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Michael Kirchoff grew up with a deep love of photography since he was a child. During a high school photography class he decided to make it the focus of his life, though he really didn’t know it was something that he could actually make a living doing. He began working at various jobs in the industry, from rental houses, to assisting, to production, because it’s what he loved (and had bills to pay!).

After several years Kirchoff started shooting product and still life work because he was simply patient with what that entails, and was fascinated with lighting and the challenges that that presented.

About ten years ago, however, he had lost a few of my big clients during a downturn in the economy, and took it as a sign to start making photographs that “quite frankly, came from the heart and passion that had started me down the road to photography as a career. I’d always made images for myself throughout my life, but this time I made fine art photography the direction I wanted to go.”

He also figured it would give him an opportunity to continue doing commercial work while showing potential clients that I could put more art into the images that I made for them. At the moment, fine art photography is where he is, and commercial work comes in only occasionally. He likes the mix and strives to get to a place where the work is split 50/50.

Q&A with Michael Kirchoff

Q1: How would you describe the aesthetic of your website in three words?

MK: Clean, simple, easy to navigate, where the images come first.

Q2: How often do you typically update your website?

MK: I do tweaks to the site a couple times a month normally. A few times a year there is a major change or overhaul made, depending on the amount of new work I’m looking to show. There are many artist statements on the site and I find myself writing and improving those quite frequently. liveBooks makes that super simple to do.

Q3: How do you choose the photos that you display on your homepage?

MK: Images on the homepage are usually signature photographs from the different bodies of work in the portfolio section. Also, a few that have sold well as a prints over the years. The slideshow feature for the homepage works well for this and is simple to sequence.

Q4: What is your favorite feature of liveBooks?

MK: Navigation tools that make sense. Larger images that jump off the page while still loading quickly. The ability to mix text with images. These are all very important to me.

Q5: What’s one piece of advice you’d offer to someone designing their website?

MK: Have patience. When I started I became frustrated quickly because I wasn’t sure which tools were going to apply to what I was trying to do. liveBooks has many options, so take your time and try them out before making any final decisions. You can put a site together rather quickly, but one that you will be happy with has to be thought through. Thankfully, the people at tech support were able to answer the loads of questions I had.

liveBooks actually has more to their sites than I need at the moment. Though, as I branch out into new forms of expression, I know that they are already there to support and showcase what I want to do as a photographic artist. I have plans to put some of them to use soon, and I know they will be there to help.

See more of Micheal Kirchoff’s work here: www.michaelkirchoff.com

Jane Gottlieb has been expressing her joy of art with paint, shapes and colors since she was very young. She started as a painter, evolved into a photographer, and eventually began hand-painting on her Cibachrome prints over 35 years ago. Before Photoshop she found a way to express a new magical reality with the vivid, saturated and unrealistic colors she painted into each photographic print.

“My passion is to paint, collage and enhance them with Photoshop, creating my own idyllic wonderful uplifting world! I have had my website with liveBooks for many many years & have always been proud of my site & I am told over & over how people love my website!”

Right now Jane is having a 4 month exhibition entitles “Jane Gottlieb Photographs France” at the Art, Design & Architecture Museum at UCSB!

Q&A with Jane Gottlieb

Q1. How would you describe the aesthetic of your website in three words?

JB: Colorful, easy, engaging.

Q2:. How often do you typically update your website?

JB: Never enough…every 3-6 months!

Q3: How do you choose the photos that you display on your homepage?

JB: My favorite image at the moment!

Q4: What is your favorite new feature of liveBooks8?

JB:For me it’s the thumbnails running on the bottom…

Q5: What’s one piece of advice you’d offer to someone designing their website

JB: Try to keep it simple…& utilize the great help offered by your friendly service people!!

Jane’s art has been shown worldwide in many solo exhibitions including:
Butler Institute of American Art, Ohio; Carnegie Art Museum, Oxnard, CA; Laguna Art Museum, CA; Petersen Automotive Museum, LA, CA;
LA County Natural History Museum, CA; Monterey Museum of Art, CA; Nancy Hoffman Gallery, NYC, NY; L’Image Gallery, Rome, Italy; Louis Stern Gallery, West Hollywood, CA; Wall Space, Santa Barbara, CA.

See more of Jane’s work here: https://janegottlieb.com/

Jerry Zolynsky of On Location Photography, professional business imaging, has been a photographer since 1980. He became interested in photography when he won a camera in a poker game! After that, he was hooked. After graduating from Central Michigan University with a degree in journalism with an emphasis on photography, Jerry wanted to expand his photography knowledge. He was hired by one of the largest in house production photo studios in the midwest where he learned studio lighting.

Jerry’s client list includes some European car companies as well as US fortune 500 businesses. He also does photography for local and smaller businesses. He like the challenge of different things to shoot because it “motivates me to learn new techniques.”

Q&A with Jerry Zolynsky

Q1:How would you describe the aesthetic of your website in three words?

JZ: The way I would describe my website in three words is…sleek, compelling and contemporary.

Q2 How often do you typically update your website?

JZ: I update my website whenever I feel I have a photo that I feel is strong enough to display. Typically once a month. Out with the old and in with the new.

Q3: How do you choose the photos that you display on your homepage?

JZ: Finding photos for my homepage is a twofold process. First I look for photos that I feel reflect the work that I do best and secondly I like to display work that I enjoy photographing most.

Q4: What is your favorite feature of liveBooks?

JZ: My favorite feature of liveBooks is the edit suite. I love the convenience and the layout of it. I also have to mention the tech support. It is so nice to be able to have a one-on-one support session over the phone. It makes a big difference in making the site look the way I want in a timely fashion. In this day and age where a website is the photographer’s portfolio and clients want to see work that pertains to their business right away, I have to be able to get photos displayed quickly. If there is ever an issue I can talk to a real human being instead of writing an email and waiting 24 to 48 hours for a response.

Q5: What’s one piece of advice you’d offer to someone designing their website?

JZ: The one thing I would advise photographers designing their websites is to display your best work. If you don’t feel strongly about the image or you’re on the fence about it…don’t show it. Play-up what you feel are your strengths and what you enjoy photographing most.

Believe in yourself and never give up. When I just started out a friend of mine told me that I would never make a living as a professional photographer. He said it was too competitive and I would never make it. He is still at the same auto parts store he has been working at for the past 25 years. See more from Jerry Zolynsky here.

Over a year ago, Google announced it was rolling out a new mobile-first index where the algorithms will primarily use the mobile version of a website’s content to rank its pages. Now, according to Search Engine Land, Google plans to move more sites to mobile-first index in the coming months.

What Does This Mean for Your Website?

Google wants its index and results to represent the majority of their users — who are mobile searchers. So, Google will now place value on mobile pages when indexing a site and determining its position on search results.

Once Google sets the change in motion, websites that do not have mobile-friendly designs will likely see significantly reduced search engine traffic.

liveBooks is Ready for Google’s Mobile-Index

Google developers haven’t set a specific date, but they expect to begin rolling out their mobile-first index this year. We are proud to say that all liveBooks websites are fully-responsive. Regardless of screen size, your website will adjust its width and features such as text and images to optimize its mobile visibility.

If you haven’t started using liveBooks yet, start your free trial and begin creating your beautiful, fully-responsive website today!

Additional Resources:

Search Engine Land FAQ: All about the Google mobile-first index

TechCrunch Google’s mobile-first search index has rolled out to a handful of sites