# First Time Blogger... Thoughts?



## D-B-J (Oct 5, 2014)

With the recent up-swing I've had in photo-shoots, I needed an easy way to share images. So, why not blog? So I made one... using squarespace.  It's okay.. but lacks pop. Pizzazz. Wow. Whatever you want to call it, it all seems very rudimentary and... dull.  I realize it's not about the "blog" per se, it's about the images.  But still.  Thoughts?  Can I use another site to host the blog?  Any help is appreciated!

Blog — Red Skies Photography

Cheers!
Jake


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## Light Guru (Oct 5, 2014)

What's the point of the blog? 

Photography blogs usually fall into one of two categories. Those written for people needing a photographer and whose written for other photographers. 

The text you wrote does not go with ether. And the whole first part is just completely does not fit. 

If you want to have a blog that is for clients then don't use terms like "shutter actuations" Clients don't care about the camera stuff they want info about how they can improve their photo sessions, things they can do to prepare, what to look for in a location and possibly why different times of day are better. 

If you want a blog geared toward other photographers then you need to talk about gear and technique and how you made the image shown. 

If you are simply looking to post photos then trim the text on the blog post as all you really need to say is is already said in the title to the post. 

I say lose the gray background with pixelated lines. Images for backgrounds on websites remind me of the 1990s.


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## D-B-J (Oct 5, 2014)

Light Guru said:


> What's the point of the blog?
> 
> Photography blogs usually fall into one of two categories. Those written for people needing a photographer and whose written for other photographers.
> 
> ...



Thank you for your input! I think "the point" was addressed in the original post... Others complained about the background, but for now I'll keep it. At the end of the day I have to like my site and how it looks, and I haven't found a simple or dull background that I like yet.

Cheers!
Jake 


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## Scatterbrained (Oct 5, 2014)

D-B-J said:


> Light Guru said:
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> > ..................................
> ...


 I'm sure the guys who came up with "New Coke" were thinking the same thing.  
  At the end of the day you need to have both salable images and a clean, attractive presentation.  Professional appearance matters on the job and on the web.   I see nothing wrong with using a solid white background.  How you arrange the images and text on the screen, the font you choose, etc. will give more pizazz to your site than a_ very_ distracting background image.


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## D-B-J (Oct 5, 2014)

Scatterbrained said:


> D-B-J said:
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> > Light Guru said:
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The problem is that I can't do much in "arranging" on the blog. It's all pretty rigid, which I think makes it seem so dull. I'll keep at it. Thanks for your input!

Jake 


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## robbins.photo (Oct 5, 2014)

Scatterbrained said:


> I'm sure the guys who came up with "New Coke" were thinking the same thing.



You mean before the firing squad, right?



> At the end of the day you need to have both salable images and a clean, attractive presentation.  Professional appearance matters on the job and on the web.   I see nothing wrong with using a solid white background.  How you arrange the images and text on the screen, the font you choose, etc. will give more pizazz to your site than a_ very_ distracting background image.



My advice, spend a couple of bucks and get yourself a professionally done template, or better yet a professional web designer to put something together for you.

If your going to be putting this out to current/potential clients you want something that looks like it's professionally done.  Think of it more or less along the lines of showing up for a job interview in a cutoffs and a really inappropriate T-Shirt.  The website is your presentation to your current and possibly future clients, then it needs to be look professional and make the right impression.  Your website will speak volumes to your future clients in particular about how seriously you take your business.

Just my 2 cents worth of course, YMMV


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## D-B-J (Oct 5, 2014)

robbins.photo said:


> Scatterbrained said:
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> 
> > I'm sure the guys who came up with "New Coke" were thinking the same thing.
> ...



I definitely agree. I'll continue doing some research and see what I come up with.


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## robbins.photo (Oct 5, 2014)

D-B-J said:


> I definitely agree. I'll continue doing some research and see what I come up with.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk



I had a buddy of mine that did professional web design a few years back - he used to tell me that unless your site is an ecommerce site it will never "get" you business, but if it looks like something you threw together in 5 minutes flat it sure can cost you business.  That always kind of stuck with me.. lol


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## Light Guru (Oct 5, 2014)

robbins.photo said:


> My advice, spend a couple of bucks and get yourself a professionally done template, or better yet a professional web designer to put something together for you.



He is using squares pace which already has amazing looking templates. Problem is he added the background which is definitely not in the templates squaresspace offers. 

The look of it aside, again I ask the question? 

What is the point of your blog?
Who are you writing it for? 

Before writing anything on a blog you need to answer those questions.


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## HikinMike (Oct 6, 2014)

You background is absolutely terrible, sorry. It makes me dizzy and it doesn't say "professional" to me. I would definitely get rid of that.

As far as the blog, I use mine to post recent photos from landscape photos to family stuff. It gives the viewers a look at "me".


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## astroNikon (Oct 6, 2014)

It's a start.

I would first emphasis you want to emphasis photography.  Your verbage needs to be a bit more romantic  lol .. not   "I helped some dude jump his car because it died" which should be removed.  Maybe not specifically more romantic but less technical and less distracting. People want to see pictures not someone rambling misc stuff - the first half of your paragraph could nearly be totally removed up to "a beautiful archway" which is the first thing about the shoot you talk about.

Maybe
We set up for the first shot and within four shutter actuations I could tell they were _very _photogenic. == changed to ==> As I started taking their photos I could tell this was going to be a beautiful photo shoot.

... ie, stop writing as a technical guy.  If anything, write about the Beautiful surroundings at the top of the paragraph leading into the photoshoot part.

now, I gotta go jump my car so I can charge my camera batteries to take pictures of dung beetles then off to a newborn shoot ...


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## paigew (Oct 6, 2014)

I don't consider myself an awesome blogger, but I do blog pretty often. I blog for one main reason...SEO. And from a SEO point of view, it is a fail.

#1 too long....keep it short
#2 list location (park name, city/state/area)
#3 all important info in first few lines. Type of session, location, etc.

I would do maybe something like this:

For Zach and Erin's engagement shoot we met at the beautiful (xyz park) in city/state. then list some of the great features at the park....archway, lake?, fall colors? Basically cut the crap (so to speak) and blog in google search terms  You can add a little about how the couple was fun and laid back. Maybe even a little about the overcast weather.


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## D-B-J (Oct 6, 2014)

paigew said:


> I don't consider myself an awesome blogger, but I do blog pretty often. I blog for one main reason...SEO. And from a SEO point of view, it is a fail.
> 
> #1 too long....keep it short
> #2 list location (park name, city/state/area)
> ...




That makes sense. I do want to blog for SEO as well... And I'm a good writer, just not of blogs. I'll re work it... Thanks for the help!


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## korreman (Oct 6, 2014)

Let me give you my honest critique:

The background is *awful*. Get rid of it. Always use a fill color, or a very fine texture (like grainy grey) for your background, *never* use a photo. It may look cool on your monitor, but on my monitor, it's just an ugly upscaled jpeg with a sucky color depth, and it doesn't mix with the rest of the blog at all. It also distracts me from the pictures I'm actually looking at.

The fonts are ugly. If you're gonna use that much italics (don't use that much italics), then at least choose a serif font instead of a sans. Sans fonts are always a gamble.

The borders are way too narrow. Put some more space before the end of the paper (the grey overlay).

The menu is insignificant. I only noticed it after going back here, going back to the page, returning here and then remembering there was probably other parts of the page. Make it stand out more.

The color scheme is pretty bad too. Dark red on a darkish grey background does not work. For your photos, I suggest a bright (white) background with dark text. This would

*Most importantly*, I am scrolling way too much on this site. My middle finger is getting tired. You should arrange your photos in a way that is more easily accessible. The best thing would a grid of thumbnails that can be pressed, opening up a centered image, where pressing the left key would switch to the next photo. When I have to scroll like this, I end up scrolling past all your beautiful images, trying to reach the bottom, instead of stopping and looking at them. *Try to keep your site inside one extra page of scrolling maximum.*

Others have already commented on the content of the site, so I'll leave that done. You can try fixing the things I mentioned, or pay a website designer a bit of money to make a better site.

Your pictures are beautiful, but your sites layout is too low quality for me to even think that much about them. Having a bad website is worse than having no website, but you don't need to work too much to turn it into a good website. Do it!


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## MichaelHenson (Oct 6, 2014)

I agree with everyone else's comments. Your photos look great but the site distracts from them. The level of quality/sharpness/"POP!" doesn't match. You have a site that looks dated (the background, font, etc.) and quickly setup...with images that are very strong, clear, and beautiful. If I were you, I would look into something like Squarespace for your blog. Even if you don't want to go that route and want to use the platform you are using currently, you can set up a blog utilizing some of their style and present a much more consistent, clean presentation.

Like a previous poster mentioned, your site might not get you a bunch of "extra" business, it's very possible that it can prevent someone from going with you for their photos.

Build a Website - Squarespace — Squarespace


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## Derrel (Oct 6, 2014)

What is the point of your blog?
Who are you writing it for?
Before writing anything on a blog you need to answer those questions.

I agree with the above comments.I also agree: sans serif fonts suck,and are harder to read on smaller displays than are old-fashioned fonts that have serifs. Sans serif fonts may be more popular than older types of fonts, but they are tough to read on small displays like smart phones and tablets/phablets,etc..

I disagree on the idea of thumbnails being better than scrolling. No,no,no,no. I can scroll through a handful of images just fine, thank-you. A bunch of thumbnails becomes an ugly, low-rent look, with text. Arranging the images one after another and interspersing text between them is a logical, well-accepted way of doing layouts, and those who complain about the difficulties of scrolling really ought not factor into major aesthetic decisions.

The annoying spiraling, nautilus-shell inspired design overlayed on gray with light text? Sorry, but no. A thousand times no. How about white or creme backdrop, with BLACK text, so it's not an official FEMA Eyestrain Emergency Response Event? (lol!)

I have absolutely no idea who you think will read that type of writing. An audience of some type needs to be imagined, dreamed up, conjured, envisioned--something. Even if the audience is a SEO engine, you need to write for an audience, because what's written there is really bad writing. Sorry, former college newspaper editor here...I cannot lie to you and tell you that the writing is good, because I cannot imagine what you were thinking when you penned that piece. MOST blogs of this type that I have read are sort of extended on-line thank-you pieces, thanking clients for their business, and at the same time giving them a specific URL which they can send their friends/families to. 

Blogs in this genre often serve as advertising for photographers, so the SEO stuff Paige W mentioned is a big, big deal! If you want to do payed social photography sets like this, do not talk about your first and second-ever sets, and skip talk of jumping the guy next to you (lol!) and stick with effusive comments about the people who gave you money in exchange for photographing them. Talk about the great location by its name and area (city/state/zip code), and skip phrases like shutter actuations. Never call a payed photograph you've been hired to make a "shutter actuation".


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