There are occasions on which I am approached for photographs and I’m not comfortable charging for them.
This might be because they were taken at an event for which I had media accreditation but no right to sell to competitors. Typically I am approached some time after the event by an owner or competitor, who tells me that they have either bought from the official photographer already and want one of mine as well, or that they have searched through everything available without success and the event organisers have referred them to me as an another option.
The other awkward sort of approach is when a charity wants an image for a good cause. I know there are Charities and there are Registered Charities, so don’t imagine for one moment that I am always bending over backwards to give those with pots of cash a cheap deal, but having done my research and considered the use for which the photograph is requested I might be sensitive to their budgets.
In these situations I ask the people who approach me to make a donation on my behalf to an air ambulance.
 An air ambulance in action If they have a local one and like the idea of supporting it that’s great, if not, I refer them to my chosen charity, the Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Rutland Air Ambulance.
As a result of this I feel strongly about this petition to give VAT back on Air Ambulance fuel payments which, like all fuel costs, are rising quickly. Lifeboats have been afforded this concession for some time and I cannot see any reason why it should not be extended to Air Ambulances.
If you are a UK resident please consider adding your name to this petition and spreading the word to your friends as well – thank you!
You look at your sites stats and see that there is a big spike in visitors, but where have they come from?
If you are using Google Analytics (and if not, why not?) then you can drill down through Traffic Sources > Sources > Referrals to get a list of your referrals and how many Visits they have referred.
But which pages on these sites are referring visitors? It’s important to know in case the links are not exactly positive.
You click on a referrer and you’re faced with this:
All this tells you is that someone on a forum has linked to your site and referrals are coming in. What was the post? You cannot tell, and I find this annoying because I want to know the context of the referral.
After much searching I found a couple of hacks that used to work from within Google Analytics but no longer seem to. The answer, or at least ONE answer, is to use the Google search engine itself using some of its built in features.
All links to my site contain the phrase “nicomorgan” either as nicomorgan.photoshelter.com… or www.nicomorgan.com… so that is what I will search for but I will also add the “site:” feature to limit the results of Google’s search to the referrer in my list, in this case I will use the Chronicle of the Horse website http://www.chronofhorse.com.
The search looks like this:
nicomorgan site:chronofhorse.com
This means: search for the phrase “nicomorgan” on the site chronofhorse.com and nowhere else.
The results looks like this, showing the individual posts:
Now I just wish I could sort these so the most recent was at the top!
Did you know that Facebook and Moo are giving away free business cards at the moment?
The cards are based on the new Facebook Timeline profile template so you need to have one of those but apart from that there really are no catches at all.
Here’s how it works:
- Go to your personal profile (which must have the Timeline enabled)
- Click on Update info on the right-hand side.
- Scroll down to Contact info.
- Click on the little business card icon beside the title.
- Click Print Cards.
- You will be taken to the Moo site and can then edit your card(s) before completing the order. If you have used multiple Timeline images you can have a few of each in your set, or choose to remove some, as I did.
- That’s it. No joke!
Eventing Nation has published an excellent article which features Camilla Speirs and her preparation for the London Olympics.
Camilla Speirs – Looking forward to London
All but one of the photos are mine!
The new-look, Photodeck-powered website has been up and running for a little over two and a half weeks now and in that time has generated over 92,000 page views.
All here at Lonsdale House are clearly thrilled, and would like to pass on our thanks to all of you for your continued support.
You may have noticed that the blog is now much more integrated into the rest of the site and that various new folders are popping up containing new collections of images. If you have any feedback or new ideas they will, of course, be gratefully received.
Yes, it’s that time of year again: HOYS is upon us.
Extended this year to six days to accommodate the inclusion of the Final of the Express Eventing 2011 series, the Horse of the Year Show is the pinnacle of the showing year.
This year in addition to some media and agency clients I am doing some work for the organisers. I have a brief to record particular elements of the show, for very specific uses, a nice change from the “normal” coverage of individal classes in the two rings.
A number of people have been in touch asking where they can find images of the Inter-Hunt Relay during the South of England Show at Ardingly. The site you want to visit is E.S. Photography who were the Official Photographers.
They had a photographer on each side of the course for every round over three days. I was working for them but was in a different ring for the first two days.
Last week I had the enormous pleasure of working for E.S.Photography, the Official Photographers for the Royal Windsor Horse Show and the Windsor Castle Royal Tattoo. It was an exhausting week, working some days from 7am until 11pm, but rewarding in terms of experience and the competition we got to see.
 HRH The Duke of Edinburgh walked into the ring one morning. One of my personal high points was when HRH The Duke of Edinburgh walked into the Frogmore ring during the Driving For The Disabled class. No security, and yet he stayed and chatted to us all for about an hour!
The Tattoo was amazing, special congratulations must go to The King’s Troop RHA and The Household Cavalry for their performances.
Next year the Tattoo will not accompany The Horse Show, happening instead at a later date. To mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee the Show will be accompanied by a Pageant which, according to a trusted insider, is going to make the Tattoo look like a garden party!
I’ve heard a shortlist of the equestrian performers expected to travel from all over the World for the occasion and it is extraordinary. I can’t wait!
I’m writing this post for the many people who come to my site each day having searched for (or followed a link to) My 2p .
My 2p was a blog. It no longer exists. I started it back in 1998/1999 (yes really) and it shared the same domain name that now hosts my equestrian and society photography business. I guess I ran out of things to say and wasn’t quite as opinionated as I once thought!
“My2p” as a search term resulted in nearly 200 visits to this domain in April, peaking at nearly 30 visits per day on some days. If you are one of those people and you are looking for the live streaming sports site then I am sorry, you are a victim of Google’s memory and the importance it gives a site which is 12 years old!
Posted in Uncategorized
|
Tagged Blog, my 2p
|
|
