Did you go to school to study photography?

We are so excited for our 2nd workshop of the year “Pimp My Holga” with the uber talented Andy & Angie Woods!

The workshop will take place from 1-5pm in the Western town of Idaho Springs, where you will learn, not only how to take amazing fine art images, but also hang out with two of the top photographers in Denver and the world!

INFO ON “PIMP MY HOLGA” WORKSHOP:

When: Wed May 5th from 1-5 p.m.

Where: Starts at Tommy Knocker Brewery,

1401 Miner Street
Idaho Springs, CO 80452

What: Learning how to use a Holga Camera while making amazing fine art images & pimping your camera out with neon gaffers tape, puffy paint, & stickers!  Plus, the opportunity to be part of a Gallery Show!!

Cost: $50, plus you’ll have to purchase your own Holga & two rolls of 120 B&W film (see details below)

Instructors: The AWESOME Andy & Angie Woods

You can register at the link below:
www.ezregister.com/events/1443


MORE INFO REGARDING COST:
You will be responsible for purchasing your Holga camera & 2 rolls of B&W film which you can buy at the following places:
Mike’s Camera, B&H, Denver Pro Photo, Adorama The cost for the camera range from $28-$32 and the film is $5 per roll.
The cost for developing, which you’ll also be in charge of along with having a print made for the show & framing or mounting it, is $10 per roll.

INFO REGARDING GALLERY SHOW:
When: Friday May 21st
Where: Ellitot St Collective

Did you go to school to study photography? Yes, I have my BFA in photography and multi-media from Alfred University in NY, and later went on to get my master’s in Organizational Leadership.

How long have you been a wedding photographer? I’ve been photographing weddings for 9 years, but have been photographing for 14.

How would you describe your style? My style is a blend of fashion and photojournalism with a focus on capturing the moment in between a kiss, a glance or laughter. Most of all I just love people and enjoy photographing the relationships between them, whether it be between a husband & wife, siblings or a mom with her newborn baby.

How many weddings do you average per year? Now that I’m blessed with a beautiful baby girl I’ve cut back to 5-10 weddings per year, so that I have more time to spend with my family. With that said I’m taking on more lifestyle, children & maternity clients, which is awesome.

Where is your favorite Colorado location to take pictures? Ummm, that is a tough one, being from the East Coast just about every location is beautiful here. I don’t think I have a favorite one, just a favorite time of the day to shoot which is an hour before sunset. I love the yummy light just as it drops behind mountains. It makes for great bokeh & sun flare, which is a signature trait in my lifestyle sessions.

What sort of equipment and software do you use? I shoot Nikon and have an arsenal of lenses. I use lightroom 2.0 to edit in, along with Photoshop CS3.

What lighting equipment do you take on a shoot? I usually use natural lighting, but in the event I want something more dramatic I’ll take my Nikon Speed lights and do some off camera lighting. This is much easier when you have an assistant working with you, but tripods will work in a pinch.

What is your most used Photoshop tool, plug-in, action set etc.? I use Totally Rad actions on a regular basis & I’ve also made my own settings in Lightroom, which make editing a breeze.

What gives you ideas and inspires you to create such amazing imagery? I love watching a lot of classic 1930’s movies, such as “Bringing Up Baby” and “The Blue Angel” for inspirational lighting techniques. I’m a real movie buff, which contributes to my understanding of lighting concepts, framing and composition. Movies such as Kurusava’s Dreams, Amelie and I am Sam are great for better understanding such ideas. In addition, my clients are a huge inspiration to me. In the late 90’s I took two years documenting the idea of family in a small rural western New York town. This experience has carried over into my work as a lifestyle photographer, because I have the opportunity to explore the beginning stages and complexities of family dynamics through the lens of my camera. Each couple is unique in what they bring to a marriage and I’m honored to help capture this love that binds two people together and contributes to a healthy family. For example I photographed the most beautiful lifestyle family session at the end of last year, where the couple had struggled for years to become pregnant. The mother had always envisioned her daughter prior to having her, as a beautiful 4 year old with blonde curls. Fast forward to our shoot and you’ll see that 4 year old daughter running into her mother’s arms. Stories like this inspire me to photograph even more families! Needless to say they have two beautiful children now!

If you could shoot a wedding with someone who would it be and why? I would really enjoy photographing with Thomas Roma because his work involves situations where people are caught up in an emotional experience or private moment that makes them very vulnerable and this is clearly displayed in his work. I really love his quote in Sunset Park, which are photographs from his series at public pools. He states, “I’m fond of saying that being a photographer is a way to be in the presence of the things you desire.” Love is something I’ve always desired to share with someone and now that I have, I truly enjoy photographing this desire in others.

How many images do you average per wedding and how many do you usually present to your clients? Between myself and my second shooter we average about 4,000 images and give the client around 700-1200.

Have you ever had anything go wrong at a wedding and if so, how did you handle it? Yes, when I first started photographing weddings in 2002, a friend of mine flew me out here to CO to photograph his wedding at a private residents in Estes Park. I’m originally from Pittsburgh, so I was thrilled at the prospect of photographing in the Rocky Mountains. I was new to photographing weddings and this was my first solo one. I had brought 3 cameras, 2 SLR’s & a digital camera ( this is when digital cameras were just starting to become more popular.) My battery in my first SLR died and I didn’t have a back up, plus the nearest convenience store was 30 minutes away, then my second SLR broke and I forgot to format the card in my digital camera. Needless to say I was guessing at my exposures and erasing images on my digital camera as they walked down the aisle! Thankfully when it came to shoot the formals I grabbed one of their friends pro-camera who ended up shooting the wedding from a rock about a quarter a mile away. To this day they don’t know that happened and they loved the photographs. I swore that I would never again photograph weddings! A lot has changed since then, as I LOVE photographing weddings, and we no live in CO, and enjoy frequent trips to Estes to photograph weddings.

What do you feel is the most challenging thing about photographing weddings? Not having enough time to spend with the bride and groom.

Do you advertise? If so where? Do you advertise? If so where? Yes, I advertise on Photographik, mydenverwedding, but most of my work comes from referrals.

What advice do you have for somebody who wants to pursue wedding photography? I would advise other photographers to become actively involved in continuing their education as a photographer. I attend seminars and conferences regularly and would highly recommend attending WPPI, or seminars offered by amazing talents like Mike Colon’s, Zack Aria’s or David Bekstead. Also, become a premiere member of Mile High Photography. It’s a great way to meet other photographs, whom might be in need of a second shooter or meet new friends.

Which five words would your friends use to describe you? This was fun. I learned something about myself in asking friends this question. These are the words that came up most… Energetic, Passionate, Christian, Lover, Leader

And the last question, if you had one wish… To take the year off from working professionally and do a personal documentary project focusing on ideas of family and community both here and abroad in effort to build social awareness and provide funding for the less fortunate.

It’s going to be an amazing time with some great learning opportunities as well as a chance to spend the day with a bunch of great photographers.  You can register for the workshop at this link so please take a few minutes and sign up…we’d love to have you!

So here goes…

There are 3 parts to link code. The opening tag, the closing tag and the anchor text (not in that order).

The opening tag looks like this: <a href=”http://www.example.com”>

In this case, the http://www.example.com is whatever page you want to link to.

In the middle is what’s called “Anchor Text”. These are the actual words that will form the link. So if your anchor text is “Bob’s Rod and Gun Club” your users will see that and when they click on it, go to Bob’s site. Anchor text is important, because it tells the search engine exactly what to expect when it goes through the link. If it’s accurate, then the site gets a boost for being relevant. If it’s not, then it gets a little nod because you mentioned it. For those of you hunting SEO domination, that means you want anchor text with your keywords in them.

The closing tag looks like this: </a> This will never change, but must follow an opening tag or it won’t do anything.

All together, it looks something like this: <a href=”http://www.example.com”>Anchor Text</a>

Obviously, example.com and Anchor Text should be replaced with the site and text you want to use. From a technical standpoint, that’s it, but allow me a moment to get on my SEO soapbox.

Lots of people think that by linking out they’ll lose some of their PageRank or other value in the search engines, but this is flat out wrong. While a portion of your site’s value is “passed” to the linked site, it isn’t a zero sum deal. Your site still keeps what it’s earned, you just tell the search engines that the other site is good too.

Here’s an example. Imagine two scenarios. In the first scenario, you have a cake and cake is good. If you give me some cake, you are out that piece of cake and can’t eat it because I do. You’re reluctant to give me cake unless I really earn it because it’s yours and you don’t give away cake for nothing. This is how many people see the web and linking. They think their site has cake and they don’t want to give that cake away. Fair enough.

In the second scenario, imagine you have a fire to keep warm and keeping warm is good. You decide there is plenty of space around the fire, so you let me sit with you and get warm too. You are no less warm because I’m warm. This is actually how the web works.

But this analogy goes deeper. If you let me light a stick in your fire, nothing much happens. If anything, your fire gets a little brighter while my stick is there and then goes back to normal after my stick is gone. If I create a little fire of my own with that stick, then I’m warm and you’re warm, but it’s up to me to keep my fire going and who knows, if my fire gets huge or yours goes out, then I’ll remember who helped me when I had no fire. Or if you let me just sit there and stay warm by the fire, then next time the fire needs wood, you’ve got someone to help you go get it. With the first (cake) scenario, you’ve got no reason to give me cake and worse, I have no more means to give it back to you than when I took it. But with the fire scenario, hopefully you see how sharing fire will not only get you more fire, but eventually lead to heating metals and creating the industrial revolution as heat and fire flow freely among us and everyone is better off.

As I’ve browsed the web, I’ve noticed that a lot of you folks post some really neat stuff, not just here on MHP, but on your own sites as well. By linking between each other, people on MHP stand to make their own sites better and the community as a whole rank well. So get out there and start passing the flame. Write some great content and if you see great content, link to it! We’ll all be warmer for your work.

P.S. Don’t sweat the nofollow. If you’re moving hard and fast in the SEO world, you’ve probably heard about the dreaded nofollow tag which keeps the engines from counting a link. I don’t mention how to do it here because I don’t think it’s necessary in the scenarios I’ve described. If you think a site deserves a link, give it to them. Likewise, if someone nofollows your link, don’t stress. It’s unclear exactly what the effects of nofollow are and moreover, think of the fire. It costs you nothing and shares value with others. If you have questions about nofollow, feel free to place them below and if you want I can write about it in more detail in the future. That said, if you’re taking the trouble to hand code the link, then it’s pretty unlikely nofollow has any place in your decision.

Webmaster tools was developed by Google to help sites not only give information, but to get information they won’t provide to just any old person. Namely, what they see of your site, what your site actually ranks for and and where you’re getting all your traffic from. For this one, we’ll take a look at the webmaster tools for my site indelibemind.com (NOTE: I use this as my own personal testing ground and occasionally a way to either update my family or demonstrate a technique. It is by no means any good at this point, so don’t expect to run over there and learn all the SEO secrets. )

Okay, here’s what my (only recently verified) site looks like in Webmaster Tools.

This is the Dashboard and will tell you pretty much what each of the drill down’s go over in more detail.

First look at the “Top Search Queries”. These are words people search on Google that they then click through to your site. Woo hoo! Check it out! I’ve got a first page ranking! Actually, I’ve got 10!!! But wait. First of all, it’s for a Disney movie… is that really what I want to be ranking for? Second, I spelled it wrong. Drat. It’s “spoonful” not “spoon full”, any idiot knows that. Hopefully yours says something like “awesome photographer” or “colorado photographer” or maybe even the coveted “denver wedding photographer”. Either way, this is what Google sees about your site. Those are the keywords your ranking for and are getting traffic. If you want to know the most prominent keywords on your site (regardless of traffic), just click “Your site on the web” followed by “Keywords”. Pretty cool, huh?

But the coolness doesn’t end there. Everyone knows that SEO is two parts. First, it’s your ste’s content or “on page” optimization. But, second, it’s links. You want powerful sites pointing to yours as a reference. So just below that you can see all the sites linking to mine. None. Dang it! (I told you my site was no good). However, this is a great way to keep track of how valuable other people see you site. Do a lot of people link to you? No one? Why? How can you increase that either way? These are the fundamentals of SEO and now you can see exactly how Google perceives you.

Lastly, let’s look at the right hand side under “Crawl Errors” and “Site Maps”. If you’ll allow me to be a total web geek for a moment this is the most important part! The reason is, no matter how many links you’ve got or how awesomely helpful your content is, you won’t rank if Google can’t read it. You’ll see, I have no crawl errors. However, my site map isn’t working. The first is good, the second is bad. Now I know what I’ll spend my weekend doing.

Of course, each of the drill down areas on the left has more information on the topics, so explore it a bit and learn more in depth about your site in the eyes of the almighty Google.

Bonus Points: While I make a joke about spelling that Mary Poppins song wrong, notice I’m not alone. People are searching for it and clicking on my site for help. More importantly, I’m ranking with a site that SUCKS. What misspellings could you rank for? Can you help people get what they want? Check out my post on Mary Poppins and see how I handle the misspelling issue without discrediting myself. “Becher Mansion Wedding” anyone?

I was hoping Jasmine would post about this experience, but since we’re over a month since it happened, it’s clear she’s not going to. So, I wanted to post here to help all of you keep this from happening to your site.

First off, as some of you may have seen, back in September Jasmine Star’s blog got hacked. I’m by no means close with her, so I don’t have any of the details on exactly how it happened, however, I was one of the first people to notice and sent her an email detailing how to fix it. The implications of this were that anyone using the Firefox browser got the message posted at the top of this page and worse, anyone searching on Google saw that nasty warning below her listings that “This Site May Harm Your Computer” and instead of going to her site, was redirected to a warning page. This lasted for 5 days. Now, I know that probably didn’t hurt Jasmine’s business, but for many of us here, 5 days of a tainted site could be much more damaging. I don’t want to see hat happen to anyone here. What’s worse, it could have been avoided. With no knowledge of websites and a little time, you can keep this from happening to you and have Google work for you instead of against you.

As my mother used to say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, so here’s the core of the problem. Google thought someone was using her site to load malicious software. Firefox takes it’s cues from Google, so really this wasn’t as much a problem with the site itself, as it was with communicating with the search engines. Jasmine never bothered to register her site with the major search engines. Had she done that, Google would have sent her an email ahead of time that they noticed something was wrong. She could have forwarded that to her webmaster or taken care of it herself and never had that blemish on her site.

So how do you register with Google? It’s easy. Just go here:

http://www.google.com/webmasters/

If you have a Google Account, you can use that one, or sign up for a new one. Once inside, just enter your website and follow the instructions.

Basically, you have two options, but depending on your web skillz, either may require a little help.

Option 1: Upload a file to your site. If you’re familiar with FTP, this is the easiest way, you just upload a blank file with the name they give you and you’re done.

Option 2: Use a meta Tag. If you’re using a content management system (or blog like WordPress) this may be easier. You can often add meta tags in your settings.

Plus, there are other huge benefits to using Google Webmaster Tools. Google will tell you the keywords they think your site is about (great for SEO!). They’ll tell you if your sitemap is working (or tell you how to get one if you don’t have one). Ultimately, Google will show you everything they know about your site, so if you’re looking to be involved with the search engines (or are working on any sort of SEO), this is an invaluable tool.

So what do you have to do if your site is already on this list? Surprisingly, it’s the same process. You have to contact Google. Only they can lift the warning, so it’s better to be proactive and do it before you have a problem. If you’re concerned about potential viruses on your site, you can visit Unmask Parasites and get a full diagnostic of your site, free.

Hopefully this is helpful and if anyone has problems or questions, please feel free to post them below or contact me directly. I’m glad to help.

Happy Shooting!

P.S. For bonus points, go register with Yahoo here: https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/. It’s roughly the same process, but this one gives you link information too!