livebooks blog

Art Becker is a multi-faceted photographer based in St. Petersburg, Florida. He believes that photography is about sharing a moment and he uses his Nikon camera with Nikkor lenses to capture his subjects. To see more of his work, visit his liveBooks website now: www.artbeckerphoto.com.

Being a photographer is my job, but it’s also a part of my life. I’m passionate about what I do and I want those who see my work to be moved by it. It’s my hope they will experience what I’ve experienced and “get” what it is I’m trying to say. If I accomplish that, my career will have been worthwhile.

The bonus is, I get to create cool moments as I go along. In some mysterious way maybe it changes a life, an outlook, a mood or even just a few minutes in the day. That is enough for me.

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

AB: Simply, Creative, Graphic. I wouldn’t change anything about it.

Q: How often do you typically update your website?

AB: Choosing the photos that I display on my homepage is simple. The choices I make are based on the visual impact of each image. It has to have a strong composition and light to attract the viewers. The first image – the little girl peeking over the edge, the story behind it is to take a look inside. The second  – there’s beauty in the clouds, just look up. Third – out of a plane window with natural light creating the composition. And last, the magic of twilight – my favorite time of day to photograph.

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

AB: How often do I change the images? At very least once a week. It’s my belief in order to keep your existing audience coming back. To attract new ones, I create new imagery for them to view.

Q: What is your favorite new feature of liveBooks8?

AB: One of the best features of my new website is that it’s easy to navigate. You simply click on portfolios and view the images of your choice. My older clients love it and new clients are sending me requests. I couldn’t ask for better results than that.

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

AB: The one piece of advice if you are creating a new site is to keep it simple, make it visually driven and easy for a client to, as I say, “Find Art”.

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

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.

Jeff Lewis is an adventure and rock-climbing photographer located on the East Coast of Canada. He travels throughout the Western United States and Canada to capture fascinating images. He also dedicates his time to conducting photo tours and private workshops. To see more of his liveBooks8 website, visit www.jefflewisphotography.ca.

I first started with photography after a trip to SE Asia to go rock climbing. I wanted to be able to capture my travels and the landscapes around me to show people how amazing this world really is. When I returned from that trip, I began to shoot photos of my home, Jasper National Park, as well as when I would go climbing with my friend. After a few years working in the “real world”, I decided full-time photography was the path for me and I haven’t looked back since.

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

JL: Clean, Focused, Simple.

Q: How often do you typically update your website?

JL: I usually do updates 2-3 times a year, unless I complete a new body of work I’m excited about, then I’ll add it right away.

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

JL: I want those that visit my site to get a sense of who I am and what I do right away. As I mostly shoot landscaped and climbing, I try to choose the best images from those categories to show on the homepage. Hopefully those few images are enough to entice a longer visit, where someone can take a deeper look at my work.

Q: What is your favorite new feature of liveBooks8?

JL: One of my favorite features is that I can go to the Content section, add a page and then make it invisible. That way I can work on it until I’m ready to launch, or until I have enough content so that it is not empty when I publish it. Also, the ability to publish with one click is quite nice as well.

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

JL: Take the time to make sure you have everything the way you want it. With the ability to make pages invisible or not publish changes right away, you can view your changes on your own before you publish to your entire web audience. I think it’s important when viewing a website to know that it’s a finished product and not a “work in progress”.

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