Post-Gig Reflections

Wow... Started this post soon after the gig and then promptly put it on the backburner for almost a month...

While I don't want to share too much, I figured I'd say a few things about last Saturday's job. Overall, I'd say it went well and I learned a lot, but I wasn't so happy with the candids. After I got home (pretty late) and knocked the 200 or so images down to around 90, I was a little happier, but the shots were far from perfect.

Before I talk much more about the candids (and share a few shots, thanks to the help of Mr. Pixelator) let me mention a few of the random things I learned:

1. Give forty-year-old affluent women a reason (70's theme party) and they'll dress in very short skirts and very high heels.
2. High-heeled shoes punch through seamless like nobody's business when that seamless is on carpet. Bring some plywood if the venue doesn't have hardwood floors.
3. Novatron strobe kits are pretty nice and surprisingly inexpensive if you can find a set used on eBay. I learned the hard way that the setup dumps power to all lights at once, so if you turn one light on or off, the others will change intensity.
   
4. Don't try to take pictures during dinner service. I quickly quit after I almost backed into a waiter laiden with four platters!
   
5. Dealing with drunk people can be a bit of a challenge.

Shooting the candids, I was using my Canon 20D with a neutered Nikon SB-20 (the horror!) in auto mode. As usual, I was shooting about a stop down than the SB-20's recommendation because the auto mode tends to make it a little hot for my taste. That also could be because I didn't set the zoom control to the appropriate setting (I believe normal), which I only thought about later. Unusually, I was shooting JPEG in case I needed to deliver the images as soon as I was done (I didn't). Normally for low-light things I like to shoot RAW. Hell, I usually shoot RAW for everything!

The venue, shown at the start of this post (sans-flash) was your typical dark dance-floor type of room. Half had a standard (8 foot?) white ceiling while the other half, over the dance floor, had a 14 foot (white) ceiling. Pretty good bounce flash conditions, honestly.

To start out, I set the SB-20 to the lowest output at ISO 400 (f/4), the camera to f/5.6 in aperture priority, the flash bouncing up at 45 degrees, and an index card folded in the handy bounce card holder at the top of the SB-20. Actually, I pretty much kept the settings on this all night, and the ambient (which I had set to a stop down) provided shutter speeds between 1/2th and 1/30th. Here's the dance floor with a little bounce flash:


I learned pretty quickly that I needed to keep the bounce flash 90 degrees up because at 45 degrees it directly lit the top of the heads of the tall guys:


I also had to take care to not shake the camera too much with the slow shutter speeds. Some shake I liked, since the flash froze the foreground pretty well, but too much could be excessive (or it makes the party look a little too good).


I also got a lot of use out of the hail-mary, hold-the-camera-up-and-shoot-down type of shots. I personally liked how they look, but they did take some experimentation:



Overall, I was pretty happy with the SB-20 and the settings. It really made things pretty effortless, and it was very intuitive to work in terms of a consistent auto mode with the ambient set a stop or two down. The only, major downside was the lack of TTL metering, which made it difficult to get any usable shots when shooting a longer distance or with something nearby in the foreground:


For instance, in that shot I tried to get the couple talking, but the flash didn't have quite the oompf. One of the things on my list of equipment for the future is a 430EX or 580EX. But, for now, the SB-20 works pretty well for a fraction of the price.

Photography for Free

David Hobby posted Four Reasons to Consider Working for Free over at Strobist and things have really blown up around the photo-web-o-sphere (yes, I made that up) on free work. Here's a quick summary types of views I've been reading:

• David Hobby: "I have personal projects I'm interested in, but can never bill for. I'm going to start doing some personal work and hope it evolves into something paid down the road."
• Many pros in comments: "This is not a new idea. Photographers have been doing personal projects for years."
• Many amateurs in the comments: "Hurray! Thanks for motivating me to get off my ass and find a personal project or two."
• Chase Jarvis: "Sign me up!"
  
• Sportshooter people: "It's easy to take on personal projects if you have a secure income of over $100K a year. The rest of us can't!" or "This is just a ploy for traffic!"
• Matt Brown: "People willing to do my job for free are making it hard for me to make a living!"
• John Harrington (author of Best Business Practices for Photographers) has always been sending the message: "Amateur photographers willing to undersell their work are hurting the rest of us!"
• Economists: "If the opportunity cost of the time needed for the project is larger than the expected future income, don't do it!"
  

So, here's my take which is heavily based on simple economics.

FYI, my situation is that of a graduate student trying to write his dissertation who makes $20-$30 an hour from a research assistantship and private tutoring outside school.

I've actually thought about Hobby's message before this -- if I can't get paid for the photography I'm interested in, should I do it anyway for the enjoyment and possibly as a way to get more business like that in the future? Of course, for me, a lot of the trouble is really knowing what sort of photography I'm interested in. More appropriately, I know what I'm not interested in -- endless family portraits or wedding shoots -- but I haven't really found what I really like.

A book I borrowed from the library by John Hedgecoe (Photographing People) touched on this topic too; Hedgecoe mentions that he's done a lot of personal projects in long-term portraiture which he's derived a lot of enjoyment and learning from. After reading the book, I decided I'd refocus on certain aspects of photography once my time freed up, including approaching others for non-paying (but portfolio-building) jobs that'd I could never get commercially.

The key is having the time (and money) to do so.

* * * * *

The photography world is under quite a bit of strain right now. With digital camera technology dropping prices enough that almost anyone who is interested can go out and make decent pictures, photography enthusiasts are able to (almost) compete with the pros. Sure, there's some obvious equipment barriers to entry and definitely some differences in quality between the amateurs and pros, but those differences are shrinking to the point where a dedicated amateur who's willing to work for free can take jobs from a pro because the difference in price outweighs the difference in quality.

This just isn't happening in a lot of other occupations. In many occupations, people just aren't willing to do the work for free (jobs of sanitation workers will never be taken by amateurs, for example). In other occupations, the difference in skill is so great that only a select few are able to reach the pro level (like pro sports).

How ever much I want it and work on it, I'll never be a good enough hockey player to even manage the equipment of the San Jose Sharks. Even the lowliest person from the bench would be able to skate circles (literally) around me. But give me a credential, rent me some equipment, and give me a few games of practice and I should be able to get some shots of that same hockey game which are worth posting on the web. Sure, I won't be the next Mark Rebilas, but they'd probably be good enough to warrant the price difference for low-end outlets. If you want evidence, just look at the results of the top amateurs on Sportsshooter.

It is no wonder pro photographers are so threatened by the amateurs. And my prediction is that it is only going to get worse.

* * * * *

Which brings me back to my original point.

The main reason I'm not doing more shooting for free right now is the opportunity cost. If I spend four hours on a Saturday shooting I could be missing out on a few hours of billable tutoring time. I just need the money more than I need the photography experience. Even worse, I've been so busy lately (tonight is the first night all week I'll be home for dinner) that time with my family has pretty decent value to me, definitely more than any photography experience and enjoyment I could gain.

Given the time, yes, I will start more personal projects. I definitely see where Hobby is coming from and I don't think this was just a ploy to get Strobist a bagillion hits (although I'm sure he's not upset about more traffic). He has the time and is financially secure, so why not? When I have more time and financial security, I'm going to do the same and if I want to do a project but can't get paid for it, I'll just do it for free.

The more important issue (which Hobby has definitely rubbed some salt into wounds on) is the constant pressure of amateurs on pro photographers. That's only going to get worse and pros need to compensate by moving into areas that are more sheltered where their superior abilities and experience will give them a competitive advantage. Obviously, that is high end shoots where perfection is necessary, portrait photography where the professionalism and speed of a pro is paramount, and high-end sports where there's too much financial barrier to the amateur.

Frankly, a lot of pro photographers just aren't going to survive this recession (depression?). Heck, a lot of all small businesses won't survive. That's just the nature of a free economic system.

The only thing that could stop the price competition between amateurs and pros is a union, and the photography community is just to large and broad to apply a union.

From a purely economic standpoint, I'm not going to hold off on activities that benefit me even if they drive down the price of other photographers. If it benefits me more than the opportunity cost in time, I'm going to do it (even just the enjoyment of doing the project and boost to my portfolio). I feel a little bad about that, but it is silly to act in any other way.

The onus is on the professional photographers to figure out how to survive this influx of amateurs.

Don't just blame us, adapt! Use your experience to carve out a niche!

Gig Tonight

I know my posts have been few and far between lately. That's for a reason -- I've started the final push to my PhD Defense and I'm trying to eliminate activities that don't relate to my dissertation or making decent money.

Which pretty much means cutting out most of the blogging. Except at my new dissertation progress blog, Freakin PhD. If you're curious about the thoughts that are going through my head as I finish up my decade-long degree, check it out. If you are mostly here for the photo stuff, well, posting will be about once a week at best for the next few months.

And as for microstock, I've pretty much killed the idea. But that's a whole 'nother post...

* * * * *

Anyway, the reason I'm posting now is because I've got a gig tonight helping out a friend with his party photography business. This will likely lead to a longer-term deal, but I can't share any details or images for now. For now, even the business name and website will remain a secret until I get permission to share them.

Tonight I'm mostly there to help out and get a feel for their setup and how they run things. I think I can contribute significantly in manpower, photo technique/quality, and business ideas (although marketing, probably not so much) but I'll know more after we run the event tonight. There's definitely potential for success in this area of the market, but with the economy declining it is going to be that much harder to find a steady stream of clients.

I've also been tasked to get some candids during dinner, which I am nervous about even though I'm confident (and there's really no pressure because nothing was promised to the client). A flash that does TTL metering would be nice, but since I don't have one, I'm going to hope for ceiling bounce with a Nikon SB-20 and also plan on doing some available light with a monopod. If the ceiling isn't white, I'll just use the SB-20 straight -- the performance of the SB-20 auto mode is so much better than my Sunpak 383 that I just don't feel comfortable with the 383.

My biggest concern is perfection, or lack of it. I tend to spend too much time trying to get shots perfect when nobody else cares that much. So one of the things I'll focus on for tonight is just shooting and not worrying as much about perfect technicals. After all, a photography business is only 10% photography yet 30% preparation and 60% client relations.

I'd love to say I'll share some images tomorrow but I really can't; I have a strong feeling we aren't going to have anybody sign any sort of release.

I'm a Pro!

Two things confirmed me as a professional photographer today.

The first was taking some shots of the experimental apparatus of one of my lab mates. He bought me lunch, so I guess I'm a pro because I took compensation for photography.

The second was that Costco called me up while I was doing the first shoot. Turns out the photograph for our Christmas cards this year (the shot that opened the post) was done by a pro so I need to have a signed release when I pick up our cards.

I'm not sure if they'll just take my word for it that I took the shot or if I'll have to sign a release saying that I give myself permission to use my pictures in my Christmas card. Not sure if I should even both calling before I go or just be ready with a form to sign.

It sure was nice to be called a pro though!

The Photography Business Mountain

I've talked before about the photography business and essentially decided it would be way too much work to start one and not financially smart.

I just found a really long thread on DPChallenge by Eyesup that really puts the expenses and amount of work in prospective. Especially notable is Eyesup's quote of Prof_Fate's back of the envelope calculations of how much it takes to keep a photography business in... business. Then, check out Prof_Fate's assessment of the expenses on 02/28/2008.

I'd love to quote some of it here to give you a bullet point idea of what the thread's point is, but if you are at all interested in starting a photography business, then read the thread.

What I will say is that, as a 'mom and pop' operation (meaning the husband and wife both work for the business) needs to bring in about $200K in sales every year to just break even (that does pay the 'salaries'). In this area (the San Francisco bay area) I'd expect you have to earn substantially more to break even ($300-400K). The real trouble is getting started, because you won't make nearly as much when you are getting going.

Photography is a hard, hard business...

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

I feel dirty.

Not dirty like a rooting pig, but dirty like a shoplifter hiding soup in my pants. A soupy-panted shoplifter who's trying to start his own store.

Before I go too far with this analogy (arguably, I've already gone too far!), let me fill you in...

**********

My daughter's preschool has a professional school photographer come in twice a year to do portraits of the kids along with a class picture. Then, they send a number prints home for us to look at, purchase the ones we want, and return the ones we don't want. Included in the samples are a number of 8x10s and a few smaller portrait sheets.

By the way, I won't mention the name of the company, but it begins with 'L' and ends with 'ouch'.

My first thought when we got the first package was, "How dumb of them. They waste a bunch of money doing this."

That was until I realized how effective the scheme is. It's easy to say, "No thanks, we don't want to buy any pictures." Especially when you're poor, like us. But when they do the shoot for free, then actually put a prints in your hands, it makes your resolve soften a little. Ok, let's be honest, my resolve didn't soften much, but my wife's did. It doesn't help that my daughter photographs well (my son got sample prints in the same fashion, but pro photographers have a hard time getting a natural smile out of him).

Yeah, putting pictures in the family's hands is a genius move by this company that ends in 'ouch'. It gives that little extra nudge to help the photo-happy person in the family (played in this drama by my wife) sway the stalwart (that's me) toward the purchase. Who cares if it costs the company a buck a sheet to print them? I'm sure they get a lot more sales by doing it.

*************

As to why I feel dirty...

Well, my wife wanted one picture in particular (my daughter in a cap and gown) but the $12.50 a sheet cost was a bit too much for us to pay. She suggested I photograph the picture to copy it because it was a picture we couldn't get ourselves (well, I could, except we don't have a red cap and gown in extra small handy). I quickly volunteered that there is a scanner at work and the quality would be much better. Then I started hedging...

As I thought more about it (and especially at work while I was doing the deed) I started to feel dirty. How can I, a supposed photographer, copy someone else's work in good conscience?

Obviously, viewing the image is ok, they sent it home with us! Scanning the image for our archives seems reasonable. But, printing a copy for relatives definitely feels wrong (my wife convinced me to do it in the first place by suggesting that we don't pass images or prints on to anyone else in the family). But what about printing a copy for ourselves... doesn't that seem ...dirty... too?

Of course, this is all coming from the guy who actually felt guilty about software piracy in the 90s (that doesn't mean I didn't do it, I just did as little as possible and felt guilty about it when I did do it).

***********

So what did I do? I scanned the image in question along with the class picture but kept the DPI to 300. Between the quality of the scanner (not great) and the JPG compression, that makes reprinting the shots at 8x10 a stretch. For now, we'll just keep them in our archives of unprinted images. Later on, if we decide we really want a good quality 8x10 from it, we can go back to L___ouch and pay for a reprint.

Obviously, I can't post the image in question here. That'd definitely send my moral meter off the wrong end of the scale...

As my wife said, we should just blame it on my daughter: she's just too cute!

Cycle 61 Photography: "... absolutely own it..."

Through the Bay Area Strobists Flickr group, I stumbled upon Cycle 61 Photography, a.k.a. Nick Davis. Nick is working on starting up a photography business, and while I think he's chosen one of the hardest tasks possible (supporting himself with photography in one of the most expensive cities in the world) I think he has the right idea.

From Nick's first page of business goals:

"... I don't want to be just another landscape photographer, another wedding or headshot or whatever guy. I'm willing to work through that, but I'm going to find a niche, dig it out with an axe, make it viable, and absolutely own it. I want everybody who shoots in my field to have the thought, nagging in the back of their mind, that if they do a kick-ass job then everybody will think they're copying Nick Davis."

As someone who flirted with starting a business a while ago I know a bit about what it takes to succeed in photography: a ton of effort and a way to distinguish yourself from all those other photographers. Not to say that I've succeeded in any way, but I've seen enough to know how much work is involved. Trying to be a photographer 'like everyone else' isn't going to cut it anymore, nor will depending on selling microstock. You have to offer your customers something they can't get from anywhere else, be it your vision, unique style, personal skills, or experience.

And you have to commit to the endeavor: part time photography will not make you a lot of money without building the business for years, which is ultimately why I abandoned my plans (because we need money NOW, not in three years). Or, maybe I should say I just put them on the shelf for a while...

So, I'll wish Nick luck and recommend that you check out his blog. He's got good stuff on there already and it will be interesting to see his business plans evolve.

(from Cycle 61 Photography, used with permission)

PS My favorite image on his site was at the top of his second goals post (I won't show it here because I don't have permission). It has excellent color and texture, and it made me think:

"What the hell is that there for? Nuts and bolts?
...
...
Oh, I get it!"

The Cost of Advertising

There's a very educational post up at the Photo Business News & Forum about advertising budgets and usage rights to images. Harrington's message is to know what questions to ask so you can price your quote according to the expected exposure (and rights needs) of the image(s).

Essentially, if you're a big-time (or even small-time) photog and an advertising company comes to you for a quote, they probably know exactly what the budget is even if they are evasive when you ask them about numbers. So ask them for the proposal docs (outlining the budget) and the media schedule (where the ads will run). This will both give you an idea of where your quote should be and allow you to adjust your quote upwards if the exposure will be very high for the photo.

While his point is great, I got a heck of a lot more from looking at his visual aids.

For instance, he gives an example proposal cover page, including:

"We recommend a full-day shoot, in one New York City location. This will allow time for shooting photography for both the "parents centric" and the "children centric" ads in the same day, which is the most cost-effective approach. The budget for this shoot, including all photographer's fees, location scout, permit fees, stylist, and photographers rights package is $12,000-$14,000."

Yeah, there's some big money in photography. Even if the photographer gets only a quarter of that budget for her time and equipment, that's still $3-4 K for a day's work plus post.

I've had plenty of concerns about the photography industry as a whole but I see now how a mid/high end photographer can make ends meet. Sadly, it's the low end that suffers, since the industry is under attack from both directions: the consumer camera market makes do-it-yourself portraits more appealing and micro-stock allows many companies that pay a decent chunk of change for images to pay a tiny fraction of that. But that's a post for another day.

Another thing that was awesome to see was the media schedule (click here to go directly to it). For quite a while I've been curious about the costs of advertising, and the three quarters of a million dollars in this budget was quite a surprise. Wow, that's some big money (makes sense though, since ad agencies aren't known for barely making a profit).

This also relates a bit to my experiences with Google Adsense. Without giving a lot of detail ("The first rule of Adsense revenue is..."), I've been curious why some clicks get me a penny of revenue while others are 50 cents or more. How do companies make a profit with almost a dollar a click? Can they really make that money back just by someone visiting their site?

But compare those rates to the provided media schedule. Assuming the impressions figure given is per 'in', it costs around 1.9 cents each impression for in the paper, 16.5 cents for the style magazine, and 1.9 cents on the web. Think about it -- that's 1.9 cents each time the image is shown on the web -- even if nobody looks at it (or your ad blocker ignores it). So 50+ cents for an actual website visit isn't much.

There is definitely some big money in advertising, and as a result, some big money in advertising photography. Imagine the difference a great image will make in the effectiveness of a campaign vs an image that is merely o.k. A few extra thousand for a quality photographer is nothing when your overall advertising budget is nearly a million dollars!

Backlink Note

Wow, three posts in one day. Crazy.

Ever wonder why your post isn't getting an automatic backlink on another page you linked to? I did; a my recent posts haven't been getting the eyes I expected because the backlinks are missing on Strobist.

Turns out, with Blogger's backlinking system, the links are set up the first time you publish and not afterwards. So if you accidentally publish before all your links are in, save it as a draft again, and republish, Google's blog search won't rescan your post and you won't get linked up.

The easy solution is to copy your entire post into a new post and republish it, deleting the old one.

Update 12/4: Had more trouble with backlinks not working today, and I'm not really sure how I fixed it. One thing was I set the feed to 'short' so maybe my links were too far down the page. I tried remaking the page three times and it didn't seem to work. Could be a problem with blogger too, I'm not sure...

Real Life Photography

So I've been reduced to reading three photography sites almost every day:

1. Strobist
   
2. DPChallenge (mostly the forums)
   
3. Photo Business News & Forum (by John Harrington)

Well, it turns out that Harrington has started a separate blog called Assignment Construct based around his assignments, and he's already got over a 100 posted. From what I've seen, I'll be checking back often, because he gives great overviews of the jobs he does and there are a ton of little things you can learn from the (seemingly shallow) posts.

My big take home message: his photos aren't really that sexy, but he gets paid well to make them. Really, his clients are paying for his professionalism and experience.


To be honest, I've pretty much given up the idea of a part time photography business. It just won't be worth it, because we need cash RIGHT NOW and I can make over $25/hr teaching and tutoring the SAT. Businesses have lots of upfront costs, losts of time involved for advertising, equipment, insurance, etc. It'd be unlikely I'd even be breaking even in the next month, so the idea has pretty much been shelved and photography is back in solid hobby territory. Of course, I've been lazy, I haven't updated my welcome page here yet...

I think a lot of photographers getting in the business probably want to be making the sexy photos and living the sexy photographer lifestyle. If anything, very few photographers can have success in that area, like Dave Hill and Joey Lawrence (god, that guy's been everywhere lately, including a bunch of posts on Strobist and in the DPC forums where he's been a member for three years). But it's great to see what goes into the average photographer's job (if you can call John Harrington average) -- great customer service and professional results.

This idea has been hammered home in my tutoring job too; fostering customer relationships can go far when it comes to getting later business and resolving conflicts smoothly if something goes wrong. The actual tutoring isn't as important as the rest, at least once you've had some experience. If I ever start up a photography business, that will be my goal; focus on customer relationships and professionalism first. The photography should be easy in comparison.

Not everybody can be a world-famous photographer. Most of us have to focus on the customers in our local area and be happy just pleasing them. After all, they write our paychecks!

---------------

As a side note, browsing through Technorati I rediscovered That Photo Over There. While Aidan hasn't written much lately (about once a month!), his reviews are generally above the typical photography blogger. In particular, he's got a good description of running a Canon 400D tethered, something I've been meaning to do with my camera for a while but haven't gotten around to it. His info/walkthrough seems really useful and I hope to try it out in the near future.

A Business Plan Guide

I ran across a good business plan link in a DPC thread so I thought I'd share it. It is a very complete outline for a business plan, and although it is from the Vermont Small Business Development Center, it is pretty much independent of locality and relevant for almost everyone. Obviously, if you are like me and you won't be applying for outside funding, this type of thing is overkill, but it is a great way to keep track of everything you need to worry about. The exercise of writing a business plan, even an informal one like mine, is a great way to get your thoughts focused and make progress.

Personally, I need to find a resource that gives me a checklist for what I need to do to set up a business in my area. I'm ok delaying though, because I'd like to first determine if my business plan will work before I start buying insurance, permits, web space, etc. Two resources I found are:

• Silicon Valley SBDC: Of note is the legal structure page, a good summary of the differences and how to register. Also provides free counseling.
  
• US Small Business Administration: A huge site with tons of information including a small business planner.

Update: Searches and Engineering Hits

I thought I'd do a little update of my adventures with Google and guiding traffic to this little part of cyberspace.

Since my last entry on the subject of Google traffic I've been getting steadily increasing numbers of Google hits. So far, nothing from any other search engines (Yahoo, MSN, etc.). While it seems like one or two of my pages are in each engine, the bots don't seem to have crawled my whole site yet, and I'm not sure how to encourage them to do so. Good old faithful (Google) has been sending me hits all along, as shown in the graph that started this entry (click to see larger). Not a deluge by any means, but pretty good for a special interest blog such as this one.

My Strobist hits were decreasing slowly since my backlinks have been buried by new links in many cases. Strobist readers are interested in many of the same things I am, so I came up with a plan to get new traffic and a few new readers: wait until the first Lighting 102 post, then immediately post an entry here related to it.

Based on the spike in the graph above, it worked. Fifty hits isn't huge, but fifty hits from readers who are interested in photography is. Along those lines, as I complete assignments for Lighting 102, I'll post here and link up to the relevant Strobist posts. After all, I believe my blog is useful, and I believe other will find it useful too.


A Digression...

Using backlinks to get some traffic from Strobist brings up an interesting point: it is only a matter of time before spammers (or other unscrupulous characters) use the backlink mechanism for evil. For instance, suppose you are reading Strobist's latest entry about reconfigurable macro reflectors (available from here) and you see a backlink called DIY Macro Reflectors. If you are like me and do a lot of macro shots, this would be of interest to you (plus you thought those reflectors looked suspiciously like posterboard you saw at a local art store). So, you click on the link all excited to see someone's macro solution but you see... a page advertising a competitor to the above product at half the price.

Get my point? In this case, the popularity of Strobist (and backlinks) have been used for unauthorized commercial purposes. And the sad part is, it'd probably work; I'd guarantee the company would make some sales.

Or worse, instead of macro reflectors, suppose followers of the backlink end up on a porn and Viagra alternative site. Obviously a more flagrant abuse of the backlink system, but you get the idea. And if Mr. Hobby got wise to the scheme and deleted the backlinks, what is to stop the villian from backlinking again, or ten more times, or a thousand, all across Strobist, faster than Hobby could stop them. Eventually, Hobby would have to turn off backlinks.

That's the problem: as soon as a system like backlinks (or e-mail) becomes widely used for good, spammers and the like will start using it for evil. If backlinking takes off, it is only a matter of time before spammers move in and protection mechanisms need to be put into place. A universal truth of the internet (and beyond). Although, the simplest method to protect backlinks is to use an approval system like the comments do.

My point is, backlinks are great, but I think they need a few more protections in the near future or problems might develop. And that is all I have to say about that.

Photography On Campus

So, today I will attempt to answer a question from my business plan:

Is it legal to photograph on Stanford campus without a permit?

Much of my business plan is built around the use of Stanford campus for location photography. Well, it turns out I was a little naive in my assumptions that Stanford would be an open studio for me, but all hope is not lost. For those of you who don't live near Stanford, this entry is still quite relevant because it relates to photography in any privately held area, especially university campuses.

The first place I looked was the Office of University Communications, which is responsible for coordinating interactions with the outside world, either disseminating Stanford information out into the world (like press releases and news) and controlling the outside world's intrusion into the university (controlling Stanford's image, websites, photography and videography of campus). For photography, all commercial photography must request permission to use the campus. Most of the relevant information is in the list of photography policies.

After looking at that page, I contacted the Communications Office to ask about whether I'd be likely to get permission and if blanket permission for a restricted set of activities would be possible. What ensued was e-mail tennis for much of the morning where it seemed like the woman I was chatting with was trying to evade my question. I know now that I had misread an important part of the policies but she was patient enough to get the message through. At one point I told her anything she said would be off the record, so I won't reproduce any of the conversation here.


What I will do is highlight the important statements on the Photography request policy page:

• Exploitation of the Stanford name is prohibited. In other words, advertising that I specialize in photography on Stanford campus is a no-no and can get me sued. I can request permission to do so, but I doubt I'd get it. I'm better off advertising location photography in the Palo Alto area, and then if people ask, tell them that Stanford might be an option. There goes SUPhoto as my company name! No biggy. Really, this doesn't impact me much, except my blogspot name, stanfordphoto.blogspot.com. I'm going to look into changing the blog address without disrupting my (meager) traffic.
  
• Videotaping, filming, commercial photography or professional wedding photography is prohibited without permission. Permission is rarely granted. This was what I missed my first, second, and third times reading through the page. Pretty much shuts down all hope of using Stanford for my commercial portrait shoots. Except...
• Wedding photography is prohibited except for couples being married at Memorial Church or those with a Stanford connection, including alumni, students, faculty and staff. Ahh... An opening. If my clients are Stanford students or alumni, I might have a chance of getting permission because of the connection. Maybe not on a super-regular basis, but if I prove that I'm not out to make a lot of money or hurt the Stanford name, it will be allowed.
  
• Requests for filming or photography must be made in writing at least five working days before proposed shooting. In other words, I need to request permission before every shoot. In writing. Not something I'll want to do a lot.
• Non news-related requests must include the following information: ... Proof of adequate insurance coverage and indemnity. This is a whole new can of worms I need to add to my business plan. Not just for shoots on campus, but anywhere I shoot, if I do it for money, I need to have insurance for my equipment and in case anyone gets harmed. For Stanford, I expect the indemnity is to prevent Stanford from getting sued. This might be as simple as a clause on the contract removing any responsibility from Stanford (or me) if an injury occurs.

So, overall, it is not legal to shoot without a permit, unless I am not taking payment for my services. So doing my TFCD shoots on campus is perfectly within reason (as long as I don't make a nuisance of myself). But if I want to take paying customers, I should get insurance and get permission from the communications office before I take any pictures.

Overall, I need to adjust my business plan to focus less on Stanford and more on me as a photographer.

In the bigger picture, there are two take-home messages:

1. On location photography is a hassle, especially since you need to worry about permission and insurance. That's why people pay extra for it.
2. Running a photography business is less about the photography, and more about everything else. I've been hearing this for a while, but until I started wading into the realities of pricing, ordering prints, marketing, and permissions, it never really hit home.

This just in! While I was writing this entry, I was also corresponding with the communications office (again). Apparently I 'wore her down', and she has given me the OK to do paying shoots on Stanford campus as long as they are Stanford affiliates. If I start doing a lot of volume, then I'll need to contact the communications office and renogiate (mostly for insurance reasons).

That's good news and allows me to tap into my main market (of poor grad students), at least initially.


[Photo courtesy of my wife. Used with permission.]

Photography And The Law

I heard about Photography and the Law / Photo Law News from a DPC forum post, and I thought I'd pass it on. So far, it is just a bunch of sorted links to essays on photography law. Not that interesting you say? What if I told you the linked authors are mostly lawyers... catch your interest yet?

If you are at all interested in the business of photography or legal concerns in photography, check it out. I don't know who runs it (it appears to be a new affiliate site since it isn't even indexed in Google yet) but it has about double the links it had when I first saw it a week ago.

This super short blog entry was brought to you by the letter 'S'.

Business Resource: www.DanHeller.com

I've mentioned Dan Heller's blog before, but in all honesty, I hadn't had a lot of time to dig deeper. Now that I have, I've found Dan Heller also runs a very useful website (with tons of his pictures!) at www.DanHeller.com. And he has written a few books on the photography business!

Heller's site is a great place to start understanding how to make money at photography and how to run a photography business. The best place to start is his FAQs, either his general FAQ or his business-specific FAQ. In his site he covers everything from model releases to technology to printing technicals. The most useful page for me was his explanation of legal business incorporation, including tax concerns.

Check his site out, you won't be sorry!

Market Analysis: What do other photographers charge?

Ok, so I spent an hour and did a quick survey of some of my 'competitors' in the area. There are hundreds (thousands?) of photographers in the Bay Area and by no means have I done a complete or well organized search. Instead, I just did a quick web search for some higher-end photographers, then a Craigslist search for some of the lower end photographers.

Legal Stuff: I don't endorse any of these photographers nor do I discourage you from visiting their sites. They just happened to be the ones who listed their prices online. I am not providing reviews; I have never even met the photographers mentioned let alone used their services. I suppose you could use this page as a starting point to finding a family photographer, but don't sue me if you do try one of these photogs and you have a bad experience. Likewise, don't sue me if you are one of the photographers mentioned and you don't want to be on the page -- just leave a comment and I'll take you off.

The number one lesson I learned while doing this search (aside from the 'going rate'): a well organized, polished website is key! It is the first thing most clients see, so if you put a website up, make sure it looks nice. Minimalism is fine, but make sure you don't have dead links, poor spelling, and it doesn't crash anyone's computer. And above all, make sure your portfolio has only your very best shots in it.

Overall, I'd say the photographers below are worth every penny you pay them (probably even more for some of them). So, here we go:


Starr Photography
Specialty: Babies, children, and maternity, on location.
Session Fee: $275 ($200 Tues-Fri) for 1 to 2 hours (+$25 for each person over three)
Proofs: 25-30 edited images
Prints: 5x7 $45, 8x10 $75
CD: None offered.
Packages: "Belly and Baby", $1450, includes two shoots, 25 5x7s, $250 in print credits, and 50 birth announcements.
My Take: High-end child photographer with beautiful images. Yes, her prices are high (especially for prints), but I think she's got the experience and natural ability to back that up. I really like that she doesn't set a time-limit on her sessions, it shows she cares more about the portraits than scheduling lots of clients.


Christine Krogue Photography
Specialty: Babies and children on location, also maternity, seniors, families.
Session Fee: $75 for 1 to 1.5 hrs (+$15 each person over 4)
Proofs: 18-25 images
Prints: 5x7 $22, 8x10 $32
CD: Proofs, full-res, $250 (requires minimum print order of $350)
Packages: $600+, including CD
Also offers: Session album ($350, complementary for large orders), slideshows ($75, with $400 min order)
My Take: Christine has a nice site and has obviously thought through the business side thoroughly. She does offer CDs, but only if the customer buys a lot of prints to ensure she makes approx $600 on each deal. Her session fees are low, so I expect she makes up the money on print sales.


Loic Nicolas Photographer
Specialty: Headshots, portraits (does almost everything though)
Session Fee: $250 (includes ~1 hr studio shoot, viewing and proofing after shoot, rough + edited CD)
Other Options: On location +$50, Extra shooting +$150/hr, Extra editing +$50
Proofs: 20+ images
Prints: 5x7 $30, 8x12 $50 (I assume extra editing is included)
My Take: Loic seems to have a different approach than most: make the client pay for the shoot and don't worry about prints. Instead, he lets them choose the proofs at the shoot, hands them an unedited CD before they leave, and mails them an edited CD later. Definitely cuts down on overhead but lowers the maximum he can make off the customer. Personally, for the quality of his images (he's definitely talented) he could probably charge more. He does offer a 'Princess Color Treatment' in which he adjusts color/saturation, does full retouching, vignetting, etc for $100. So, it looks like his business model is to get pictures the customer likes, then charge them more for retouching (especially for headshots or online dating). In that sense, he probably makes around $400 on an average customer, not bad, especially when he doesn't need to schedule a viewing. Overall, the business model I'm considering is closest to Loic's.


Smiles Creative Imaging
Specialty: Portraits and weddings
Session Fee: $75/hr
Proofs: ?? (unspecified)
Prints: 5x7 $10, 8x10 $15
Packages: $55 to $450 for packages of prints (in addition to session fee)
My Take: SCI could really benefit from some work on their website. It was hard to navigate and lacked some critical information (such as, how many proofs does the client get?). It appears SCI is a pretty young company, and that is also reflected in their low prices. Of all the sites surveyed, the numbers I've been thinking of are closest to SCI's numbers. But, they also need to rethink their pricing strategy -- it'd be cheaper for a client to buy a bunch of smaller packages than one big one ($35 off the print cost when you pay $450?).


Ok, so that's the end of my quick survey. I learned a lot about the market and it really helped me to think through what I'd like to do. This is what I've learned/decided:

• For a top photographer, expect to pay $600+ for the shoot and a decent number of prints.
• CDs are becoming more common, and delivery of only the CD is not unheard of.
• On location costs more, even though it costs me less at this moment. Mostly because of travel time and the unknowns involved.
  
• I should charge $75-100 for a session fee but be flexible about the time (like 1-1.5 hours). I can (and should) give discounts to those who can't afford full price if I price myself a little higher.
• The value of a CD is $200+ considering print prices. If I charge $100-150 for a CD with about 10-20 lightly edited proofs, I should be in good shape.
• Limit the amount of editing I provide with the session fee/CD, but offer more for a price ($30-40 an hour).
• Allow them to purchase prints individually, maybe $10 5x7, $15 8x10. Personally I always resented the high cost of prints, but it is so standard I think I should support it to some degree. Most clients will opt for the CD anyway.
  
• It is possible to do a viewing right after the shoot, but I'd need extra equipment and I'm not wild about them falling in love with the technically poor images. The viewing is better afterwards, so I can upsell on specialty prints (canvas?) and/or extra editing.
• If I provide a CD, I could include 4x6s of the proofs for cheap, and it'd make the customer very happy. But don't provide 4x6s alone because some customers try to enlarge them to avoid purchasing prints.
  

Obviously, I still have the informal surveys of my TFCD clients, which hopefully I'll get to in the next month as I do more shoots. For now, I'm really starting to get a firm idea of what I want to offer and my prices. With that, I'll leave you with...


WHAT NOT TO DO:

While searching on craigslist, I came across the following ad (copied verbatim):

Family photograpy, etc.

Hi, I'm an amateur photographer whi is 17 years old and need some equimpent, so I've decided to take family portraits. My prices are very cheap, as I am not a professional yet. If you'd like to see my website with some photos, it can be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/99554208@N00/
As you can see, I take mostly skate photos that deal with flashes, but would be offering my services in outdoor lighing situations at the location of your choice. I am new to this, and have as much access as you do to printing places, so you will recieve the RAW photo on a data CD so you can choose what is next for the photos. They are digital in case you were wondering. Email me and we can work some sort of price out, I want both of us to be satisfied

Ok, where to begin...

First, I've included the guy's Flickr address so you can see his portfolio. He's not a bad shooter at all. In fact, if I was to hire someone to help me with an on location shoot which required flash photography, this is the kind of guy I'd want: experience with off camera flash, in the field, with fast moving subjects. He also shows a lot of creativity and talent. But, talent does not equal business sense.

And that's the thing: to be make money at photography, you almost need to be better on the business side than the photography side. (There's hope for people like me which don't have much talent!) His Craigslist ad pretty much runs the gamut of what not to do:

• Make sure you check your spelling and proofread your grammar, especially the important words, like photograpy in the subject.
• Don't tell your clients you are 17 years old and your sole motivation is to buy some new equipment.
• Don't tell clients that you are 'new at this'.
• If you list a portfolio, it should probably have some family photos in it. Not pictures of your friends doing skating tricks. Above all, don't include the pic of a skater-dude flipping the bird to the camera.
• Don't deliver RAW files on CD. Less than 1% of the population even knows what RAW is!

Again, I'm not writing this to make fun of the guy, I think he's quite talented. I'm just pointing out his many marketing and business mistakes. The only response he'll get from that ad (if he gets any at all) is someone who wants to take advantage of him. It'll be a drop in the bucket in terms of earning money and he'll probably get turned off on the photography business in the process.

Instead, he should do one of two things:

• Post an ad for doing skater pics. He knows what he's doing, his target audience will relate to his portfolio, and he'll know how to relate to them. The downside is most skater types don't have a lot of extra cash around for photogs.
• Take some pics of his family, clean-up his post, and set some reasonable (but still low) prices. He'll probably get a little business, and once he gets started, those pics can go in his portfolio.

If I've learned anything in this research, it is that there are a lot of photographers out there and a lot of ways to set up pricing and services. There are many things that work and few that you shouldn't do (although the guy above covered a lot of the don'ts).

At this point, I just need to decide what I am most comfortable with, and then start shooting and get the experience and portfolio pics.

Putting Up a Shingle: A Business Plan

If you are a regular reader of this blog (all two of you) you know I've been hinting at going into business for a while and lately I've been promising a business plan but have been procrastinating intensely. Well, no more, this needs to get done.

The basic structure is an outline listing what I have, what I need, what I need to get done, and what I need to learn. As I address each issue, I'll put up a separate blog entry but link to it from this page (and link back to this page). That should keep things nice and organized. If I've solved/settled an issue, it will be in green, if it needs to be done, it will be in red (and if it is somewhere in the middle, it will be some other color).

So, how to start? Well, I'll just loosely model it after the example business plan at Bplans.com. For convenience, I'll refer to the 'company' I create as SUPhoto, even though it is pretty much going to be me (and possibly my wife). I tried to make my first draft all business-like, but it didn't seem... right. So, I've adapted it to my blogging voice, but using the basic structure and some of the terms.


Executive Summary:

SUPhoto is an on-location portrait photography company specializing in families and children on or around Stanford campus. SUPhoto will be positioned as an alternative to Sears or Walmart for middle to low income families such as those in Escondido Village on Stanford campus. Above all, the goal is to provide high quality, unique, on location portraits at an affordable price.

As a graduate student on Stanford campus, I feel that there is a big gap between the budget portrait studios like Sears and Walmart and area photographers willing to travel for on-location portraiture. Most of our friends and neighbors stretch to pay the rent each month, let alone pay for portraits once a year, yet all of the families near us have young children and like to do portraits (pressure from relatives and grandparents also helps). I am uniquely situated in contact with a large number of young families, in close proximity to the scenic Stanford campus, and in tune with the financial strain of our prospective clients. Furthermore, the close proximity of my neighbors allows word-of-mouth marketing to be very fast and effective (as past experience has shown -- rumors get around REALLY quickly).

My overall goal is to develop SUPhoto to be a reliable source of part-time income within a year averaging one sitting per week. Ideally, I'd like to get to that point by Christmas season, but I'm unsure if I have the time to do it, especially since I've already got two jobs. I have no desire for a full-time photography company -- I've looked at the numbers, and it seems like a lot of work and I would burn out quickly.

Beyond family photography, I would like to explore/add other specialties such as babies (including in-hospital or in-home) and senior portraits. Senior portraits, in particular, might be easy for me because I already have a lot of contact with juniors in my SAT prep job.

Action Items:

• Determine legality of senior portraits from contacts made in my other job.
• Do a few (free) trial shoots of seniors to see if it is feasible.
• Once established, explore baby photography.

Start-Up Costs:

The good part about location photography is the start-up costs are minimal. If I was trying to build up a studio with strobes, my costs could easily get to be a few thousand before I can even take any portraits. I also have almost everything I need to get started right now, but a few necessities are needed. Honestly, this is a cross between a shopping list and an inventory, but it will help me get organized.

Other than a few more pieces of equipment and a generous donation of time, I have everything I need for minimal shoots.

Camera Equipment:

• Wide-angle zoom: Tamron AF 17-50mm F/2.8
• Telephoto zoom: Canon EF 70-200mm F/4 USM (yes, that is why I bought the lens so quickly)
• 90-100 mm F/2.8 macro prime (ok, who am I kidding, I don't really need this...)
• Super-wide zoom lens (like a 10-22). Not as necessary for portraits, but it could be useful for specialty shots.
  
• Back-up camera body (or a new primary body): Canon 30D (or 20D). While a new camera body is a big expense, it will prevent me from having to cancel shoots if my camera dies. It will also allow me to have a wide and telephoto lens at my disposal for special events without swapping lenses. Update: I'm planning on a used or refurbished 20D, just need to scrape the money together.
  
• Carrying bag for camera equipment (lenses, camera, batteries, cards, etc). It needs to protect the equipment, but be easy to carry and give me quick access to the equipment on a shoot.
• Lighting bag to carry lighting gear (if not contained in above).

Lighting/Misc Equipment:

• A reflector for outdoor shoots not using the sun.
• A second light stand.
  

Admin/Software:

• Label maker for the CDs I burn.
• Custom envelopes for print delivery.
• Establish which software to run the viewings in and purchase it if required.
• Establish workflow, back-up, and storage procedures.
  

Legal Issues:

Luckily, there aren't too many legal issues to worry about, but there are a few things I need to establish:

• Is it legal to photograph on campus without a permit? No, not if I get paid (unless they are Stanford affiliates!).
  
• If necessary, how do I get a permit? Notify the Communications Office.
  
• Basic TFCD contract and model release (see here and here).
• Full model release for families, models, and minors.
  
• Full contract including prices, terms, etc.
• Do I need to declare SUPhoto as a business? What type? What forms do I fill out?
• What tax issues do I need to deal with?
  

Products and Services:

One of the hardest parts of non-studio photography is to distinguish your shots from snapshots that the client could make. Because they aren't going to pay you much if they think they are just paying for you to use a slightly fancier camera that they could use themselves if they didn't have to be in the picture. But if they know you can get professional looking shots that they can't, they will pay you a premium for that expertise. So it is important for me to distinguish my portraits from 'standard' shots.

Obviously, with my experience, I should get the technicals correct (like exposure or focus) more often than an average Joe (or Jane). I think where I can really distinguish myself is the use of off-camera lighting, which is something average people have no ability to do, and it lends a little something extra to the photo that will catch your eye. The difficult part of that is actually doing the lighting, which I need a LOT more experience with. I'm going to try to do that this summer.

Beyond that, I need to decide what I will (and won't) offer my clients. Definitely, I won't be offering an indoor studio, simply because I don't have one, I don't have space for one, and I don't have the money to rent time in one. That may be something for after my next move, but right now, no.

My basic model will be a sitting fee along with a CD for them to purchase. I feel strongly about giving them full re-print rights to the CD (but not the copyright) and increasing the price of the CD accordingly. I'm not against offering prints, but I won't use prints as a way to make my money like most photographers. With my demographic (educated and frugal families) their BS-o-meter will be triggered if I try to charge them $5 for a 4x6 and tell them if they want any more pictures (or to scan it) they have to pay me more. I'd rather make them pay a little more for the sitting and CD and not count on reprint sales.

Action Items:

• Learn outdoor lighting with reflectors and flashes. And not just a little, I mean really make my pictures pop with it. Probably a great first step will be to go through Strobist's Lighting 102 to force myself to practice the techniques.
• Come up with my sequence. For instance, first we have a pre-shoot chat, then the shoot, then the viewing, then delivery and follow-up. There's a lot of rough edges along the way that I need to smooth to make it better for the client AND save me time and stress.
• Set up a calibrated editing, viewing, and printing system that reliably produces good results. I know how, but haven't done it yet.
  
• Come up with the valuation of the CD. How much is a CD worth? Should I include all high-res images or only those that they select? How many images should I process for them?

Market Analysis:

Before I set my prices, I really need to figure out what the going rate in the area is. I feel that I can price myself slightly above Sears or Walmart (especially for the sitting fee, since my clients won't pay for reprints). But I'd also like avoid underselling myself too much since it is a business after all.

Furthermore, I really need to know what my target audience (young families) is willing to pay. If I price myself too high, I won't get many clients, but if I price myself too low I'll be undervalued.

Action Items:

• Survey area photographers, specifically on-location family portrait prices.
  
• Do a similar survey for senior pictures.
• For the TFCD shoots I do for my friends, ask them after the fact (and maybe before) what they'd be willing to pay for my services. That should give me an idea of what a typical family is willing to set aside for portraits.
• Based on the market surveys, determine exactly which services I will offer and what they will cost.
  

Marketing Strategy:

This one's easy. For now, just word of mouth, e-mailing my friends, and maybe a post on Craigslist. Craigslist or other classifieds, in particular, may not be worth it because there are a lot of photographers posting on there, and in order to do it, I really need a web site...

Also, for each of my TFCD shoots, I'll provide each client with my price list and let them know they got a discount and how much it would have cost them without the discount. Then, when they talk to their friends they have knowledge about my pricing and/or give them a card.

I should also set up a website, but for now, just an entry here might do the job. A more formal website could wait a little while until I've built my portfolio and have time to set it up.

Action Items:

• E-mail friends to set up TFCD shoots before July.
  
• Create a card.
• Create a price list.
  
• Create a website.
  

Financial Plan:

I really have no money to sink into this business since we are just scraping by as it is, so the primary financial rule is to not spend money that I don't have. In a sense I have already done that (by buying my camera equipment) but that's where the line between hobby and business gets really fuzzy. I'm fine with donating time to the cause, but I'm willing to sacrifice the look of a business in order to reach profitability as fast as possible. Initially, profits will be just rolled back into the business (even if it is just to reimburse me for equipment already purchased).

If I can earn enough money from selling within our local area, then it will be time to look into web-site hosting, printing cards, advertising, etc. Mostly, I want to be able to pull the plug within the first year if I decide it is necessary without harming the financial stability of my family.

Action Items:

• Account for cost of all equipment and software purchased so far, so that I can include that in the cost of doing business and reimburse myself for those expenditures.
• Create an accounting spreadsheet (or system of spreadsheets). Alternatively, identify free or inexpensive accounting software I could use for that purpose..
  
• Determine the cost of doing business for bare-bones shoots. This includes equipment costs, my time, gas, CDs, printing costs, etc. This number is necessary to make sure I am not losing money just by staying in business.
• Determine break-even point. How many shoots do I need to do to stay in business? What if I expand?
• Project into next year so nothing catches me by surprise.
• Determine tax law, what needs to be reported, and what deductions I can make for SUPhoto business expenses. Did you hear that IRS? I'm not doing this under the table (well, unless I only do one or two shoots and give up).

Personnel:

Obviously, I'll be employed part-time by SUPhoto, but what about an assistant? I used to think an assistant was a luxury, but after doing two shoots, I realize just how helpful it would be to have someone to set up and keep an extra set of eyes to let me focus more on the portraits and poses. It would also speed the shoot up and make the clients feel more comfortable. But, obviously, finding good help willing to work for very
little money is hard.

My wife has offered and part of me thinks it is a great idea, and part of me is a little worried. On one hand, she's detail oriented, can do make-up, and could be very helpful. On the other hand, we're both used to being in charge and I'm concerned we might clash a little bit (mostly because I have trouble giving up control). The biggest problem: if my wife and I are on a shoot, where are our two children? Having my two kids on a shoot would be way more stress and trouble than any benefit to having my wife there. So we'd need a babysitter, but if we can't find one that will work for free or a swap, it probably won't be cost-effective.

Action Items:

• Take my wife on a shoot to see how it goes.
• Determine the value of having an assistant on a shoot -- would a local teen be able to help? What can I afford to pay?

Search Engines and Affiliate Marketing

Looking through my Google Analytics results yesterday morning, I noticed that I've never, ever gotten a referral from a search engine other than Google. Furthermore, it looks like none of my new entries from the last few weeks are getting hits. So I did a searched the web for a good guide to getting listed in the major search engines.

My old friend Google came up with How to Get Listed... which describes how and where to get listed (including direct links to the URLs to add your site). A useful little site and a quick read. From what I read (at the site above and elsewhere), new website owners should submit to the big three search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN). Then, submit to the Yahoo Search Directory and The Open Directory (details in the link above). Now I just need to wait until something actually happens :)

I also started to wonder: just how out of date is Google's index? How soon will my new pages be listed in Google? So I started searching for my pages in Google (just prefix your web page with site:, like site:stanfordphoto.blogspot.com). Yeah, none of my new entries showed up. I tried the same thing (same syntax even!) in MSN and Yahoo and came up with nothing, verifying I wasn't in their indexes. So I looked for more info...

And that was when I stumbled upon Google's Webmaster Tools. It turns out that Google gives you a bunch of information about how Google has indexed your site, so you can optimize your pages and address problems that might cause trouble. Like many sites, you have to verify you own the site (by posting a meta tag in your template) but it is a pretty painless process. This is what GWT told me:

Googlebot last successfully accessed your home page on Mar 28, 2007.

Wait, what? Google hasn't looked at my site for over two weeks? No wonder none of my new info is in the index. The first order of business was to resubmit the site to be crawled (maybe I'm not supposed to do that, but I did -- I did it yesterday, and it hasn't been updated yet). I also told Google to crawl my site faster. Part of the problem might be the chronologic nature of a blog: old entries don't usually link to new entries. Supposedly I can submit a site map to Google to help it crawl, but I'm not up for that just yet. I'll keep you posted when I get some more data from GWT.

Also, I went through some of my old posts and purposely misspelled some things (such as SB20 instead of SB-20 in this post). I noticed some searches came through for SB20 and I wanted to make sure they'd hit me. Also, I made sure that common (and useful) searches like review nikon sb-20 would go to my pages, adding common search words into the text as much as possible.

Along those lines, it is important to search for your site both directly (using the site name) and indirectly (using common searches for the types of things you talk about). It is a great way to see how important your site is (based on how high it appears in the search rankings) and, more importantly, it verifies that someone looking for your site can actually find it. Especially if you have any clients (photography or otherwise), if they can't find your site, you'll lose money.

On that note, I searched for stanfordphoto today (in case anyone couldn't remember the web address) and I was second on the list, behind www.stanfordphoto.com... I'm ok with that.

Then I searched using the keywords please excuse me while clean lens and my site was the top of the Google list. Excellent.

On a lark, I tried it in Yahoo search even though I didn't expect anything to come up. Interestingly enough, there was a site that included the name of my blog! So, I checked it out and it turned out to be Sphere, some sort of blog entry aggregation site. I guess I'm ok with that, but my first thought was that it was some affiliate marketer stealing my content.

Wait, let me back up. Affiliate marketing is a method of making money on the web (and in real life, too) where you draw people in with good content, refer them to another business or site to purchase something, and receive money for the referral. The primary purpose of an affiliate site is to attract a bunch of people that will click on links. One of the best ways to attract people is to post good articles that show up in search engines. Many affiliate marketers are very savvy businessmen (and businesswomen) but some of them are sleezes that will copy/paste other people's articles directly onto their site without even a link. The easy way to detect content-theft is to do a self-search every once in a while.

If you'd like to know more about this, I recommend reading Gadooney, an affiliate marketing guide. It is chock full of useful information that can help you promote your blog and even make some money off of it. For instance, his search engine articles really go into a lot of detail about increasing your hits.

I originally heard about the owner of Gadooney, ScurvyDog, through his poker blog (which even includes advertising info!). It really is amazing how he can make a site like HateNinja generate money for him. All Scurvy has to do is search YouTube for interesting videos and talk like a strange Japanese guy (check it out, it really is interesting).

Anyway, I have no intention of making this blog that commercial. But I do feel like I have a lot of interesting stuff to share with the world and I want to get as many people to see the blog as possible. That means I need to figure out how all this search stuff works. And hopefully, from these recent posts, maybe you've learned something too.

Oh, and don't worry, I'll let you know how long it takes Yahoo and MSN to get me into their indexes.


Update 5/21/07:

Google finally rescanned my page on 5/20/07, five days after I requested it. Well, they say they did it on the day I requested it, but it may not have hit their active files until last weekend. I have noticed an increase in my search hits (from an average of 1-2 to 3-4 a day) and my new stuff is getting decent interest. On the flip side, my referrals from other sites have gone way down in the past few days.

I appear to be listed in Yahoo and MSN, but not all of my pages (mainly just the entrance URL I submitted). I assume they'll crawl it at some point in the future, but as yet, I've seen no searches from them.

Oh, and today I got an e-mail about another site I manage (a local garden site). I haven't maintained it in over a year :) Apparently, someone wants me to link to them even though my site is very old and out of date. In the requester's words:

"While I can't promise a link back I am more then open to coming to some sort of arrangement."

Like what? You'll do my dishes? Purely a plee to increase their PageRank. I may not even respond.

Blog Links I Like

So, when you have a special hobby you like to read about, such as photography, it is natural to look for the blogs of other people with the same interest. You can either spend a ton of time searching for good blogs (and sifting through a ton of medeocre ones) or you can find someone else who has already done the work and just look at their recommendations.

You know me, I'm not one to waste time on the computer. Oh, wait, yes I am... **cough** **cough** **procratinator** **cough**

Anyway, since my time is at a premium, I appreciate it when Wiedebas does the work for me by putting together a list of good photography blogs. And I'm not just saying that because I am second on the list! Specifically, I found the following blogs really interesting:

• Photomedic: This is my favorite of the bunch, and not just because he has lots of pictures of pretty women on his site. It is because he tells me how to take good pictures of pretty women! Medic (so called because he also is a paramedic) goes into a lot of detail of the lighting of his shoots and I find his site to be very clean, readable, and enlightening. I'm definitely going to read through each and every post.
• The Online Photographer: Mike Johnson is an interesting read and has a lot about cameras and lenses. Make sure to read his opinion on point and shoot cameras (short form: they are pieces of sh*t, but get one anyway and learn how to use it).
• A Story As Told By Sang: The pictures are really what you should go to see on this site. Sang does have a bit of information too, but his pictures are the real draw for me.

While I'm mentioning notable blogs, don't forget about the following business blogs:

• John Harrington's Photo Business News & Forum: This is a gem if you ever imaging going pro or semi-pro. It has a ton of useful information about managing the business side of photography. One of the few photography blogs for which I've actually read every single entry.
  
• Dan Heller's Photography Business Blog: I stumbled upon this while looking for the above link, but it looks really useful. Check it out.

The best part about this post is I'll be able to find these blogs again if I forget about them :)

Check that out, I made it through a whole post without mentioning Strobist.

Oops, nevermind.