On Vacation

On vacation.....taking some photos along the way. Will be posting sporadically.

NAKED PHOTOS...well not super naked just kinda naked

During these cold days of winter (well not that cold in NOLA) don't we all wish we didn't have to wear sweaters, jackets, socks & gloves? This longing for flip flops and tee shirts sparked my interest in some old photos I took a few years back during the toasty days of summer. I've never posted them on my site.....UNTIL NOW.

In my previous post " huh? this is my most viewed photo" one of my blog followers mentioned that people liked a particular pic because it had lots of skin....

Well....if youre in to skin check out some spirited pics of the NYC Gay Parade recently posted to my site HERE.

Who wants to buy my photos? Websites Exposed!

Yes I eventually do want to actually make some decent money doing this...yes its a long shot.

One of the tips I picked up at last weeks Mary Virginia Swanson lecture was the need to identify what kind of market my photos belong in and then really try and gear my site for people in those markets.

Over the passed year I've made major progress in shooting more, purchasing some important equipment, taking some classes, and getting my site up and have had some successes in actually being paid for a bunch of jobs. But now the task remains... trying to carve a niche out for my work.

According to Mary Virginia Swanson, the photography marketing guru, there are a few things photographers must do in order to have their websites actually "work for them"

Here they are:

1. Clarify what you do best, even if its several things, and design your website to showcase those specific skills/styles

2. In your bio, describe what you do succinctly, using language and images that cast you in a specific light

3. Use the language and images on your site to communicate and suggest to viewers what you do or want to do

4. Don't have a contact link that goes straight to email, use this page to give a bit more info about yourself and give a variety of different ways to contact you for different kinds of work.

5. Change language appropriately in site if geared towards different viewers, (ie. if in stock section of site, gear towards editors, if in fine art prints section gear towards art dealers and gallery owners)

6. The homepage of your site should clearly explain either visually or with text what you do or can be hired to do

7. With regards to marketing and brand strategies, seek out help from experts and brand everything you do, including website, emails, business cards, etc with same brand (color, logo, style,etc)

8. Sequence images on site well and appropriately for audience

9. Show pictures of your work hanging in galleries if you wish to sell fine art, or show tear sheets from published magazines if hoping to sell stock or book commercial gigs.

10. Do your research, try and bait the people that would be interested in your kind of work and get them to view your website. Always be as personal as possible when sending emails or sending work samples. If possible, look into consulting services like portfolio reviews or agencies like Agency Access that can help market your photos and connect you to the right people.

11. One thing not mentioned that should be added: Google Analytics, I personally think this is very important in terms of determining who is looking at your work and how people are looking at your work

12. There are a variety of different ways now-a-days to see if people actually open links you send them in emails, so if you're sending a link to a gallery on your site to an editor, see if theres a way to check if they've actually viewed the gallery.

Wow this a lot.......need to reflect a bit....more later

All of these are great tips and I will be trying to re-vamp my site over the next month to hopefully integrate some of this advice. I am going to re-attempt to design some of my own webpages in Dreamweaver and integrate and link to different sections of my PhotoShelter site. I will probably start by redoing my homepage to show more of a "style" and create buttons to access different aspects of my work. Maybe sections like this on my homepage will help me gear parts of my site more appropriately to different people looking to purchase or license my work.

Any comments? Especially from some of my art bus. friends?

Mosh Pits: Embedded Galleries

Up in the air - Images by Erica Stavis

Just a little bit to get your morning started..I figured out how to embed sideshows into other websites from PhotoShelter. Featured are some good mosh pit scenes.

Come back in the afternoon for a very comprehensive post about MVS lecture.

Thanks for commenting

Hi blog followers, thanks for commenting on my Blog posts. I wanted to make a request that people try and comment on the blog and not only to the posts on Facebook this way all people who follow my blog (not just facebook freinds) can view the comments. Thanks

Best Carnival Shot: Gallery Submission

Looking for input from my readers....which images are the best "Carnival Shots"? I selected a few that I think are good, but would love some other opininions

Newspace Gallery in Portland, OR is taking entries for their Annual Themed Exhibition "Carnival" They are seeking work that has been shot at carnivals, fairs, celebrations or other such events with a festive atmosphere.

CLICK HERE for a gallery of some selected images. If there are any you think I should add from other galleries that would qualify let me know? Would love to look through some live music shots, but not sure if that qualifies under the Carnival theme.

Google Analytics: Holy Shit!

Ive officially geeked out and enabled Google Analytics on my site. I am now able to track all traffic to my website including features I didnt even know I wanted to track.

For instance Ive had

208

Visits since I started tracking (probably half of which are my own visits to my site) I've had

1,651

Pageviews. People spend an average of

00:03:07

Time on my Site. I've had 120 visits from Louisiana, 27 from Alabama, and 23 from New York, and random amounts of visits from countless other cities and countries, including one visit from Russia, one from South Africa and one from China, weird.

I can also see who visits my site from my Facebook posts vs. blog posts, and those who type my url directly into the browser.

What does it all mean? Im not sure yet...but im sure this info will come in handy one day. It all comes down to marketing, which Ill be posting about in length tomorrow when I write about the Mary Virginia Swanson lecture I attended last week.

I attached a fun pic of myself to this post that I took when I got my new strobe lights. Note to viewers...its not that easy to take your own picture.

Huh? This is my most viewed photo ?

One of the great features of PhotoShelter is the built in "Public Image Views" function. While logged in to your site, you are able to see the top 100 images posted on your site with the highest amount of views. It is always interesting to see which of my pictures draw the most attention.

Strangely enough one picture stands out above the rest as having far many more views than any other photo....and it is the one at the top of this post. Now....its a funny picture yes, but is this really the photo of mine that people look at most? What so special about it?

It makes me wonder who is looking at my site......Did someone fall asleep on their keyboard while looking at my site and mistakenly keep reloading this one pic? Do people click on the small thumbnail because it looks like the lead singer of Monotonix is wearing no pants? Do the drunken tattoed goons in this shot send a link to all their friends to show them their picture posted on the web? Is a friend who knows that I obsessively check my "Public Image Views" consistently, just trying to mess with me and clicking on this shot over and over again?

Ive been looking into Google Analytics, which apparently gives you more insight into exactly who and when people are looking at specific pages on your website and how they get to your website from other links. I tried to embed the code in my site but still haven't figured out how to make it work. Once I do, it should be interesting to see who,what, where, and when people are looking at my photos. Whats funny is that this image has 20 + times more views than any other picture on my site....weird.

Yes Monotonix shows are crazy, as is evidenced by my gallery of images posted from One Eyed Jacks in September, but is that what it takes to drive people to my site?

PhotoNOLA: Six Shooters - Tidbits

Jane Fulton-Alt's photo from the "Burn" series

Last nights PhotoNOLA Six Shooters event was as huge success. Here are a few of my deciphered notes which include some heady tidbits of dialogue from the panelists, moderator and audience.

• New Orleans is a place of transformation, its part of the culture to reinvent yourself visually
• A photo is successful when you step back and look at your photograph and see your own value in it
• To be a successful photographer today , must you also be an editor, marketer, writer, web-designer, curator, etc?
• Photo as object not image
• New Orleans is a place overrun with similar interpretations, it deadens us to the place, can new beauty still be found here?

Obviously since I wrote down these quotes they resonated with me for some reason. The second bullet made me think a lot about my work, because at this point with the proliferation of images I've been capturing and displaying I wonder which have any real value? Who will determine that value if I don't at first? What am I shooting? Why am I shooting?

The last bullet has made me think about shots taken in NO, Im going to re-examine some of my overlooked shots of New Orleans now actually to see if any strike me. I know none of them truly capture the 'spirit' of New Orleans, but I know I have some beautiful shots somewhere.

Those of you living in NO, should definitely check out our next Six Shooters probably being scheduled in April some time, there was a great vibe at last nights event and the crowd kicked ass. Checking out the Seth Resnick Lecture tonight at Tulane's Freeman Auditorium at 6:30.

Comments welcomed as always.

Shoo Jimmy Shoo...Catey Hill Book Cover Photo

My good friend Catey Hill, whose portrait is featured on my website has just published a terrific book "SHOO, Jimmy Choo! The Modern Girl's Guide to Spending Less & Saving More" A while back I shot her portrait for the book cover and the picture continues to be used in articles, websites and magazines which feature her book. She has recently started a blog too that gives girls even more ideas on how to save money (tips we can all use). She seems to use shoes as the iconographic symbol for excessive spending, which I used to relate to living in NYC. However, since Ive moved to NOLA Ive replaced my shoe habit with a photo equipment habit. So my title should be "shoo...B&H Photo" (ok...cheesy I know)

This picture above is from a shoot done at our friends apt. in Tribeca, NYC and has a much more serious tone than the one they ended up using for the book, but I like the no-nonsense glare in this one best.

Anyway. Yesterday I blogged about staged shots and posted a gallery on my site with a few samples. Some of the shots from the Catey Hill shoot are in it, check em out and most definitely check out this book. It would make a great holiday gift!

Staged Shots

In general I prefer shooting candid shots during events and attempt to capture people doing things naturally. But one important aspect of commercial work depends upon staged shots. The new lights I purchased will force me to pause and try and really try and get some interesting portraits of people at their homes, in their offices, etc. This week I began looking back at some of the staged shots Ive done, (see some here) in order to see if there are certain patterns in my work. Over Xmas break Ill be taking a road trip from New Orleans to New Mexico and want to bring some of my lighting equipment in order to take some portraits along the way. Stay posted this week for pics from a light spirited King Cake Baby shoot done at my house. Don't even ask , just look for pics later on this week.

Back from Vacation

Will be posting this week.

Pictures of People Doing Things = Lifestyle Photography

It seems as though the commercial category for "photos of people doing things that they would normally do" is called lifestyle photography. For a long time i've been struggling with categorizing my photos and figuring out the best way to display them as sets. Using PhotoShelter is a blessing and a curse because of the flexibility I have with creating new galleries, or 'sets' of images. Sometimes I look at images and think......should this be in the people set, the entertainment set, the portrait set, or all of them? For instance, an image that has a particular commercial appeal might not have that same appeal in a gallery labeled "Travel: Italy" like this image. Knowing that most people don't last beyond the first few images of a gallery, especially ones that house hundreds of photos. Ive recently created a new gallery titled Lifestyle Gallery, which showcases some of the works that might not get as much credit because they're lumped in travel or event galleries with tons of other images. I guess at this point, I want to make my website as visitor friendly as possible and keep switching up the images on my homepage to make people view more and more of my photos. Is it better to show tons of photos from a variety of categories on my site or limit the scope so it seems as though i specialize in one area? Any insight from my followers?

Yummy Delicious Dense Baked Goods

In an earlier posting I mentioned some recent food shoots, including the beer shots I needed to take for a new magazine being published "Edible New Orleans." On a recent trip to Duong Phuong Bakery with Shai, who is writing an article on their delicious french bread, I was asked to capture some of the other yummy baked goods they bake on site. Because its my first real foray into food photographery I figured Id post some pics for my wonderful followers to see. Many more food shots will be included in the first winter issue of the publication as well as some portrait shots taken of magzine contributors. Stay posted for more info on the publication date.

Help...me pick pleeease

Please help me pick your four favorite event images. I am way overdue in submitting an application and simply cant pick my favorite"event" images. I've made a cut already and posted the images in this post, feel free to choose one of these or one from your favorite gallery, linked here. If no one responds to this I am definitely going to assume that no one ever reads this blog :)

Beer: in studio vs. in bar

In an anxious attempt to use my new studio lights I set up my beer shoot (for local magazine) in the spare bedroom of my house. My editor mentioned she wanted an isolated shot of "a beer" using a Nola Brewery pint glass, so I figured a studio setting would work best. Never having used my lights before and/or shooting glass (a tricky feat) I set up my lights and began shooting. Because I don't have a true studio with a proper background and table I tried a few different shots to make the beer look frothy and cold. The beers looked good but the whole image was super boring, so I decided to hit the bar thinking that my editor would change her mind about an isolated beer and go for the more natural bar setting for the background. I went over to Balcony Bar (closest bar to my house) and used their vast beer tap collection as a backdrop. I've attached one shot from each series to the post. Wonder which setting my editor will prefer. What'ya think?

I have a day off of work today due to the incoming storm, and im planning on busting my alien bee strobe lights out of their case and trying to do this beer shoot at the house. Im not really sure how it will turn out being as though its not really a proper studio, but Ill give it a try.

I also really want to try and figure out how to customize my PhotoShelter website by editing the html code. I have very very limited html skills but realize that I could probably achieve what I want to if I do a bit of research. If you look on my website powered by PS you'll notice that the top navigation bar on the upper right has 7 links. I want to try to add an 8th link "home" this way people can navigate back to the home PS page.

Last night I messed around with my real "ericastavisphotography.com" homepage designed in Dreamweaver and added two links so people can either enter the site or the blog. More on the trials of PS html coding later.

Live music in NOLA

Took some fun live music shots this weekend and spent the day editing a bit. Shot King Khan @ Spellcaster Lodge and Debauche & Zydepunks @ Circle Bar. I have a big week ahead of me and hope the storm doesn't hit too hard because I have an outdoor shoot planned for Tuesday. I featured the 2 new galleries on the home page of my website. Check em out at www.ericastavisphotography.com

Pick you favorite Event Picture....

So this is something that happens often when Im submitting work for contests, shows, etc. I am charged with the very difficult task of selecting my "best" images in a specific category, and quite often its a ridiculously small number of images Im able to submit. So this year I am applying to photograph Jazz Fest again and was asked to select my best 4 events images. How is this even possible.

HELP ME!

Any comments/contributions of your favorite "event shots" would be appreciated. They don't necessarily need to be from prvious Jazz Fest's. They can be from any event covered.

Just learned how to create a 'collection' in PS so click here to access my event photography and give me your top 4.

Spellcaster Party Freaks vs. Pretty Pic of Italy

In an obsessive compulsive fit I've attempted to begin to organize and upload some older photos taken while traveling. You can see some of the sets in the gallery section of my PS site. I've compiled them in sets based on location but am skeptical because I feel like some of them are a bit too postcard'y but then again who knows what people really like. As for SEO, photo descriptions and labeling I'm in major procrastination mode. Definitely should be doing this before I export out of Lightroom for all those travel pics I recently uploaded to PS but Im so lazy. Not good. Web-wise I re-designed my website to simply re-route to my Photoshelter site for now until i have more time to actually integrate my personal site with my archive galleries on PS.

I have been working on an assignment for a new food/culture magazine coming out in New Orleans and did a food shoot for an article my husband is writing about the bakery at Dong Phoung, a vietnamese restaurant in New Orleans East. Cant show you photos till the mag comes out but some are delicious looking. My PS site has been very instrumental in allowing my editor to view and select photos. This weekend I am shooting a pic of Richard McCarthy, the Executive Director of Market Umbrella, the orgnaization that runs Crecent City Farmers Market for a different article, as well as a beer shoot for an article on craft beer in NOLA. These magazine assignments are great expereince and they actually pay me $ so....

Besides work photos there is a Spellcaster party Friday night, one of my favs to shoot. See some amazingly weird Spellcaster photos posted here. Then there's the mirliton festival this weekend. Yes, Ill be busy runnin round town with my camera.

Definitely keep posted for some interesting photos after this weekend.

Janes Addiction and other assorted pics from Voodoo Festival

Too beat to blog after this long and late weekend but check out some photos from Voodoo Festival this past weekend. Got some fun shots in the pit at Gogol Bordello and some great shots of Janes Addiction.

Voodoo: Photo Press Pass

Thanks to Dan Fox from Anti-Gravity I now have a photo pass and weekend ticket for Voodoo Festival. Now I can see Janes Addiction, Flaming Lips, Ween, Fischerspooner, Kiss, and all the locals, Bingo Show, Morning 40 Federation, George Clinton, Rotary Downs, Zydepunks.....AND for the best performance of the weekend my friend Stephanie dancing to THRILLER with the Camel Toe Steppers ! Sign up to get notifiied when I post new picts from Voodoo and the millions of other parties going on this weekend. Alligator Chomp Chomp @ Mimi's, Klezmer All-Stars @ DBA, Treehouse Party(see crazy pics from last party), and Quintron & Miss Pussycat @ One Eyed Jacks! Wowza

Photo Shelter Process and Meta Data

After months of trying to learn how to develop a thorough website of my photographic images I discovered a site called PhotoShelter (PS) which allows photographers to archive photos and create a gallery-based website of their work. Because the gallery function was hard to develop using Flash (a program I had never used before) on my original website, I did some research into PS and signed up for a one month account. What I immediately liked about the software was that I was able to create and edit galleries of photos which had the built in functionality of a slideshow/thumbnail view. My website has flash slideshows which I created after taking tons of YouTube tutorials on how to build flash slideshows, but the viewer has no buttons to scroll through images so they need to sit through the entire slideshow (which I know no one would ever do) Here is the general process for working with PS.

1. Organize and catalogue your images clearly and add IPTC and metadata to all of your images in Lightroom, or whichever program you use for RAW Conversion. It is important to ADD THIS DATA TO THE IMAGES THEMSELVES at this stage, because if you do it within a program like PS, Smug mug or Photobucket when you transfer images to another program all this data will be lost. This metadata allows people searching the web to find your specific images. Ie. if you're photo has specific tags associated with it within its metadata then when someone types "Portrait of old man in New Orleans" he/she will have a better chance of linking to your image if it has the tags, Old Man, New Orleans. Which I happen to have a good sample of on my PS site. The more people that click on your image, the higher up you appear within a search engine like Google. Im still in the process of doing this because obviously it is a major process and there is no limit to how detailed your description of an image can be. (more on this later) As of now, none of my files have any metadata, but after attending the PS webinar on SEO (Search Engine Optimization) I realize this is an important part of the process if you ever want to sell any of your work. Click here for a 16 min. vid on SEO from PS. If you can batch tag a bunch of images at once and then go in and add specifics that is good.
2. Import your images to the Archive section of PS. If you have certain albums or themed categories I've found it best to upload groups of images into folders within your archive. You can also upload photos all at once and then group them into folders within PS You will want to upload your largest native file to the archive because PS will save it as CR2 if you upload it like that, and automatically covert it to JPEG when posted to a gallery for viewing. I am still trying to develop an organizational strategy for how to store my images and categorize them into folders and I think it needs to really be thought out. This is one of the questions I always ask professional photographers that I meet. How do you organize your photos?
3. One of the neat features of PS is that now you have your native files backed up on a remote server somewhere so it acts as an extra backup. depending on which plan you get you have more storage room. I think I have the standard account (about $34/month) and I have 35 gigs, not really enough so store all my photos but its a decent starting point for images I actually would want people to see.
4. Once you've uploaded to the archive you can create galleries (either public/private/invitation only/passwords protected,etc) so you can send galleries to clients or friends using any restriction you want.
5. You now have tons of flexibility for how to showcase your galleries and customize your site , which is very user friendly on the PS interface.

There are a million other deatils to consider but the takeaways are:

• You dont need to learn to be a web designer to create a good site of your work. There are alternatives. All have a specific learning curves but there are many options out there.
• Better to learn all this SEO/Metadata/IPTC stuff now, because its easer to add Metadata as you process images rather than going back and adding data to a million photos you already have.
• Reflect on your workflow and consider how developing a pro-active system for photo organization can help you sell images in the future.

As always comments and questions welcome!

Portrait Time

Just finished taking my lighting class, did some work with my first live model and cant wait to take more portraits/head shots with my new limited edition flame orange Alien Bee Flash Units (Which I just learned are now sold out). Im hoping that doing more portraits will help me actually make some money to pay for all the equipment I just purchased. Check out some of my first studio portraits at my Erica Stavis Photography Photo Shelter site. My teacher Owen Murphy gave some good advice saying that you know you've made a good purchase when you've made your money back within the first two years of purchasing it, so that gives me some time. I sold my Canon EF-S 17-55 Lens on eBay to help leverage the cost of my new lighting set up.....so soon Ill be harassing my friends to come sit for portraits. Next blog Ill be chatting about my decision to sign up for a Photo Shelter Account to display recent photo work and how I'm still trying to figure out which site of mine to plug, Photo Shelter Site vs. Web Site

And then that happened....

In an attempt to try and use any outlet possible to promote my work as a New Orleans based music and portrait photographer i've decided to start a blog. People tell me that having a blog doesn't necessarily mean that I need to divulge deep dark insightful stories about myself daily so figured Id give it a whirl.

Ive realized that trying to attract people to my photo website is a huge undertaking that requires tons of research and developing some new skills so I will use this blog to track my progress developing my photo website particularly trying to optimize my site so that people actually see my work.

If you're a photographer trying to figure out how to showcase your work and are a beginner like me check back and subscribe to my blog so we can go throughout this process together.

Ill post what kind of stuff Ive done already to prepare myself for the long journey ahead.