens of Nathan Kensinger as he leads us to the abandoned and industrial edges of New York City.
This type of photography blog takes hours of time, effort, planning and production. As a documentary photographer, on top of shooting and editing, Nathan writes up intriguing blog posts to share the background story on his subject, his experience, and thought provoking commentary. One would have to imagine his essays are a successful path to securing editorial assignments. It is a good idea to consider establishing an easy-to-execute eMarketing effort to ensure the right folks know about your work and the site so you can share new posts with fans, key clients and prospects (email newsletter).
We have put together a slide show of the work you will find on the site. But do visit if you have the chance, the stories behind each photo are as compelling as the work.
Bloggers – you find them everywhere these days. Technology experts, political mavens, fashionistas, foodies everywhere, and of course Photography Blogs– tons of them. However, some really do stand out and attract a loyal crowd. We invite you to share with us your favorite photography blogs. Just comment below and we’ll take a look. Perhaps it will make our next Featured Blogger.
We will feature blogs we find interesting on a monthly basis, and hope you find of interest too. A photo blog is a good example of how a photographer migh move away from a static portfolio-only web site to a more engaging dialog with fans, clients and prospects. This can be done as an addition to your web site or as a stand-alone Blog.
IsoticaEVERYDAY is published by Chris Altorf and Jessica Hayes, a photographic team based out of Toronto. Since the summer of 2005 they have maintained this award winning photoblog which receives thousands of daily visitors. Their skills include film-making, photography, graphic design, photo-retouching, web development. They are also coordinators at WhipperSnapper Gallery,
a not-for-profit space aimed at Canada’s young and emerging art scene.
The blog is short on words. Instead it features a visual library of their work; some with titles some without. A daily time-line appears across the top of the page. I could be wrong but I would imagine a user could click on a day of the month and an image would appear– this wasn’t working when I visited the site (perhaps it is only a design feature and not part of the functionality of the site. You can follow them via an RSS feed and/or on Flickr. Here is an example of their work you will find on the site.
I recently spotted this post on Mashable.com and thought it was an interesting one to share:
Five Essential Web Sites for Professional Photographers
The world of professional photography has come a long way since the days of the darkroom and Ektachrome film. Although there are traditionalists who still swear by film photography, advances in technology have brought photography to a whole new level, both in process and product. In addition to innovation in photography equipment, there are many valuable resources online that are becoming essential tools for professional photographers.
Everything in a photographer’s world can now be managed online, including content, rights, business processes and client relations, to name a few. Aside from shooting the actual photographs, the Internet (Internet) has made it possible for the rest of the business to be handled from the comforts of the studio with a few clicks of the mouse.
The following are five essential web sites for pros:
LiveBooks provides professional photographers (and other creatives) a powerful platform for establishing their web presence. By providing a wide array of beautifully custom-designed or pre-designed web sites, liveBooks offers the ability to easily manage content and a business online. LiveBooks also comes with a powerful SEO engine for maximizing web traffic, as well as the ability to analyze the click-through behavior of visitors.
ShootQ is the Internet equivalent of a studio manager. As a completely web-based studio management solution for photographers, ShootQ is an online repository for client/vendor information, invoicing, contracts and more. Photographers can also take advantage of the automated reminder function for requesting payment from clients.
Animoto is an award-winning web application that enables photographers to seamlessly turn a series of photographs into a dynamic video presentation. Created by TV and film producers, Animoto utilizes state-of-the-art technology to mimic the same quality you would expect from the silver screen. The service also offers a music library of more than 500+ commercially licensed songs to accompany videos.
Pricing: $249 for 1 year, or $99 for a 3-month trial
For any photographer who intends to use his/her work for stock photography purposes, LicenseStream is a site to consider. By keeping tabs on all licensed content, photographers can rest assured that their work is appropriately credited and paid for whenever it is used. LicenseStream also provides photographers with more autonomy over their own work, rather than relying upon stock agency representation.
Pricing: Starts at $49.99 per year for a standard account
There’s a saying in the business that a photographer is only as good as his or her lab. If that’s the case, LabPrints should be in every photographer’s bookmarks because it links them to professional labs around the country. The software also enables photographers to organize images, design layouts and albums and upload orders directly to the lab of their choosing through its LP Digital Studio software.
Pricing: This software is free, but additional services are fee-base
Finding an agent is difficult but well worth your effort if you are able to find a good one. If you can say yes to each of these points below, you are ready to look for an agent.
What does an agent look for?
A body of work that is unique and easy to sell.
A photographer that can easily reproduce the work reflected in his or her portfolio.
A history delivering high-quality, successful assignments / campaigns.
An established business with a list of top clients.
1. Create a Compelling, Unique body of Work. Follow your passion and inner creative voice, but be smart about it–do your homework. Examine the portfolios of your favorite photographers. What makes them unique? Study your competition, how can you differentiate your work? Why should someone hire you? You must make it easy for an Agent to sell your Services. This is the foundation of your business and will take the most time and energy to create.
Tip: Do not approach a rep with 3-5 images, you must have a solid body of work–a good mix of client and personal work. And most important – you must continually provide your agent with new work to share with prospects and clients. This should be your #1 responsibility.
Tip: Your portfolio is a tool–a representation of your talent and the type of work you are looking to secure. It positions you in the mind of the art buyer/client. Be sure your body of work is designed to achieve your goals and objectives. Remember, you get what you seek.
2. Establish your Go-To Support Team: Agents want to know that you have loyal relationships with stylists, hair and makeup artists, baby handlers, set builders, and assistants; the team that brings your visions to life. While many agents also represent support talent, it is important that you are true to your vision and hire accordingly.
3. Build a Business. It’s a catch 22, agents want to work with established busy photographers – they want to know you can handle assignments, run a business and attract and keep clients. You both have a reputation at stake for every commissioned assignment.
4. Attract and Maintain an A-List Client Base - Upon meeting an agent one of the first questions will be: Who are your clients? Your response begins to shape the potential of a business relationship between you and the Agent. Note: Your existing client base, typically referred to as “house accounts”, is yours and you have the right to keep these accounts without compensation to the selected agent for ongoing work. Their job is to secure new assignments and clients.
5. Brand your Business: Every commercial artist needs to stand out from the crowd. In addition to your portfolio, Branding your business is key. It is best to work with a professional to create a unique logo, positioning tagline (if applicable), a professional easy-to-navigate website, and promotional marketing materials–all with a cohesive, branded look and feel that represents your business, your work, your style. 6. Become a Marketing Expert: Be ready to talk about marketing your business. How do you currently attract clients? Do you have a database? Show samples of your marketing materials. What were the results? Together, you and your Agent will review how to “package and sell” your business and create a marketing plan and budget. A good rule of thumb is to spend 10% of gross sales towards your marketing budget. Agents need marketing materials to sell your services.
7. Soliciting Agents: Do your homework – reach out to agents that are relevant to what you do. Send an email or a direct mail package with sample work, web site link, facts about your business. Be creative but to the point.
8. Meeting with Agents: If you are lucky enough to secure a meeting(s) be prepared. Ask questions; you are both interviewing each other. Sample Questions:
Ask about the number and different types of photographers they represent.
Find out how you fit in with the Agent’s firm and current roster of talent. How long has the other talent been with the agent/firm? How long has the staff been there?
Who are the agent’s clients and what type of work do they typically secure?
What do they like about repping?
How do they perceive your work? What are your strengths? Weaknesses?
Ask what type of marketing they do on behalf of their photographers. Are you expected to pay towards this?
Discuss requirements and expectations of the relationship.
Ask about commissions and expenses that are expected of you in exchange for this business arrangement.
Tip: Be open to feedback, but remember that everyone has their own opinion. If there’s consistency in what your hear, people might be on to something, but be careful listening to too narrow a scope of opinion.
How do you build a broader online presence using Flickr? Here is an interesting article (somewhat edited) by Thomas Hawk Digital Connection that we would like to share featuring Ten Tips for Getting Attention on Flickr. While this article was last updated in 2008, we believe the tips are still valid today. Flickr is one of the many platforms available to help you take advantage of the connectivity and reach of online social networking. As you will see, it takes time and effort to network and build an online community. Good luck and remember: You reap what you sow.
“What is more pleasant than the benevolent notice other people take of us,
what is more agreeable than their compassionate empathy? What inspires us more than addressing ears flushed with excitement, what captivates us more than exercising our own power of fascination? …. Attention by other people is the most irresistible of drugs. To receive it outshines receiving any other kind of income. This is why glory surpasses power and why wealth is overshadowed by prominence.”
— Caterina Fake, Co-founder of Flickr, 2005.
Back in 2006 when I wrote my original article on how to achieve popularity on Flickr my photostream had been viewed almost 400,000 times. According to a Flickr stats page that’s been added since that time, the view count for my pages on Flickr now stands at 9,953,328. It should pass 10 million sometime this week. I’m averaging about 14,000 page views a day on Flickr.
Ten Tips for Getting Attention on Flickr:
1. Take great pictures. This was my number one way to achieve popularity on Flickr in 2006 and remains the number one way today. Despite all the other things that you might do to promote your photography, none of it will matter if your photos are not interesting. Everyone can be creative. Some are more creative than others. Sometimes your gear and photo processing matters, other times it doesn’t. I’ve seen incredibly beautiful and creative photos taken with a $10 toy camera. And I’ve seen incredibly beautiful and creative photos taken with a $40,000 digital Hasselblad. I’ve seen people upload interesting things from a crappy iPhone camera and I’ve seen people upload interesting things that they spent 8 hours on Photoshop with. But, the better your photos are the more likely that you will get attention. Taking great photos is a prerequisite to everything else in this article.
This said, there are certain types of photos that tend to become more popular on Flickr than others. Provocatively posed female self portraits or photos of attractive women in interesting poses, extremely saturated photos rich with eye candy like color, city scapes, night photography, photos depicting movement and motion, silhouettes, dramatic architecture, unique portraits, creatively arranged macros and cross processed and some film photography.
2. The order that you post your photos to Flickr counts. The number one way that your photos will likely be seen in Flickr comes from your Flickr contacts looking at their Flickr contact’s photos. At present Flickr allows you to set your contacts most recent photos to their last photo, or their last 5 photos. Anything beyond 5 photos in a single batch upload will largely be buried on Flickr. If you are uploading more than 5 photos at once, make sure that you upload your best 5 photos last and what you consider your very best photo last of all. Frequently people will upload a batch of 30 photos from a concert or something with no thought as to which will be the last 5 of the 30 in order.
3. Consider places outside of Flickr to promote your photography. Do you have a blog or a photoblog? If you want more attention on Flickr you should. Flickr makes it very easy to blog your photos, you simply cut and paste the html code above your photo and you are now photoblogging with a direct link back to your photo. My blog, thomashawk.com is my number two external referrer of pageviews to my Flickrstream. Are you on FriendFeed yet? You should be. It’s easy to set up and makes sure more people see your photos. Pownce (when it is working) is another place to post interesting photos.
4. Do you have your settings on Flickr configured for maximum exposure? After Flickr itself, Google drives more traffic to my Flickrstream than any other source, even my blog. Yahoo search and both Google and Yahoo image search drive traffic as well. But your photos will be blocked from appearing in search engines unless you authorize Flickr to display your images in search engines. Make sure your photostream is set to not “hide your stuff from public searches,” here.
Same goes for the Flickr API. Lots of people are using the Flickr API in interesting ways. I get traffic from places like Flickrleech, Compfight, Technorati and lots of other places that use the Flickr API to extend your photos outside of Flickr. Make sure that you’ve authorized Flickr to allow API access to your photos here.
5. Explore.Explore still remains the number one way to get photos viewed on Flickr. Explore uses Flickr’s “Magic Donkey” algorithm to each day highlight 500 of what Flickr feels are the best photos on Flickr for that day. It’s a very popular section of the site despite the fact that everyone seems to constantly hate Explore and decry its mediocrity in selecting exceptional photos. Explore has changed and evolved a lot since it was first introduced at Flickr a few years back. Initially things like *when* you posted your photos mattered.
Whether or not Flickr chooses your photos for Explore is still very much a mystery. But there are some things that we do know. The more faves, comments, tags, etc. your photo gets, the more likely it is that it will appear in Explore. Explore also uses averaging in their algorithm now. This means that if your average photo gets 5 faves, then you’ll need to do considerably better than average if you hope to see that photo in Explore.
6. Groups. Speaking of Explore, if you really want to get a particular photo in Explore consider adding it to a group that encourages tagging, faving and comments of photos. Photo critique groups are good examples of this. Some of the photo critique groups play games where tagging and commenting on a photo are part of the game. Flickr does not distinguish be tween a photo that has been commented on or tagged organically vs. one that is included in some sort of photo critique game. If you want to boost the likelihood that your photo will be selected for Explore consider putting a strong photo into one of these pools. Photo critique groups on Flickr run the gamut from nice and friendly photo critique groups like TWIP’s, to hostile and brutal photo critique groups like DeleteMe Uncensored (note NSFW and maybe not the best group if you are easily offended).
Whatever the case, the key to groups is participation. If you simply dump a bunch of photos blindly into random groups you will likely not get much benefit. In fact, Flickr actually penalizes photo rank if someone posts their photo to too many groups. But posting your photo to selective groups where you participate will encourage activity on your photos and photostream.
7. Tag for Exploration (especially your most popular photos). Why has this photo of mine been viewed over 27,000 times on Flickr? Well in part because it shows up on the first page search results on Flickr for the search term guitar. And why does it show up in searches for the word “guitar?” Because I’ve got the photo *tagged* guitar. By tagging your photos appropriately you can ensure that more people will see them in search. Think of other ways that you can tag your photos. Are all of your photos taken in San Francisco also tagged “California?” They should be. Are all of your photos tagged “self portrait” also tagged with your name? Again, they should be.
The better you keyword and tag your photos, the more likely they will show up in searches that take place on Flickr. Even if you think that your photos will never be popular enough to rank highly in search, remember that there are other ways that Flickr users can filter search. You can search just by your contacts photos on Flickr for instance. So even if you don’t have the most popular sunset photo amongst millions on Flickr, you might have the most popular sunset photo amongst your contacts because you tagged it.
A note that I’ve seen some people on Flickr abuse tags. They will tag every photo with girl, sunset, cat, etc. Even if these things are not in their photo simply to try and trick people into getting to their photos through search. This sucks. I’m not sure what/if/how Flickr penalizes people who do this, but it’s a crappy thing to do and ruins the search experience for everyone. Tag early and often, but only tag your photos with tags that truly are accurate and descriptive.
8. Geotag. One of the more interesting ways to find photos on Flickr is through exploring photos that are geotagged on a map. When I’m going to a new place that I’m not familiar with, frequently Flickr’s “Explore the World Map,” is one of my first destinations. But of course your photos will not show up here if they are not geotagged. The best way to geotag your photos is actually at the file level before you upload them. I use Geotagger on the Mac which allows you to use Google Earth to geotag your photos. You can also download the free software program from Microsoft Pro Photo Tools to geotag photos on a PC.
Check what Flickr considers your most popular photos and make sure that you geotag (and more descriptively tag) these photos especially — even if you have to geotag these shots on Flickr using their tools. Geotagging has been documented by Flickr staff as increasing the Flickr “interestingness” rating of a photograph.
9. Consider creating a few “best of” sets and feature them prominently on your Flickrstream. Frequently when people first discover your photostream they don’t have time to check out your entire stream. But if you make it easier for them and create a few sets that highlight some of your best work they may stick around longer. I’ve created two such sets myself. My 10 faves or more set and my 25 faves or more set. These sets highlight what are some of my best work according to the Flickr community and are my two most visited sets on Flickr. As my photos are faved 10 or 25 times I add the tag fav10 or fav25 to these sets and then use SmartSetr to automatically generate these sets.
10. Tell everyone you know about your Flickrstream. Are you active on other social networks? Is a link to your Flickrstream prominently displayed on your blog? On your Facebook profile page? Be sure to include a link to your Flickrstream in every profile that you are on with other sites. Consider buying Moo cards (even though Moo.com has been lousy for me lately and won’t let me buy anymore cards from them) which highlight your photostream that you can give out to people that you run across while out shooting. Tell your friends and family and your offline “real life” contacts about your Flickrstream.
Bonus tip: Reciprocation. Above everything else, perhaps the most important thing about Flickr is that it is a community and a reciprocation based community. If you think that you can just post your photos on the site and they will garner thousands of faves and views simply because, you are wrong. Even the best photos on Flickr will not get very much attention if you simply upload them to the site and never participate.
Flickr has been built to encourage reciprocation. In fact a recent study cited reciprocation as the number one key to popularity on Flickr. Every single time you fave or comment on someone else’s photo you are giving them a link back to your own photostream. While you may not have the time to check out *everyone* who faves your photos, spend time each day faving and commenting on other people’s photos on Flickr. By sharing with others the fact that you appreciate their photos they will return the favor. Be generous with your faves and comments. Remember, other people like the attention as much as you do.
