livebooks blog

Photographer Stephen Guenther has been all around the world taking stunning photos and videos. We absolutely love how his images command the screen on his website and his video integration – which is why we wanted to feature his site this week.

Enjoy his commentary on his site’s creation and then head on over to www.stephenguenther.com to see more amazing work!

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

SG: Contemporary, Clean, Inviting.

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

SG: It can be challenging. Of course every photographer has a “new” image that they are in love with, but keeping the client’s eye in mind is important. Finding the balance between a personal aesthetic and one that is marketable is also important. Using creative friends to double check your selections can be enlightening.

Q: How often do you update your website?

SG: The landing page and color palette is adjusted quarterly so that regular visitors will easily notice the change, which will invite them to explore and look for other new images.

Q: What is your favorite feature that liveBooks offers?

SG: Actually a couple features. Low learning curve was key, and recently the ability to link a Vimeo collection of videos is amazing, as many photographers move into motion work.

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

SG: Look at a lot of other photographer’s websites. Have a strategy before you begin, remember do not just “populate” your website with images. And be willing to showcase your personal vision and to take some calculated risks in the process to help differentiate your work from others.

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

Kyle Froman started off as a dancer for America’s premier ballet company and has transitioned into one of the country’s best-known dance photographers. His entire website design exudes grace and elegance, clearly depicting the style in which he photographs. We couldn’t wait to feature his website this week!

Don’t forget to head on over to www.kylefromanphotography.com to see more!

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

KF: Clean, Elegant, Dramatic

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

KF: Since the homepage of my website is a grid display, I chose an overhead photo of New York City Ballet dancers laying on the marble floor of their Lincoln Center Theater. The floor has a grid pattern too, and I thought it worked well together. There was also a good amount of negative space in the image to show off the portfolio key images in the grid.

Q: How often do you update your website?

KF: I update my website usually once a month. Sometimes when I haven’t looked at it for awhile I’ll go through the entire site and see what could be improved, what could look better, but also what stands out as good!

Q: What is your favorite feature that liveBooks offers?

KF: My favorite feature in my liveBooks website is the editSuite. I like how easy it is to change content whenever I want. It’s simple to keep everything up to date.

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

KF: My advice to someone designing their website is to keep their design simple. Whittle down your shots to the best, and leave the viewer wanting more.

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

Boston-based photographer Winslow Townson has over 25 years of experience photographing news, sports, features, and stories. His journalism background shines through in each of his images and this week we wanted to feature the fantastic job he’s done designing his website.

Check out what he had to say about what went into his site’s design and then head on over to www.winslowtownson.com to view the full thing!

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

WT: Clean, Vibrant, Easy

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

WT: Since most of my work is sports related, I do a slideshow of sports pictures based mainly on the sports of the current season and the sports on the seasons that are coming up soon.

Q: How often do you update your website?

WT: I do my best to update my website’s “Recent Work” page after every assignment so that I keep it fresh and clients can see what I’ve done lately. I do a very tight edit of the images with usually just one or two selections from each job.

Q: What is your favorite feature that liveBooks offers?

WT: Definitely the editSuite. It is so easy to change images quickly, rearrange categories and change the homepage slideshow. That is one of the things that attracted me to liveBooks – it’s so user-friendly!

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

WT: Make it user-friendly. That can mean many things from simple navigation, readily available contact information, and quick loading images to tightly editing your images so that there are not too many in any one category. It’s frustrating when you can’t easily figure out how to navigate through pictures and through the site. I heard one editor of a national magazine say that if a site takes too long to load or he can’t figure out how to look at specific images quickly he will just close out the site. When he would stay with a website he would spend a few minutes maximum to get a feel for the photographer. So the user needs to get to where they want to be quickly and easily and not have an overwhelming amount of content. Having contact information readily available is obviously an aspect of being user-friendly. I put all my contact information at the bottom of every page.

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

Atlanta/Chicago-based freelance photographer Steven Karl Metzer has a passion for portraiture and food and showcasing intimate images, incorporating environments and personalities into each shot. We particularly love the colorful, eye-catching, and easy flow of his website – which is why we are featuring it this week.

Check out what he had to say then head on over to www.stevenkarlmetzer.com.

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

SKM: Clean, Painless, Entertaining.

Q: How do you choose the images that are displayed on your homepage?

SKM: Well actually I struggled with that for awhile. I was putting up single images for my homepage but I felt that didn’t give the complete scope of my work in one page at one glance. I do all of my own updating, editing, and retouching, and the flow of imagery has always intrigued me and I have always loved laying out images. It’s a different way of thinking and it’s something that has always fascinated me. I take a lot of images with my phone and I actually love playing around with filters, so naturally I’m an Instagram junkie. I started with the idea of making a grid of iPhone images and I have always loved that look; I actually have printed portfolios from way back when with this imagery grid style for the cover. So I went back to that look and edited my strongest Instagram images and put my homepage together.

Q: How often do you update your website?

SKM: I update my website pretty often – usually when I’m on the road in an airport or a hotel. I like putting up new work as soon as I can so my clients can see new projects and new imagery.

Q: What is your favorite feature that liveBooks offers?

SKM: I absolutely love the functionality of the editSuite – it’s so easy to upload images, arrange them, tag them, etc. Also the optimization feature is especially nice when uploading, it’s a bit of a time saver for sure!

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

SKM: My best advice would be to really think about the images that you choose; you want to keep people’s attention and keep them coming back for more and the best way to do that is to have only your strongest images on your website that flow together as you look at them.

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