WordPress Themes for Photographers
Previously we shared how to optimize your Facebook and Google Plus posts for usability and reach. Today we want to talk about Twitter.
At Photocrati, we are always testing new ways to organize a tweet. Below is an Infographic that MarketingThink created to help guide for your proper Twitter etiquette. After the Infographic, we will share some additional thoughts.
In summary:
Keeping your Tweets clean and with enough space for retweets should help improve its reach.
For example:
Targeting 1 hashtag is much better than stuffing many hashtags into a tweet. Think of it like SEO and including keywords. Too many is a turn off. You are much better off creating multiple tweets (original) using different hashtags and sending through out at different days and times.
Write something catchy, add your personal touch to the tweet, and don’t be afraid to ask for a retweet.
GOOD info here! : How To Help Prevent Your WordPress Site From Breaking & Being Hacked bit.ly/WpGM2M #wordpress Retweet pls!
— Photocrati (@Photocrati) February 26, 2013
…and don’t forget to test. In fact, using Buffer App can help improve overall reach.
Thanks for reading,
Scott
My preference is what I have come to call “found images.” That means shooting what I see as I go out into the world, without studio setup or extra lighting. The subject matter covers a wide range of topics and perspectives including people, street photography, objects, night scenes, nature, iconic landmarks, and unusual perspectives on life and the city around us. Sometimes I do shoot in a studio, especially with nudes.
My inclination is to let each image speak for itself and ellicit in the viewer whatever it might, allowing it to stand alone in a Rorschach-like fashion. One of my joys is seeing or hearing whatever that might be as someone looks at it for the first time.
Some of my photographs have been described as “edgy” and may feel somewhat disturbing to a viewer. That tells me I’ve succeeded in evoking some emotional or psychological connection, which also happens when someone bursts out laughing. Sometimes the response is not disturbing but more curiosity or puzzlement, as someone likes a photo and asks, “What is that?” when the image presented is actually as it came out of the camera without any major Photoshop manipulation.
Story behind this image: I titled the image, “Car, Cowboy, and Astronaut.” It is one I found many years ago on the Venice boardwalk in Los Angeles, and I shot it with film, which is what I was using at the time (Nikon FG, 50mm lens, settings unrecorded). What I loved about it was seeing the juxtaposition of time periods, settings, and what was real and unreal in the image, all of which create a new reality. The car was parked in a lot, up against a mural, and the combination was just sitting there. The photograph is part of a solo exhibition running in Los Angeles.
The style varies, depending on what I find and then what I’m after with what I’ve found. When I’m going out to shoot in the world, without any preconceived intention, which is what I love to do, it is more of a combination of street photography and photojournalism. The photographs vary in appearance between those that are traditional presentations and what I have come to call Contemporary Art Photography.
I always start out with composition. I try to get it in the camera, but I might refine it in post. Or, I might find an alternative composition in the image that’s even better than what I was originally going for. Then, I’m making overall and selective adjustments for things like tone, contrast, brightness, sharpness, and color. I might use plugins like those from NIK, Topaz, or Imagenomics to enhance the image without essentially changing it from what I see. One of the most valuable things I have found is to be working from a perspective of “What can I do with this image?” That doesn’t mean jumping to compositing but rather exploring between color options, black and white options and styles, and generally exploring all that Photoshop may offer without compositing. It’s been a part of my effort to expand my knowledge of Photoshop, which I’m still doing, and it’s often led to some of my favorite results.
Story behind this image: I titled the image, “Nun in Self Reflection.” It came from a grab while I was on the Metro in Los Angeles (Nikon, D80, with pop-up flash). There was no Photoshop manipulation in this photo. It was unposed, of a stranger, taken on the subway, and handheld. I was drawn to the contrast between her relatively calm and placid face and all of the emotional intensity in her reflected image in the window. The photograph was displayed in “Mirrors of the Mind,” an art exhibition sponsored by the Los Angeles County Psychological Association, in 2012, and it will be included in the upcoming book of images from that show.
In the last few years, I have been most influenced by Vivian Maier. Seeing her photographs totally changed my thinking about composition. I was always very aware of lines, curves, contrasts, shapes, balance, and movement in the image, but her photographs changed my ideas of how to put them together. The images shown here were all done prior to that awakening, but they still work within it.
Story behind this image: I titled the image, “Graffiti Washroom -1.” It came from a shoot at an abandoned building in Los Angeles. The room had no color in it, and that version was “Graffiti Washroom -2.” The color here was all painted in with light, not done afterwards in Photoshop, so this is what came out of the camera, with only minor adjustments in Photoshop.
A few years ago I upgraded to a full frame camera and switched to a Canon 5D Mark II, with a full set of 2.8 Canon lenses, including a fisheye and 2x extenders. I am still exploring all that this wonderful equipment can do, and I’m loving it.
Links:
Website: http://carlshubsphotography.com
Thanks to my friend Mike, I have a great tip to share with Photocrati users and readers.
One year after shooting a wedding, Mike posts on his Facebook page a congratulations note to his clients. In addition, he will include a photograph from their wedding or engagement session if he photographed that as well.
Check this out:
Click the image to view the Facebook post. Photo © Mike Olbinski Photography
How to go about it?
So how can you take this concept to a blogging level?
What do you think of the concept, both Mike’s and my expanded view?
Have you done something like this?
Please comment below to share your thoughts.
Thanks for reading,
Scott
The Walking Dead is a television show on AMC. The show is the most realistic film with zombies ever made. (for how realistic zombie movies can be)
While catching up on some of the episodes, I had one of those “ah ha” moments, and thought I’d share them with you.
You see, The Walking Dead reminded me of a few photography and photography business things. So here goes.
Television shows can inspire some interesting thoughts. Have you been inspired by The Walking Dead or any other show? Please comment to share.
Thanks for reading,
Scott
There are two iPad apps that do a fantastic job of selling prints to photography clients. Preveal is one and Shoot and Sell is the other. Both are extremely similar, but there is one huge difference between the two. Shoot and Sell comes packaged with a few stock photographs of “client rooms” where Preveal requires you to take room photographs on your own. The nice part of about forced to photograph your own rooms is that it pushes you to photograph your client’s room.
Here are the video descriptions of each:
Preveal brings the power of projection sales to the coffee shop, allowing you to show it small to sell it big.
Shoot and Sell is an iPad app for photographers to help their clients “picture their pictures” on the walls of their home.
These apps are not your typical iPad app prices, however if you are the type of photographer who often hand delivers products to clients, then they are both perfect fits for your business.
I originally shared my own videos on through my website, so if this interests you please head there and read some comments about iPad sales.
To see what other iPad and iPhone apps can be useful in your photography business, check out my free course on Udemy.
Thanks for reading and enjoy,
Scott
If you have been wanting to add a video introduction to your screencasts or videos, then this tip is one you will enjoy.
Using Apple’s Keynote, I have successfully created a video introduction for my video marketing efforts. After creating an animated slideshow in Keynote, I added sound effects using Screenflow.
I can then easily add the introduction template to future screencast recordings or export the introduction as a hi-resolution .mov file and add to any video using iMovie.
If you are a PowerPoint user, you can still do something like this, so don’t be discouraged by Keynote.
The final video introduction
At Photocrati, we hire professional video teams to create our product introduction videos. (which you can see on our homepage) But as you can see, without a budget for a professional intro clip, you can still create something with quality.
Thanks for reading,
Scott
Weddings and special events; portraits; equine portraits and sporting events.
Story behind this image: New foals are so intriguing – all legs and discombobulation. This fellow was sleeping in hay and dirt and I was struck by the monochromatic quality of the scene. The shallow depth of field highlights the downy soft quality of his coat. This photo was enlarged to 24″ width and was printed in metallic – the sheen and framing of the piece is stunning and I was very proud to give this shot to the owner of the baby.
For weddings, I strive for natural, elegant and timeless. I strongly believe in getting it right in the camera, and I don’t want to rely on post-processing to fix mistakes. Post-processing is for enhancing something that is already beautiful.
See above. I use Lightroom and Photoshop but I want to use these tools to enhance photos that I am already happy with out of camera.
Story behind this image: The wedding couple chose to marry in an old movie theatre that has been reconfigured as an event space. It was so dark in the theatre that I feared it would be a photographic challenge that I wasn’t up for – especially since the couple did not want flash and extra lighting to interfere with the mood they had created. I love this shot because it perfectly highlights the bride and reveals the happy anticipation in the faces of the guests.
The beautiful natural environment of Nova Scotia, Canada. The sheer joy and emotion of people experiencing the important milestones in life: weddings, engagements, celebrations of all kinds.
Story behind this image: This little creature was nestled inside a magnolia blossom in early spring. Using a 100mm macro lens, I was interested in capturing the dense lucidity of the magnolia petals and the beautiful detail in the heart of the flower. Something about the juxtaposition of an ugly bug and a beautiful flower was also interesting.
Canon: 5D Mk II, Canon Rebel XSi and several Canon and Sigma lenses.
Links:
Website: http://www.equiluminance.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/claire.milton2
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EquiluminanceP
I’ve seen photographers spend piles of money on lovely photography websites with lots of fading images, music tracks, pretty pages and more.
I often wonder how good those websites are at converting a visitor into a potential client?
The “pretty factor” helps, sure. But what other elements can help a photography website: generate a visitor, engage them enough to cause them to stick (or return), and, ultimately, to get them to convert into a phone call, email or web form submission.
I spent the past eight years studying a variety of websites across hundreds of industries, not just photography. I’ve put together a list of things that I’ve seen be the most successful.
A pretty website is worthless if no one, or not enough people, visit it. How much is enough? There is no “enough”.
I personally believe that in order to continue to be successful in your business, your website traffic should be higher this month than it was last month or higher this year than it was last year. For those of you in seasonal businesses, perhaps the comparison of same months within prior years is most relevant, where more steady photography businesses can just look month over month within the same year.
If you have no idea how many visitors are coming to your website, use Jetpack or Google Analytics or see if your hosting provider offers a stat package.
Once a week is sufficient. You should be looking for a few things:
Obviously I could write a dissertation on website SEO. If you’re really into optimizing your website for search, check out this amazing community here. I would write about SEO more, but I’d rather leave that topic to the experts. 
People not finding you could be because of poor SEO. It could also be because of any number or combination of the following:
Most photographers run a blog on their own website. But I believe the target audience for future clients is often lost in the process.
Take a look at your own blog and evaluate it based on these simple questions:
Editors note: What’s your blogging strategy?
If the answer to those questions is “no”, then you may be using your blog as a diary of what you’ve done.
Instead, consider using your blog to diary ways in which your clients prepared for a shoot, participated in a shoot by holding a prop or light reflector, added to the fun of a shoot or any other idea that might help your future client see what a shoot with you can be like.
Educating your future client is key.
There is an insanely overwhelming list of things that new photographers need to learn as they launch their photography business. A website that converts visitors to potential clients is just one of them!
I recently wrote a brief e-book titled: The Art Of A Photo Business: What Every Photographer Wished They Learned Before Starting Their Photography Business. It contains marketing advice, business tips and miscellaneous motivational “umph” for every single photographer seeking a better way to approach their business. Photocrati readers get it for just $7 until 4/30/13. Buy it by clicking here and use coupon code LH48A.
-
Angela Pointon is the founder of Steel Toe Images, which offers marketing advice and inspiring motivation for photography business owners. She recently published her first book, The Art of a Photo Business. Find her on her blog, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
We strongly recommend Bluehost and use them personally on many of our own sites. Read more on why we think Bluehost offers the best web hosting for photographers and WordPress.
