How to Release a Press Release?
Among the myriad of SEO tactics available, few are more successful the press release or news release. News stories are one way to quickly move to the top of the targeted keyword search queries. But what is news? News can be almost anything. That is, you can base your news on your keyword targets.
Writing Blogs – Why Bother?
Part of a continuing series on SEO and writing blogs.
Many clients ask me about writing blogs. What do I write about? Why do a blog at all? Our site is a commerce site trying to sell products, so what does articles have to do with anything? There are so many reasons for this, too many to discuss in one blog post. But the short of it is, trying to get a search engine to find a product on your site, over a product on another, with little more than a product description is very difficult. But what can differentiate you from those sites is providing your potential customer with information that they are interested in or need. When recommending topics for e-commerce sites, I always suggest picking products lines that are not overly broad. They should be a niche market; specific enough that there will be a good number people interested in the products without having too much competition. So rather than a site selling Dog Food, we might create a site on Dog Nutrition or even better, Dog Diabetes. And then we cater to that concept in our product descriptions as a way of differentiating our products from those on other sites.
Sebastião Salgado – Nenets of Siberia
Sebastião Salgado is one the most respected photojournalists in the world with a reputation that outshines most others in his field. He is by far my favorite photographer and the reason I began to take my photography more seriously. His works are always visually stunning, powerful with a painterly quality, and infused with an emotionally center that never fails to tell a story. His photographs enshrine people living in some of the harshest conditions on the planet, subtly focusing on their plight and desperation, yet allowing the grace of the people to shine through. He has traveled to over 40 countries during his long career providing his audience with amazing exposes on migrant workers in Indonesia, the effects of war, poverty, disease, and hostile climatic conditions on the people throughout the African continents, as well as an outstanding series of portraits created in conjunction with UNICEF highlighting poverty in children.. That exhibition, at the United Nations, was my first exposure to Salgado’s work. It changed my idea of photography, in both its mean as well as its potential an art.
Scope Miami: Art Basel Week
Scope Miami and Art Basel Miami are upon us once again. I attended the opening of Scope Miami and was pleasantly surprised to have seen some incredible pieces. It seems like Scope has upped its game since last year. While I was disappointed at the lack of photographic works this year, I did love the varied approaches at mixed media, and I am happy to say that gimmicky pieces were few and far between. By gimmicky I mean relying on the process, or the media, much more than on the content of the piece. I have seen so many artists who find a gimmick, and reproduce it ad nauseum as differing works. You could literally walk into a gallery, see 10 pieces, and it wouldn’t matter which one you chose, as they all looked the same. At Scope, though, the works were high caliber, individual and varied; a really enjoyable show.
Fuji X-Pro1 Review: Final Thoughts
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I have now been using the X-Pro1 Digital Rangefinder for 8 months now and want to impart my final thoughts on this amazing camera. First, let me say that this camera is now my “go to” camera. Initially, as discussed in my X-Pro1 Review, Pt. 1 and Pt. 2, there were some quirks that made me a little wary; specifically, the slow autofocus and the delay in firing. But I am happy to say that these and other oddities have been addressed with several firmware updates and it is ready for regular use in any photographer’s arsenal.
Google +1 Button and SEO
The Google +1 Button that is on so many websites today has been a mystery to many people. They know it has something to do with Google+, Google’s social network. But hitting the +1 button doesn’t add that page to your Google+ newsfeed in the same way as the Facebook Like button. So what does it do and how does it affect getting higher rankings on a Google search (SEO). It turns out, +1 can be a pretty effective SEO tool.
Artstrong in Musee Magazine
Musee Magazine this month, has a feature on Artstrong bags (photography credit to Steve Schlackman). Take a look at it here. With Art Basel in Miami about to commence, we will see a huge influx of art patrons from around the world. Many will spend thousand of dolars buying some of the best art around today (and some of the worst: see my past articles on Art basel here and here). But one thing is for sure, if you are going to spend that kind of money, you might as well protect it.
Indiana Jones Photos: A Candid Look
“Movie Magic” is a term reserved for those special films which, as described by writer David Gritten, “jolts and delights a mass audience, not just with a compelling story, but also with a go-for-broke, epic, even reckless style of shooting and telling that story – one that uses the big screen to its full advantage and burns the film on the memory.” Raiders of the Lost Ark is the epitome of that genre. The film had an enormous impact on the future movie making having set the bar for every adventure film made after 1981. The anticipation for this movie was astounding as it was the first time that Stephen Spielberg and George Lucas had worked together. This was 1981, when both directors were in the early stages of their careers. Spielberg had just finished Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Jaws, with ET: The Extraterrestrial only a year away, and Lucas had just finished the Empire Strikes Back and was working on Return of The Jedi. This was also the first time that many people would see Harrison Ford outside of the Star Wars franchise, so you can imagine the public’s excitement. Raiders proved to be everything that the public had hoped for. It is now an indelible part of our culture and a movie that still drives passion in a new generation of movie-goers. Just ask any 10-year old today about Raiders, and they will light up with the same enthusiasm, so many of us had when we saw the film for the first time.
Ted Lawson: A Real Artist
As a photographer, I can see an event or create a scene and capture it. Artists all go through the same process. But to bring it to light, the artists must have the skill to realize the work. The photographer must know how the image will be recorded in the camera, they must know the tones, contrast, color, or gradation of shadows before snapping the image. For black & white, a bit more knowledge is required so that the photographer can perceive in advance how the image will look in shades of grey, or capturing light which is so critical in black & white photography. Go up a skill level and the use of Photoshop or old school film developers allows even more control to bring the vision to reality.
The Fuji X-Pro1 Digital Rangefinder Review Pt. 2
Now that I have been playing with the Fuji X-Pro1 Digital Rangefinder for a little more than a week, I can compfortably say that I still really like the camera. But it does have some quirks. On the upside, the pictures are fantastic. The color is really impressive and natural, not over-saturated like many other cameras I have played with. (Note: I am shooting RAW, so nothing is really saturated until you adjust them. My point here is that there is little adjustment needs to be made from the default RAW image). And, I am particularly impressed with the Bokeh. Now, I cannot compare this to the Leica M9 since i have never had the opportunity to play with one, and I would imagine that the extra few thousand dollars you have to shell out is at least partially for more than just the name Leica. What I can say is that the X-Pro1 is a fantastic camera in its own right and puts out images that rival my 5D Mark2. One thing that drives me crazy with the 5D are patterns that hide in the dark areas. When you try to brighten them, or bring out detail, the dark areas will look like someone put a scottish kilt over that part of the image. It is such a pain to try and remove that. Thankfully, I have not seen any of that in the X-Pro1, which alone makes the camera worth it to me.
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