SmugMug Development Lab

Celebrating World Intellectual Property Day: Building our common future with innovation and creativity.

My name is Smrithi Mohan, and I am the General Counsel of Awesome, the incredible company behind your favorites: SmugMug, Flickr, and This Week in Photo. As I sit down to write this blog article for World Intellectual Property Day, I find myself reflecting on the theme of this year’s celebration: “IP and the SDGs: Building our common future with innovation and creativity.” Not sure what SDGs are? Neither are a lot of people! Which is why I think this year’s theme is so important, and why this subject is near and dear to me personally.

Sustainable development goals, or SDGs for short, are part of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In the UN’s own words, this agreement “provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future.” At its heart are 17 SDGs around ending poverty and hunger, providing quality healthcare and education, and building sustainable growth and infrastructure.

At Awesome, the world’s best and brightest photography company, I find myself sitting squarely at the intersection of intellectual property and sustainable development—and innovation and creativity have played a pivotal role in getting me here. So, today, I’d like to reflect on how I got here, and what makes this such a special place to be.

The early years: Innovation starts at home.‍

From a young age, my parents instilled in me the ability to see the world through the lens of creativity, emphasizing how we could make a difference and improve people’s lives through innovation. My father, a Ph.D. in electrical engineering, is an inventor with numerous patents to his name, a published author, and a seasoned veteran in the telecom industry and academia. Meanwhile, my mother holds a master's degree in computer science and brought the spirit of innovation not only to her workplace but also to our home, shaping my brother's and my upbringing with the power of creativity.

This early foundation was pivotal in shaping my worldview. Though the concept of sustainable development goals did not exist at the time, when I visited remote villages and slums in parts of India as a child, my eyes were opened to poverty, hunger, and a lack of access to good health, well-being, and quality education. It was through this experiential education my parents gifted me with that I became acutely aware of the vast number of underprivileged children and orphans worldwide. This realization ignited a passion within me to leverage my privilege and resources to create positive change.

With the limited power I had during my high-school years, I founded an organization called Reach Out, where students fostered pen-pal relationships with orphans in underprivileged countries. During a time when the Internet was still in its infancy, I honed my skills in HTML and web design to create a website to showcase our organization's efforts and appeal for donations and partnerships. It was a way to extend our reach and bring something special to a child in a distant corner of the world who lacked the privileges we often took for granted. We fundraised to send care packages to these children, delivering food, clothing, books, and toys, particularly during holidays. What started as a small initiative blossomed into a movement as other high-school students from different schools joined in, spreading our efforts far and wide.

Finding Awesome: How like-minded partnerships can bring SDGs to life.

This profound lifelong passion to leverage my creative and innovative abilities, along with my dedication from a young age to volunteer and give back to the community, has guided me to this extraordinary company, whose values align so closely with my own and where I am genuinely honored to spearhead legal initiatives. Our mission at Awesome is building a better world through the power of photography. Through this creative medium, I am so grateful that we engage in vital missions that align with many SDGs, especially those around climate, sustainability, and environmental impact.

As proud partners with The Conservation Alliance, alongside esteemed organizations like Rivian, REI, and Patagonia (among many others), we are part of Mobilizing for Monuments—a coalition dedicated to protecting our public lands for the benefit of our economy, culture, and way of life. Last month, we leveraged our intellectual-property strength of copyright to create compelling photography and videography, immersing viewers in the essence of these landscapes as we showcased their magic in Washington, D.C. We joined forces with fellow advocates and engaged in meetings with key decision-makers, advocating for national-monument designations and expansions. These endeavors have the potential to safeguard more than three million acres of public lands, highlighting the transformative influence of photography and demonstrating the impactful application of intellectual property, creativity, and a shared commitment to continuously enhance our world and secure our future.

And that’s just in the past year! Looking further back, Awesome’s commitment to environmental sustainability is clear: In addition to being a Climate Pledge signatory, we are proud to have achieved Climate Neutral Certification, demonstrating our dedication to reducing our carbon footprint and combating climate change. The rigorous standards set forth by Change Climate, the managing body of Climate Neutral certification, helped us implement a range of innovative ways to measure, reduce, and offset our carbon emissions. And while we’re now certified, we’re far from done. We're committed to continually improving our sustainability practices to help build a greener, more sustainable future for all. 

Beyond sustainability and climate, Awesome is also focused on other SDGs like gender equality and reduced inequalities, and our people team is constantly reevaluating our company policies to ensure we’re consistent in important programs like pay equity, family benefits, physical and mental healthcare, and work–life balance. We also go out of our way to showcase these principles outwardly, as when we participated in the #InspiringInclusion campaign for International Women’s Day, elevating the stories of remarkable women photographers across the globe. We’re actively building a culture that fosters inspiration, growth, and opportunity for all.

Intellectual property and our common future.

Now, you might be asking what all this has to do with intellectual property? Well, photographers are creators, and creators need the protections of intellectual-property policy to safeguard their art, their memories, and their livelihood. The longevity and sustainability of Awesome and its brands is absolutely essential to ensuring our customers’ photos are safe, now and long into the future. That’s why in addition to our work addressing key SDGs, we are also actively developing an innovation and intellectual-property program here at Awesome. This initiative will harness the value of innovation, intellectual property, design thinking, and creativity to benefit our colleagues, customers, partners, and the world at large. 

World Intellectual Property Day is a reminder to me that each of us must collectively think about and discuss how we can tackle the obstacles facing our world today. The little girl in me, whose eyes were opened to the stark contrast of privilege and disadvantage, and whose world expanded when her parents revealed the impact she could make by thinking beyond conventional boundaries, is overjoyed to be part of a company that encourages me to continue exploring, applying, and building upon the foundation I established during those formative years. 

Each step we take, both individually and collectively, brings us closer to solutions and makes the world a better place. Today is our reminder to keep applying our creativity and innovative power to continue developing intellectual property that serves the betterment of all. The more we do so, the more we can build a brighter, more equitable future for generations to come. Happy World Intellectual Property Day!

My name is Jill Valenzuela Schapiro, and I’m the Chief People Officer at Awesome, the company behind SmugMug, Flickr, and This Week in Photo. I’ve been with the company for thirteen years, growing from Recruiting Director to a C-level executive who oversees our entire people program. It’s been an incredible journey, and I’ve grown an immense amount, but today I’m truly tackling something scary: my first blog. Don’t get me wrong, I love to write, and I have *so* many things to say about this amazing company, but my inner critic often stops me from putting my voice and ideas into the universe. So, in honor of this year’s celebration of International Women’s Day, I’m choosing to step far outside my comfort zone and share part of my story as a woman of Awesome. 

I grew up with a career-oriented mother and saw work as a core part of identity from an early age. Despite this, it took a *lot* of trial and error to discover my own passion and drive, and I found that in tech recruiting—specifically, when one routine cold call led me to a family-owned photography start-up named SmugMug. 

If you’re reading this, chances are you know and love this company just as much as I do today. But at the time, I didn’t know them from a sea of start-ups, and I had three amazing years of recruiting to understand just how special this company was. When they offered me a dream job as their in-house Director of Recruiting, needless to say, I jumped at the opportunity.

As the first member of what was dubbed the “People Team,” I was given the opportunity to grow into a leader overseeing all facets of the employee experience. This was simultaneously terrifying and thrilling. There was so much to do that the first few years felt like a blur, but I had established myself as a senior leader in the company, began building a people program from scratch, and for the first time in my life, I was passionate about my work. What I was doing felt important and challenging. I loved my job, and I had never been happier. Then I unexpectedly became pregnant. 

I need to be honest up front: Having kids was never something I planned for. In fact, I was terrified of being a mom. When I saw the positive pregnancy test, it felt like time froze, and I knew at that moment that, despite my fears and not feeling ready or equipped to be someone’s mother, I was going to have a baby. As my pregnancy progressed, I felt conflicted: While I was surrounded by people celebrating this momentous milestone in my life, I mostly felt anxious because, like many women, I wanted to have it all—a successful career *and* the ability to be a great mother. The societal pressure on women to achieve a perfect balance between work and family is immense, and, for me, it meant a lot of internal struggles and self-doubt. 

Although I knew the kind of company I worked for, and constantly boasted about our incredible work–life harmony and support systems, what I experienced as I entered this new phase of my life still amazes me. As a new parent I was able to take a generous parental leave that I even extended a bit when I realized I needed more time with my son. I created a flexible schedule that allowed me to have a productive work life and a present home life. I even pursued therapy to help me talk through my own conflicted feelings, all with the full and enthusiastic support of my company.

Importantly, it wasn’t just the policies in place, but the compassion I experienced in the day to day that blew me away. On one occasion, my son, dressed in full Batman attire, appeared behind me on camera during an executive Zoom call. Naturally, I felt flustered and panicked that I was disrupting our work—but just then, our CEO Don MacAskill exclaimed, “It’s Batman!” and encouraged my son to come closer so everyone could say hello to the caped crusader. He was greeted with genuine enthusiasm and laughter, and my fears were immediately calmed. These moments, and so many others like them, have allowed me to continue unapologetically prioritizing my family and well-being while pursuing my career. 

I recognize that not every company operates like Awesome. But that’s why I take my role here all the more seriously. As a woman and an executive, I carry an enormous amount of privilege, and I want to use that to ensure we’re creating equitable experiences for all the women who work here, today and into the future. Today, that looks like braving my fears and writing a blog—sharing my story and elevating the stories of other amazing women I work with. But in the big picture, it’s a team effort, every day.

I am fortunate to work with a world-class People Team. They are fiercely committed,  hard working, and deeply empathetic. Together, we have continued to raise the bar every year on what it means to be a people-first organization. As a team, we’ve worked hard to define career levels and promotion processes. We provide coaching for our managers to ensure career-growth opportunities are accessible throughout the entire organization. We’re focused on taking an already generous parental-leave policy and evolving it, to include structured planning before and after that leave so our newly returning parents can better manage this momentous time in their lives. And we’ve grown our employee benefits to encompass mental health, too, offering company-sponsored therapy and coaching sessions to our entire employee population. 

In celebration of this year's International Women’s Day, I am so proud to represent this company as one of its leaders, and to share the stories of other amazing women I work with. I feel a tremendous amount of gratitude as I look around at the people I’m fortunate to work beside. Together, we support each other, challenge each other, and build an equitable, inclusive environment where women can thrive. I am humbled and honored to be on this journey and look forward to the future we continue building together.

As Camp Tecumseh celebrates a century of sun-soaked adventures, we sat down with Marketing Director Sam Hirt to discuss the visual history of this camp. Beyond the rustic cabins and laughter, Hirt shares insights behind immortalizing Camp Tecumseh's spirit—unveiling the transformative power of photography and videography, and SmugMug’s role in creating a digital haven where each canoe ride and campfire flicker can be preserved. 

Tell me a little about Camp Tecumseh.

Camp Tecumseh is celebrating its 100th year now in 2024. The camp started in 1924, and we’re about 25 minutes from West Lafayette, where Purdue University is, on the Tippecanoe River. When people think of summer camp, that’s Camp Tecumseh: canoeing, swimming, singing songs, making friends, hanging out in cabins together, looking up to camp counselors. We serve between 5,000 and 6,000 kids every summer, and we serve more than 30,000 annually. That includes school field trips, outdoor immersive experiences, and a number of curriculum-based or leadership-based programming for outdoor education. We also have a department for groups and conferences, so anyone who needs a meeting space or a place to have a retreat can also come here.

We have nine week-long sessions of overnight camp and seven weeks of day camp within that same time period during summer. Each Sunday we have a new group of 500 overnight campers, and Monday morning we have a new group of 200 day campers. At the end of the week, they all go home. 

The rest of the year, there could be days where all 600 to 700 beds are full with a variety of schools and retreat groups, or there could be a random day in between those groups where it's empty. It's pretty busy throughout the year with lots of groups coming in and out.

How did you get involved with the camp?

My wife actually grew up at this camp. Her dad worked in the camp industry for 40 years, including at Camp Tecumseh, and she lived on site. So she has it in her blood. I didn't grow up that way, but I did go to camps growing up. When I met her, I learned about Tecumseh, and we worked a summer there together when we were in our early twenties. I was on the media team as a videographer, and I used SmugMug for the first time back then. 

I later got into the camp industry separately, working for the American Camp Association. When a full-time opportunity came about to be the director of marketing at Camp Tecumseh, I took it. I've been here full time since 2019, so this spring will be five years. 

How’d you get into videography?

I was really into camera stuff, but I didn't have any technical training, so I taught myself. Then I started filming friends' weddings, then other people's weddings. That was my introduction to videography, which led me to photography. From a professional standpoint, I do more photography than I do video, but I do both in my job and both on the side. And this job has made me a much better photographer.

How does that translate into telling Camp Tecumseh’s story?

Our priority is to show the magic of camp—what's wonderful about the experience and what it looks and feels like to be a camper or counselor at Camp Tecumseh. I think the photos and videos really help convey those feelings. The goal is to capture as much as possible to show all the activities you can do at Camp Tecumseh in a given week. I really like that parents have to do some gallery searching after their kids attend camp because the parents get to see the whole experience and not only a single photo of their kid. 

Could you tell me a bit about your process?

I have a team of three that work for me; one does video, one does photography for overnight camp, and one does photography for day camp. At any given moment, we've got one person taking photos for 500 campers and one person taking photos for 200 campers.

The media team that works for me in summer focuses only on summer camp. The rest of the year it's just me whenever I have time. So in summer, my team will look at the schedule for the day and make a list of the activities they want to capture, whether it be horseback riding, canoeing, pickleball, swimming, or whatever. Then they'll go out with a golf cart and some Fuji camera gear to capture as much as they can. 

Once they've shot a decent amount, or filled a memory card—we shoot RAW so they fill up fast—they'll come back, offload the card onto a Mac, and sort to find good photos. We don't look for the perfect photo; we look for clear, appropriate photos that help tell the story of the day. Then they edit in Lightroom, export, and upload to a new gallery on SmugMug.

Any event that's happening at camp on a given day ends up being a gallery for us. On a good day, for example, we'll create a folder for Monday. Within Monday we've got galleries for chapel, Newdls (where kids learn a new skill and use their brain—their noodle), afternoon activities, and lake time. It helps us create a folder full of galleries, which really is a day full of events.

Part of what I do is oversee the process and make sure things are looking okay. As the week goes on, I challenge my team to seek out shots they might not have gotten yet. Have you made it to archery? Have you made it to the River Village? 

How does this work help the camp?

As far as marketing, word of mouth has been the best thing for us. Like when parents share our photos with new neighbors who moved into the neighborhood: "Here's where our kids go, and here's a link to their photos. See how great it looks." Also every Saturday, when a given session is over, all our summer staff will find photos of themselves and go to Instagram to make a post. We have hundreds of notifications each weekend. It's free, organic marketing that’s a gift that keeps on giving because we have high-quality images at the volume we do.

Also, everything we upload can be purchased by the parents. But we explicitly tell them on the site they can download images for free. We don't make a ton of money off that, but we do get 50 million hits in the summer, which is a really high amount for a nonprofit like us. 

The benefit we get from people saving the photos is they share them on their own social media or with their neighbors, which outweighs any kind of money we could make from them in my eyes. And everything is password protected for the high-resolution downloads.

How does SmugMug factor into your work? What got you started?

My predecessor, who's a friend of mine and a great photographer, chose SmugMug for the camp ten years ago. Then I've ushered it forward. 

SmugMug does a great job of handling our volume because we take lots and lots of photos, and I like how quickly it uploads everything. We upload anywhere from a couple hundred to a thousand images in a single day, so parents have to look through a lot to find their child, which is their number-one priority when they're looking at the photos. And I want them to do that. I think that's great. 

I also like that our SmugMug site can seamlessly tie in to our own site and branding, which has been crucial. I would hate for parents to be taken somewhere else and think, "What is this? It looks so different." Right now they can go to our SmugMug site and think it’s just part of our main site, which is great. I want it to look less like SmugMug and more like our own thing, and so far that's working the way we want it to.

Gallery presets are really handy for what we do, too. At the start of each summer, I can show all three of my staff at once how we set up a gallery, save it as a preset, then give them instructions on how to use that preset when creating a new gallery. Then the rest of the summer they can do it without me overseeing it.

Any tips for new SmugMug users?

If you're a camp, or some other organization that posts galleries based events, take advantage of SmugMug’s folders for organization. You could look at how we do it to get an idea of how useful they are. For example, we might create a folder for week one of 2024 overnight camp,  then within week one, there's folders for each day of the week. Within each day, there are galleries for events. That's a really clear way parents, staff, or visitors can see the whole experience. 

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We really value photography and videography here at Camp Tecumseh. It's not just me as the marketing director or even just the media team. It's all my coworkers. They talk it up to other people and say, "Check out our photos." We take pride in our hard work and the output we have, and I’ve always liked that SmugMug has been a good place to host our photos.

Like many creatives who found themselves behind a camera, Jay Ford grew up around a family who loved photography. Where his dad began by filming home videos, Jay continued by filming anything his friends and family would allow: parties, football games, sorority videos, and more. He used his camera as a way to express his voice and, through it, amplify the voices of others. We had a chance to speak with Jay and get a bit more insight into his work. Watch our latest SmugMug Film with him below, and read on to learn more about him in his own words.

How would you describe what you do?‍

I feel I’m a visual creator more than a photographer or videographer. I use my camera to create something that resonates with me first and then, hopefully, other people like it from that. I look for life and the emotion that creates that life—whether it’s the trees moving or the culture I’m in—and I try to capture the raw emotion that comes out of it.

What wakes me up every day is challenging myself to do something different than normal. Every night I look through other people’s photos and videos, then use that to curate what I want and challenge myself to do something new.

When looking at other’s work for inspiration, are you trying to pick apart techniques or are you drawing from their creativity?‍

A little bit of everything. I try to see how they achieved what they did, looking at the cameras they used, the scenes they got, the why behind their choices, the type of story they’re trying to tell. And I watch things repeatedly to get those answers.

For example, the show Euphoria is good, but the cinematography was amazing. Whoever the cinematographer was is the most creative genius I’ve ever experienced. The use of colors, imagery, and everything was crazy to see. And that’s something I want to implement in my work to be more creative.

At first people asked me, “Why do you have a camera?” After I started posting the photos, they started asking me, “Oh, where’s your camera?”

How did your photography interest evolve into a focus on portraits and filmmaking?‍

When I went to college, I had only raw abilities. But I always had a camera with me and would take it to parties. I used to record people at the parties as well as other stuff in college, such as basketball games and football games. When I started posting those images online, I began gaining momentum. At first people asked me, “Why do you have a camera?” After I started posting the photos, they started asking me, “Oh, where’s your camera?”

Once I started getting that momentum, I kept going with it. It not only made me happy, it made other people happy, too. And that’s what I love about photography: you get to make people happy and make them feel more beautiful than they thought they were.

What photography project has been the most meaningful to you so far and why?‍

The Black Lives Matter movement has probably been the most meaningful thing I’ve gone through so far. Because I didn’t go out there to make money. I didn’t go to the protest to chase clout. I went there because I felt it was my true calling to document history in the making. With everything going on in the world, I felt if that movement didn’t happen, much change wouldn’t have come. For me to document that whole process was part of the history: to take pictures of the emotion — the reactions of people dealing with these injustices.

I feel it’s my duty to show it in a positive light because the news and certain media only show the negative. People are dealing with this emotionally. They’re upset, and I wanted to show that in a beautiful way. That meant a lot to me. And I want to do more.

During the protest, how did you remain focused on capturing the moments and not losing yourself in them?‍

At first I definitely got lost in them. I couldn’t focus. There was so much going on: people around me, damage that was happening, the police shooting rubber bullets and tear gas, and my friends getting hurt. It was tough. But as we kept going, we were able to show the emotions of the crowd and how it kept swaying. That’s when I started to lock in and adjust to what was going on.

Obviously, you want to be with the crowd, but you’re here to show what’s going on. Once I refocused myself, I was able to capture that. A lot of people love the images I got because it showed a different side of what the media was showing. I knew people had to see what I was capturing because I didn’t see it on the news — what I was seeing then, in the moment.

…as long as you have a camera and you’re ready, you can have a shot.

You mentioned tear gas and rubber bullets. What precautions did you take to keep yourself and your gear safe so these images could be seen afterward?‍

A little bit of street smarts. I wanted to be on the front line, but I didn’t want to be stupid. When there’s violence going on, you learn to take a step back. You can’t dive into it as much as you want because you don’t know what will happen. But I took precautions for the tear gas: wore heavier clothes, put a bandana around my nose, wore glasses. I also had a good lens that allowed me to get close enough without going too deep. I was worried about a rubber bullet hitting my lens and cracking it, so when the rubber bullets were happening, I was running. That was my precaution there.

Were you able to share any of the images with folks amid all that chaos?‍

Yeah. A lot of people saw I was taking pictures and they got my Instagram. When I shared a video of the protest later, it went viral. Once it got shared, a lot of people reached out to say, “Hey, that was me. Can you send me that video?” So they were able to find me and then the images I’d taken from that day. That was powerful.

Do you shoot everything manually?‍

I usually do. But at the protest, I didn’t. A lot of the time then, I shot auto because you never know what situation you’re going to be in. There was so much running going on, it was also tough to try to nail the perfect shot. That was a big thing I learned: you don’t always have to have the perfect shot to get the best shot. The photo could be a little blurry. It could be a little overexposed or underexposed. But as long as you have a camera and you’re ready, you can have a shot.

What have you learned from your experience that you’ve carried forward to other shoots?‍

In order to grow, you’re going to need help. Whether you’re a landscape photographer, a commercial photographer, a family photographer, or anything else, you’re going to need help getting your photos out to the world. You’re going to need to help doing big production shoots. You’re going to need help running the business. As much as you want to do everything yourself, it doesn’t make sense. I was being selfish in the beginning by not wanting help. But now I’m growing as a person, and as a business owner, and help is what’s needed—help is what’s welcomed.

Once you’re at your shoot, what are you looking for in terms of light and framing your shots?‍

I always like to shoot at the same time of day outdoors: blue hour and golden hour. When it comes to framing, there’s really no plan. It kind of comes to me naturally depending on what the background is and where the sun is. Do you want it backlit? Do you want to get a close-up shot? Do you want to get details and emotion? I don’t like people posing or looking at the camera much, so I like movement. I like the actual smiles and not posed smiles. It comes to me as I go.

How do you go about keeping your photos safe?‍

I have seven hard drives because I shoot so much. I have a passion-project hard drive, a business hard drive, and a personal hard drive. Then I have three backups for each one of those. So when I do a shoot, I immediately back it up to my big hard drives.

When I first started out, I didn’t have a process. I used to shoot, put everything on my computer, and edit from there. Then, the first wedding I ever did, I ended up losing all the photos for it because I put everything on the computer and it wasn’t ready for all that. The computer crashed, and I lost all the files. I lost everything. Once I saw the bride’s reaction, I told myself, this can never happen again. That led to me being a bit overkill about my hard drives and storage.

Do you have any advice for those looking to pursue a similar path?‍

Just go out there and do it. Don’t listen to anybody who has no clue what your dream is. If you really want to pursue something, find those individuals who have done it before and reach out to them to figure out how they did it. Because if they did it, you can do it.

What about advice for capturing the image?‍

Go with your heart. Don’t go off trends. Don’t go off what other people like. Go off what you like. The best part about going off what you like is that it tells a story. Your story.

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Find Jay online:
Portfolio
Flickr
Twitter
Instagram

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Subscribe to the SmugMug Films channel to see future installments as soon as they are released.

An artist at heart from a young age, Lizzy Gadd found her way to photography when her father brought home a small digital camera when she was twelve years old. From there, she discovered Flickr communities and dove into a world of exploration and experimentation through her lens. The journey has led her to far-flung lands and hidden oases buried in the back country, where she seeks new stories to be told with herself as the main character. Watch more about Lizzy’s journey below in our newest SmugMug Film, and read on for some of her tips about the magic of storytelling through photography.

Tip #1: Focus on feeling.‍

I’m quite particular about the mood in my work. My favorite photos involve moody weather, mist, sunrises, or sunsets. Weather plays such a huge role in conveying mood. As do locations. Seeking out and hiking to these beautiful, epic locations is all so I can capture the right feeling in my photos. Trying to get the timing right so the weather aligns with the location I want is always the biggest challenge in my work.

Tip #2: Be in the moment.‍

Self-portraits are a bit of a challenge, but they’re also a therapeutic process. I time-lapse my photos, so I set up the tripod, manually focus my composition, and program the timer to take a photo every few seconds. Then I walk out in front of the camera. I might stand out there for up to 100 photos, thinking I look epic or graceful, then I come back and find that maybe one photo out of a hundred looks the way I imagined it. Often it’ll take me several tries, going back and forth.

More often than not, I won’t take photos. I tend to enjoy being in the moment and connecting with nature. That’s always been my first love. I like to soak in the surroundings. Then, if I feel inspired, I’ll try to capture the mood I’m feeling. But I have to feel it first. Be in the moment. That’s most important. Once I feel that connection, that’s when I’ll try placing myself in the photo to see if I can capture the feeling through photography.

Tip #3: Let the light enhance the mood.‍

I love soft light. My favorite time to photograph is usually first thing in the morning around sunrise, especially in the fall when there’s fog. Once the sun comes up and shines through the fog, it creates a beautiful, gold, misty moodiness. I love warmth in photos, but I also love cold, dramatic tones. There’s a different kind of mist that comes from rainy days. As long as it isn’t clear, blue skies and contrasty, I’m happy.

Tip #4: Find an anchor for the scene.‍

When taking in a location, I like to find a place where there’s an object — whether it’s a tree or a rock — that stands out within a scene. I’ll instantly envision myself interacting with that object somehow, standing next to it or sitting on it, and can see the photograph in my head. Even if there’s nothing there except a beautiful backdrop, I can become the point of interest by incorporating myself within the photo. It gives a focus for the emotion I’m feeling. A frame for what I’m seeing.

Tip #5: Don’t be afraid to break the rules.‍

I very rarely follow the rule of thirds. I’m often centered in my photographs. And even though I always bring my tripod out with me, I rarely use it. Often I’ll shoot with my camera very low to the ground so there’s a soft foreground of grass or rocks that creates a dreamy effect. The out-of-focus foreground gradually leads to the center of the photo, where I’ll be in focus with the background behind me. I always try to find a way to frame the photo so I’m not lost among the landscape but also don’t stand out in a way that fights against the nature I’m trying to capture.

Tip #6: Find a community.‍

When I was 12 years old, my dad bought a point-and-shoot digital camera, which I picked up and started shooting with. A year later, I joined Flickr and started getting inspired by the people posting there. Photography became my biggest passion; I was shooting landscapes and animals every day. Then I started seeing some of my new friends on Flickr do these 365 projects, where they would take a self-portrait every day for a year. So I decided I would attempt one myself in 2010. I shot self-portraits every day, and it was a year of experimenting. I grew the most that year out of any year from the constant practice and feedback.

I didn’t have a style during that year; every self-portrait was totally different. But on the last day of my project, I went out to this mountain range and lake on New Year’s Eve. It was freezing — like –10º — and I took what I thought was going to be my last self-portrait because I didn’t necessarily like them. But on that last day when I was out there in the mountains, connected to nature, standing in the lake and freezing cold, it clicked. I loved that moment so much. That’s what brought me to where I am today.

Tip #7: Share feedback; get feedback.‍

In that Flickr community, we would all share feedback on each other’s work. Even if we didn’t give specific feedback on how we could improve, the constant support helped us build each other up. I think that’s what brought us all to where we are today. Many of us started meeting up in person as well, doing little photo meetups. The community I found there, they are like my family today. That has had a huge amount to do with my growth as a photographer — knowing I have a family of photographers that’s standing behind me no matter what I do with my work.

Tip #8: Choose the gear that fits your vision.‍

I switched to Sony three and a half years ago. The main reason for that is they’re a lot lighter. I do a lot of backpacking for my photoshoots, often going into the back country for a few days, and I was beginning to think lighter gear would help considerably with the weight I carried. The upgrade in quality was also considerable for me — from my original Canon 60D, which I think was 18 megapixels, to the Sony a7rIII, which is 42 megapixels. Seeing that huge jump in image quality was overwhelming and awesome, because I suddenly had so much more detail to work with.

Tip #9: Don’t be afraid to not take the photo.‍

When you feel pressured and don’t know what to capture, put down the camera, step back, and enjoy the scene. Don’t worry about it. Often, that’s when inspiration will come back to you. When you’re focusing so hard to see the scene through the lens, you forget to look at it through your own eyes and enjoy it that way. I find inspiration comes to me more when I put my camera down and simply enjoy being there. That’s when the ideas start coming to me.

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Find Lizzy online:
Portfolio
Instagram
Flickr

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Subscribe to the SmugMug Films channel to see future installments as soon as we set them free.

Career highlights.

1. Serves 250,000–300,000 customers annually.
2. Shoots 40,000–50,000 gorgeous images per event.
3. 5 million+ images generated in five years.
4. Client list includes All American Baseball Youth, Youth Baseball Nationals, Youth Softball Nationals, American Youth Football, Babe Ruth League, World Series Cal Ripken Baseball, and The Ripken Experience.

Turning want to need.

Glossy Finish was born in 2006 when Haim Ariav was suddenly inspired to build a mobile photo lab in a trailer and cart it to sporting events, enabling families to view, purchase, and retrieve photos on site. Ariav, a classically trained photographer, saw an unfilled niche: he recognized that as a “want” industry, photography was taking a hit in a rough economy, so he set out to re-brand memorializing athletic moments as a “need” by making it easier to enshrine kids’ sports glory. Redefining how images are delivered on site is the foundation of Glossy’s business model, unique in the sports photography vertical.

The post-game show.

But on-site sales aren’t Glossy’s sole revenue stream. After an event, Ariav’s team uploads its treasures to SmugMug’s cloud and follows through with additional distribution via SmugMug’s labs. Online sales, a significant supplement to Glossy’s revenue stream, run smoothly on SmugMug, along with back-office functions. “We rely on the website for 100% of our revenue for events that don’t utilize the mobile lab,” Ariav said. “Using the SmugMug infrastructure, reliability and scalability are key for us. Having access to the various products offered by the labs is a huge opportunity for us to carry out our online strategy.” 

Ariav’s team uses online proofing to boost non-mobile sales. “Different events may not warrant the use of our patent-pending mobile lab,” he pointed out. “The success of those depends on customer satisfaction with images and ease of purchase. SmugMug allows us to deliver a successful experience.”

Scoring points with social media.

Ariav endorsed SmugMug’s decision to allow digital downloads to have watermarks. “We felt it would facilitate our ability to brand ourselves on social media,” Ariav said. “We wanted to have a presence on social networks like Facebook and Twitter, where so much photo sharing takes place. We know how important printmarks and watermarks are to both our business and our creativity.” 

Ariav milks every branding opportunity he can out of SmugMug’s tools, even while focused on image protection. “Printmarks turn images from just a photograph into a memory,” he said. “Our logo is also typically part of the printmark. Watermarks deter people from stealing, but we also use them as a way to show what [clients’] prints will look like with the printmark. We are always marketing and trying to keep up brand awareness.”

Owning it from field to checkout.

Outlining a strong customization strategy for site design and gallery organization, and a reliance on SmugMug’s advanced customization tools, Glossy also has the cart-branding feature firmly in the “on” position: “Branding is a huge part of what we do best, which can be seen in our website customization. We [use] cart branding so our customers know they’re getting a great Glossy Finish product. We also use the box sticker. We want customers to know who they are getting a package from and, most importantly, thank them for their order.”

Less work, more profit.

Ariav used to blanket events with trigger-happy shutterbugs. Now, by sending sales teams to pre-sign customers, he may only capture four or five kids out of 20, but the average order has increased from $25 to $125. “It’s okay not to photograph every player on every field at every game,” he said. “We focus only on those that want and love our photos. It works better for the customer and us

With SmugMug’s help, this focus on time-saving extends to online sales: “We try to keep pricing as uniform as we can to lessen confusion on our end,” Ariav said. “With the introduction of pricelists, it is much easier to organize pricing throughout the site. Now I can set up pricelists for sales and simply move galleries around once the sale is over.”

Making friends with the moms.

After cutting overhead and moving from the flea-market, on-spec approach to a more profitable, streamlined system scaffolded on a $20 deposit credited toward purchase, Ariav saw opportunities to reach a larger audience without snapping a photo. Envisioning his business as “an exclusive entertainment club,” Ariav created custom lanyards customers could don at soccer tournaments, showcasing that their kid’s athletic prowess was immortalized by Glossy Finish. The result? A flood of visitors to his trailer.

Taming the technology beast.

Photographers have never discriminated when it comes to capturing contacts; Glossy worked hard to collect home addresses and emails. Now, Ariav plays smarter, relying on texting select targets for marketing blasts. His on-site blitzes are wildly successful. “If we have a slow period, we can ping them and—boom!—the trailer fills up. We have a direct connection to our customers. And when we’re done with an event, we have more contacts in our database for future direct and instant marketing.”

Looking back at 2022.

In 2022, we celebrated 20 years of helping photographers all over the world showcase their art, cherish their memories, share their experiences, and run their businesses. And a lot has happened in those 20 years! We’ve heard amazing stories from photographers about their work and how they run their businesses. We’ve told some of their stories with SmugMug Films, where we highlight the inspirational work of amazing photographers around the world. And we’ve heard from our customers about how much of an impact our platform has made in their lives.

You are our priority, and the work we did in 2022 reflects that.

As your business grows, we’re enabling you to do more of it while on the go. We added notifications to our mobile apps to let you know when you make a sale. We also added mobile support for proof delay and made it possible for you to check on the status of orders no matter where you are. These small changes free you to manage your business when and where you want.

When you’re at your desk, we’ve added support for proof delay directly into the SmugMug plug-in for Lightroom Classic, allowing you to stay in this powerful tool while fulfilling customer orders.

It can be difficult to know if your photos are getting in front of your potential buyers, so we added improved SmugMug gallery engagement stats to get the data on how your potential buyers are responding and if the promotional channels you’re using are effective.

Our world-class customer support Heroes answered more than 120,000 inquiries. Many issues were resolved in just a few minutes. We’re proud to continue offering this level of courteous, effective, and fast customer support.

We made improvements to search to make finding photos easier for you and for your customers. Search is now faster and more accurate across all our subscription plans, and for customers opted into SmugMug Source™, it also includes auto-tagging of objects and geolocation.

We improved the purchase experience for customers ordering digital downloads from mobile phones and tablets, solving a fulfillment pain point many of you shared with us. We also added the ability for you to sell digital packages, giving you the best-in-class tools to deliver photographs to your clients.

But none of that matters if all of your photos aren’t safe and readily accessible. In the past two years we made it easier for you to store your RAW files along with your finished JPGs with SmugMug Source, an add-on feature to any SmugMug subscription plan. And in this past year alone, we invested in the stability and reliability of the SmugMug platform and storage. While you can’t always see these changes, everyone benefits from faster page loads, improved browser experiences across devices, and the peace of mind that every pixel of your work is safely stored and ready to be served at a moment’s notice.

Forward looking to 2023.

You’ve told us you want to sell your work. We’re here to support you in achieving that goal. In the coming year you’ll see improvements that help people find and purchase their photos more easily. We know many of your customers increasingly are giving up their desktop computers (if they ever had them) and are using their devices on the go. We’re committed to making that experience easier for them and for you when managing the sale.

You’ve said you want photos available for purchase faster. We’re investing to enable more options for uploading. We’re excited about the opportunities in this space and can’t wait to see how it accelerates your business.

We want to be the best employee you’ve ever had, supporting you with the mundane parts of running your business so you can do the work that’s unique to you. Letting you do the work that your customers depend on. We’re also working on improvements to help you get photos onto our platform more easily, whether that’s on your desktop, tablet, phone, or camera — uploading to SmugMug should always be fast and reliable.

Like many of you, we’re concerned about the world we’re leaving behind for future generations, so we’re working to reduce the environmental impact of our business. This means continued investment in how we run our platform and business in a sustainable manner. We’ll continue to optimize our software, storage, bandwidth, and energy usage to ultimately become climate neutral.

Our purpose as a company is to build a better world through the power of photography. At SmugMug, we’re creating the best platform for all photographers and we’re incredibly humble that you’ve chosen us to be a partner throughout your journey. The next 20 years will be transformative for the photography industry, just as the introduction of digital cameras was. So stay in touch and look for more from us throughout the year!

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The newest edition of One Day One Artist follows content creator Alex Qian as he returns to his old stomping grounds — Chicago, the Windy City — in search of favorite spots and unexpected shots. Watch the film and read on to learn more about Alex and his tips for incredible photography.

Alex Qian is a bit of a mashup: part photographer, part content creator, part educator, part business owner. Depending on the day, you might catch him on a commercial shoot, or running a photography workshop, or crafting content for his dedicated social media following — or, if you’re as lucky as we were, just wandering the city looking for the perfect shot.

In our latest One Day One Artist film, the Chicago-born and LA-based creative takes us on a tour of his old stomping grounds. Watch the film below, and keep reading for a few of his tips on mastering the multifaceted hustle that is professional photography.

Tip #1: Learn to collaborate, and draw inspiration from everywhere.

I like to describe my work as a mashup of creativity through exploring and learning pieces of each of the different fields of expression that I have touched. Though my artwork is primarily land/cityscape and adventure lifestyle focused, I continue to strive to stay open-minded in this crazy and fast-progressing world to look for ways to improve my work in both photography and video. I am a Millennial growing up in the internet-age, so I learned a lot of what I know now through social media, Google, Youtube, and lots of trial and error.

That said, as I progressed I learned that in order to really grow as a creative I had to let go of control and learn how to collaborate with other creatives that are incredible at the things I’m unable to do. When I figured that out, it became easier to focus on execution, especially in an age where we have incredible cameras and rapidly progressing technology to convey our visions through. I truly believe that we live in an age that provides the most opportunity and has removed many of the barriers that may have previously stopped people from pursuing creative arts.

Tip #2: Never be afraid to change direction.

My personal journey took me from a passionless, non-creative individual to someone that decided one day that I was going to live a life I wanted to be able to look back on without regret. That journey and the incredible feeling of finally finding something that I was 110% passionate about gave me immense purpose in helping others try to uncover their version of that success for themselves. What most didn’t see was the intense ups and downs of that journey, and I always try to work in a sense of those feelings in my current work. I just feel like a lot of people go through life doing what they’re supposed to do, and if I can inspire even one person to attempt to look outside those boundaries, I’ve succeeded.

My first career was in Financial Services, where I went straight to work out of Undergraduate studies. As a first-generation Asian American to immigrant parents, I was encouraged to do things that no 12 year old should have to care about…like Calculus and Mandarin Chinese. (laughs) I was never really great in school compared to all of my peers, but I somehow managed to stumble out of school and into a couple well-respected corporate companies that gained my family and friends’ approval but basically required sacrificing my happiness for. It was through that time that I learned my greatest skill was actually thinking outside the box and getting creative with my processes at work (much to my boss’ dismay). Through a gradual journey of discovering more of my innate passions, I picked up photography, started traveling and learning more about the world and myself, and that was that.

Tip #3: Find your community—online, in person, wherever you can.

Community is really important to me because I went through life feeling disenchanted and excluded because I was so different from everyone that seemed to have no problem navigating through life all the way through young-adulthood. Now that I know myself, have found my creative identity, and am confident in what value I can contribute to the world, I want to try to encourage anyone that was in that mindset that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Basically be that guiding hand I could have used when I was still stumbling through those times. The amazing thing is that the community has given so much back to me in the form of opportunity, support, and a living which I am super-grateful for.

Part of the benefit to community building is that you also get to spend a lot of time networking with other people from all walks of life. A lot of my first big commercial gigs with Microsoft Xbox, Adobe, and Panasonic Lumix to name a few came about because I met the right people that liked my work enough to collaborate together. The other big piece was curating and getting my portfolio to a place that made it easy to show that I could be trusted with more responsibility on big projects. The beautiful thing is that the cycle continues to feed itself as my projects continue to increase in scope over time! Nowadays I try to work in this new age of social media broadcasting in tandem with my quality of work (and even my friend’s work) which my clients seem to love.

Networking, getting my work seen by way more eyes that I could traditionally (and for free), staying on top of creative trends, inspiring my community, and finding talent to collaborate and grow with are the main reasons why I enjoy using social media so much. It has worked out for me as I am a very social person and really enjoy sharing what I’m up to as well as my peer’s work, so I believe that with the right mindset it is an incredible tool for creatives to utilize!

Tip #4: Explore.

I get a lot of inspiration from social media and web-based platforms like Flickr. I know that platforms can be overwhelming sometimes but I always make time to scroll and try to find new inspiration from artists I look up to in all sorts of genres. As long as you remain objective about what you are consuming, I’ve found that it is a literal treasure trove of inspiration! I also spend a lot of time exploring my surroundings wherever I am, so that has served me well if I am tasked with finding a location to fit a vision. Exploring especially comes in handy if I am unfamiliar with the spot, since I tend to look at it differently than someone that is super familiar would. When all that fails, I’ll lean on friends that I know have hundreds of location pins in their maps!

Tip #5: …but try to have a backup plan.

I would say [my biggest advice is] to build a financial safety net so that you can make mistakes comfortably. You are starting a business and that can be a huge learning curve on top of trying to stay creative, so it helps if you can lean on friends, family, or savings if things don’t work out right away (and they never do). In hindsight, I was lucky I had a career beforehand that allowed me to build a foundation to launch from.

Tip #6: Know yourself.

Learn what opinions you should be actually taking as objective advice if you’re sharing your work on the internet. There will be tons of voices and you’re going to need to build confidence in yourself and your work in order to stand apart and progress as a creative. You know what’s best for yourself and the story you have to tell will stand out if you have found that balance in your work. Lastly, take things at your own pace and try not to compare yourself to others. Everyone shares their highlight reels and it can be easy to feel like you aren’t good enough. Rushing your own process can be one of the worst things you can do, so take your time.

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Find Alex Qian online:
Website: https://www.wayfaringprofessional.com/
Social media: Instagram | YouTube | Flickr | Twitter

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Subscribe to the SmugMug Films channel to see future installments as soon as they are released.