Another season ends and other approaches

It has been a tumultuous season for me as of late. But as I look in the mirror, I see the changes have been the result of a needed re-direction. Hindsight being 20/20.....I still have a black eye, but as all things do, it's healing.

The blog will get updated a little more now, as I have been able to pick up the camera and begin to create again. I suppose every few weeks will be a start. If you are a recent discoverer of me, then you can go to the Next Level photo to see more images in the gallery. I also have a Facebook page as well as a Twitter feed. Then again....who doesn't?

If you need images, PLEASE CONTACT ME!

Lots of updates

I know I haven't posted in many days...but your patience is rewarded. I have had 5 or 6 sessions in the New Brighton studio, all with Valentine's Day in mind. Without further adieu I give you Tabetha, Wendy, Kelly, Jenn and Cait (not in that order though).

All of them have full gallery pages of you want to see more. A few have posed in lingerie, but noting more than what you can see in a Sears or Victoria Secret catalog.

Because you don't know enough about me

I decided to add a Twitter feed to the blog....it's just under my profile right now. I might move it to the top since it's a more dynamic....time relevant though. I linked it to my facebook page as well.

Why? Why not I suppose.

Sales gallery loaded

Okay, so I didn't get it done ON Friday. I was a few minutes late.
The sales galleries have pictures posted.

I am evaluating a new sales web site.....bot sure if I will switch to it before the end of the year. But it will give me optoions that I currently do not have for delivering pictures to YOU. With this new site, I can put a search window on the blog or web site and you can search my images by keyword. I can also provide actual image files for download, and several other things that I think are well worth the new company.

You will all see when/if it happens.

Gallery has been updated

The gallery has been updated with pictures from the Potter and Raccoon Red Devils v. Avella Eagles football game and the 2nd Annual 2008 P&R Powderpuff Game.

The Powderpuff games has several entries, cheer (football players), football (midget v termite cheerleaders), crowd, and Parent v Player game.

The sales site will be updated late tonight.

Current events

Well, my 300mm lens is off to California to get an estimate for repair....I am pretty sure it won't be pretty.

This morning I got a call from a truly wonderful woman. Whom I shall not name....for now. I want to, but I won't. She had a photo order (1 of the 85 I need...LOL). It was for a football player that is going to be starting at his next game. We as an organization want to recognize his talents and that we appreciate his time spent with us over the summer. The funny part was when I said I would put something together and when did she need it....she said "tomorrow". Um, "sure".

Well, I got it done, sent to the printer and it was delivered late this afternoon. I hope he likes it.

Good luck #76, we're cheering you on!

Last night I was also able to secure a final date and delivery of a custom logo that is being designed for Potter and Raccoon football. Once the final version is delivered I will put it up here to see. It's pretty neat to be a part of the process of idea to initial design, version review first revision then final product. I want to give Lori D a big shout out for her time and talents.

I also realized that I forgot to put up the photo galleries on the gallery page....I am working on those tonight and will have them available within a few hours.

Back in action

Early morning blog post. Have'ta keep it fresh ya know.

Got up a bit late Sunday morning and pretty much rushed out the door to get to the first Potter and Raccoon football game scheduled for an 11am kick off. But I had to stop at Staples to pick up order forms first. I was supposed to have picked them up Saturday afternoon, but decided to pick them up on the way to the game Sunday. Bad decision. I didn't know Staples doesn't open until 11am on Sunday. Ugh! Waited around for 20 minutes and freaked out since I would miss about half the game. Not something I like to do AT ALL!

Finally made it to the game, parked, unloaded and only missed a quarter and a half. Started shooting and ended up with just under 1400 images to edit over the next....day. I am forcing myself to improve my workflow and efficiency to get pictures up to the sales site by the evening of the day after the event. Even then, I think it's too long of a time frame. Eventually, I will get them up the evening of the event, regardless of the end of the event time.

I have verbal requests from several parents, for sports posters (including some from Fort Cherry parents). I don't count, but a bakers dozen of my order forms have been taken, which is good. Hopefully, they will be returned with image numbers and a check......

Here is a link to the Sales/Event page. P&R v Fort Cherry pictures should be up by Monday night or Tuesday morning. Happy ordering.

Sales gallery loaded

FINALLY, it took 15-18 hours (some time was multi-tasking) but the images have been blogged, galleried and sold....well, actually they are ready to be bought. I just used "sold" because it was the only word I could think of that ended in a "D".

Sometimes it's the small things

To most people, web stats are benign. They just don't matter. To me, they matter. I like to know how many people are reading the blog and hitting the web site. It helps me determine if the amount of time I spend on the web site and blog is relatively worth it. I also have marketing materials that I use and when the new stuff hits the streets, I should see an increase of web traffic. I can sort of direct my advertising in a sense.

The web site has it's own stats from my web host GoDaddy. My blog was on blogger's server until I put up the new web site then I moved it to GoDaddy. I have always had SiteMeter running on my blogs for stats. SiteMeter upgraded this weekend and now my stats are broke. UGH!

Hopefully, there will be a semblance of normalcy by the end of the week.

In all reality, it's only important to me, but I had to share since it is part of the business of photography.

Oops, I did it again

I forgot to update the web site photo gallery earlier this week......and a few weeks ago.
I just uploaded images for the Potter and Raccoon football and cheer versus MidWestern Panthers as well as images from the 2008 Hookstown Fair. See them in the Photo Gallery.

I am also working on a photo gallery for all the referees I see during the games....

New photo galleries

I uploaded cheer and football pictures from the Potter & Raccoon v Cornell game in the gallery page. Scroll down the page for the separate galleries.

The sales pictures won't be uploaded until later this week.

Just as an FYI...since this is a blog about the business of photography....as a general rule, for every ONE hour of pictures I shoot, there are about TWO hours of behind the scenes stuff, like editing, creating web pages/photo galleries/blogging, etc. From this last football game, I was shooting from 12:30 to 7:00pm. That's 6.5 hours. So following above rule, I have another 13 hours of editing. Roughly two full days. I think I shot about 600 pictures for three football games. That's about half of what I normally did last year. I think I am putting more thought into my images this year as well. I am working off a roster, so I know who I am getting pictures of and who I need to get. I think it's a more professional way of doing things.

Time goes on

Updated the main page of the web site with a new quote. I want to put a new quote up once a week. Probably on Sunday's.

Put up a soccer pictures and am working on some golf pictures. You can of course see them in the Photo Gallery.

Updated Photo Gallery

I put up images of the "Trash the Dress" session with Devan in the Photo Gallery. There are also more images of Becca added to her page. Check them out.

I think I'm ready

Well, I should have posted this BEFORE I sent the site to everyone, but as it is, I didn't. The site is now live and ready for business. I still have a few photo galleries to put up and might tweak the look of the site over the next six months or so. I love having a web presence. But I just can't put in code what I envision in my mind. So I usually have to compromise features versus availability. But regardless, it's about the images. If I spend lots of time on the web site, I am not out taking pictures. Which is of course the essence.

I do thank everyone for stopping by and spending a few minutes with me, on the site.

Web site status

Well, I am back......but no one knows it. No hits on the blog since I moved it. I will assume everyone is following via RSS and since the blog moved, the RSS isn't updating you......so you aren't checking it out. I guess an email is in store for the notification of the move.

Testing in progress

Isn't it fun to do testing LIVE. Normally, when a software program is created, or a web site is designed, it is tested thoroughly BEFORE it goes live. But since it's more fun to mess with everyone, I decided to do it live and on the fly.

It appears that no one has followed the blog to it's new home. Which is funny, since I am still posting, but no one has been reading. That's a catch to testing live.....things happen.

Once all is well, I will send out an email with the URL and then we can resume our regularly scheduled programming.

Testing in progress

Hello world!

Web site status

Well, after several trials and tribulations with trying to get my photo sales site integrated, I bagged it. The integration that is. I really wanted my customers to be able to come to the site and click the sales link then be able to purchase pictures essentially directly from my web site. But for the past 4 years, I have had an outside company doing that (sales) portion. I am still with that company, but the ability to have that web site integrate directly with my new domain (www address) is limited. They want me to pay big bucks to have it fully integrated, and I am not prepared to do that right now. Sooooo, as of now I will just have a link on the site that will open up the existing sales site in a new window, or tab. For now, it will have to work. When I get busy and famous, I will take it to the next step.

Next up is getting the blog integrated. That, will (should) happen this week. So for both of you actually reading this blog, if it disappears for a day or two (or five), it's because I am working on launching the new web site. Come back soon, and hopefully, you will find me again.

Here is a screen shot of the newest look. I changed the masthead and added my logo. I put my motto in and modified the borders around the navigation on the left.
NOTE: It's not much different, but enough that makes me happy.

Weekly update

I've been back in New Brighton/Pittsburgh for a few days and am getting back into the SAHD swing of things. Here is a simple summary.

I worked on the web site on the airplane, but I am having issues with the menu system. Hopefully, I can get it worked out by the end of the week. Honestly, it's a simple thing, but since I am not a web designer, it will take ME some time to sort the problem out and fix it. I also have not been able to attempt the integration of the sales or the blog into the current web site yet. That will push me back another several days now.

I did however get the design and look of the photo galleries finalized and set. I created them using Adobe Lightroom 1.4 which makes for gallery creation pretty sweet.

I hope to get back into shooting very very soon. In an earlier post I have had a few phone calls wondering when I will be available. It makes me happy that I have something to offer people. Not to mention, high school seniors need their pictures too, but that is a small window of opportunity that I must take advantage of right now.

On the home front, the kids are swimming, I am doing laundry and getting my chef's hat to fit right and enjoying the smell of bleach in my laundry chores. Hopefully it will stop raining long enough to dry the grass out so I cam mow it.....before we need a tractor and implements.

Web site status

The web site is coming along. It's in version 3 right now. I started it twice and scrapped both versions. The current working version isn't what I want either, but it is closer than anything I have had before. Depending on my schedule this weekend, I might actually get a full working version done by the time I land in Pittsburgh on Wednesday night. Well, assuming my battery lasts the whole flight.

Here is a sneak peak at the main page.

Note: It will change a little by the time I finish it, there are still several things that I don't like. Specifically the white borders around the frames and the size of the image (if it even stays). I will replace the masthead with my logo too. I still also need to create the galleries (and pick a style for the gallery pages and figure out how to embed my blog and image sales site. The blog and sales will be the last two items and they will not be completed until next week at the earliest. But the appearance items should be done soon.

Web site status

I am finally getting around to getting the web site worked on. It's one of two uber late projects that need to be worked on.

I won't give an ETA on the site, just that it's something I am working on.

Copyright

One of the most important subject for a photographer besides equipment, is copyright. I found the web site/blog of Carolyn E. Wright, Esq. on theSportsShooter.com forums. I think I will make it a part of my weekly routine to see what she has to say.

It is now the next week

Well, I bagged out of the bball tourney. There just aren't any sales. It cost me $25 a day to shoot the tournament and we were getting nothing back from it. I will shoot the finals on Saturday. Hopefully some of the parents will buy something at that point.

Hopefully, I can work on the web site since I am a three weeks behind already.

A quick little post

I have my business card in the final edit stage. I had a sheet printed today at Staples, but I didn't like the paper they used. But under the guise of impatience, I will get some printed there then the bulk of them printed elsewhere. Maybe. It all comes down to cost.

Instead of designing my letterhead, I was on the forum over at Model Mayhem. There was a post about a 14 year old photographer. Here is the MM post here is the photographers Flickr page.

I had a few pages done of the new web site, but I decided to discard it all and go in a different creative direction. That was about a week wasted. In all honesty, it looked crappy anyway. Not something I wanted to use as a show place for my talents.

Ohhh, the humanity

Earlier this month when I did a presentation at the middle school for career day and one of the items that I really wanted to discuss was about copyright. Talking about copyright in the sense of photography is really pretty boring. Until you you sprinkle it with dollars and sense. I used songs as my inroad to the conversation.

To begin, everyone that creates something is automatically protected by copyright laws at the time of creation. To use something they could relate to, I asked everyone if they had an iPod or MP3 player. Then I asked them how many songs they have. I heard from a few to hundreds of songs. Then I posed the question to see if they paid for every one of those songs.......if not, they they took someone else's creation and it was a copyright violation. No different than if someone took your pictures, poem or short story, without paying for it.

For some, they got it. Most really didn't care.

With that in mind. Here is a story from the Washington Post about photo usage by corporations and copyright.

Keep in mind, that the photography industry needs to bear there are two camps of use. Commercial and editorial.

The presentation was pretty fun and I can't wait until next year.

A step closer

A week or two ago I bought my domain name. Today I set up email and web hosting. Over the weekend I will get my place holder web site uploaded and make sure my email works. By the end of next week I hope to have an initial site running. By the end of the month the first version of my web site should be ready for prime time. I will let everyone know about it then. Well, both of you.

the next level

I also bought my domain today. Actually a few hours ago. Once the site is ready and posted and I have tested it, I will let everyone know about it. All three of you that actually visit this place.

The changes that will happen are:
1) I will probably have to switch from blogger/blogspot to Wordpress for a blog. From what I have found out, blogger/blogspot doesn't have a way to interface this blog with a real domain. Wordpress does. I like blogger, but to maintain continuity, I gots to go with what works.

2) Lots of pictures. The new domain will have more pictures and hopefully more often. It will of course be the professional image I want to project.

3) Commerce - I hope to be able to include my commercial sales page. That way it becomes a one stop shop. If you like what you see, then you can buy it rather than stealing it off another web site....hint.....I need the money.

I hope the site will be up and running by the end of February. But it depends on how things go from this day on out.