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.