livebooks blog

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.

Keith Ketchum is travel, lifestyle and action sports photographer. He obtained his degree in Studio Art from University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) where he drew, painted, designed, and focused in photography. He has worked for clients such as Travel + Leisure, ESPN, New York Post, Rolling Stone Italy, Surfline, Free People, Engadget, Freesurf, KaiKini, Jawbreaking, Slide, Kauai Lifestyle Magazine, Indie Swim, and ESM. To see more of his work, visit his liveBooks8 website: www.keithketchum.com.

I got my start in photography through surfing. I traveled most winters to get away from frigid North Carolina, where I’m from, and would bring a cheap film camera, a couple of surf boards and a journal. Eventually disappointed with the quality of work I was producing at such beautiful location led to an investment in better equipment. This in return led to a decent portfolio and my first official staff photography job with a surf, art, music, and fashion magazine. That was a fun job. It was an eclectic group of creatives from different outlets coming together to form a quality publication. What started as a regional magazine eventually went world wide for a couple of issues. This all happened while I was studying studio art (drawing, painting, photography, design, etc) at UNCW. The magazine lasted until shortly after I graduated college before dying, like most print does, but by then I was established shooting fashion, weddings, assignments from other publications, fine art, and had a little studio space. My wife and I moved Kauai for a change, to settle down and start a family. It was always one of those places that felt more like home than home. I always called it my neverneverland. It’s also hard to take a bad photo here. We’ve been here for a few years now and I’m extremely happy with my work and the people I get to work with on the island and from around the world.

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

KK: Clean, effective, and quality.

Q: How often do you typically update your website?

KK: I try to keep things fresh on my blog and depending on how busy I am, I skim back over the recent assignments posted there and pick the best few images from my website. Sometimes I update every month and sometimes a few months go by before I’m able to sit down, catch my breath, have a glass of wine and go over recent work with Bimini, my wife, asking which images she likes best.

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

KK: Homepage images are like the teaser trailers of your website. They are very important and extremely difficult to decide on. You want to get the audience interested with composition and color (a.k.a.: eye candy) without giving too much away. You want to show what you do but only slightly. They have to click a few buttons to get the full effect. I also try to pick generic images that people can put themselves in. So, slightly pulled back vs. up close and personal.

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Q: What is your favorite new feature of liveBooks8?

KK: It’s hard to narrow down one favorite new feature about liveBooks8. I love how simple and designs are. They are clean and they let the images do the talking. The Scaler quality is amazing. I also love how easy it is to update, enter metadata, upload, view the mobile version, jeez…like everything.

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

KK: My advice for most anything art related, website included, was given to me when I was young from photographer Aaron Chang. “Less if more”. Many art instructors in college would eventually give the same advice. I think over time and I came to realize the true meaning of it, but those would be the wise words passed down from creatives I look up to. “Less is more”.

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

Founded by Jack Glasser in 2005 with the taking of one senior graduation portrait, Glasser Images has grown and continues to grow into the future. This is driven by Jack’s passion for photography, creativity, and entrepreneurship as well as his vision for the company. To see more of Glasser Images, visit the liveBooks8 website: www.glasserimages.com

The goal of Glasser Images is to provide outstanding, personalized service and create quality and creative images that captures personality.
With a fresh, new, and modern perspective, Glasser Images creates and captures unique images. Whether in need of wedding photography and video, senior graduation pictures, family photos, or commercial photography and video, Glasser Images has a simple style and approach with a common goal – quality work.

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

JG: Clean, simple, and smart.

Q: How often do you typically update your website?

JG: We try to update with fresh images and featured posts every few weeks. If I have an idea to enhance the site, I update the site with the idea right away or write it down to implement at a better time.

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

JG: I choose at least one image from each of our photographers. I also wanted images to be eye catching, go together, and have the right colors.

Q: What is your favorite new feature of liveBooks8?

JG: The customizability which has allowed me to display more information in an organized way in order to showcase our services better and connect services and/or pages together (i.e. wedding photography and engagement photos, links to the contact page, etc.)

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

JG: Don’t wait for it to be perfect or else you will never get it launched. A website should be an organic and changing marketing tool that changes based on your customers and the market.

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