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Photographer Stephen Guenther has more than twenty years of creative direction in film, video, interactive and print. Functioning as Design Director, Film Director, Excecutive Producer and Creative Lead. His clients have run gamut from S.C. Johnson on the corporate side to Lions Clubs International on the nonprofit side. To see more of his work, visit his liveBooks8 website: www.stephenguenther.com.

I have always “had” a camera, since the age of around ten (Micky Mouse 127 mm) but it wasn’t until I accidentally ended up in a darkroom in college that the magic inspired me to turn from psychology to photography. Perceptual psychology had been an on-going focus. (pun intended). Digital of course has changed the whole process. I enjoy the mechanics of photography, but I try to only have and carry the minimal equipment that works for me. I continue to reduce the weight and increase the quality of my work, Sony equipment now fills that need.

My industry is of course evolving…I started out in a fine art mode with some corporate photography. But in the last ten + years I have been able to travel the globe documenting NGO humanitarian efforts with both photography and film. The NGO work has been life-altering, and travel side of it was also inspiring in being able to open a larger view of the world…I now blend my fine art background with these genres to offer a personal vision in both.

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

SG: Direct, clean and personal.

Q: How often do you typically update your website?

SG: Seems like an almost seasonal pattern, though the seasons are not really represented in the images.

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

SG: Photographers generally like newer work the best, yet sometimes, depending on travel or need I will re-discover in my image database an image that was forgotten and now re-born.

Q: What is your favorite new feature of liveBooks8?

SG: Since I also do work in video, the new display of videos is perfect for my video clients.

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

SG: Don’t try to present something to please others or attempt to isolate your skills. Make it personal, make it subjective…something that allows you to share your unique vision.

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

My earliest long-term photography project was a 3 year documentary photoessay on Cambodian refugees and street gangs in the U.S., something I worked on while doing my masters in Photography at Columbia College in Chicago. As an undergraduate student, I’d studied Southeast Asian studies and Thai language to it was only natural to start my professional career based in Bangkok, Thailand covering Southeast Asia. Clients included The New York Times, Time Magazine, Newsweek, and several European and Asian-based publications. I worked on assignment as well as my own documentary projects throughout the region. I continued this kind of work later based in Tokyo and then Paris, France.

Nowadays I do less editorial work and more corporate and commercial work and have been living and working out of Seattle for the better part of a decade although I continue to travel and work in Asia. To see more of Stuart’s work, visit his liveBooks8 website: www.isett.com.

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

SI: Big and bold. As a lot of my older work was shot on slide film or b/w negative, I worked hard making sure the colors and quality of those images matches more recent digital work. Too many photojournalists don’t do that with older slide work and I think it’s important that images on my website, whether editorial or commercial, look their best.

Q: How often do you typically update your website?

SI: Every few weeks I’ll add photos, then pull older ones. My portfolio is always a work in progress, always evolving. Like most photographers, I’m on my own worst editor. I’ll tweak the design a few times a year.

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

SI: My roots are as a photojournalist so even though most of my work these days is corporate and commercial, I try to balance what I do today with my roots as a documentarian and show that on the homepage.

Q: What is your favorite new feature of liveBooks8?

SI: Well I sues the old system for close to a decade so plenty to like about liveBooks8, but the ability to edit, modify, and add images is key for me.

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

SI: Make sure your images are technically consistent across the website. This is more true for photojournalists who need to learn the design skills for some of their commercial brethren and not simply throw images up. Design is important, even if you are a documentary photographer.

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

Stephen Gosling is an English Wedding Photographer based in Washington, D.C. He graduated from Liverpool John Moores University with a B.A. in Documentary and Fine Art Photography. To see more of Stephen’s work, visit his liveBooks8 website: www.goslingphotography.com.

Hi there, I’m Stephen and I’ve been shooting weddings in Washington, D.C. since 2007. I shoot 10-12 weddings per year for my ideal clients; fun couples who want to relax on their wedding day. I got started in photography when I bought a camera to take with me to Spain when I was 16. I was very interested in landscapes and nature photography at the time but that evolved into an interest in shooting people.

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

SG: Relaxed, authentic, un-structured.

Q: How often do you typically update your website?

SG: Every 6ish months.

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

SG: When I’m editing weddings and I come across an image I just know I want it on the homepage. I put those images in a folder on my desktop.

Q: What is your favorite new feature of liveBooks8?

SG: I’ve always loved the SEO featured with liveBooks from the very beginning. And the SEO tools are still great!

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

SG: Don’t skimp. A professionally designed website with exceptional back-end features is worth its weight in gold.

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

Lisa and Mark Staff are a husband and wife team that have dedicated their career to photographing various mediums such as weddings, fashion, and commercial photography. To see more of their work, visit their liveBooks8 website: www.markstaffphotography.com.

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

L&MS: We are a husband and wife team…I know…not very original…that thrive on documenting people and their lifestyles whether for them personally or through advertising campaigns. We have been doing this for twenty years full-time, even though most of our friends and family still wonder when we are going to get a real job. This is as real as it gets. Doing what you love. Having a zest for life and sharing that and working with like-minded people.

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

L&MS: Clean, Elegant, Easy.

Q: How often do you typically update your website?

L&MS: Since it is easy to do – at any time but usually every couple of months.

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

L&MS: If a photograph speaks to me and evokes and emotional response in me besides just being “pretty” it will make it to our site.

Q: What is your favorite new feature of liveBooks8?

L&MS: Fave feature…that it looks great on all platforms and there is an intuitive ease to working with it. You don’t need to be a technical genius or hire a team to do your site and if you do have a question, the customer service is tip top with answers that you can easily find with a click or have a representative respond in a timely manner, which is such a bonus.

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

L&MS: The design of your site is your “first impression” and you can’t disregard or minimize the importance of this. In our business as photographers it has to represent our brand and our vision in all ways. This is our “portfolio” online and the way we can get 99% of our business so it needs to be tip top. You need to choose the company that can help you achieve this. liveBooks make all of this happen easily for us. Anything that we had envisioned, they had a way to deliver and improve on it.

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