Photographers Rant
Have you ever looked at something and thought to yourself “I can do that, it’s so easy.” So why don’t you do it yourself then? My biggest complaint that I get on a regular basis concerning my show coverage is “When are you going to post your coverage?” I usually get this complaint the day of the event or even the next day from several forum post, emails and even text messages. I will even get complaints after my coverage is posted that I missed someone's ride at the show.
If you’re like me, you know that anything worth doing is worth doing right the first time, so what’s the rush? My show coverage routine is A LOT different from other websites that post coverage. I don’t use templates or have a staff of people to help me out. I don’t think my coverage is “better” I just like to have a different layout and theme than everyone else.
It takes me on average at least 10-20 hours per show to give YOU my coverage for free. Once the images are uploaded from my camera to my computer I automatically resize my images and then I used to manually watermark my logo (one photo at a time). Now I automatically watermark my images and save. I just recently increased the size of my photos which slows down my production time.
Once the coverage has been resized, renamed and watermarked, I then manually break it down into categories and get it ready to upload to my server. Once the coverage is ready I copy and paste my show coverage layout html and create a new page.
I manually hyperlink each category tab one by one and create a master file. After one page is complete I then copy and paste the code and create the rest of my categories. After the page is created, I upload my photos and convert them into thumbnail images one by one. I then manually arrange the thumbnails into rows and create additional pages when they are needed, which is done one page at a time.
Once my coverage is complete and ready to post, I edit the page title for each page to increase search engine traffic. Depending on the number of photos per category it can take several hours just to complete one page of my show coverage.
Show coverage is a hobby and a passion of mine. I do not get paid for this and I do not charge anyone to view my work. I do this for the builders, the auto enthusiast and anyone that didn’t get to make it to the show. Most of the complaints that I get, come from people that actually went to the show but were to drunk to pay attention or take a photo. Anyone can take pictures and post them on the internet just like I do. Almost every cell phone now has a camera. So I encourage those who keep on asking to either “do it yourself” or just wait a little longer…
Show coverage is so easy; it’s just a few clicks of a button… Kind of…
Thanks!
-Jance
Written August 1st, 2009
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