Through the Lens Series - Entry 1

Towards the end of 2011, I started thinking about what type of goals I would like to set myself for photography.  I was getting newsletter emails every day telling me what goals I should set and what I could do to improve my photography business for the coming year, but the problem with sending out those types of bulk emails is that you might end up with a thousand other photographers doing the same things to improve their SEO and make more money.

After a lot of thought, I decided that I just want to become a better photographer.  I had my plate full with great photography jobs last year, but sadly I don't take too many photos just for the love of it anymore.  I had so many people comment that I must have screeds of photos of my son and my family and the truth is that sometimes I get over worked and I just don't feel like pulling out my camera at the end of a long day.

So, my goal for 2011 is to carry some sort of camera and lens combo with me as often as possible and to capture the people in my life, just purely for the love of it.  In the process, I think it'll help to improve my portraits and my editing skills, and I should end up with a good collection of interesting shots at the end of the year.  Sometimes it's hard to find an interesting angle on things you see every day, and this is my way of stepping up to the challenge.

I'm hoping to do a post at least once a week.  A lot of photographers do a 52 week challenge each year, but the honest truth is that sometimes I just get swamped, like everyone does.  It's something to work towards and if I miss a week, I'm not going to beat myself up about, but there will probably be 2 posts the following week!

Enough rambling and on with the show.  Here is my first entry for the year and these were actually taken in the last few hours of 2011.  I won't go into the full story, but all I can say is that sometimes when you become a parent, the anticipation of going out for a big night can be more fun than once you get there.

Happy New Year!

12 Days of Christmas

Well, tomorrow is the start of the 12 days of Christmas and I haven't posted anything for the month of December.  This week has been busy with 2 business shoots and I'll be shooting a winter wedding on Saturday.  Fingers crossed for some good snow! 

Once we get closer to Christmas, I can start posting more photos that have been taken for Christmas cards without spoiling any surprises with clients cards.  There's some good ones in there too.

On the SEO front, huge leaps and bounds from the last posting.  White Starfish has leapt from page 16 on google when searching for a Vail Photographer to page 1!  It's all thanks to some good planning on Google Maps and some very sweet reviews from some of my very sweet clients.

Lastly, here's an article that ran in the Vail Daily about White Starfish this week.

http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20111207/BIZ/111219973&parentprofile=search

The countdown to Christmas begins tomorrow!

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!