Having a professional-looking website pays off

S

squirrel$$$bandit

Veteran
Local time
11:14 PM
Joined
Mar 8, 2008
Messages
6,249
View My Gallery
A couple of months ago I spent like a week and a half revamping the photography page on my website, choosing pictures, creating menus, finding a script to make a scrolling gallery...I even bought a Lightroom gallery template from Sean McCormick then got into a weeklong series of emails with him about tweaking and adapting it to do what I wanted. At the time it felt a bit like pissing into the wind--who the hell is even ever going to look at the thing?

Anyway a friend of mine is on the board of the nicest art gallery in town, and he suggested my name as a possibility for a solo show. The other board members don't know me. But on their own time, they googled my name, found my website, whammo, they gave me a show for next spring. I'm really stoked, it's a big space, I can hang as many as 20 pictures. So I will be shooting with this show in mind, once I know what it's going to be about.

My friend pointed out that very few artists he has worked with have any kind of professional acumen, regardless of how good they are...and that galleries like to work with people who have it together and don't have to be cajoled into showing a portfolio, dealing with promotion, organizing openings, etc. In a world where lots of people are skillful, I suppose, it pays to be able to appear professional as well. Indeed, I am wondering if the appearance of professional competence is maybe more important, when it comes to getting work, than being good at art.

Food for thought anyhow...
 
I believe that 90% of being in the business of photography is BUSINESS and not photography. Yes, it helps to have talent. Yes, it helps to know people.

But really, being a carpet dealer is not as much about carpet as it is about the business of selling and installing carpet. Being a car dealer is about the business of selling cars and not as much about the cars themselves.

IMHO, people who wish to become successful in the world of photography - from wedding photographers to fine art photographers, need to understand more about business than most of them do. As you are seeing, the impression of professional competence can be more important that the actual work itself.

But that's just one man's opinion.
 
Yeah, I always tell my grad students (I teach writing, my main creative area), you're all really talented, but talent is nothing. It's the absolute bare minimum that you need, and there are plenty of people as talented as you are. The hard part is dedication, self-criticism and revision, professional shrewdness, and just simple endurance.

Honestly I'm probably not going to go very far as a photographer, I'm way too casual about it...it's a glorified hobby. But Fred's description sounds awfully similar to the publishing industry I'm drearily familiar with...
 
I like your site so much more than a lot of other photo sites. The pictures are large enough, the scrolling is fast and not jumpy or hard to control, and it is a simple look. Cool. Bye-the-bye, my unfinished website (and my finished promo materials) have the same "people, places, things"
 
JayC said:
I like your site so much more than a lot of other photo sites. The pictures are large enough, the scrolling is fast and not jumpy or hard to control, and it is a simple look. Cool. Bye-the-bye, my unfinished website (and my finished promo materials) have the same "people, places, things"
Click to expand...

Oh cool, thanks! I was just in Portland, btw, and shot a bunch of 5222-XX. You could spend your whole life there just shooting old advertising signs and pretty girls on bikes.
 
Congrats on your new web site look and feel, and all the benefits that may have accrued to you from it. For my money, I much prefer the look and feel of a SmugMug gallery than the artsy-fartsy stuff. But that's taste for ya'.

/T
 
I really like the people, places, things labels. I have been changing them for a while now. I hope you don't mind if I use it. I am in fact in the process of revamping my site. I am never happy with it and in its current state is nothing short of a mess.
 
Your website looks great . . . and congratulations on your upcoming exhibition.

If it interests you, you should look at Robert Frank's Book, "Black, White, and Things." Frank made three copies of this book--one copy was for Edward Steichen--and it was later published. I just find simply beuatiful and exquisite and it might help you with a theme for your exhibition.

I am most intrigued by your "things" gallery.

Best to you,

:s:
 
It would pay off a lot more if you had alt tags for each image so that Google can find those images when someone searches for pictures like ones you have made. Seriously, I sell a fair amount of money's worth of my fine art pics for stock uses. Not near enough to live on, but it is the bulk of my income, since i have little else coming in. Before I added alt tags to my pages, no one ever wrote me to ask about buying a picture. Now, they do, and it is feeding me.

You might ditch the fancy javascript gallery too. People who buy pictures find those sorts of displays annoying, and it may make it harder for Google to index the site's images for search purposes (remember, search engines bring your customers!).

I like your work, it is beautiful and I think a lot of the photos have stock potential if they were 'findable'
 
Very Nice

Very Nice

Chris,
I've seen plenty of posts from you but today was the first time I'd actually looked at your website and I have to say it's a body of work you must be proud of. I particularly like the Forgotten Indiana portfolio. I've never been there but the images are very evocative and I'll take time now to study them in more detail.
 
I had The Gap call me about doing a documentary shoot for their non profit charity division. Sadly it fell through. But it was still cool. it was he first time someone out of the blue contacted me instead of me applying for work. and it was all because of my site. Hopefully it'll lead to more work someday. But your internet presence is really the only yardstick prospective clients have to measure you by.

I've redesigned it since. But I think it's even better.

http://www.ken-m.com
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom