livebooks blog

Renee Anjanette is a food photographer based in Los Angeles. Born in Missouri, Renee grew up on the banks of the Mississippi and moved to California later in life to create her career in photography. She has worked for clients all over the United States. To see more Renee’s work, visit her liveBooks8 website: www.rafotostudio.com.

I came from a small town in middle America with no access to the arts. I thought I might love photography because I mentally composed images in my mind, enclosing the world around me in little boxes, so I took a community college course – Photo 101 and fell in love. I chose Brooks Institute of Photography back was when it was a small, private photo school in Santa Barbara, literally in a mansion on a hill overlooking the ocean. I cried and cried when I first arrived, thinking I had never seen such beauty. I finally ended up in L.A. working as second shooter for other photographers, a common method for developing your book and your skills on camera in a commercial studio. I now operate and also rent to other photographers, my own studio – Historic Hudson Studios in Hollywood, the incredible Herb Ritts former studio space. I primarily shoot food and table top for clients all over the country.

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

RA: Elegant, chic, quiet.

Q: How often do you typically update your website?

RA: Every 2 years.

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

RA: I choose my favorites from each section (sweet, savory, etc.) to go into an “Overview” section, which is what I show on the “Homepage”.

Q: What is your favorite new features of liveBooks8?

RA: The new page designs available and it really is easy once you learn the basics.

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

RA: Work with a designer, I did. I worked with the liveBooks designer to get more of what I wanted.

Have a website you’d like us to feature? Email us at social@livebooks.com.

A blog page is a great way to create content and keep your visitors engaged. We are happy to say that we offer a blog option to add to your liveBooks site. Our inline blog is a fully functional website page and works great for SEO! Follow these simple steps to start setting your blog:

Setting up your blog: 

1. Select Content from the Navigation Bar
2. Select Add New Pages

3. Select Blog and then select Add

Adding a new blog post: 

1. Select Content from the navigation bar
2. Select your Blog page and scroll down to the Posts block
3. Select Add new post

4. You can enter a Title, Date, Author. Create your blog post in Description and add any related images.

You can also add many types of additional content blocks, such as Video, Image Gallery, and Contact information .

Limiting posts per page: 

1. Select Content
2. Select the Blog page
3. Scroll down to the bottom of the posts block and click on the field labeled Posts per page
4. Select the number of posts that you would like to appear before the user has to click into the next page

• Note: If you are looking for another blog option, liveBooks offers a custom designed blog that mimics the look and feel of your site based on a version of the WordPress platform. If you are interested, please contact the support team for more information at help@livebooks.com!

The liveBooks team has been working vigorously this year to migrate many of its clients from the Flash-based Legacy platform to the HTML5-based liveBooks8 platform. The HTML5 platform offers responsive templates that you are readily able to edit on your desktop, tablet or mobile devices! With it a ton of new features are also available – including advanced SEO tools and options for customizations, such as varied portfolio and gallery layouts, a library of hundreds of font choices, drag and drop design, in-line editing tools and much more!

In addition to the added features that the HTML5 platform offers, there is one big reason why you should migrate from your Flash website as soon as possible. All major browsers have already set into motion the blocking of flash sites!

Safari:
In June, Apple announced that the version of Safari that comes on macOS Sierra will block Flash by default across all websites. This means that if your website runs on Flash, your visitors will be greeted by the following message:

Apple has taken a very big stand against Flash since 2007. This is due in part to Flash websites having slow loading times, being a drain on laptop batteries, and continually having security issues. The measures that Apple has taken will continue to detract visitors from visiting your Flash website.
(Sources: PetaPixel, The Verge)

Chrome:
Google announced in May that Chrome would start to block Flash websites with the launch of Chrome 53 in September. More importantly – in December 2016, Chrome 55 will make HTML5 the default experience. Those websites that only run on Flash will need to be enabled by the user to display properly.
(Source: Chrome Blog)

Firefox:
Mozilla Firefox will retire Adobe Flash as soon as 2017. With the release of Firefox 53, Flash plug-ins will require the user to actively click-to-play. Though Mozilla hasn’t directly stated that Flash will be completely retired after the click-to-play change, the move is apparent.
(Source: ARS Technica)

Though Adobe Flash helped make the Web a rich and dynamic experience, a new generation of technology has pushed for a big change in website platforms. The liveBooks8 platform is the optimal choice for our Flash users to transition to.

To learn more about liveBooks8 and its main features, please visit this link.

To see our migration options and schedule your migration, please visit this link.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a standard network protocol used to transfer computer files between clients and servers on a computer network. Though liveBooks is not currently offering an internal storage solution, we do recommend various options and platforms for cloud storage and file sharing. Some external options will allow to you to attach storage to your domain and link it via FTP.

Third-party storage and sharing services recommended by liveBooks:

• Dropbox
• WeTransfer
• Hightail

Note: If you are looking to host private proofing galleries for your clients, doing so with ShootProof or RedCart could be an option for you. 

Attaching storage to your domain and linking via FTP:

If you prefer to setup your own solution with your registrar or another company that sells cloud storage, the process is as follows:

1. Purchase a storage solution from a provider you have chosen (i.e. goDaddy cloud storage)
2. Link this storage area to their domain via a cname like ‘proofs.domain.com’. Each provider will have specific ways to do this with your registrar.
3. Once setup, you can use an FTP client like FileZilla to access this storage area.
4. If you want to, you should be able to link Adobe Lightroom and a public folder on this FTP storage area. This could be used to upload and share HTML web galleries.

Note: The registrar can be different than the storage/FTP company and it can be different than the website hosting company. There are no technical issues with this. If you choose a provider that says otherwise, this is due to their business policy, not the fact that it cannot be done.