livebooks blog

Great Gray Owl (Strix nebulosa)

Donald M. Jones of Great Gray Imagery has been a full-time Wildlife Photographer for the past 25 years. He worked for the U.S. Forest Service for 10 seasons following college (B.S.’ Forestry and Finance) before his Photography career. It was during those years that he honed his skills and began selling images to outdoor publications around the country.

With the blessing’s of his wife, he went full time and didn’t look back. Donald M. Jones’ coverage spans the North American continent rather than the entire planet, as he thought it was more important to be a good husband and father than a globe trotter – he has no regrets…

Jones’ specialty is mammals, though birds are very close to his heart – just tougher to make a living with. All his subjects are wild – no Game Farms, pets or zoo animals. Jones’ clients are varied from most all the larger Natural History and sporting magazines to calendars, advertising companies, etc. His 12th book “Wild Montana” was just released this past March.

Elk (Cervus canadensis)

Q&A with Donald M. Jones

Q1: How would you describe the aesthetic of your website in three words?

DMJ: Simple – Clean – Vibrant

Q2: How often do you typically update your website?

DMJ: I update my “Recent Adventures” Portfolio about every 6-8 weeks. I add new images to my existing portfolios as I produce images that I feel will bolster a particular portfolio.

Sea Otter (Enhydra lutris) mother and pup, Price William Sound, Alaska.

Q3: How do you choose the photos that you display on your homepage?

DMJ: My homepage is simple. The name of my business is “Great Gray Imagery” Named after the largest Owl in North America. As a kid I always wanted to see a Great Gray Owl, I was fascinated by them so I named my business after them – yet I still had never seen one. Time has past and I have had the opportunity to spend a good deal of time with them (I will this weekend as a matter of fact) so what better homepage image than a full frontal of the “Gray Ghost” the Great Gray Owl.

Q4: What is your favorite feature of liveBooks?

DMJ: The uploading of new images is very simple and having the ability to design from my office desktop, awesome.

Mountain Goat (Oreamnos americanus)

Q5:What’s one piece of advice you’d offer to someone designing their website?

DMJ: I’ll comment on what I know and that’s Wildlife. If you are showcasing portfolios on a certain species be sure you show your depth of your coverage. I see too many sites where an individual wants to showcase a certain species, i.e. Elk – yet there coverage is all taken from a two week period once a year – I feel you don’t want a portfolio to look like you shot it over the holiday week. You want to have your perspective clients to say “if he has this, this, this and that, what else might he have.” I find it’s better to have 10 subjects done well than 100 subjects superficially done.

I find my website to critically important to those new clients but it’s my searchable database through my website that is the gift that keeps on giving with old and new clients alike. Let your website be a sampling of who you are but let those that care to review your entire library (or nearly entire library…) at there whim day or night.

See more from Donald M. Jones here: https://www.donaldmjones.com/

Black Bear (Ursus americanus)

Michael Grecco is an award-winning internationally renowned director and photographer of celebrity portraits, advertising and editorial commissions, private collections and fine art.

One of the most respected and sought after visual storytellers in the world, his conceptual vision and signature dramatic lighting create distinctive images that are evocative, sophisticated and comedic. Grecco has been shooting iconic portraits of the most recognized entertainment stars such as Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Will Ferrell and Penelope Cruz.

Known not only for his high-concept imagery and his ability to light like no other, Grecco is also valued for his innate ability to connect with each subject to bring out surprising nuance and a conceptual twist that makes even the most recognizable faces intriguing and fresh. Photographing intimate portraits of celebrities, boxers, rappers, scientists, and business leaders, Grecco’s images captivate our attention and imagination. Thus he delivers on every aspect of his client’s vision, satisfying the most recognized brands including Apple, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Direct TV, and Pfizer.

On the pulse point of cutting edge technology and innovation, Grecco is a regarded expert and celebrated speaker on creativity, photography and his signature lighting and directorial technique worldwide. As a Hasselblad Master he is a sought after trainer, traveling the globe speaking and leading informative and hands on workshops.

His provocative documentary movie and accompanying book Naked Ambition has earned critical acclaim. His award winning still images are published the world over in magazines such as Esquire, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone and Time.

Grecco is often referred to as the Master of Lighting. He is the author of the best-selling photographer’s guidebook: Lighting and the Dramatic Portrait: The Art of Celebrity and Editorial Photography, which is now available as an eBook. His lectures on photography are popular and he has been profiled extensively in key photographic trade journals.

Michael Grecco is based in Los Angeles. He is a devoted father to three children. In his spare time he can be seen exploring his hometown subcultures on his Triumph Bonneville with his favorite camera in tow, ready to find, capture and inspire.

Q&A with Michael Grecco

Q1: How would you describe the aesthetic of your website in three words?

MG: EVOCATIVE. CINEMATIC. INSPIRATION.

Q2: How do you choose the work you display on your homepage?

MG: I worked closely with my film editor in picking images, Cinemagraphs and motion segments that would work together in the director’s real. All the images are from the portfolios on the site and then he made the final selects to use in the finished piece.

Q3: What is your favorite feature of liveBooks?

MG: That they have an already formatted backend that makes changing the content easy.

Q4: What’s one piece of advice you’d offer to someone designing their website?

MG: Take your time and do it right. We redid things that did not work, and it makes a difference in the end product.

Q5: Tell us about a recent project that you’re proud of.

MG: I am currently working on a 6-part documentary TV series, documentary film, book and fashion line based on some of my archival images.

“To shoot dramatic and conceptual portraits, I create moments to capture with my lens that unlock the hidden story of our innermost being to reveal the drama, comedy, and irony of who we really are.” – Michael Grecco

See more of Michael Grecco’s work here: www.michaelgrecco.com

Piracy and image theft can be an issue among content creators and most of the time it’s only one right-click away. One way of ensuring ownership on your images is adding watermarks on each item before uploading it online. While this is a common practice among some artists, we understand you may be hesitant to use them. Here are the pros and cons of using watermarks on your online portfolios.

The easiest way for someone to take your photograph is to right-click on it and save the image on their computer or to right-click and copy the image address. But what if we could disable right-clicking on all your images?

The way to disable right-clicking on liveBooks requires utilizing the HTML content block feature. And it’s easy! All you have to do is copy and paste a HTML snippet that will be provided in this article into a HTML block from your content editor and publish that new change. You can disable right-clicking on images on your entire website or on specific pages.

Follow these instructions to disable right-click on images throughout your entire website:

1. In your Content editor, under Global Content, select Footer. 
2. Create an HTML content block within the footer.
3. Copy and paste this HTML snippet to the HTML content block you created: <script type=”text/javascript”>
   //<![CDATA[
   /* ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
   Disable context menu on images by GreenLava (BloggerSentral.com)
   Version 1.0
   You are free to copy and share this code but please do not remove this credit notice.
   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ */
   function nocontext(e) {
   var clickedTag = (e==null) ? event.srcElement.tagName : e.target.tagName;
   if (clickedTag == “IMG”) {
   alert(alertMsg);
   return false;
   }
   }
   var alertMsg = “Image context menu is disabled”;
   document.oncontextmenu = nocontext;
   //]]>
   </script>
4. Save, publish and you’re done!

If you wish to only add this feature to a specific page, follow these instructions:

1. In the Content editor, click into the Page you wish to add this feature to.
2. Create an HTML content block to this page. 
3. Add the following HTML snippet to the HTML content block you created: <script type=”text/javascript”>
   //<![CDATA[
   /* ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
   Disable context menu on images by GreenLava (BloggerSentral.com)
   Version 1.0
   You are free to copy and share this code but please do not remove this credit notice.
   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ */
   function nocontext(e) {
   var clickedTag = (e==null) ? event.srcElement.tagName : e.target.tagName;
   if (clickedTag == “IMG”) {
   alert(alertMsg);
   return false;
   }
   }
   var alertMsg = “Image context menu is disabled”;
   document.oncontextmenu = nocontext;
   //]]>
   </script>
4. Save, publish and you’re done!

Now when you or anyone else will right-click your images, a notification pop-up will show up instead. It will look something like this, depending on the operating system installed on the visitor’s computer, phone or tablet. (For phone or tablets, these chances affect the action generated by long pressing on your images.)

The default message when trying to right-click an image is ‘Image context menu is disabled’, but you can replace it to whatever you like in the code above. If you prefer not to show the alert box at all, just delete this portion of the code:

alert(alertMsg);

return false;

}

}

var alertMsg = “Image context menu is disabled”;  

Our support specialists are happy to help you make any changes you want on your liveBooks website. Book a call, send an email or chat directly from our website!

If online visibility for your website is what you want, proper SEO is what you need

Your website is relevant, your portfolios are updated, your photography is flawless; so how come so few come to visit? It all comes down to that super popular fellow who only listens to bits of your story, but is excited to share all info it has on you to whomever will ask – the search engine.

Yes, it’s definitely your friend, as long as it gets to know you. Introducing SEO, the one thing every photography website owner knows they need, but not too many actually accommodate it. SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the information laid out for the algorithms that skim through each published page, indexing them. They go from link to link and figure out what each website is about, how reliable it is and thus, how relevant it is for the online seeker.

According to what keywords you’ve used in the SEO fields, it will determine a ranking for your website. You already have a great photography website, but does the SEO formula agree? There are a few things you can do to put your foot in google search’s door and say “Alright, I’m here!”

It’s SEO Everything™ time!

The liveBooks websites are all about ease of access to your content, and SEO fits right in the whole scenario. It’s a platform used mainly by photography professionals, a career that stresses on the visual advantage over linguistics, which usually makes indexing a little harder, but we have many ways to go around that. It’s called SEO Everything and it truly is everything you need to get your photography website running at the speed of SEO. (There’s no such measurement unit, but we figure it’s fast. Superfast.)

First things first: check that your website will be indexed by search engines. This feature is automatically turned on, but we’ll go ahead and double-check just in case.

1. Go to settings, then click on the SEO tab.
2. While we’re here, let’s make sure that your website title and description are filled in. We’re determined to make the title visible for search engines, so our advice is to make it easy to read: business name + the keyword that describes your field of work (“Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” is a great example, even though we’re positive it wasn’t intentional). What you write in the description is up to you. This is the place where keywords are not important and it’s the only place where you don’t need to worry about google’s piercing scanners. The description appears under your website name in search results. (http://goo.gl/3HBg5R)
3. We can now proceed to the reason why we’re here: the first field in the search settings field. You want your website to be found, so the first option should be turned on. (http://goo.gl/cENHbu)
4. Finally, scroll down to the last field, Schema.org, and choose the appropriate organization type to be featured by this tool in indexing your website. (http://goo.gl/HkQJAU)

SEO for your pages

Now we’re ready to take on the great adventure of page and image SEO. This is an important journey to make, since we’re dealing with a photography website where written content is usually scarce. To give an overall perspective, the SEO algorithms behave best in a page containing around 600 words, so we’ll have to make up for it if you choose to let your photography do the talking without inserting text blocks to your galleries. Still, a few words are in order here, a few well written and descriptive words which will serve as your copy-paste material for the keywords field and will never again be seen on your website.

Before you move any further, get writing! Remember, capitalization is unimportant here, but spacing and spelling is. The recipe for a proper keyword sequence is keyword comma space keyword comma space and so on. (ex. wedding photography, engagement photography, ceremony photography in AZ, etc.)

In your content area click on a page and you’ll see a SEO & Settings dropdown field on the right side. This is where you stunning copy-paste skills will come in handy. Fill in these blocks with the keywords and description you’ve set. Do this for all pages. It’s tedious, we know, but you only do it once. Okay, you do it every time you create a new page or item, but trust us, it matters.

SEO for your photos

Now, we’ve said SEO Everything and we mean it! Don’t think we forgot the most important actors in your show: the photographs. In your image library click on the eye icon that appears when you hover over with your mouse and you’ll see a pop-up with the image info. We’ll focus on the first two fields: the title and the description. liveBooks allows google to index this info even if you choose not to show it on your website with the image info on hover option. This is a great feature that not all photography platforms can take pride in having, so we’re boosting over here.

1. Fill in the title first; it should be descriptive (sunset wedding on Cape cod, floral arrangement at reception, newly weds take wows, etc.).
   Notice how the examples we’ve given contain more words connected to your business, not just photography. That’s because as much as you want people to find you for their specific need, you also wouldn’t mind to have a prospective client bump into your work while googling for a flower arrangement and finding a great photographer to capture the spirit of their big event. and coming back to our buddy google and its power to validate your website, this is a great way to convince it that you are a proper professional who understands the entire ensemble of your work field.
2. The description, on the other hand, can differ from image to image and it is up to you to make it as detailed as you want to give an even bigger picture.

Extra tips

• You should have one website for your business so that google doesn’t get mislead
• If you’re doing a blog, use your website as the platform for it instead of an external page. Feel free to use outside links to projects.
• Keeping track of your ranking and optimal keywords is a must when reaching for a greater audience. The liveBooks professional plan includes real-time analytics, so you won’t have to bother with 3rd party tools.
• Changes won’t happen straight away, it takes time for the algorithms to find your updates and index them.