Open Camp and Open Sky!

A while back I was invited by none other than Cali Lewis (GeekBeat.tv) and John P. (OneMansBlog.com) to attend OpenCamp 2010 in Addison Texas (near Dallas). Being the conference organizers, they thought it’d be good if I did a talk on social media. I was very honored that they asked me and of course I accepted.

We kicked off OpenCamp Thursday afternoon with a speaker tandem skydive courtesy the United States Army’s Golden Knights! This was my first time jumping out of a plane… and technically, I didn’t even have a parachute strapped to me, though @GKMikeTT did. Check out more photos of the jump here.

I was invited to do a talk on Social Media and was scheduled to take the stage day 2 of the conference at 9:30 am, so I had plenty of time to spy the other presentations and adjust mine for the audience. And man, were there some good presentations during this event.

My talk was entitled “Avoiding Social Mediocrity” and was centered around how to best use social media, and goal definition to attain your marketing goals. If you’re interested, you can see the slide deck here. Though the This Week in Photo podcast and blog audiences are huge, I always get a little nervous in front of “real” people. But folks seemed to dig the preso as evidenced by the number of requests I received afterwards for copies of the slide deck.

OpenCamp was kind of a perspective changing event for me. And not just the obvious shift of perspective that people say you get after first skydiving. I’m talking about the volumes of information I soaked up, catching up with old friends and making some new ones.

I’m really looking forward to next year’s OpenCamp—and am seriously planning to make a habit of skydiving.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Photographers

John P

Audio MP3

There are tons of issues facing photographers in todays connected world. Increasingly, professional shooters are finding themselves needing to know more and more about technology in order to remain relevant and competitive. Not only do photographers need to know the basics of their craft (light, composition, exposure, etc.) but they also need to be technically savvy about things such as megapixels, cropped-frame vs full-frame sensors, noise reduction software, digital asset management software, digital retouching, and the list goes on and on.

I realize I’m painting a somewhat bleak picture, but really it’s not that bad. In fact learning that stuff is actually fun in some cases. One thing I didn’t mention above was search engine optimization, also known as SEO. This is the practice of creating web pages (and blog posts) in a way so that the search engines (Google, Yahoo!, Bing, etc) can find them easily. You see, you could be the best photographer in your city, but if a potential client Googles, say, “Wedding Photographer, Anytown USA”, and your website doesn’t come up… or comes up AFTER your competitor (who’s photography sucks), guess who’s getting the job.

But there IS HOPE!!! In this interview, I have an in-depth chat with John Pozadzides (aka John P). Not only is he a SEO Ninja, but he also runs a company that aims to bring REALTIME web traffic analytics to your website or blog. That means, using their software you can literally watch people bounce around your site in realtime… and even open a chat window to freak them out! John gives some golden tips that photographers can start using today to begin increasing their search engine rankings.

You can find out more about John over on his very popular and SEO friendly blog “One Man’s Blog”, and be sure to check out Woopra.

TWiP Joshua Tree Weekend Workshop

On the weekend of Feb 19, 2010, This Week in Photography co-host Joseph Linaschke (the guy behind ApertureExpert.com) and myself conducted the first TWiP workshop – in Joshua Tee, CA. And what an amazing time it was. The TWiP audience had been asking for something more intensive than the informal (though very fun) Meetups I’ve been running, and Joseph and I had been kicking around the idea of a “workshop done right” for a while. We had the option of creating a “safe” workshop… e.g. local (or major metro), one-day, low cost, etc., or going all out and doing it right.

We figured if we were going to do a photography workshop, especially the FIRST TWiP workshop, we should go all out — and doing it “right” meant pulling together an all-inclusive, multi-day event set in an amazing location with a professional model, make-up artist, video crew, sponsors, meals, etc.

Long story short… we did it right.

The workshop consisted of model lighting and posing demonstrations in a variety of amazing locations around Yucca Valley, CA. Over dinner after the first night of shooting, we reviewed some of the students images, like the one above captured by the talented Topher Martini. And day two was a demonstration Aperture 3 by Joseph, and Lightroom 2 (and Lightroom 3 Beta) by me. Followed by studio lighting technique training and model posing demonstrations.

At this workshop, every student got a chance to shoot and direct the model, and every student left the workshop with wonderful prizes, and some amazing portfolio shots.

Check out this incredible work from a few of the attendees…
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My deepest gratitude to all of the students who came from far and wide to attend this event. And a very special thanks goes out to our beautiful and amazing model Latoya “Latti” Hawtorne, and our talented make-up artist Alma Anguiano. Video wizard Chris Fenwick created the amazing video you see above. Be sure to check out his blog, or hire him here.
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And a HUGE bear hug to these companies who generously donated fantastic prizes to our students:
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If you’re interested in being notified of upcoming workshops, Meetups, or classes (space is always limited), please be sure to sign up for my newsletter/mailing list.
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On to the next one…

WIN a Photography Book – Comment on this Post!

The folks over at Peachpit Press saw how many folks entered my last (first) book give-away contest — so they kicked down a few (TEN!) more for me to hand out! These are from their new book series, “From Snapshots to Great Shots” … these books are focused (no pun intended) on teaching you how to make great photographs, not just on every little dial and button.
To win one of these books all you have to do is comment on this post.
RULES: You can only pick one book, and make sure you specify in your comment which book you want. And if you win, Peachpit will pay for shipping! All you have to do is COMMENT! But, PLEASE be sure to enter your email address on the comment form or else I won’t be able to contact you.
The books you can win cover…
  • Canon 50D
  • Nikon D5000
  • Canon Rebel T1i
  • Canon PowerShot G10 or G11
If you own one of these amazing cameras, you need a book that goes beyond a tour of the features to show you exactly how to use your camera to take great pictures. With these books, you get the perfect blend of photography instruction and camera reference that will help take your images to the next level! These books are illustrated with large, vibrant photos from the author and the Flickr community — and they teach you how to take control of your photography, to get the image you want every time you pick up the camera.
Remember, to win one of these amazing new books all you have to do is write something clever in the comments area below — and mention the book you want to win. That’s it! ….

Good luck!

Fight, or Light?

On the most recent This Week in Photography show we tackled a topic that lately has been coming up more and more. Photographers covering a disasters like Haiti, Katrina, 9/11, the southern California fires, etc. have to ask themselves – when is it appropriate to put the camera down and help your fellow man?

Or, is documenting the situation, and helping with your skills behind the camera – documenting history, the correct course of action?

Of course there is no “correct” answer. Military photographers in active war zones have to deal with this question, sometimes on a daily basis. Imagine needing to make the choice between shooting with your D3, or your M16. Not getting the “shot” is probably always better than having to get a shot of morphine—or worse.

We “casual” photographers rarely have to deal with this choice. But when it does come—and you have to make the choice—what would YOU do?  [Read more...]

17 Amazing Photographer Interviews from 2009


What an amazing year 2009 was. I had the privilege of interviewing some of the most talented people in the photography industry. In the series of interviews below you’ll hear from; Flickr mavens, stock photography experts, photojournalists, commercial photographers, authors, and more. My thanks to all of the folks who allowed me to interrogate them in 2009… and I’m looking forward to doing many more interviews in 2010!

Happy New Year! Click through to learn from some of the most talented movers-and-shakers of 2009. If you’d like to get these interviews automatically, just subscribe to my Interviews Podcast in iTunes[Read more...]

Your Photo Backup Blueprint – Part 1

Backup Blueprint: Introduction

Have you felt it yet? That sinking feeling that comes when you realize all of your eggs are effectively in one basket? I’m talking about your “digital eggs”. If you’re like most folks, you have all of your precious photos of friends, family, and if you’re a pro even your client work stored one one rickety hard drive. And here’s the scary thing, YOUR-DRIVE-WILL-FAIL. It doesn’t matter which hard drive you buy, how much, or how little data you store on it… or even if you baby it by running drive maintenance software on it regularly. Hard drives are mechancial devices that have moving parts… parts that over time will wear out, and break. And if you  haven’t taken measures to safeguard your data with a multi-faceted backup plan, when your drive dies — it will take your data with it. [Read more...]

The Golden Gate Bridge in HDR

Check out a larger version of this image here.

Thanks to some inspiration from Trey Ratcliff after interviewing him for the This Week in Photography podcast, and reading his book A World in HDR, I decided to see what all the fuss is about and give this technique a try for myself.

I grabbed my Nikon D700, a 14-24mm lens, and a tripod, and drove up to San Francisco to see what I could capture. The obvious place to shoot from was the Golden Gate Bridge, I wasn’t trying to create “art” per say, but rather to gather some pixels with which to try out this technique… so the GG was just as good of a spot as any.

I set the camera to auto-bracket five f-stops (+2 and -2) — I realize that I could’ve gotten similar (or the same) results with just three exposures, but then this was all an experiment, and I had a blank 16GB CF card in the camera after all… so what was a few more megabytes? Oh yea, I was shooting in the raw file format.   [Read more...]

WIN a Photography Book — Just Comment on this Post

UPDATE: THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED.  I’ve selected the winners. I’ll post a video announcing the winners names shortly. Thanks to all who commented — this has been amazing.

I have several really good photography books on my desk that I either have multiples of, or have already finished reading. So, in the spirit of holiday giving, I’d like to give four of them away! So how do you get one?

To win one,  just comment on this post!!

You can only pick one book, and make sure you specify in your comment which book you want. And get this — if you win, I’ll even take care of shipping (US only!)

Of course, all of the books are about photography, but from various photographers’ “perspectives”. Here they are listed, with links over to Amazon.com so you can read their full descriptions (in no particular order):   [Read more...]

liveBooks.com – Helping Photographers Flash the Web

Audio MP3

One of the many problems facing photographers today is the necessity of having a slick looking website, however most shooters lack the skill-set (or desire) to get into the “weeds” of building a site reflective of themselves. We’re long past the age where having a website is optional, today it is imperative that every photographer who intends to do any level of serious business on the Internet has a web presence that reflects both their art and skill, while also providing a way for potential clients and customers to get to know and contact them. Easier said than done.

liveBooks logohas been around for several years now — their main goal is to help build websites that reflect Photographers’ craft and artisanship. The problem facing the liveBooks is that their audience is faced with a sophisticated problem, that is, creating a website that’s beautiful and functional while remaining flexible enough to allow the owner to keep it up-to-date and fresh. When you’ve got ISO, F/Stops, raw, etc, who wants to deal with CSS, Flash, HTML, CMS, FTP, and browser compatibility?

…a little known fact is that liveBooks sites have mirroring HTML counterparts to optimize SEO and to help make them Google-friendly.

Like I said, it’s a sophisticated problem but this isn’t to say the audience isn’t sophisticated, they’d just rather be out taking photographs and building their businesses than dealing with the complexities and the code behind designing a competitive website. liveBooks aim to take away the pain [Read more...]