Traveling the Journey of Light | Photoblog Thoughts, feelings, and techniques behind the photography of Derrald Farnsworth-Livingston

Marketing Photography, Part III: The Art of Keywording PhotographsPosted by drfl on July 27th, 2010

In my May 12th post, “Everybody Loves Keywording Photographs” I mentioned that keywording photographs is usually a tedious albeit necessary exercise to help categorize photographs and allow others to find them via your website or search engines on the Internet.  During the past two months I have revamped my website with the focus on expanding my already existing keywords and made some notes.  Today, I’m going to give some tips on what you should do to maximize the your the keywords associated with your photography.  For this exercise, I will be using the image above, “Mist and Melancholy” to help illustrate what keywords should be associated with this image.

While answering each of the 11 questions below, we need to keep four things in mind.  Primarily, we will want to be as specific as possible.  If something has a proper name, it should be used.  Secondly, we will want to explore as many synonyms as possible within each question.  Thirdly, if the plural of the subject differs significantly in spelling we will want to make note of that as well.  Lastly, spell check everything!  A mispelled word will rarely help in searches.

Keep in mind that if your keywords are too vague or inaccurate people will not think that your keywording is reliable and will be frustrated when they do not find the image they need.  Additionally, we want to use only the terms the majority of individuals would use when searching.  It is possible to go too far in keywording and have obscure words which few people would actually use.   Using such terms reduces the effectiveness of the words that you have chosen to describe the photograph. 

The questions come after the jump - be sure to click on “Read the rest of the entry”!

Read the rest of this entry »

A Forest PhotowalkPosted by drfl on July 26th, 2010

Saturday was the third annual Scott Kelby Photowalk.  Normally, you participate by signing up at a city or location near you and you take the opportunity to photograph the surroundings with 50 other individuals.  This year I decided to have a little smaller photowalk with only my eldest daughter and me.  We took a stroll through Schramm State Recreation Area and looked at the wildflowers, mushrooms, and had some fun crossing the suspension bridge that spans a ravine deep in the forest.  On the way back, we saw something jumping across the trail which made us jump a little.  Stopping to find the hopper, we spotted a little Rocky Mountain Woodhouse Toad.  He had stopped and was lying perfectly still in the surrounding foliage.  A couple of times I even lost him in the viewfinder as I was readjusting my perspective and found it difficult to find him again.  He had some great camouflage!

Technical Details:
Canon 50D, 300 f/4l + 1.4tc, Extension Tube
Schramm SRA, Nebraska

Photo Friday: Corn Lily PatternsPosted by drfl on July 23rd, 2010

Digging deep in the archives (2005), I found this image of a corn lily after a rain in Glacier National Park. I decided that it needed to have an ultra-contrast dark look to accentuate the feeling of being deep in the forest, where the plant was found.

Technical Details:
Canon 20D, 17-40 f/4l @ 22mm, f/13, 1/50 sec.
Glacier National Park, Montana

Cropping Photographs for ImpactPosted by drfl on July 22nd, 2010

For the first 2-3 years after I made the switch to digital I processed all my photographs in the 2:3 ratio.  After all, I had years upon years of dealing with 35mm film which I then enlarged to 6×9 almost exclusively.  Any other format seemed foreign to me.  I had a brief stint with a 4×5 medium format, but I was never able to get the funds to go larger than 35mm even though I had yearned for the quality of the larger format.  Another contributing factor to my continued use of the 2:3 format was the relatively few megapixels of my 20D.  Don’t get me wrong, those 8 megapixels have created some pretty amazing photos, but I knew that magazines, calendar companies, etc. wanted lots of megapixels and the 20D barely cut it (if at all).  I needed to squeeze every last detail out of that camera. 

As time went on and sensors grew with my artistic endeavors, I began to explore the benefits of cropping images in other formats.  Sure, when the image was printed it may present a problem, but on the computer, the crop helped the composition.  Take the Hen image above.  This is an excellent natural example of the golden spiral.  If I were to keep a 2:3 format, I feel that I would detract from what I am attempting to achieve, showing the elegance and beauty of the pattern.  Of course, with my larger sensor (and in a point and shoot to boot!) I was able to crop this image an still keep around 9 megapixels of image data. 

Today, most of my images are still in the 2:3 format, simply because that is what the my DSLR cameras capture and its easier to compose in what is native on your equipment.  With the advent of live view and other tools, however, I am finding myself using the crop to add impact more and more.  Besides, my little G10 which captured this image is not in 2:3 either, so it has helped me to see differently and that is a good thing.

Technical Details:
Canon G11, f/3.2, 1/25 sec.
Omaha, Nebraska

Marketing Photography, Part II: Educating Your MarketPosted by drfl on July 21st, 2010

A Non-”Corn” Nebraska Landscape

Alain Briot, a successful photographer, especially in the print medium recently wrote an article regarding pricing fine art photography.  Within the article he proposes the following:

• Most people cannot tell average photography from good photography
• Most people cannot tell good photography from very good photography

I agree with Mr. Briot’s assertions, with the addition of the following:

The majority of people that can tell good photography from very good photography are photographers themselves and photographers rarely purchase other photographer’s work. From my experience with art shows I can tell you that about 85% of my conversations are with fellow photographers and revolve around how I got the shot or where I was at the time. An astounding 80% of those conversations are discussions surrounding equipment. Majority Result? No sale.

Following my extension of Alain Briot’s logic then the majority of individuals who would appreciate the efforts and beauty of great art is would never buy great art. In order to help your customer’s make their decision in your favor, you need to educate them. This is true whether speaking about a print, a stock item, or assignment work.

For example, I photograph a diversity of landscapes and nature surrounding the American Great Plains. I travel hundreds of miles to ensure that what I get is unique, but distinctly “Great Plains”. The majority of these images were captured in Nebraska. Through my website and various other channels, I am contacted by companies who wish to use photography captured within the state of Nebraska for their marketing. Often, an immediate assumption made by individuals outside of Nebraska, that the state is pretty synonymous with “corn” or “crops”. As a result, they ask me what stock images I have of corn. The number? I have 1 image of corn taken in Nebraska.  It is at this point that I usually try to help the agencies or purchaser understand that while corn is an important aspect of Nebraska, it is not the only aspect.  Indeed, close to a million people in the state of Nebraska never even see a corn stalk for the majority of the year.  That’s the majority of the populous of Nebraska.  On first blush, “corn” seems to be the winner, but upon deeper inspection there maybe a stronger, less cliched possibility.

In order to educate your market, you need to be fully knowledgeable on your images.  That means, if you captured an image of an animal, you need to know what kind of animal it was.  If you are capturing a landscape, you need to know where you captured it - Park name, city, county.  If you are capturing a plant, you should know the name of the plant.  Additionally, you need to know when it was taken - ie Month, year, time of the day, etc.  If it was during an event, you should know the details of the event.  All this means taking good notes and creating an encyclopedia of information.  People like to know the stories and information behind the images and so the more information you can provide, the stronger the educational experience and the more likely a sale. 

Technical Details:
Canon 5D Mark II, 17-40 f/4l @ 17mm, f/13, 5 sec., 2-stop Hard Singh-Ray Filter
Jack Sinn WMA, Nebraska

Photo Friday: Ominous OverheadPosted by drfl on July 16th, 2010

Since I’ve had a few weekly series of photographs, I haven’t had a “Photo Friday” in a while. On Wednesday we received an incredible storm followed by an even more incredible sunset. While I was unable to be out during much of either I did hop in the car for a jaunt out of the city. Here, the clouds were still picking up the red hue of the sun even after the sun had set 45 minutes prior.

Technical Details:
Canon 5D Mark II, 17-40 f/4l @ 17mm @ 21mm, f/9, 15 seconds
Rural Sarpy County, Nebraska