Thanksgiving Family Portraits in Vail

The hardest part that comes with taking photos at this time of year is that I don't know which ones are going to be used for Christmas cards, so I don't want to post them just in case I spoil the surprise! Here's a sweet photo from Thanksgiving of my gracious hosts that I think I can get away with posting. Jeff certainly has some good looking ladies in his life...and Briar's not even in this photo!

A quick Thanksgiving pic of Suzanne, Jeff and Erin, taken in West Vail, CO

Studio Portraits in Edwards with Declan

I wanted to post one more photo from my studio session with Declan the other day, but I have to leave it at just one photo because I'm not sure which ones will be used for his Christmas card this year and I don't want to spoil the surprise for anyone.  He's certainly a photogenic wee thing!

Click here to see more Baby Portraits in Vail, Colorado.

Family Portraits in Edwards, Colorado with The Carpenters.

I posted a couple of sneak peak photos from my session in Cordillera, CO with the Carpenter family the other day, and I finished editing them yesterday so I wanted to post a few more of them.  We're having an useasonably warm early winter this year, so we didn't capture a lot of snow in the photos, but you can see some scattered here and there. 

I ran a new action on this photo and I love it.  It tends to give everything a bit of a 3D effect.

This pose was Anna's idea from a photo she had seen.  It works perfectly with the amazing skyline that night.

I love Ayla's hair in this photo.  The wind added to rugged feel out in the hills.

To see more photos from this session, go to The Carpenter's Family Portraits in Edwards, Colorado.

In reference to my previous post about Search Engine Optimization, one of the tips was to make sure that your blog posts were longer in length.  I'm not usually much of a writer in my posts, because I'm a photographer and photographers obviously rely on photos to tell a story.  I've always been extremely concise (I once left a 3 hour journalism exam after 1 hour and managed to do pretty well on it - the task was to cut the fat from a story and present the facts), so bulking up on the blog will be interesting. 

My Google Places Card arrived today, and I now have a Google listing for Vail, CO.  My first listing is for Edwards, CO so having this new listing should help me I'm sure.  In Vail, we don't receive mail at our houses, so getting a listing on Google when you work out of your house is next to impossible.

Lastly, today is Small  Business Saturday!  It's a great excuse to get out there and support local small businesses during this Thanksgiving week/week of holiday shopping.  We don't have too many BIG businesses here, but we should always do our best to support the community.  Speaking of Thanksgiving, I did a few family photos on Thanksgiving for some friends and their beloved pooches, so those pics will be up shortly.

Current Ranking for 'Vail Photographer' on Google: Page 16, 8th entry.  Didn't I say the other day that it couldn't get worse?! :)

Click here to see more Family Portraits in Vail and Edwards, Colorado.

In the name of Search Engine Optimization!

As a photographer, I'm constantly distracted by visual images time and time again and this is probably something that myself and most photographers have been suffering with since the time we picked up our first books and got swept away by the illustrations.  The first time I saw the Uruwera Mural by Colin McCahon, it literally knocked the breath out of me.  However, the point of this blog entry is to discuss how a photographer that is more captivated by strong imagery, can hunker down and read the fine print and improve their habit/hobby/profession through strong Search Engine Optimization.

I wrote an essay on Google in 1999, discussing how search engines worked through the use of spiders.  I'd love to find that essay now, purely to have a good laugh at how basic it seemed to be then.  Being that Google is the dominant search engine of our time, most Search Engine Optimization focuses on improving your rankings in Google.  As a Photographer, I'm somewhat of a techie, but more in the realm of new camera gear and certainly not in the field of Search Engine Optimization.  SEO falls into the catergory of things that I'm really interested in, but not particularly good at.  Disc Golf falls into this category also!

Google is constantly updating their algorithms for how they search for content.  The latest round of updates shows that Google is now looking for frequently updated, fresh content.  To try and keep up to speed, I'm throwing it out there that I am going to try and improve on this, and will be updating my Website, Facebook, Flickr, and blog on a more regular basis.  This is only the beginning though.

It seems that every time I look into this, everyone has a new and improved method for moving up in the SEO rankings.  I try to do as many of these steps as possible, but if one searches for 'Vail Photographer', it comes up with pages of Photographers that don't reside in or anywhere near the Vail Valley.  So, as a social science experiment, I put forward the hypothesis that 'A small photography business can improve their SEO, through the research and application of other peoples ideas that can be found solely on the internet, without paying for a third party to take care of it'.  This is being done more as an experiment of curiosity than anything else.  Again, I'm fascinated by SEO, but not particularly good at it therefore it can do my business no harm!

After thinking about everything I've read on the topic so far, many questions spring to mind.  Does Twitter really work and who has the time to be on there?  Do I really need to add my business to Yahoo Directory for $300 a year like some SEO companies suggest, or is that done more for a kick back to the company?  Do I really need to design a Landing Page for Facebook? These are all points to touch on in future entries.  In the mean time, I'm going to start with this article from Photopreneur, titled 'The Reasons your Photography Blog is Failing'. 

Wish me luck and Happy Thanksgiving!

Current Ranking for 'Vail Photographer' on Google: Page 16, 6th entry...absurd!

Studio Portraits in Edwards, Colorado with Declan

One more quick sneak peak from from another family session this weekend with sweet baby Declan. Talk about multi-tasking. Decs managed to squeeze in baby male modelling, playing host to a gaggle of other babies in his house for the afternoon and a quick nap! He's a star :)

To see more photos from our session, go to Declan's Baby Portraits in Edwards, Colorado.

The Carpenter Family

Are you wondering where 2011 went?  I can't believe that it's Thanksgiving this week and Christmas is just around the corner.  Now's the perfect time to get your pictures done for holiday cards.  Here's a sneak peak of a session I did last night at Cordillera with the Carpenter family.  It's hard to tell that it was freezing by looking at the photos, but they were troopers.  Check out that sunset!

Click here to see more Family Photos in Vail and Edwards, Colorado.

Jessica's Maternity Session. Gypsum, Colorado.

This photo session is long past overdue to be posted, but sometimes life can get a little hectic with a little one. I had the good fortune of working with Jessica on numerous events at The Ritz-Carlton Club, Vail and we were both due with o...ur first babies at the same time. We'd host events once a week and it was always a good chance to catch up on each other's pregnancies. Baby Hank has moved on from the mountains and is now living it up on the beach!

To see more maternity portraits, go to The Maternity Portraits Collection. Vail, Colorado.

Malcolm Farley Paintings at KKVM The Mile in Minturn

After a month's hiatus, it's fitting that my first post is right from where I left off at 104.7 The Mile in Minturn.  The station is looking a lot more colorful these days with these beautiful new paintings from Master's Gallery by Malcolm Farley.  I'd highly recommend stopping by to see these beauties in person!  To see more of the paintings, go to my Facebook page here- http://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?set=a.10150527316409307.462133.207717064306&type=1

Click here to see more Product, Business and Corporate Photos in Vail, Colorado.