(Above a picture that I should have printed up bigger)

PRINTS

I got a bunch of amazing prints done in a rush through Bay Photo and they did not disapoint! The Metal prints were talked about constantly. I happened to like the thin wrap that I chose on canvas the best (BELOW)… but the metals were still the talk.

I got a fancy fancy album and made it 60sides…. and dang it was heavy… like 20lbs or something. Chuck (an associate/student) designed it for me and he also did a couple of books of his own.

(ABOVE) I got this one in metal and it looks like it’s glass that’s how cool the metal is.

It was hard picking which pictures but I had up only 15-20 pictures but when it’s all said and done that was more than most other people and mine were all large 20×30 so I had a lot of pictures up.

(ABOVE: Another Metal Print choice)

So which picture did most people comment about?

These ones would have been fun as well.

Oh and the set of manti pictures were pretty popular (BELOW)

(BELOW) The canvas didn’t get as much as attention as the other picutres which is interesting since it has been a favorite amongst many other brides.

People loved the sunset (BELOW) – it often prompted questions of “where was that?”

Not a ton of interest for these pictures perhaps because everyone was mainly getting married july and august and not a ton of winter wedding people.

The Hope:

Well I am booked for a lot of the dates people were asking about but I hope to fill up July and more than anything help the associates start to book up their summers.

Update:

Sorry I screwed up… I’m not doing an internship this summer. Because what I’m doing by definition can’t be classified an internship as I’ve been reminded. I thought I’d use easy terminology but I was wrong. It’s a hybrid more school-like, but not.

I’ve got a lot of response on my terminology I’ve chosen… I suppose they’re right… this is not really a true internship… it’s more of a crazy mixture of a schooling experience with lots of aspects of an internship. So there! Now what to call it? I don’t think a typical internship is near as beneficial to me or you. So I chose a hybrid to kick the butt of either of the two options of school or internship.

Sorry I screwed up… I’m not doing an internship this summer. Because what I’m doing by definition can’t be classified an internship as I’ve been reminded. I thought I’d use easy terminology but I was wrong. It’s a hybrid more school-like, but not.

I’ve got a lot of response on my terminology I’ve chosen… I suppose they’re right… this is not really a true internship… it’s more of a crazy mixture of a schooling experience with lots of aspects of an internship. So there! Now what to call it? I don’t think a typical internship is near as beneficial to me or you. So I chose a hybrid to kick the butt of either of the two options of school or internship.

It’s been like a micro-blog for me to talk about mostly photography and some other things. Now there’s @JarvieU for those Just wanting photography

What I’ve talked about

For a while now this has been my Bio statement

Bio [Full time Photographer] Themes: Photography, lightroom, politics, utah, mlb byu, lds, music, travel, life & related photo blogs.

and what I wrote in the was no lie, I talked about most of those things. Of course I talked about photography the most. When it was around election time I talked about politics, since my baseball team (padres) didn’t do very well I didn’t talk about them a whole lot, I talked about BYU when they played big sporting games. When I was traveling I talked about that which is kind of like talking about photography. Church when we had our big conferences.

I’ve actually had some great discussion with people that are totally on the other side of the coin in politics and religion and our philosophies in general, they’ve been the most memorable of all my discussions. (Thanks Brian, Kenneth and several others) If we know eachother which in the case of most of the Utah photographers we do and it’s no problem.

Well this account @Jarvie will remain the same, it is the account of Scott Jarvie the person in all facets of my life.(Mainly Photography since that’s mainly what I do)

Why I use Twitter

Using twitter has been invaluable from the dozens if not hundreds of questions I’ve had almost immediate feedback to so many issues. I’ve also felt that I’ve contributed a ton with answers to questions that other people have had and also the great forum to refer individuals.

However as more and more people start to follow what I’m doing I must acknowledge the fact that I don’t know many of them. Many of them are Only following me because of my photography. They want to hear about what i’m doing in photography, ask photography questions and expect photography links and RTs and the lot.

I use twitter like it were a micro-blog. I write things I think someone somewhere might find interesting.

I have a blog that only talks about Photography and another blog that talks about all the rest of the stuff. Of course the one I do most stuff on is the Photography blog. I also pretty much only talk photography on the JarvieDigital fanpage on facebook. on my regular facebook profile anything that concerns or involves me goes.

Un-blurring the Twitter lines : @JarvieU

I started an account a couple months ago for all the things I was doing at @JarvieU- I made it strictly a photography account.

@JarvieU will now be used more and it will be the default account of JarvieDigital – an all photography twitter account.
I suggest if all you want to hear about is photography you follow that account.

This is just the thing many random photographers who’ve never met me have been looking for. Just photography.

What will become of @Jarvie

My original account is still me… and since it’s still me and I’m a full time photographer who spends about 12-15hrs a day on photography why would it not include a whole lot of photography. I think with all the great programs we have to run twitter we’ll be able to handle the difference.

You can of course follow both, I will respond by whatever account I was message unless it’s unphotography related in which case that’ll be strictly Jarvie.

Yes it will be tricky for me to find the right voice and what not for @JarvieU – but on one respect it’s easy… it’s everything photography. Maybe I’ll try to find cool new content to link to and RT more photography type stuff.

RECAP

@JarvieU will be all things photography, so if that’s all that’s of interest from me just follow that one not @Jarvie- those who know me personally will probably still want to follow @Jarvie

So go out and follow @JarvieU and if you need to unfollow @jarvie I will not be offended because chances are I don’t even know you if all you’re about is the photography. And that’s A OK

A big part of me (the part that doesn’t enjoy sales) tells me just get the year booked and stop spending time on it.
I would love to be done booking weddings and have my summer all planned out.

Busy, but lots of space

I’m already going to France late July early August.
I have most of my weddings in California and perhaps back to Hawaii again.

But while I am planning on doing a lot less weddings this year than the hectic year last year…
I still have plenty of spots.
Specially when you compare to the crazy amounts I did last year.

Win-Win

Main Reason: Why give money to random companies I don’t care about for advertising, when I can give it to friends.

So I decided instead of me investing so much time and effort to finding new wedding gigs…
I’d enlist the help of everyone else.

A Win Win… I get help booking jobs and you get money.

The hope is that you feel confident enough in my work to want to refer me.

The thought is to make referral amount big enough amount that no one would easily forget.
So it wouldn’t be one of those things that you’d say “If it happens it happens”
Instead, So that people think about it, and try to make it happen.

Where people would actually pro-actively search. Instead of passively mention. (Active, not passive.)

A Month of March deal

I’m gonna test this out for March.
I know it’s a lot of money to give for a simple referral, but like I said if I can book up the year by the end of march then it’s well worth it.
We’ll see what happens at the end of march, I might continue or I might not.

Your input will determine if I continue doing this… and obviously how motivated people are.
If no one uses it, I’ll stop of course.

Money

I will give $200 cash for a booked wedding (To the referrer)

-OR-

I will give $400 towards a photoshoot or $500 in print products

How do we know who sent who and how they found me?
Well if they found me BECAUSE of you, let them know they themselves will get a $100 discount or $150 towards print products.

Things to keep in mind

• Good way to discount your own wedding (by a LOT if you’re the motivated type)
  Heck some of your students could probably pay your rent this way.
• Send people here to see my work
• Represent me well, don’t say anything I don’t actually offer.
• Obviously there are some dates I’m already booked.
• You should probably look at my prices – HERE
• I’m not a budget photographer anymore, i realize that, I’m very good at what I do… but I’m not for everyone.
• I will try to set these people with other photographers who are in their price range.
  Maybe as we refer them to other photographers those same photographers will hook you up too. (No Promises)
• I travel a LOT… about 60-80% of my weddings are Out of Utah now.
• If you have any questions about my services call me, I’ll give you the run down.

Now perhaps it’s time to start thinking of what I’ll do for the April Special.

I reserve the right to change this special at Any time.

Stepping up to the plate

I recognize I’m not the best photographer and so my establishment of a school should not be a belief that I am the most qualified.
Merely that I’m the most willing to actually make it happen, the most creative to think it up, and the most crazy to actually try it.

Not sure what the name is, so for now it’s either Jarvie U or jDigital U – I’m open to input

I have grand ambitions how this project/school/opportunity can help everyone

• Help each student become great photo editors and great photographers
• Help with my work on my photography
• Help with the ATP and ETW projects
• Build a community that exercizes pay it forward learning
• Build a community that actively seeks new, exciting and creative learning experiences
• Build a school experience that actively promotes the students and a community that promotes eachother.
• Build a community that can point to an achievement that garners respect and attracts attention for the members of the community.
• Build a community of photographers who believe excellence of craft before deception, who improve their craft and respect for their clients and therefore improve the name and the art of photography.
• It can also help other photographers and of course people looking for photographers.

It’s more than an internship becuase it includes

• Classes
• Field Trips
• Photo Trips
• Assisting experiences (with many photographers)
• Reviews, critiques, QA
• And many more benefits

Yet it is still somewhat an internship

• Because student-interns still come and assist in the office learning first hand Photo Editing and Photo workflow and also emphasize in another area of their choice.

How this can be done? (How can Scott stay sane)

Since there are many student-interns we can have classes each week and that makes it so I don’t have to train each person individually.
Pay it forward training also means new students can be trained by experienced students which provides experienced students with even a greater understanding of each field.

I’ll still be busier than ever setting up classes on countless photographic subjects, doing 1 on 1 reviews, setting up field trips on photographic subjects and photo trips for photographic experiences.
I’ll also be making sure there’s always something for interns to be assisting with.

I also believe the intense experience will teach me tons and stretch me beyond where I’m presently comfortable.

I also hope it inspires others to share and teach others what they know and be creative about it… no matter what they know great or small.

Who it’s for

People in Northern Utah (Office in Lehi)

People who are passionate about photography and want to learn more

People who are dedicated and will see it through.

People who have time (even if you opt out of the internshipoffice-work portion you still need time for the classes and other experiences to make it worth while)
How much time? At least 20hrs a month to dedicate.

When does it start? First students starting this month. Future batches in the months to come, so if it’s not right for you now check back later.

How to get involved or learn more?

I have written a couple of rough documents about the project.

Introduction

Experience (not formatted yet, so hopefully it still makes sense)

email me at jarvieu@jarviedigital.com

Remember it can help more than just the students.

If you’re an educator, a photographer or someone looking for a photographer ask me how it can help you.

In the past I’ve stated that there are 3 areas in the process of creating a good end result in photography.

• 1. Take good pictures
• 2. Pick good pictures
• 3. Edit good pictures

Help with #2

Sometimes #2 can be the hardest
(assuming the talent for #1 and #3 has been well instilled in the photographer)

So today I enlist your services, a sort of crowd sourcing.

Hawaii Pictures Gallery

I took 13,000+ pics in Hawaii
I quickly skimmed through them (not looking at every picture) and got it down to 600
I then went through each one and picked my favorite 250
I then went through again and picked my favoriter 129
I posted them HERE

All 250 are there in chronological order in 2 sets – with my prefered set of 129 coming first
There is another gallery with all 250 completely chronological HERE

You can go to either gallery to pick

Your Goal

The goal is hard but I will make it worth it.
I’ve done things like this in the past and people have said it was fun.

Your top 20 pictures

The top 10 should be rated 1 through 10
The last 10 are like honorable mention and do not need to be rated.

It should be a simple list
Copy paste the image file name

Example
#1 –  001_DSC3411 (You can shorten it to the last 4 digits …3411)
#2 – 013_DSC4618
#HM/11 – 011_DSC4411

The Reward

A free 8×10 of your #1 pick – For pickup at office = no shipping cost for you

Or $35 off an order towards a print of your choice (in this gallery) for use towards a larger size (or 8×10). -
You can have it shipped anywhere, obviously since you’re making the order.
This will be a coupon code you input upon checkout from smugmug

In the past it was just for fun and people did it anyway, but I kinda want to give out free 8×10’s I think it would be fun.

Having never done this before I reserve the right to change this at any time or limit amount of people.
If any type of change would upset you I’d suggest not doing it.

WHY

I want to do some prints of these pictures but I certainly don’t want to print all 100+
If one day I want to do fine art print sales or a gallery – I want to know which ones are most popular.

Also it’s a good way for you all to see what I’ve done… so my hundreds of hours of work in Hawaii is not for naught.

And hey if someone orders an expensive 30×40 mounted on canvas then that could pay for the next trip!
I also think it would be fun to have more of my work in your homes… I want to infiltrate your houses. mwahaha

Some I happen to like

(Above) definite faves

(Below) one of these two

• One of the outrigger canoe pictures… not sure which one.
• There’s a ton of moving water pics… not sure which one.
• One of the sailboat pics … again not sure which one.
• #26 or 27
• #28 or 29
• one of the 56-62
• One of the sunset pictures found in 72-78
• one of the surfer pics 112-118
• one of the surfer pics 127-129

(BELOW) others I bet will make the cut

(200K+ pictures and 1000Gbs later)

Read the FULL long and Intensive review after the jump

My SmugMug Page

The original reason = Backup

The reason behind signing up was because I didn’t have a backup method at the time.
No DroboPro like I have now to be safe with my pictures I was taking for all my clients.

I had read a blog by one of the founders and saw how open and honest he was with the decisions they had made in creating the company and handling crazy amounts of pictures… so I felt a connection to the company.

I didn’t know much about, or really need, many of their other options at the time which I now use all the time.
I simply wanted a place to backup my pictures for just in case and they said I could have Unlimited.
Prior to this time I was hosting Lightroom Galleries on my own site.

Well I was too busy and to this day still haven’t put on many pictures from pre 2008
Or I suppose that number would be much much higher than 1000GBs

Primary Display Site

I was making galleries with Lightroom prior to SmugMug and was decently happy, but when I saw how smugmug displays the pictures and how much time it would save me to not have to upload the pictures twice to the web.
I decided SmugMug would become my primary location.
I loved viewing the stats on my own website and was a bit hesitant thinking that somehow having that many people come to my own website would make it more popular and perhaps rank even higher for the SEO stuff.
I’m still not sure it is the case but I think the other benefits outweighed that desire and ever since I have shown off my pictures on SmugMug

Sales

I still am not very into sales, mainly as a lifestyle decision because it’s not enjoyable to me and because I book my schedule so full i don’t often have time to deal with print orders or books.
In fact I’ve thought of many ways to promote the SmugMug buy prints direct from the site ability… but haven’t gotten around to implimenting them over the last 18 months or so.
(Pretty much I’m waiting for them to come out with the Coupons feature they’ve been talking about for a while)

So I’ve had people randomly buy prints but personally I’ve never told them… they’ve always just stumbled upon it.

But I do have designs to get a bit more involved with printing.
Ever since I found out about the ability to delay prints by a few days to give me time to check someone’s order and make changes or edits as needed.
That is a perfect solution to be able to tell someone to always make their print purchases through SmugMug (which coincidentally will cover the money part)

Plus they’re also using Bay Photo which has some benefits.
Now I’m not much of a print snob… meaning I can’t tell the difference between print qualities like some others can.
But I have a talking point… I can tell people their prints will be printed by one of the best print labs in the country.
In the end it only costs a little more than using the other print companies.

Referrals

I’ve talked up SmugMug a lot since I signed up because they were perfect for my needs.
I’ve had a bunch of my friends sign up… and sometimes I’d even remember to have them put in my email address when they signed up (jarvie at jarviedigital.com)
And they’d get $5 off
And I’d get $10 off my renewal… meaning that this last April my renewal wasn’t very much.

But on the other hand it could have been free if I had done a better job of telling them to use my email.

I think a big thing was that most people ended up using bigger discount codes… there are codes out there to get a lot more than $5 off subscription.
Going to PhotoCampUtah got people 50% off (or maybe it was more)

In any case I think I’d prefer that they save even more money than earn me a couple of dollars towards renewal.

But the point is… it’s a cool program they have. And I refer it.

Blogging

SmugMug has been a heaven-sent for all my blogging needs.
When I learned that I could simply drag and drop my pictures from a SmugMug gallery into my Wordpress blog and that was all… wow!!
No longer export and then upload and then use the wordpress system to connect each picture into the post from the wordpress library.
I saved crazy amounts of time.
The best part is that the pictures were just the right size for my blog 600px on the long end. (width) But I could select larger or smaller if i wanted.

They were also watermarked so they would show up on the blog with the watermark.
Which may I add is awesome.

Watermarking

Many people ask how I do my watermarks… If I use a Lightroom plugin or something.
I created a simple watermark in Photoshop and then uploaded it to SmugMug.
I’ve tried several watermarks and each time I can just simply change the gallery to use a new watermark.
The point is they’re not burned into the pictures… you can change the watermark down the road and there’s no need to re-export or re-upload.

I can even use the watermarks from my interns and assistants and mark the pictures They took with their watermark

I know Lightroom in Beta3 is coming out with a pretty good watermarking ability, but I still think it will fit my workflow better to use the SmugMug method.

Upgrades

They’ve made some changes here and there but overall since I joined it’s stayed very much the same.
Recently they started “Nice Names” where you could decide what the URL to a gallery looked like.

There’s actually been a flurry of updates in this last month. (Some expected and other unexpected and still others that haven’t happened yet)

One of my favorites is the Slideshow feature, which as you can guess adds a slideshow to your main page.

They also added another view a few months ago called “Journal” which lets the customer see the pictures nice and big.
Since I display soo many pictures for each job it is a bit much so I don’t use it… but people are able to change the view to journal if they want.
But most of the time viewing my galleries is the first experience with SmugMug and therefor they wouldn’t know how to do that.

Just today they added the ability to change gallery settings on Multiple Galleries, that’s pretty cool.
(Not something I’ve needed a ton, but had I not set up my galleries well to begin with I’d be crying for this big time)

VIDEO

I recently purchased 2 cameras that have video capability. d300s and a G11

I love that I can take video and just straight upload it to SmugMug and that’s all.

I also like being able to stream it on my blog.

I don’t edit my videos, mainly because I know that once I start I’ll get addicted to it and feel like I have to (like with pictures)
I’m not a videographer nor do I claim to be, thus I’ll keep it simple and pedestrian.

It’s so freeing to not have to worry about editing and just put it straight up on smugmug.

They do re-size the videos, so they’re not storing quite as much as the originals, but I’m guessing it’s a decent amount of storage to put up a bunch of video.
There are of course limitations of file size to upload and length of clips, which means there are some stuff I can’t put up. (Like workshop videos… not that they’ve been edited yet)

Workflow

I export full jpgs from Lightroom (I export with a sequencer in the front 001, 002, 003)
The reason for the sequencer is so because I put my files in a specific order with the better ones first and that way I can keep that order when in SmugMug
I upload from my computer to SmugMug (the new uploader Rocks BTW)
I’ll often several galleries at a time – it seems to do 3-4 at a time rather well. (I think the restriction is more on my computer and web browser side)

I only get 2-4mb/s but if I do 3-4 galleries at a time I’ll get 2-3 mb/s upload speed on each. (Not sure why I can’t get higher speeds when just doing one)

I have a preset for my gallery so that it does all the things I want the gallery to do.
for instance

• • allow rt click save (protected = no)
  • apply my watermark
  • view up to XL Large files
  • allow camera info
  • Sort by filename 1-99
  • Printable = yes
  • Public

I’ll either unlist them or make them public and I rarely do the passwords, I’m happy enough with the quality that I don’t mind if someone sees them.
Plus I don’t do maternity or pictures of babies or random other shoots that any clients usually want passworded.

I would password them if they asked… but they never do.

Old Workflow – the reason for 75k extra pics

Once upon a time I would take pictures in Raw+JPG and upload the JPGS straight to SmugMug for a just in case something happened (pre-DroboPro)
And also to have immediate access to the pictures for things like Blogs (if the JPG looked good enough)

But that became tedious and I stopped.

They were All unlisted galleries
And it was the full photoshoot not just the final edits.

The point is 75,000 pictures came from that method (not all were full size JPGs)… and that’s a big reason I’m at 200,000 pictures

So don’t be too impressed.

Facebook and SmugMug

I used to want everyone to go to SmugMug and see the pictures there… I thought having all the brides friends go to my site to see the pictures would be beneficial to me.

But now I understand that sometimes it’s about going to where the people are, and not making them come to you.
People are already on facebook.

Thus I don’t just allow them, but I encourage Brides to grab all the pictures off smugmug and make a facebook gallery. (Best thing ever)
My pictures are meant to be seen, that’s how I like it… it makes me sad to take pictures for them to never see much the light of day. (Don’t hide your gift under a bushel just because you want a few extra dollars)
This applies to people photography and I’d probably have a different view on fine art and landscape photography.

The ability for the client to grab the pictures of themselves on SmugMug and simply drop them into a folder on their computer is very handy.
Beats having to rt click and save.

Stats

as of Oct 30th 2009

No my stats are NOT normal for a typical SmugMug user.
I was once told that I am among the top 10 or 20 users of SmugMug  (I’d be interested to know exactly where)

201,007 pictures

1022.34 GBs of pictures (and some videos)

Bandwidth

I’m not honestly sure what these stats mean. I think they are affected by having pictures on  my blog.
It’s fun that SmugMug has these stats, but I do not know how to interpret them and understand what they mean.

Oct – 323593 (Pictures Viewed) 30.7GB (Of Bandwidth)
Sep –  197576 – 23.66
Aug – 307823 – 31.43
Jul – 479-825 – 50.05
Mar – 542,798 – 30.36
Jan – 513,145 – 23.73

Analytics

They do allow you to use an analytics program to track people coming to the site with all that usual Analytics information.
When I found this out a couple months ago I was very happy. (And sad it took me that long to get around to applying it)

I use Clicky Analytics which is a tad better than Google analytics (but Google is free)
Clicky is known for very conservative numbers
And is most popular probably because of their Live Viewing feature.

It is fun to know which galleries are the most popular.
Ever since the Nice Names feature came out, you can really understand which galleries people are going to… before you had know way of knowing what that random string of numbers and letters stood for and had to go to the gallery to see which one it was.
So again props to SmugMug for that.

I have other websites for people to look at my stuff… but that being said so far in October (a slow month)
I’ve had 1220 people check out galleries on SmugMug

I would tell you about previous more exciting months… but I only installed it recently.

Like any Analytics system it’s great to see where these people are coming from

Downage

Personally I’ve been happy with their uptime.
I know they’ve had some problems and when they do it does affect my blog since my pictures are coming straight from there.

But it was down less than my old web hosting company Bluehost and when that was down the whole Blog wouldn’t exist.

So I’m happy with SmugMug … the times they’re usually down it’s to perform maintenance late at night or to do upgrades, and they let people know usually.

Wants

Coupons

Oh to dream!

I know they’ve been teasing us for Way to long on this one.

I know that they’re working on it… but sometimes I feel it’s like the company that cried wolf.

When will it ever come out we never know… But as soon as it does there will be a lot of happy brides.
I’ll be reorganizing my prices that’s for sure.

What are coupons?

Well honestly I’m not sure what some people hope it to be, nor how SmugMug is designing them (I know it’s not easy programmers at SmugMug)

But this is how I’d want it.

I want my clients to go on a type of Shopping Spree… let’s say they have $1500 of prints to buy (my set prices)

They put in their coupon they got when they paid for the wedding and they can just go crazy.

We already have delayed printing (where I can check each picture they purchase and make necisary edits before they’re printed)

Then I get the bill for the printing for the at cost prices or something like that.

I don’t know the perfect solution but that’s the desire is to make all the print orders go through smugmug and to not just have them get them all a la carte

Organizing System (To move Galleries)

This was a horrible mess for me. I wanted to reorganize my galleries and I couldn’t figure out a way to move tons of galleries all at once.
I had to do it one at a time. Which is fine if you’re moving 1 or 2 galleries… NOT fine if you have to move 100-200 galleries around.

The more you use galleries and just over time you seem to build up

Xn Galleries

Right now we’re limited to 2 levels: Categories and Sub-Categories

There are talks to open that up.
I had never thought about it… but when I heard about it I thought it made a lot of sense.
I’m not sure how that will change things for me, I guess I’ll cross that bridge when it’s built.

But one things for sure they better build that organizing system before they create that or we’ll all be cursing the new feature as we spend a decade moving each gallery one by one.

Usable Stats

I don’t know the answer to this… but I want to understand what my stats mean.
I know using analytics is usually the solution but if SmugMug itself had a way to track the quantities of visitors and where they’re coming from there’d be a lot of interested folks.

I also think lifetime stats would be fun.

Pricing syncronization

Personally I don’t mind the way you syncronize pricing from gallery to gallery.
But I know some people do.
And when they tell me about how they’d like it, I am on board with them.

For now I’ve just created a category called Prints and create fake galleries with one picture and name that gallery based on a price structure.
It’s a work around that some say shouldn’t have to happen, but I’ll go with it for now.

Customer Service

SmugMug is known for having amazing customer service.
They seem to pride themselves on having wonderful and knowledgeable employees. (That’s awesome)

They don’t do Phone service but their email support is above top notch.
They often respond faster than you could get with phone support (being on hold)

And since it is so good I can appreciate the savings it passes along to us to not have to support a call center with our fees.

I’d rather have a stable company that won’g go out of business.

Honestly I’ve rarely felt the need to call someone up about smugmug, since I’m the type to figure it out myself.

Training

SmugMug takes some getting used to, there’s a lot going on.

There is a desire by a lot of people for some training on the system.

I’ve trained some friends and interns.

I do lightroom training and you’d be surprised to know how many times people ask if I could do some SmugMug training while I’m at it.
I haven’t done it yet. But I’m just saying there seems to be an interest.

David Terry is usually the guy I went to when I had SmugMug questions back in the day

He’s been with SmugMug for a long time.

I guess if people want to understand it better they should know that SmugMug help really works and it’s great.
But it doesn’t take the place of good ol’ fashion training.

SMUGs

It’s a monthly meeting of SmugMug users that meets to have free presentations and get togethers.
They just started in Salt Lake City but they’re being held in many location around the USA

Honestly it’s more centered on socialization of photographers… they do have a short presentation each time so it seems.
The last one I went to was a little short and almost didn’t warrant the 30 minute drive, but I was late.

The SLC version isn’t terribly popular yet, but we’ll see where it goes… I applaud the concept.

Here’s more info on the subject

Should I sign Up?

In a word = Yes

That is, if you take lots  of pictures.

3 Versions

I’m not as familiar with the 3 versions I use the pro version and it’s something like $150 a year for pro $40 for standard.

If you’re a professional photographer you’ll want the Pro version for sure!

You can check it out for free and you can always easily upgrade from one level of service to another with a click of a button.

RECAP

I almost expect other photographers to be using SmugMug
It might not fit every need or aspect of their workflow.
But I consider it a no-brainer.
So when someone says they don’t use SmugMug sometimes I’m a little shocked.

I’m pretty darn sure even though I pay the SmugMugPro rate that SmugMug probably looses money on me because of how much I store.

BUT… who in their right mind does as many photoshoots as I do and edits and gives the customers as many as I do.
It’s my style to do it that way and I’m single and I spend Way to much time with photography than any normal person should.
So most people are putting up a lot less.

So I trust they’ve got a good system that will keep them in business for a long long time.

Basically, SmugMug has saved me tons of time and tons of hassle and I refer them to everyone needing a home for their pictures.

I look forward to many great developments to come.

Questions or Comments

If you have a question about SmugMug or how I use it let me know.

I’d also love to hear if this influences your opinion or prompts you to tryout SmugMug
It is free for first couple of weeks.

You can get a discount using my email jarvie@jarviedigital.com but you don’t have to, I don’t mind one bit paying for their service.

I just wanted to write a review and let people know about my experience… as a way of celebrating my first Terabyte of usage.

Previous instances of going big.

• Doing long wedding day shoots … up to 14hrs once.
• Doing shoots I’ve never done before is always a fun challenge and stretch.
• Going to a new location is a fun stretch I’ve done so many times it’s not that stretchy anymore.
• Like when I shot 60,000 pictures in 3 months and drove 12,000 miles while I was in europe.
• Or when I had like 8 weddings in a couple weeks in several different states and drove almost 5k miles with several plane flights all during the Christmas season equaling an insane amount of pictures.
• Or when I did 2 weddings in one day at 2 different locations
• Or when I did 3 weddings in one day (only one reception)
• Or when i did 32 shoots for the 2nd annual charity shoot
• And at the same time bought and used for the first time studio equipment the day before all these shoots.

Another fun challenge. 

This week I’ll be shooting 50+ photo shoots.

This is for the 3rd annual charity shoot.

I’m doing outdoor fall pictures as well as studio pics during the day.

I’ll be starting earlier in the day than ever before and I’ll be shooting for less time.

I’ll also be doing more in one day than ever before with up to 12 shoots on a few of the days.

Not to mention a 2 part wedding on the weekend.

I’ll also have to manage several other photographers who’ll be coming to assist and take pictures as well.

The good thing is that I’m letting go of most of the editing, in fact I’ll be in Mexico while a lot of that is going on.

I’ll come back and play another role of quality control and tweeks.

So the adventure starts to day… I’ll keep people updated. Check out my twitter feed for more insights. 

I’ll be shooting in a different location almost every day, plus another dive into studio photography since it’s been a while, this time in a home studio. Testing out seamless backgrounds for the first time.

November’s challenge

I’ll be doing some wedding hopping… weeks on the road in other states shooting wedding without coming home.

At least it includes Hawaii… and we’ll see if I end up doing a wedding in Cancun. 

Update on Charity Shoot locations

For those coming to the shoots this week.

Monday – White pines trailhead parking lot up little cottonwood canyon 5.5 miles from the parking lot / sign 

remember little cottonwood is the more south canyon of the two

Tuesday – Summit parking lot up American fork canyon 10.3 miles from gate (south fork, aka turn to the right when you come to the big fork)

Wednesday – was going to be big cottonwood… but after scouting it out more the color didn’t last and we’ll do little cottonwood same place as monday

Thursday – Provo canyon – Sundance area – I have two places in mind and I’ll keep you updated (we’re still trying to get permission for one of them)

Saturday – See Thursday – Plan on sundance area

I find myself often almost caught by the tide of the popular ideas.

I used to say certain things… that I want to be able to say again with 100% certainty.

With the new wave of business centric thought in photography…
I don’t want to get caught up and forget the things that helped me get to where I am.
That’s not to say I don’t appreciate philosophizing about the business of photography

I watched a presentation by a very successful photographer David Jay but he also stressed.

“If you truly make your business about helping other people you’ll always have alot of work”

I would like to be another witness to that statement.

Things I used to say and stances I used to keep…
Which I re-affirm to keep

I used to say with 100% assurance the following:

“I make my wedding photography and wedding packages the way I would want it, if I were getting married”

I’m gonna make sure this is still the case…

I will fight the fad to make packages it in such a way to make the most money possible and be tricky and suck the unknowledgeable in.

Yes i suppose this could be a blatant affront to those charging low amounts for their photography but walking away with a grip of cash in the end because they charge for everything.

I don’t want to be salesman and I’m lucky enough my business is going well enough I don’t have to be. I don’t want to have to sell and up-sell and squeeze every last drop out of their wallets.

Don’t charge by hour -

I could go off about the trickery in marketing the whole by hour costs seems to be. But I do understand it’s benefits in some cases.
I’ve seen the scenario cause problems in too many cases… well I should say I’ve heard to many horror stories.
I wouldn’t want an hourly person at my wedding… so therefore I’m not gonna be that person.
Another good reason is since everyone else charges hourly in Utah (and many other states) it sets me apart

Don’t push people into buying more -

I don’t like being sold something I wasn’t really after. I’m susceptible to doing it… I’m a spend thrift and am often a sucker…
but it feels so dirty afterwards I feel like they took advantage of me. I don’t want to be that person someone looks back at and says I love the product but in a way I kinda feel like I got tooken advantage of.

Don’t make it all about money.

Give lots of pictures - I would want lots of pictures of my wedding… so that’s how I’m going to keep doing it. I understand and support the other styles… but I’ll stick with my own.

Give the digital copies – Most people want to use their pictures on facebook, their blogs and other electronic methods. I would be one of those people if I were getting married.

If money is the only reason for not responding to the clients wants then shame on you!
Does this mean clients should get digital copies for FREE simply because it costs no money to deliver … NO

But it’s one of the reasons my starting prices are higher… because I provide those desired services and don’t sell them separately.

Besides: There’s much else to be said about letting clients use your pictures without a fuss on Facebook or their blogs.

But once again I’m with you on fighting you on the sense of entitlement from clients thinking that products like that should be free.

But I’m not with you if your stance is to not even offer them. Partly because it’s not what I would want if I were getting married.

I want to always give more than I promised.

Yes we state what we’re going to do for our clients but it’s good business and good friendship building (more important) to go above and beyond.

I make mistakes and each time I do I try to think of a way to more than make up for it. (Also to avoid doing those mistakes)

Stay away from time Limits

They cause problems, they limit creativity, they uphold unneeded expectations, they cause the shoot to go along in an artificial direction. They cause yet another fail point.
And doing it the opposite way certainly has been a big boon for me. Stay the extra 20-30 minutes at a wedding even when they’ve said you are free to go… and you’ll see the magic.

You’ll find that when a photo shoot is time to end it will just end. No need to set a stopwatch or an alarm clock. There are many benefits I could go off about.

Plus… I’m just not into being an Hourly Worker … that’s not how I want to “roll”

Teach – Help

Some people look at their photographic road and consider all the hundreds if not thousands of hours they put into it. The blood, sweat and tears.
And say…
After all I have went through I’m not going to help some person who just wants the easy road out.

I Say… after the thousands of hours I put in with no one to help me…
I will offer my hand of support to the next person wanting to travel the road and hope their journey is a little faster/nicer because of me.
(But I will also let them know they better be willing to fight for it and not expect greatness when they haven’t worked hard for it)
Helping someone to make it there faster doesn’t mean I think they shouldn’t work hard at it.

Teaching Interns
I must say though it’s been hard work and a lot of time investment up front training 3 new interns has been an enriching experience.

My hope is that it will save time and help me to have a life one day.
But as a side benefit it has also increased my ability to improve quality for clients.
AND has helped me to learn a ton as I’ve had to learn the answers and teach.

It also helps to solve the problem that there is no one qualified to be a photographers employee because everyone that learns the skills goes off and starts their own profession as an actual photographer.
I could put up a job posting for someone but I can guess unless I start putting up salaries higher than what I actually make only people with not much experience will be answering the call.

Friendship & Business

I’m not a fan of when people say “you better treat this like a business you’re not out to make friends.”

Well guess what retards I am in it to make friends.

You can take your 100$ extra dollars and keep it “professional”, keep your distance and stick to the business of what you do… I’ll have fun and continue to have people looking out for me.

My intern just gave me a quote “Remember people on your way up, because they’ll remember you on your way down” haha

all in all: Not being so business centric in this field is just good business.

Service

I see both sides of the argument but let me debate one side for a moment.

You don’t always have to charge for what you do!!

In fact if you do… and charge just a little it’s probably worse for you than if you did the shoot for FREE

I believe we are supposed to share our talents and sometimes it’s quite alright to give them away… yes… even for FREE

So many people run scared thinking its hurting their business and the profession of photography.

Well I’m sorry but if giving back or being otherwise charitable is a problem then lets run those doctors without borders blokes out of town for ruining the wages of doctors.
Or lawyers donating their time for good causes crashing the economy of lawyers.

I do my charity shoot and focus on photo-shoots I wouldn’t normally do. Or photo shoots people wouldn’t normally pay for.
I do a lot of roommate pictures for college kids who wouldn’t normally hire a professional…
I go to mexico and donate a weeks time to a good cause. It’s just part of being a good person. And yes it can have positive impact on your business, even your pocket book.

My friend Rich Legg wrote a post about giving back on Photofocus

“I’m willing to work with you based on need”

I had this whole spiel about:

• IF they really really wanted me to do their pictures… we could work something out.
• IF they were just looking for the best deal… then I wasn’t open to playing.
• IF they honestly had a tight budget … I was willing to help.
• IF they were price matching… my offer didn’t apply.
• IF  they went as far as they could go… I would make an effort as well.
• IF  they were just looking for a “good deal” … I would be more than willing to point them in other directions.

Barter/Trade Method

I love this concept… it has so many benefits.
It’s often a WIN/WIN for both sides.

I wholeheartedly support trading services and wish more people were open to it.
But I understand how often the other side doesn’t need photography or I don’t need the services/product they offer

However, it doesn’t hurt to try

Hook Up my Friends

I have been really good at never just telling a customer… sorry I’m busy and hanging up the phone.
I tell them and shock them when I say even though I don’t get a dollar and can’t do the wedding I’ll pass it along to my friends.

“Keep it in the family” … so to speak

One day it might even become a trend for others to start doing this…
So keep watching out for more referrals for weddings I can’t do via twitter

Enjoy It

Make sure I am enjoying what I’m doing.
I chose photography because I was good at it AND enjoyed it. I didn’t like bosses and jobs.

The part I used to love so much about it was seeing the happy faces when people saw the pictures… and being appreciated.

Get Better

I guess I’m just tired of all these photographers talking about how to make more money and in my mind (perhaps mistakenly) they don’t worry about getting better and providing better service.

I want to keep getting better in the actual art of it and I understand the business part of it… but if that’s going well then keep getting better. And if it’s not going well… then keep improving the art… and maybe it’s because you’re focusing too much.

One last word… maybe two

Think about the famous painters of ages past. Strive for great art and you will be remembered as a great artist.
But if you want to be remembered as a business person… well then I guess you got your own thing.

On the other hand it’s not just how good your pictures are but what you do with your talents. The people you affect and the projects you do.

This should be the best year ever of my free charity shoot… I’m excited get ready to schedule your spot (starting tomorrow/Friday)

If you’re interested please read through the full blog before asking questions, if not simply enjoy the pictures at the end.

Everyone should be just about this excited for this opportunity!

How to Book a time for the charity shoot?

Booking will officially start tomorrow (Friday)

Send an email to scheduling@jarviedigital.com

see the online calender for openings – Click here and go to OCTOBER 5th through 10th

we are taking pre-bookings for those that participated in my survey last week.
And my interns have a days head-start to invite their friends to the shoots for the days they’re in charge of.

There should be plenty of spots available up to 60 canyon spots and more than enough Studio time.
I will help with scheduling but I am not in charge of scheduling.
If you send the email it will get to the right place… maybe even doing a comment on the post will work… but no guarantee.

To double check you are official make sure your name is on the online calender.

The schedule is now set

Every day mon-friday 10am-1:30pm = Studio shoots in North Lehi

• CANYONS = Fall Colors
  • Monday 3-7pm = Little Cottonwood canyon
    • White pine trailhead parking lot – it’s 5.5 miles into the canyon -.5 miles before snowbird
    • Here’s a link to the google map
  • Tuesday 3-7pm = American Fork Canyon (At the summit parking lot area)
  • Wednesday 3-7pm = Big Cottonwood Canyon (Silver lake area)
  • Thursday 3-7pm = Provo Canyon (Sundance/Alpine loop area)
  • Saturday 3-7pm = Provo Canyon (Sundance/Alpine loop area spot #2)

Friday is a wedding and only studio shots will be available that day.

Scheduling will be done in 20 minute blocks and if you have a large group or unique need we suggest getting 2 blocks of 20 minutes
As explained later in this post the 20 minutes could end up being more.

Who is invited

Essentially everyone – this was designed for my friends and fans of JarvieDigital on facebook (And also for friends of my interns Paola, Wendy and Heidi)

Types of photo shoots we’re hoping for

Modeling, Children, family, married couples, high school senior, head shots (actors, corporate), roommate pictures, individuals, pets, musicians, dancers, sports, other creative things
Personally I am specially interested in models, seniors and other unique shoots I might want more of in my portfolio.

Types of photo shoots excluded

Wedding related shoots
(there are too many people hoping for spots to give these to wedding shoots who will be getting photography done whether or not it’s at the charity shoot, plus 20 minutes doesn’t really cut it)

The setup

Multiple photographers

I will be present at every photo-shoot and will take pictures at every shoot.

Each day is being scheduled and organized by a different one of my Interns (Paola, Wendy and Heidi)
They’ll also be in charge of answering many of the questions

There will an estimated 40-50 photo shoots in one week so there is no way I can answer all of them and still continue to go on with my life and my work.

Shooting = Liberal 2o minutes

What will happen at most shoots is you’ll show up and we’ll start taking some pictures when the time is up one of the photographers will switch to the next event and start taking pictures and there is a high likely hood one of the photographers can stay behind to keep taking some pictures.

So more than likely you get more than 20 minutes of pictures for a 20 minute block.

On several days there will be other people assisting and other Guest Photographers which increases the amount of time and therefore pictures that will be happening

Who the photographers will be

• • ME – i’ll be there at every shoot
  • Heidi – see her website and blog - for sure on Tues and Wednesday (possibly others)
  • Wendy – see her website and blog – For sure Monday and Saturday (and 1 or 2 others)
  • Paola – for sure Thursday and Tuesday

Guest photographers (Still making special invitations)

• • Tara Winsor – her website and blog (likely Tuesday and Wednesday)
  • Jeremy Hall – his blog (Tuesday)

Comparison = If it weren’t free

Granted these are time limited which in my normal shoots i Never do… but I thought I’d share some comparisons for what you’ll get for free from me.
And I understand that these are not the average costs across the state.

• Family shoots are usually: $500 (often 100-300 in many other places)
• Modeling : starting at abt $500
• Senior shoots : starting at abt $400

About the Charity part

Though this is a charitable event of me being kind to my friends it is also a way for you to be giving to a charitable organization.
This year like last year it will be Family to Family Humanitarian Expeditions (FFHE) – check my previous post about them for more info

Or go to their website FFHE.org

Viewing donations made last year and the demand that there will be this year we’d like to ask that you donate a minimum of $30 to FFHE
Full disclosure is that some of the funds will go to getting a couple of devices needed to do these shoots.

If you wonder what is an appropriate amount to donate please consider what you would have spent to get these taken if it were not a FREE shoot.
But understand this is also about us being charitable to YOU our friends, so if $30 is all you can donate we welcome you with arms wide open.

FAQ

How do we get the pictures?

They’ll all be online on a system called SmugMug
They’ll be free to rt click and save and use on things like emails, computer backgrounds and specially facebook or blogs

Prints should be done through the smugmug system which will be connected to BayPhoto one of the top 2 highest rated quality labs in the country.
Since it is a free shoot and there will be so many groups we won’t be sending out a disc
Again the cost of prints will go towards the cost of putting on the event and donations to the Charitable foundation FFHE

Again we do encourage you to use the pictures for free on blogs and facebook and all your electronic systems.
But to answer your possible question: print rights are not given with this particular free photo shoot. You can ask about the possibility if it’s important to you.

When do we get the exact location (Parking spot)

I will work on connecting a map to the calender section or here on the blog post next week.
For now knowing the canyon will have to suffice

What if we have a big group?

You’ll want to set aside more time and grab possibly 2 blocks of time.
You might also have to realize you might not get all the shots you want.

How long to get the pictures back?

To answer the main question yes they will be ready for your Christmas and thanksgiving cards

But in reality it could take a couple weeks depending on the backup

Though I’m not the only one editing these pictures I will be gone out of the country the following week

Who’s editing the pictures

Any pictures taken by me or my interns will be reviewed by myself and I will edit many of them but there will be many of us doing the editing so there is no way to know for sure.
Pictures taken by guest photographers will probably need to come from them and we’ll play that by ear.

How to book a time slot?

Please re-read the beginning of the email. Go to online calender for openings

EXAMPLES

Just a couple from the first two years

FIRST YEAR (Fall) 2007 I only did about 12 shoots that first year

LAST YEAR (Studio) Over 30 shoots in one week

Hard to believe this is the 3rd year of my yearly tradition of shooting pictures for FREE

But I’m excited to do it again and have some new changes to spice it up a ton!

I’m going back to my roots like the first year and doing a Fall Colors theme.
Last year I did a week long of studio shoots and I’ll also offer that during the week as well.

So here’s the deal for those who don’t know.

I do quick shoots all week long for FREE … which for no financial gain on my part.
My way of saying thanks to my friends. Thus the charitable part.

The Charity

But last year I started a new tradition of taking donations which were given to a charitable organization.

The organization will be FFHE (Family to Family Humanitarian Expeditions)
It does a lot of great work in Mexico for families in need and also affects the lives of those that go on the expeditions

Check them Out http://ffhe.org/

I also end up donating a week to shoot for this organization in Mexico.
Here’s some pics from the expedition from last year.

i will note that some of the cost will go towards some equipment needed for the shoots

Survey

In any case… this post is to announce that the event will be held from Oct 5th to the 10th

We are not scheduling quite yet but you can help to give us get that together.

The theme is FALL COLORS + Studio

Which canyon would you prefer (we’ll do all of them just need to see demand)

• Provo (Sundance) Canyon
• American Fork Canyon
• Little Cottonwood Canyon
• Big Cottonwood Canyon
• Other Canyon
• Studio

Which Day

Monday through Saturday

What time

10-2 (Studio) or 3-7 (Canyon)

Minimum donation

I’ve found over the years that those paying nothing do not seem to appreciate the offer
Plus it goes to a good cause.

So would everyone be willing to donate a minimum of $30
This is not only a charity for a good cause this is a charity for YOU so I don’t want to exclude those that can’t.

So the questions are is $30 acceptable and secondly what would a short shoot be worth Donating for you?

FAQ

I will do another post when i get a few minutes and announce how to sign up for a shoot spot.
They will fill up fast and I will let those doing the survey get first choice

Send survey to accounts@jarviedigital.com or just respond here.

I will also post pictures of previous years.

One quick note is that I won’t be doing any wedding shoots for Free and the time periods will be somewhat limited to fit everyone in.

Last years many people showed up to do family shoots, roommate pictures, individual shoots, model pictures,

BE Creative!! I wan’t this to be fun… it’s your chance to do shoots you wouldn’t have done if you had to pay $500 to get done.

So this is part of the story of my jump into Photography as a career.

A big part of that was this couple.
I had no intentions to doing paid jobs.
I had bought the D70 with no intentions of making money.
Megan asked if I’d do their engagements… I looked at it as something fun to do.
If they didn’t turn out I told them (and we both understood) that a Real photographer could easily do them.

I can’t even remember which picture they originally chose on this shoot.
The photo shoot was in March of 2005 if I remember right.

Below was the result… above is picture i just re-edited yesterday. (A treat for the couple)

(Above) – In fact this is better than the original edit… i think I edited the above one a year ago.
Would be interesting to see all 3 versions I’ve edited.
The first editing program i had 5 years ago was photoshop elements

(ABOVE) – As you can see I’ve re-edited a bunch from the shoot.
Like i have my whole career I’ve always taken TONS of pictures.

THEN OTHERS CAME ALONG

Their wedding was 4 years ago. Wow how the time passes.

When other friends found out and saw what I had done for this couple they started to jump on the band wagon.
I had some natural ability, i was easy to get along with.
But probably the most exciting thing was that I cost almost nothing… haha
$300-400 i think was the first couple weddings. (I offered to do the wedding for this couple for free of course)
I stayed under $1000 for a while

EDITING

Looking back my way of interacting with the clients hasn’t changed too much.
I think it started off great since I took pictures of so many people I was very comfortable with first.
I was able to continue that for the years down the line. As I just learned to make the subjects my friends while I took the pictures… so i could goof off and have fun and connect with them.

I don’t think I would have even considered the picture below years ago…
But the re-edited one above looks rather fun edited.

Looks almost as if I had just taken this picture.

I’m also glad I had a great looking couple to start off with… i think that made things easier.
I didn’t feel pressured to come up with tons of ideas. They knew it was my first time… they approached me!

Dang JPGs are so much harder to edit… this took a while because on JPGs the colors are so closely connected… you can’t seem to edit the contrast and blacks without screwing up the colors.
I’m still not completely satisfied with the tones but am liking the trees in the background.

TO THE WHITE FAMILY

Megan if you’re reading this,  the originals of these new ones are online if you’d like to save them and have them.
Also I’ll be doing another Charity Shoot this fall… you’re invited… it’s on me!

OTHER OLD JOBS

I bet it would be interesting to go through and edit the pictures from my old jobs!
Probably a little fun…. but in the end I’m sure I don’t have the time.

There’s a business prospect in there somewhere… haha

WHAT DOES IT SAY

What should I think that many of the brides I’ve taken pictures of have actually turned to pursuing photography as a profession or at least a involved hobby.
I think it’s pretty fun.

MORE HISTORY

I hope to write a few more posts reviewing the past… i think it’s fun.
Was it helpful?
Any questions about the first couple jobs or that part of the history.
Many know the rest of the story of how I started getting into photography… I’ll get to that. When things around JarvieDigital start to slow down.

So we’re not really introducing video to cameras,

But we are itroducing video to this blog.

And I am introducing the D300s

Since now I own a camera that does video it makes it so easy to record video, upload to smugmug and imbed that video here on this blog.

My disclaimers are:

This is the first video on my blog, my first video I’ve recorded for a blog. So I did several takes because I wasn’t about to spend the time to edit and splice stuff.
But I still made verbal mistakes and since I only have owned the camera for a few hours I still don’t have a handle on the focusing.
I also did hand hold it…
So basically don’t get too after me about the quality of filming.

But I do aim and can promise I will get much better.

D300s

Rundown on new notable features.

• Video
• 7 frames per second without grip
• faster access to live view – 2 button clicks to start recording
• on camera mic and plug in for external mic
• better d-lighting
• quite mode – means take a picture without much noise. (forgot to mention on video)
• dual CF and SD slots
• Better latch for memory card slots
• the cool center button I love (like introduced on D700)

If you want me to talk about anything else… I might be persuaded to make a few more videos.

This blog also happens to be a test of the amazing video features of SmugMug – the place where I happen to put all of my pictures.

I searched for a while to figure out how to embed video into this blog (it being my first time) there were ANY good resources I could easily find online (we know how a mess the internet is)
So I’ll quickly say I grabbed the embed into web code from smugmug much as one would get the embed link for a picture.
You must keep in mind this is code and not a URL or link… so you switch over to HTML on your wordpress editor and drop it into its place.
This suposes you know how to do a lot of what i just explained. But for me that’s exactly what I was hoping to find out that took me 20 minutes to figure out on my own because there were no good sources.

Shameless plug: Who wants to buy a used D300 (or even a much less expensive D200)