livebooks blog

Dale Clark is the top Commercial Photographer specializing in Interiors and Architecture in Columbus and Central Ohio. Dale’s work has been featured in various publications including The Wall Street Journal, HouseTrends Magazine, Dream Homes, Columbus Underground, Popular Photography, and Shutterbug. Dale holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Wright State University and attended Kettering University (formerly GMI) for Graduate Studies. We are very excited to share his business story and how it came together seamlessly with the liveBooks 8 platform:

I started Arc Photography in 2008 after 20 years of managing a large-scale automotive manufacturing operation. Photography, especially Architectural photography, has always been a hobby and passion. I made the decision to leave the corporate life and dive into Architectural photography full-time in 2008. With a lot of long hours, hard work and persistence, Arc photography has turned into one of the highest volume Architectural/Residential photography companies in Ohio.

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

DC: The website is clean yet bold. Very basic to allow the images to stand out and speak for our business. (Clean, bold, basic)

Q: How often do you typically update your website?

DC: I generally update 4 to 5 times a year, sometimes around seasonal changes.

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

DC: I display what I consider my best work while showing my general style that clients can expect to see.

Q: What is your favorite new feature of liveBooks8?

DC: Besides the wonderful liveBooks web page designs, the new dashboard is super intuitive.

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

DC: A good website will focus on YOUR work and not add “noise” to your presentation. A good website is intuitive so that anyone can explore what you have to offer effortlessly.

Would you like to be featured on our blog? Email us at social@livebooks.com!

Last week on RESOLVE we asked you, the smartest creative professionals we know, “What is the best advice you’ve gotten recently that helped you improve your business?” We encouraged our readers to tweet us @liveBooks when they found a gem so we could feature our favorite every Wednesday on RESOLVE.

Well, guess what. Today is Wednesday.

Thanks to Adam Westbrook (@adamwestbrook) for sharing this week’s top tweet: “Creativity vs. Cash,” part of the Break Through Your Creative Blocks series on the Lateral Action blog (forgive them for the vibrant red highlight color, the advice is worth the visual assault).

The post leads with a great quote from Hugh MacLeod of gapingvoid.com:

“The creative person basically has two kinds of jobs: One is the sexy, creative kind. Second is the kind that pays the bills. Sometimes the task at hand covers both bases, but not often. This tense duality will always play center stage. It will never be transcended.”

It goes on to outline three options for, let’s not say transcending that duality, but dealing with it in a healthy way.

1. Put creativity and cash in separate boxes
2. Earn cash from your creative work
3. Take a creative approach to earning cash

As you might guess, option three is where the really good advice comes in, with specific examples about how you can apply creative thinking to every aspect of your business — and actually make it fun :)

If you find this post helpful, please pay the creative karma forward and send us more tweets with useful information for creative entrepreneurs. You can even comment below, include @liveBooks, and click “Tweet this comment.”

Thanks again to everyone who contributed to last week’s “After Staff” series on RESOLVE. That includes everyone who commented, asked a question, or emailed us with feedback. I was excited to hear that people had not only learned a lot, but also felt less isolated after reading about so many former staffers’ experiences — many even got in touch with people featured in the series and started up offline conversations.

We hope these conversations continue and that “After Staff” and RESOLVE will continue to be a place you come to for community as well as resources. If you’d like to look back at any content from last week, a permanent page with links is here. A few highlights from later in the week included very personal insights from David Leeson, his first public comments about leaving the Dallas Morning News last year, and a no-holds-barred interview with the inimitable Bill Owens.

~Miki Johnson

Marita Holdaway

www.benhamgallery.com

I founded Benham Gallery in Seattle in 1987. Dedicated to emerging and mid-career fine art photographers, I have been consulting since 1998, and reviewing over 1,000 portfolios annually. I have presented workshops for artists nationally and internationally, helping them further their careers by developing their professional tools for finding and successfully approaching appropriate venues. As an invited reviewer and speaker, I have attended over a dozen photo festivals in the USA, Latin America and Europe.

My hope is that photographers will learn to follow their hearts and not the almighty dollar. There are so many other ways to become wealthy without selling your soul and time to corporate America. Perhaps the photo community can find a way to tell the important stories, instead of the sound bites the media puts out.

Click here for a list of all other “After Staff” posts.