Photography: a new site, and a much happier photographer
So most of you know that aside from fashion blogging, I have joined up with my husband as a photography team. I’ve been testing several different options for an online porfolio that includes a blog — because, you know, blogging is my jam — and I had settled on a mediocre platform that was focused towards photography portfolios. But I really didn’t like the way it was set up, and how you had to actually edit the site every time you wanted to share a blog post. Uploading photos was complicated, inserting images into the posts was a chore, and random spaces showed up in my posts which… was pretty darn annoying.
Finally, I decided to heck with photography-centered websites, I was just going to use what I know and love. So here we are. I’ve switched to a free wordpress site which will hopefully eventually be self-hosted, but for now… free is all I can afford. I’m already 100% happier with how it works and looks than I was with ANY of the portfolio-type sites I tried.
And, while I am DYING to share the two weddings we shot last month and this month, they’re not quite complete in editing yet. So for now, I’m updating with old favorite shoots — starting with my brother’s engagement session — and also sharing a few that somehow never got blogged on the site that I hated! There isn’t much up yet, but it’s a start!
Christina’s senior portrait session remains one of my favorites. I’m hoping to have at least one of each type of session we offer up by next week. Delving into old photoshoots has been so fun, though! I can definitely see where I have improved, which is really encouraging.
I hope you are all having a happy Wednesday!
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6 Comments
Damaris / The cat, you and us
Congrats Kristina! So much work to have a website that you love and it is useful. Wish you luck with your photography business! We are also working in our own wedding/love/sessions photography portfolio site which seems an endless work, ohmy… 🙂
Maria
I read this and thought I should share this blogpost with you
http://www.ramshackleglam.com/2015/08/07/how-to-improve-your-website-photography-imagery/
I like your blog layout, but what if you take this bloggers advise and they to the next level with your Instagram account?
Eccentric Owl
I prefer to keep instagram real; if you were a longtime reader you’d probably know that I’m all about real life and not staging things. But thanks for the link!
Maria
I am a long time reader, actually. Since the times you were Mara and were a barista that needed to wake up early and were doing make up tutorials. That is why I took the time in my day to share that post with you. I saw you are trying to start a BUSINESS in PHOTOGRAPHY, do you know how people are booking their photographers nowadays? Through Instagram feeds. As a business major I see the potential of using Instagram as a marketing tool to boost any business you might have, especially a photography one. The author of the post I sent you is not saying to stage your life and show a different you, she is really saying to take the time to really think about the way your Instagram looks, and find a way to make it more appealing (to new readers, old readers, potential customers!) I thought this was such a great advise, and thought of you, and decided to share it in your post about photography. Your Instagram shows real life, yes, but do you think it shows your photography skills? I don’t feel like booking you to take my anniversary pictures just by looking at your feed. This is though love and I’m not trying to hurt you. I’m trying to give you constructive criticism, because I’ve been here for a very long time, and because I think you are great and little changes make a big difference. You will succeed, my friend!
Eccentric Owl
Maria, I apologize for the assumption! I’ve been dealing with a ton of spam emails/comments lately linking posts all over along the similar vein of blog or online improvement — but that are really just self promotion or… just spam altogether –, and since readers don’t usually comment-share links with me (or if they do, it’s in longer comments with a big preface), I just didn’t even think about it. I’m so sorry!
And I actually really do appreciate the link; I was only able to skim over it last night (toddler who likes to steal my computer mouse, haha!) and the point she makes about props and bulk shooting/grabbing Google images were the ones I read (thus, again, wrongfully assuming it was more about staging, I feel so badly about this!). But I will definitely be reading more in depth today. You have a really valid point about where people find their photographers; we’ve been getting contacted a lot through our Facebook page, but of course that’s a very specific space FOR our photography, so I don’t put personal iphone life shots on there. And, while I know my Canon really well and have always been confident about getting good shots with the camera, when it comes to my iPhone it’s a whole different story. 🙂 I think I’ve never felt as motivated to make shots REALLY stand out with my phone because it’s old and the camera isn’t great on it, and I’ve never really thought about business potential through Instagram (I’m so used to people knowing me via Facebook, mutual friends, or my blog!).
But anyway! I will save that post and put it to good use. I’m so sorry again for assuming you were spam! Thank you for being a good sport about it and letting me know why you shared the link! And more, thank you for reading for so long! I’m floored that someone would stay with me that long, and it just warms my heart!
Maria
Oh no problem at all! Im not really a commenter, I don’t have a blog so I didn’t think it might sound like spam. I just like reading blogs, and yours has been a constant I like to read for so many years (I relate to you so much, you have no idea) so I decided to share something with you. I hope it helps!
Happy weekend!