Seven tips for photographer websites

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A dozen art directors, creative directors and photo editors were commenting on what they want in a photographer’s web site. Here’s their agreed-upon list, *listed in order*, of the minimum requirements in a photographer’s web site:

1. No music.

2. No Flash.

3. Do not open any new browser windows. Do not resize any windows.

4. Quick to load.

5. Easy to navigate.

6. Easy-to-find contact information.

7. Great pictures.

Certainly everyone’s tastes and expectations are different. But note that most of the above points deal with technical aspects. Having the best pictures in the world means little if viewers have to struggle with your web site in order to see them.

Photographers, how does your web site measure up?

 

Naming names

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While looking through a number of media handout photos from a national grocery store chain or at least from its public relations agency, it’s obvious that all of the pictures fail to meet basic journalism standards.

Everyone in a photo must be identified. In a fully-controlled situation like a set-up publicity picture, this is easy to do. An improperly-captioned photo shows not only laziness and carelessness on the part of the photographer and the public relations agency, but also a lack of understanding of journalism and the needs of a newspaper.

Naming only one person in a group and then expecting viewers to figure out who’s who is a failure. A company may know its executives but the public does not. Why make readers guess?
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Value of experience

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You get paid to do what others can’t or won’t do. Maybe they don’t have the time, maybe they don’t have the tools or maybe they don’t have the know-how. In any case, if someone can do what you do, they won’t pay you to do the same thing.

This means that a professional photographer should have better tools, better production values and better abilities and more creativity than their competition and even their customers. But this is not always the case.

An amateur photographer, and maybe even a customer, might own the same or better tools than a professional photographer. An amateur might have the same creativity and ability as a professional.
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Photo Op or Photo Flop

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It’s now three days into Queen Elizabeth’s tour of Canada and (as expected) the photos are quite boring and even non-existent. Political conventions and campaigns usually have better photo planning. I don’t know why the same effort isn’t put into a royal tour. I suspect it’s because a royal tour is basically run by the police rather than a creative director or a public relations agency.

The purpose of a photo op can be completely lost due to poor preplanning. For example, what’s the point of doing a statue unveiling when the statue isn’t in the photo? Why have the talent stroll through a garden when the garden isn’t visible?
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HST for photographers

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Added: Much of this changed in 2012. Please see this government web page.

 

Photographers in Ontario and British Columbia (B.C.) know that their new Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) kicks in on July 1. The HST is called the “value-added tax” which sounds like a fast-food combo meal: for just a dollar more, you can up-size your tax to our new value-added tax.

Federal government page for the HST has lots of (confusing) information.

The HST will benefit large businesses and government. Gee, guess who got left out? The consumer. Business will save billions of dollars annually, the government will earn billions more in taxes, and consumers will pay billions more each year. Notice any kind of pattern here?
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