Any IPTC/SEO/Photoshelter experts out there?
Confusion reigns… Over the last week or so I have made a start on my Photoshelter archive, something I really should have done a long time ago – my backlog of images is really quite frightening. However I have hit a bit of a stumbling block. In terms of SEO, and within PS itself, how best should I be using the IPTC fields?
My understanding of IPTC fields suggest I should be using IPTC Headline as a succinct, one sentence summary of the image – something along the lines of “Schooling snapper on a coral reef, Manado, Sulawesi, Indonesia.” I then use the IPTC Caption field to provide more detailed/extra information about the subject, location etc. However, Photoshelter doesn’t actually display the headline field when you are presented with a gallery of thumbnails, when you view the pop-up image, or on the image page itself. So why use the headline field at all? It seems PS is missing out the most important bit of information. Or am I doing somthing really stupid here?
I’m also very confused about what information to include for SEO and there seems to be a lot of conflicting information out there. Some people recommend using ‘Stock Photography Image’ in the headline field, and the full information in the caption. Others to use headline and caption as above. And the Photoshelter help page is very obtuse to say the least:
Headline
A publishable entry providing a synopsis of the contents of the news object. Headline is not the same as Title.
Any pointers or advice from anyone using PS? Any IPTC recommendations? SEO recommendations? I really need to make sure I am doing the right thing before uploading any more images to PS…
News and plans…
Its been a little quiet here over the last few weeks – too much work to do and not enough time… I have been doing a lot of planning for future trips, working on some publications and rethinking this site and how I can earn some money from my image collection. So, in no particular order:
- I will be shooting at the climate demonstration in London on the 5th December – read more about The Wave organised by Stop Climate Chaos;
- I will be heading to Copenhagen between 13-17th December to shoot some images for a friend who has just set up a music studio and is managing a couple of bands, as well as the events surrounding the COP15 Climate Conference;
- I have been invited out to Sudan to shoot for the Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust in February 2010 and am putting together a big trip around this – more news to come soon, but it should be an incredible few months;
- I am steadily uploading my back catalogue of images to Photoshelter. Over the next few months, I am aiming to get all my images available for purchase and download, and integrate my PS archive with this site – again, more news to come soon;
- Plans for the iPhone dive guide app are not working out, mainly because of the cost of development. So instead, I am writing and designing a couple of pdf diving guides that should be available before Christmas – perfect e-stocking fillers. These will be the first of several and will be the most comprehensive and up-to-date guides available.
- I am planning a trip back out to SE Asia for May 2010 – hopefully 3 months of shooting, possibly a bit of diving, and eating lots of superb food! Air Asia have some great deals for flights at the moment and since I will be traveling light, time to make a few purchases.
- In the post yesterday I received a Black Rapid RS-4 camera strap. I hate the Nikon straps so ordered the RS4 on the strength of some recommendations from other photogs. I placed my original order mid-September but the package failed to materialise – lost in the UK postal system no doubt. I sent an enquiry to Black Rapid and received an email the next day saying a new strap had been sent out, no questions asked. Just over 1 week later, package arrived. Many thanks to Herb Gayheart at Black Rapid for great customer service.
Lastly, Asian Diver magazine have just published one of my images, taken in Pemuteran, Bali. I wouldn’t normally post something like this, but I like the fact that they used an image you don’t normally see in dive magazines.
Lots going on… 2010 is looking full of possibilities, I just need to pull it all together.
IPhone dive guide app
What features would you like to see in a dive guide app for the iPhone? Is there anything you would consider essential? Or a waste of space? What features do you think would help make a slick design?
I am in the midst of writing and designing a series of apps for the iPhone and would appreciate some input from the diving community as a whole. The apps will be offline site guides for a variety of different locations and will include general information about the area, specific information about dive sites, galleries, topside attractions and information about seasons etc. I am also debating whether to include information about operators, but to be honest I would rather just focus on the sites themselves – concentrate on getting the facts right and let the user work out where they want to stay…
So, what sort of features would you like to see in an app? Photo tips? Searches for wreck, reef or muck sites? Links to operators or dive clubs? Let me know what you think! I’ll be posting about the whole process so please feel free to jump in with any suggestions.
How much is a photo worth?
I recently had a request for some images from a web-designer doing a site for a new diving resort. The initial email asked for rates and I quoted what I thought was a very reasonable price – $350 for 10 low-res images.
He replied with a ‘No thanks, way too expensive’, so I asked him what sort of budget he had. This is what I got back from him:
For website: because it’s small res pics, I give link credit and prefer no time limit.
For print, I can pay 5$ each (price of istockphoto). I want to print (100 pieces) of an A4 or A3 advertising sign with a mosaic images.
Basically, I would get $50 for allowing him to use the images on the site in-perpetuity, as well as produce the advertising signs.
I replied with a ‘No thanks, and would you consider working for a pittance? ‘ type of reply. However, given I am broke at the moment, should I have said yes? $50 is $50…
Just how much is a photo worth at the moment?
Weekend inspiration…
I have been rather busy the last week or so, helping my parents pack and prepare for a move out of the UK, and my sister and her family move into to my parents’ old house. Just a little chaotic…
Luckily, I’ve also managed to get some work here amongst the gloom-and-doom, sufficient to keep me afloat for a few months and work on finishing the book and a some projects for next year. Some big news coming soon, keep an eye out for updates over the next few weeks.
As you can imagine, I have no time for shooting at the moment. Instead, lots of trawling the internet and twitter for photography that I find inspiring. If you have some time this weekend, take a peek at the sites below:
Website redesign – Pt. 2…
As you may have noticed, many of the galleries and images are not working as they should be – I seem to be having some java script problems with my plugins and the new WP 2.8. Galleries will be rebuilt and updated as soon as I have the time, and actually work out what the problem is…
The website and book have taken a back seat at the moment. I am in the midst of helping my parents move – ie helping rid the house of 35 years’ worth of ’stuff’ – and working on getting a salary for a few months. Watch this space!
Apple Mac R.I.P…
A sad, sad day. Farewell to an Apple IIe – one of the originals, with 48k memory and twin floppy drives – a Macintosh LC and a Powerbook 100. Mr Jobs, if you are reading this, we have been faithful Apple supporters for many years now – could you send me a iPhone 3G S as a reward?
Shark Trust – Sharks in Focus Competition
Just announced, this year’s ‘Sharks in Focus’ Photo Competition, run by the Shark Trust and Diver Magazine. See below from the Shark Trust site. This organisation does a huge amount of work to support shark and ray conservation through research, management and education – join them today!
Due to the phenomenal success in 2007; the Sharks in Focus photography competition is back and will be officially launched on 1st July when you can submit your images on the Shark Trust website.
Love them or fear them there’s no disputing sharks are a “must see” for most divers. But as many of you will have experienced first-hand dive sites famed for their sharks now often disappoint. Sharks are disappearing, with many species in dramatic decline due to habitat destruction, poorly regulated fisheries and the shark fin trade. Now is your chance to contribute to shark conservation and support the vital work of the Shark Trust.
The Shark Trust believes that the profile of these mysterious and much maligned animals can be bolstered through the increased public awareness that still and moving images can provide. So whatever your experience or age, this is your opportunity to join the hundreds of photographers who made Sharks in Focus 2007 such a phenomenal success. Be part of Sharks in Focus 2009 and help celebrate the majesty and diversity of sharks whilst bringing their vulnerability to a wider audience, not to mention putting yourself in the running to win big prizes and feature in the 2010 Diver Magazine calender.
Website redesign…
For the last few months now I have been contemplating a complete redesign of my site – move it away from a traditional blog format and towards a magazine-style layout, with the images themselves playing a much greater role. This weekend I bit the bullet and bought a premium wordpress theme – Modularity from Graph Paper Press – and made the change.
I still have some way to go, particularly getting the galleries back up and tweaking old posts. I also need to set up a new category section – ‘features’ is duplicated at the moment. But the framework is in place and so far, so good. The idea of a magazine format is that the content is less ‘linear’ – visitors are able to explore older, categorised content a little more easily and I can use features to highlight particular information without using sticky posts.
What do you think? Any comments, suggestions? It’s still a work in progress so let me know!
Mindless divers…
Sometimes I wonder why people dive. They are lucky enough to be able to explore the underwater world, and yet feel it necessary to carve their names on a sponge. So if anyone knows divers called Peter, Kamila and Milan that have dived Tulamben recently, let them know that I am on their case!
The website is dead. Long live the website!
I never thought it would happen to me, but at the end of March the company that hosted my previous site went into liquidation – disappeared off the face of the earth is a little more accurate to be honest – and left me with no site and no access to emails using my previous address. I also made a real schoolboy error, backing up the site to the server itself rather than locally, thinking that if a problem occurs, its likely to be a corrupt db or similar and not access to the server as a whole!
On top of that, my domain expired and the auto-renew set up with my previous hosting company didn’t go through for obvious reasons. I’m still working at getting this back but for the time being, I have a new domain – Matthew-Oldfield-Photography.
I lost all the content from my old site so this one is looking a little barren. However, I now have somewhere I can post travel updates and reports and get the newsletter back up and running.
So – RIP Matthewoldfieldphotography.com. Long live Matthew-Oldfield-Photography.com!
Something different…
I’m a science geek and proud of it. So today, a poem – ‘Gravity’ by John Frederick Nims. I love the ‘Euclidean whimsies’ and ‘Serene parabolas’ – just like my efforts on the badminton court:-D
Mildest of all the powers of earth: no lightnings
For her – maniacal in the clouds. No need for
Signs with their skull and crossbones, chain-link gates:
Danger! Keep out! High Gravity! she’s friendlier.
Won’t nurse – unlike the magnetic powers – repugnance;
Would reconcile, draw close: her passion’s love.
No terrors lurking in her depths, like those
Bound in that buzzing strongbox of the atom,
Terrors that, loosened, turn the hills vesuvian,
Trace in cremation where the cities were.No, she’s our quiet mother, sensible.
But therefore down-to-earth, not suffering
Fools who play fast and loose among the mountains,
Who fly in her face, or, drunken, clown on cornices.
She taught our ways of walking. Her affection
Adjusted the morning grass, the sands of summer
Until our soles fit snug in each, walk easy.
Holding her hand, we’re safe. Should that hand fail,
The atmosphere we breathe would turn hysterical,
Hiss with tornadoes, spinning us from earth
Into the cold unbreathable desolations.Yet there – in fields of space – is where she shines,
Ring-mistress of the circus of the stars,
Their prancing carousels, their ferris wheels
Lit brilliant in celebration. Thanks to her
All’s gala in the galaxy. Down here she
Walks us just right, not like the jokey moon
Burlesquing our human stride to kangaroo hops;
Not like the vast planets, whose unbearable mass
Would crush us in a bear hug to their surface
And into the surface, flattened. No: deals fairly.Makes happy each with each: the willow bend
Just so, the acrobat land true, the keystone
Nestle in place for bridge and for cathedral.
Lets us pick up – or mostly – what we need:
Rake, bucket, stone to build with, logs for warmth,
The fallen fruit, the fallen child… ourselves.
Instructs us too in honesty: our jointed
Limbs move awry and crisscross, gawky, thwart;
She’s all directness and makes that a grace,
All downright passion for the core of things,
For rectitude, the very ground of being:
Those eyes are leveled where the heart is set.See, on the tennis court this August day:
How, beyond human error, she’s the one
Whose will the bright balls cherish and obey -
As if in love. She’s tireless in her courtesies
To even the klutz (knees, elbows all a-tangle),
Allowing his poky serve Euclidean whimsies,
The looniest lob its joy: serene parabolas.
