livebooks blog

We feel extremely lucky here at liveBooks to have so many talented photographers and creative professionals from all over the world using our platform. Lukasz Warzecha, a Polish born British photographer, does incredible photo and video work on mountaineering in some amazing locations. This week we are featuring his website (we love his integration of both photo and video!) Check out what he had to say about it below!

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

LW: Uncluttered, Modern, Fresh

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

LW: This has been a long process. I’ve been shooting professionally for over five years now and over this period of time I had opportunities to shoot on four continents and for a variety of clients. I’ve had the pleasure of working with Peter Dennen, Former Director of Photography at Aurora Photos and now running his own consultancy business (Pedro+Jackie). Peter has poured over 1000+ images and organized my work into galleries, the whole process took us a few months also because I’m normally super busy traveling and shooting.

Q: How often do you update your website?

LW: I try to update my page every 12-18 months, in between I’m usually adding some fresh images every now and again.

Q: What is your favorite feature that liveBooks offers?

LW: I’ve been a liveBooks customer for a long time now (four years, I think?!) and I just like the whole system. The look and feel of the galleries and the integrated video capability and the back end, plus email and FTP support.

See Lukasz’s full site here: www.lwimages.co.uk

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

The importance of having a mobile-friendly website for a photographer or creative should not come as a surprise. The percentage of mobile traffic has surpassed 50% on many sites, and Google (as they are known to do) is once again switching up their algorithm to cater to this growing number.

On Tuesday, April 21st, Google will start using mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This means that Google will now start marking your site as mobile-friendly (seen in screenshots below) to determine if your site should rank higher in search results. To put it simply, if your website or blog is not mobile-friendly, it will be penalized by Google when a user is doing a search on a mobile device. Google says that it is doing this so that “users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimized for their devices.”

What does this mean for you and your liveBooks site?

To ensure that your site is not negatively affected by this new change when someone searches using a mobile device, it is important that you make sure Mobile 2.0 is enabled in your editSuite. Mobile 2.0 was built with this new algorithm in mind to optimize your mobile presence. It will transform your liveBooks site into a clean, easy-to-navigate, photo-centric experience for all users on all types of mobile devices.

You will also want to check out Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to confirm the compatibility of your site and blog.

Additional Resources:

editSuite Help – Enabling Mobile Websites

Mobile Websites 2.0 FAQ

Google’s Mobile Guidelines

Google Webmaster Help Forum

5 Benefits of Mobile Websites

Need help enabling Mobile 2.0 in your editSuite? Contact our support team at support@livebooks.com

Todd Beltz, a commercial and editorial photographer who specializes in culinary, space, and travel images, has a website that is so colorful and eye-catching it seems to pop off the page – yet still manages to be extremely clean and easy to navigate.

Here’s what Todd had to say about his site – and don’t forget to head on over to www.toddbeltz.com to see more!

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

TB: Minimalist, easy, clean

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

TB: Choosing photos to put up on my website is a tough job as a photographer. I may find a picture I took to have special meaning and want to display it but it won’t particularly hold any interest to the viewer. So I generally choose photos that will hopefully draw the viewer in to want to see more.

Q: How often do you  update your website?

TB: This varies depending on my work schedule, but I do try to update it with new material at least twice a month.

Q: What is your favorite feature that liveBooks offers?

TB: I have a few favorites but if I had to pick one it would have to be the SEO that liveBooks offers.

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

Artist Claire Rosen, who specializes in fine art, as well as fashion and advertising photography, and was named in Forbes 30 Brightest Under 30 for Art and Design in 2012 and 2013, has one of the most unique yet easy-to-navigate sites we’ve ever seen.

Here’s what she had to say about it – and don’t forget to check out her photography, it’s absolutely stunning!

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

CR: Branded, Functional, Cohesive

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

CR: The images selected for display on the homepage were chosen to reflect a cohesive vision in my work that didn’t draw lines between fine art or commissioned projects.

Q: How often do you update your website?

CR: I update my website as I have new projects or information to share.

Q: What is your favorite feature that liveBooks offers?

CR: That it is so easy to use and update that I don’t ever have to worry about it!

Check out Claire’s full site: www.claire-rosen.com and follow her adventures on Instagram: @clairerosenphoto.

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