SmugMug Development Lab

Sports photography isn’t easy. Often done on a speculative basis, success only comes with a great marketing plan, a solid business plan, and a lot of hard work before, during, and after the game. We gathered a few tips to help make the process from shot to sale easier.

‍Getting the shot.

Face. Contact. Action. Ball. These are the elements of a great sports photograph. Your ability to get the shot—in sports photography more than any other field—requires more than “f/8 and be there.” Equipment matters since you very likely won’t be able to control the light. Here are a few recommendations:

• Camera body with the ability to shoot multiple frames per second
• Clean high ISO for low-light shooting
• Telephoto lens with a large maximum aperture (fast glass)
• Monopod
• Accreditation and/or permission to shoot the sport

‍1. Know your sport.

The ability to anticipate where the action will be, to predict the drama by understanding the rules and rulings, to be prepared for the ecstasy and agony of the competitors are what will set you apart as a sports photographer.

‍2. Fill your frame with action.

Minimize distracting backgrounds. Choose the right depth of field. Make sure the play or the player is your subject. Shoot tight, crop tighter.

3. Pick the right shutter speed.

In general, you’ll want to freeze the action, so your shutter will need to be fast. If motion blur is desirable to help convey the story or set the mood, a slower shutter speed may work, but you’ll still need to ensure your shutter speed is fast enough to prevent camera shake.

Pro tip: Your shutter speed needs to be greater than the focal length of the lens. Try shooting in burst mode to ensure you don’t miss any of the action. Using strobes? Balance the flash power against flash duration to freeze the action.

‍4. Get accreditation and/or permission to shoot the sport.

Meet the sports director for the school or club, the president of the booster club, or the director of the league and get their blessing to photograph their players. You should know their needs (yearbook photos, website photos, championship photos, team photos, etc.) and be prepared to include these shots in exchange for the right to photograph the game/league/tournament.

You’ve got the shots, now get the sales.

You probably aren’t expecting to head out, take a bunch of game-day photos, and put them up for sale. While you're perfecting your shooting technique, you should also be putting together a strong business and marketing plan, including building your brand name and recognition, your customer base, and your portfolio.

‍Marketing.

1. Use SmugMug’s drag-and-drop customizability to add your brand to your website. Use sports photos in your portfolio.
2. Make sure your homepage meta description and keywords reflect what you do and where you’re located. Take steps to ensure you can be found in a Google search

At the stadium.

1. Network. You’ll likely start out photographing youth sports. Your sports-team booster club, team manager, and parents are going to be your biggest fans and referral sources, so be sure they know who you are.
2. Business cards and printed material: Create your SmugMug folders or events before games or tournaments and include the URL on your print advertising. Distribute that advertising during the game so people know where to find your photos as soon as they get home.
3. Turn your portfolio shots into print and product samples that show folks what you offer for sale. They're perfect for demonstrating how great their photos will look.
4. If you're working at a tournament or multi-game event, have a display set up on site and show the photos as they come from the field. Generate excitement and get them eager to buy ASAP! Using SmugMug print-credit coupons is a great way to ensure you'll make more sales after the tournament.
5. If you’re submitting photos to wire services, do so at halftime. Sports shooters highly recommend using Photo Mechanic software for the sorting-and-sending process.

After the game.

1. Put your CF card into a card reader and use Lightroom to import and copy the files into a folder (organized by date) on your external hard drive.
2. Use the Lightroom Library module to quickly cull all out-of-focus and otherwise unsellable shots from the set. Mark them rejected by hitting the X key.
3. Use the filter near the search bar at the top of the window to select the rejected-photos flag. Select all the photos in the filmstrip at the bottom and right-click > delete to clear out the rejected images.
4. Add keywords and metadata (copyright information, for example) to the whole set of photos using the Sync function in the Library module.
5. Use the Lightroom Develop module if minor editing, like adjusting exposure or quick cropping, is needed to get the best image possible.
6. Go back to the Library module and set the publish setting File Setting Quality slider to 50%. This keeps your proof images small so you can upload them faster.
7. Select all images to be published.
8. Use the Lightroom SmugMug publish service to create a new gallery on SmugMug and make sure you have proof-delay enabled. Having the images already selected puts them right into that gallery. You’ll be able to configure your gallery settings from within Lightroom, too.
9. Hit the Publish button and watch as Lightroom uploads your selected photos into your new SmugMug gallery.
10. Spread the word that the photos are online and available for purchase. Remember that marketing your work is critical to success. Use email and social media. Make sure you contact your liaison with the team and have them help spread the word, too.
11. Make a sale, and know which photos have been ordered.
12. Open Lightroom and navigate to the published gallery. Find the image your customer bought, open the Develop module, and edit that file for print. Repeat for each ordered image. Those images will be marked for republishing.
13. Open the publish settings and reset the Quality slider to 90% (print quality).
14. Hit the Publish button, which replaces your compressed images with your print-ready files.
15. Go to the SmugMug proof-delay page for the order and click the Release Order button.
16. Write your customer to let them know you’ve reviewed the order and sent it to the lab, and thank them for their support.

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We hope these steps outline an easy strategy to get you started on your way to success in sports photography. Have any tips of your own to share?

What’s new.

• We've turbocharged the shopping experience for your customers, making it lightning-fast to add items to their carts. Since making these changes, we’ve seen the time it takes your visitors to add their first item to the cart drop by 34 seconds. We’ve also seen conversion rates for adding items to cart increase. Quicker shopping = more sales for you.
• We’ve added a fantastic new SmugMug Perk: 20% off a lifetime membership to the International Freelance Photographers Organization (IFPO). IFPO has provided credentials, support, access, and community to photographers since 1984.

What’s changed.

• We've made significant improvements to your uploading experience, paving the way for better content sharing and management. Check out this announcement for all the details.

Bug fixes.

• To simplify your customers’ buying process, coupons will no longer apply to packages, which already offer your visitors discounted pricing.
• We've fixed the issue causing video-playback interruptions before processing completes, which resulted in "Processing Failed" messages.
• Out with incorrect crops. We've resolved the issue that affected some print-product cropping to deliver perfect results every time.
• Pro branding updates now stick when changed, allowing Pro-plan subscribers to showcase their updated brand with thank-you notes in each print order and custom stickers on the outside of shipping packages. Not yet using this feature? Learn more!
• Downloaded orders are now correctly labeled as "Shipped," providing clarity for Pros and customers alike.
• We've tackled a cookie issue that blocked visitors from passworded galleries and downloads after they entered the correct password, ensuring uninterrupted access for your visitors.
• Sales history is now off-limits to assistants, and downloading images is a breeze from both the organizer and lightbox.
• We've squashed iOS bugs left and right—from manual-sort glitches to app crashes—to make your mobile SmugMug experience even better and ensure you have uninterrupted access to your photos and videos no matter where you are.
• Our latest Android app release comes with performance enhancements for smoother browsing and quicker transitions.
• Prints and cards now play nice together in the same cart, ensuring they're both visible and ready for purchase.

These updates are designed to supercharge your selling experience and keep your business running smoothly. Happy selling!

Whitney Chamberlin left a $250,000/year corporate gig to help people create their own images in the Smilebooth. His unique formula has his Atlanta, GA, booth rentals topping $200,000 in revenue, making $30,000–40,000/year on his own local events. Partnering with SmugMug for its simple gallery hierarchy, social-media marketing, and large, beautiful image display allows Smilebooth event-goers to quickly browse by location and quickly share photos, all while seamlessly integrating with their main site.

‍A booth is born.

In his former life as a brand manager and marketer, Whitney Chamberlin spent his time bringing back iconic Nikes and wallowing in indie music. He was creative and successful, but something was missing. “I was making amazing money, but what I did didn’t have an end—what was I really doing?” he said. “Here I’m making people genuinely happy, just by putting something there for them to do.” 

The Smilebooth idea bloomed when he started joining his wedding photographer wife, Jesse, on weekend jobs. “I was in the giant corporate world during the week, and my wife was shooting weddings on weekends. It was a bummer,” Chamberlin said. “I used to lose sleep worrying about [all the guests] being photographed. I said, I’m not going to walk around begging—it wasn’t my style. So I built the first photo booth out of plywood and a makeshift computer. It worked great.” He continued to refine the booth and grow the business.

‍Putting the “mug” in SmugMug.

Smilebooth milks every drop of revenue from SmugMug’s tool set by exploiting the social aspect of photo sharing. Citing SmugMug’s excellence at showcasing multiple images and large, beautiful displays, Chamberlin said he links directly to SmugMug from his own site so customers can view and discuss their images on SmugMug without any extra clicks. 

Chamberlin likes having an online place to do event postmortems. “Then you can say, ‘I was at this event, come view my photos!’” he pointed out. 

Furthermore, Chamberlin has been known to build clients their own SmugMug site so they can collect revenue from events themselves. “Some of our brides were a bit iffy on using the Smilebooth,” he said. “I said I could discount their Smilebooth and make them their own SmugMug account with Smilebooth images. She can set [the price]. It's enticing for the budget bride.” 

There’s a silver lining for the vendor as well. “As a rental business, I don’t really need [the revenue]; print sales are an amazing added bonus,” Chamberlain said.

‍The booth as boon.

Chamberlin’s original venture exploded into a diverse international enterprise. In addition to Smilebooth rentals and his own company’s shoots, he manages an affiliate network and continues to produce booths for purchase. Seamless integration between his site and SmugMug, along with advanced customization, lets him manage his diverse business arms and maintain a unified look and feel. To his delight, the Smilebooth concept has proved nearly recession-proof. 

“We created the first one in 2005 and growth has been spontaneously amazing. I used to get emails from photographers every week saying how do you get these shots in a photo booth?” he said. “We haven’t had any hiccups. The only challenge is getting photographers to stop interacting with everyone and let the Smilebooth do its job.”

‍Shooting inside the box.

The main lesson Chamberlin brought with him from the agency world was the ability to channel anticipation without meddling. Although letting drama and creativity unfold naturally is second nature to him, getting professional photographers to do the same is more difficult. 

“For a while, I was frustrated with copycats,” he said. “Then I thought, why not build booths for them? I created a whole other business because I didn’t think people would get it.” 

Smilebooth has spawned many imitators, but Chamberlin thinks his team’s ability to let action happen without intervening sets them apart. “I’m not one to hide the feather boa and silly hats, but that’s not our aesthetic,” he pointed out. “You are the creative. [In the booth], you can be creative with nothing in your hands or something physical in the room, instead of bringing the same props everyone has. Custom-made props? Awesome. Relevant props? Great.”

Jesse’s classical training came in handy, he noted, citing her general knowledge of cameras and lighting as key. Typically, his team demos the freestanding booth and clicker for one person. Jesse avoids posing subjects, often just advising them to be themselves. 

“She has a photographic gift beyond the eye,” he said of her charisma and ability to help subjects let loose. “That’s what makes her an amazing photographer. How everything feels with the photo booth is basically that same feeling.”

Letting loose.

The Smilebooth is addictive—and the results speak for themselves, all over Smilebooth’s SmugMug galleries. 

“People don’t get out,” Chamberlin said. “It’s like that Risky Business moment where you’re sliding across the floor in your socks. People regain their childhood when they’re in front of this thing.” 

Chamberlin’s captured grandmothers flipping off the camera, dads hugging sons, and lots of devious teenagers smiling about something they shouldn’t be. “People get excited about doing their own thing in front of the camera instead of being told what to do,” he said. “The game of anticipation is really simple. When you’re in a group and one person has the wireless clicker remote, it’s exciting—it’s unbounded and limitless. You can push the button thousands of times or just once, and there’s a roar of laughter, because it’s a real moment, not a pause—not a tight, confined scenario.”

Photographers, are you ready to elevate your branding strategy? Let's dive into watermarks and discover how to leverage them effectively on SmugMug.

‍Understanding watermarks.

First things first, what exactly are watermarks? Watermarks are customized graphics or text that you can overlay onto your photos. They serve as a visual stamp, asserting your ownership and brand identity. You can apply them to all your photos on SmugMug, but we never place them on your original files. This means your watermark will never appear on downloads, prints, or keepsake items clients purchase from your galleries. But they travel with your photos online as part of our secure photo sharing. 

‍Who can use watermarks?

Watermarks are available only to Portfolio and Pro account holders on SmugMug. Power users can use external programs like Lightroom for watermarking, but this means your original file will contain the watermark so it will also appear on anything purchased from your site.

Elevating your brand identity.

Why bother with watermarks? Beyond adding a professional touch, watermarks reinforce your brand presence. Whether you're selling your photos or showcasing your portfolio, they ensure your name remains prominently associated with your images. And once you set up watermarks in your gallery settings, SmugMug automatically applies them to new photos as you upload.

Creating your custom watermark on SmugMug.

Ready to craft your signature stamp? You can create text-based watermarks directly in SmugMug. 

1. Navigate to your Selling Tools tab.
2. Select Watermarks > Manage. 
3. Tweak fonts, placement, and other settings, and watch as a live preview updates with your selections.

If you want to step it up a notch—say, using your logo as a watermark—fire up your preferred image-editing software (such as Photoshop) and unleash your creativity. We recommend starting with a transparent PNG file of around 1000 x 2000 pixels for optimal versatility. Apply it the same way you would a text-based watermark, but select Image as the watermark type instead. You’ll be prompted to upload your new watermark and then can adjust its opacity and location until you’re happy.

Stuck? We have a comprehensive step-by-step tutorial about how to make a sample watermark file on our help pages. 

Locating your watermarks.

Navigate to your Selling Tools tab to access all your branding tools, including watermarks. This centralized hub allows for easy management, editing, and removal of your watermark collection.

To apply your watermarks to your photos, look in your gallery settings under the Photo Protection tab. Or drop in to the Organizer to watermark several galleries at once! 

Refining your brand aesthetic.

Need to refresh your branding or make adjustments? No sweat. Simply upload your updated watermark, configure its settings, and apply the changes within your gallery settings.

Adapting to every image orientation.

Addressing the perennial dilemma of landscape versus portrait orientation, consider experimenting with square or corner watermarks for a cohesive aesthetic across all image types.

Distinguishing watermarks from printmarks.

Think of them as siblings—watermarks for your digital portfolio, printmarks for your physical prints. Both serve as customizable branding elements, tailored to enhance your visual identity, but only printmarks show up on the images your clients order. And printmarks, unlike watermarks, are limited in size and where they can appear on the photo. 

Great ideas for printmarks include event dates, your handwritten signature, team names, and graduation years.

Striking the perfect balance.

Strike a balance between visibility and subtlety to ensure your watermarks complement rather than distract from your captivating images. 

Ready to get started?

Dive in to SmugMug’s built-in watermarking tool and embark on your branding journey with confidence! And remember, our dedicated Support Heroes are on standby to assist you every step of the way: click here to reach out.

Now go forth and leave your mark on the world of photography!

What’s new.

• We’ve enriched your shopping experience by introducing package and gallery-download options directly within the gallery. Now it’s easier than ever to explore and purchase the perfect package or download high-quality images to cherish forever. Since release, we’ve seen visitors using these new options 10 times more than when they were buried a few clicks away—and more engagement means more sales!

• Enjoy smoother multi-selection sharing with our latest Android app version. Preserve your image selections even after download errors and enjoy hassle-free editing with multiline captions.
• Say goodbye to cropping concerns! Our new crop-warning message in the shopping cart alerts your customers to potential issues, allowing for easy adjustments before ordering. This also helps ensure they’re more aware that cropping occurs before printing, increasing satisfaction when their order arrives.

What’s changed.

• Visitors to your smugmug.com domain are now automatically redirected to your custom domain, enhancing your brand presence and user experience.
• We’ve improved the experience when canceling your SmugMug subscription through our iOS app with  a reminder to also cancel your subscription directly in the App Store. While we wish we could do this for you automatically, Apple’s terms require this step to fully stop future charges.
• Say goodbye to reliance on browser cookies for your stats—we're keeping up to date with modern browser requirements while respecting your privacy! As a result, stats may now include owner views. 
• We've also revamped our image URLs to ensure robust security without relying on browser cookies. Your photos are now even safer, giving you peace of mind every time you share or view them.

Bug fixes.

• We squashed a pesky bug in our latest iOS app version that caused auto-upload notifications to be sent erroneously, even when auto upload wasn't enabled. 
• We fixed bugs preventing video publishing and RAW photo uploads in our Lightroom plug-in, ensuring your photos and videos continue to reliably upload to SmugMug for secure storage and sharing.
• We resolved an issue where RAW uploads (with a Source subscription) weren't generating JPG previews. Although the fix wasn't retroactive, affected files are now ready for primetime.
• Fixed a bug where sort orders weren't always honored when viewing your site while logged out. Now your content displays just the way you want it.
• Tackled an issue where feature/thumbnail images would sometimes stop displaying in our Windows app. Update to the newest version for improved browsing and viewing experiences.
• Our Android app now lets you make purchases from private galleries even when your account has a custom domain, providing you a quick and easy way to order personal prints on the go.
• Our iOS app now displays all folders and galleries when adding or uploading.
• Enjoy glitch-free navigation on our mobile apps. We resolved issues with image processing, checkout, and gallery visibility on both Android and iOS platforms.
• Fixed GST calculation issues on digital-download purchases in Australia.
• Quashed an issue with photo-size shrinking when rotating a device in the Lightbox, ensuring optimal display quality.
• Resolved a concern where coupon restrictions weren’t applying to gallery downloads, ensuring consistent pricing and discounts.

At SmugMug, we're always striving to make your experience better, and that includes ensuring your photos and galleries get the visibility they deserve. In the first quarter of this year, we embarked on a mission to enhance the SEO (search engine optimization) of your SmugMug sites to ensure they get more visibility in search results. Here's a breakdown of what it means for you and what's on the horizon.

What changed.

We rolled up our sleeves and dove deep into the backend of SmugMug to improve the SEO performance of your photo sites. As we optimized for SEO, we also improved performance and reliability for your photo galleries. The proof is in the numbers.

Since beginning our SEO overhaul on November 2, 2023, we've seen significant improvements in key metrics, as reported by Google Search Console:

• A whopping 140% increase in the number of *.smugmug.com pages indexed by Google.
• A remarkable uptick in images and videos with enhanced metadata.
• Double-digit percentage increases in both web and image search impressions.

This means more of your sites are being crawled and, more importantly, more of your photos are being seen. Not just being seen, but clicked on and engaged with!

While these numbers speak volumes, it's essential to remember that SEO is an ongoing journey, and there's a lot you can do to help boost your own numbers. We've got a guide to help you do just that!

What's next.

SEO improvements will continue to be one of our priorities. Our commitment to improving your photo site's visibility is unwavering. And while the work on SEO may never be finished, we're dedicated to elevating your SmugMug experience and helping your photos shine on the web.

Tim Miller's journey into the world of wedding and dance photography began with a high-school class. Little did he know that class would set him on a path to becoming one of the premier photographers in the eastern Pennsylvania region and one of the highest-selling pros on SmugMug. But like many success stories, his journey was far from linear. 

We had a chance to chat with him about what makes his photography business so successful, and how SmugMug helps contribute to that success.

1. Branding matters. 

In the early 1990s, Tim noticed a lack of creativity and spontaneity in wedding photography. Determined to change the game, he and his wife, Liz, began experimenting with a new approach: focusing on the candid moments that truly reflected the emotions of each wedding day.

This "Your Day, Your Way" concept resonated with couples seeking a personalized and authentic wedding experience. Soon, Tim and Liz were booked solid, photographing weddings all over the region. But Tim didn't stop there. 

After sparking up a conversation with a wedding DJ who also worked in a dance studio, he ventured into dance photography. "I created a separate site and named it ArtOfDance.Photo after a big dance studio in Easton told me they would've hired me three years earlier if I had dance photos on my original site," Tim said. 

Using SmugMug’s variety of customization options made it easy to brand each site separately, making them unique enough to avoid confusion among his clients.

His journey from Tim Miller Photography to ArtofDance.Photo underscores the importance of strategic branding. Learn from his experience and make sure your brand reflects the specific niche or audience you serve.

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2. Know your audience. 

"My advice is do your own thing and solve problems for your clients," Tim said. And his approach has paid dividends, with his business flourishing even amid the pandemic.

His decision to split his photography ventures based on client preferences also highlights the significance of understanding your audience. Whether it's weddings or dance photography, catering to the distinct needs of your clients can set you apart in a competitive market.

"Brides don't want to see dancers, and dancers don't need to see brides," he said. But it wasn't just about differentiation; it was also about scalability and brand longevity. 

3. Plan for growth. 

"You don't want to name your business after yourself," Tim recalled, echoing the advice of a fellow photographer. If the business grows enough that you can sell it, people will always wonder who and where the named photographer is. Tim’s friend later lamented he would’ve been able to sell his own studio for more profit if he had known this tip himself.

Once you’ve chosen your name, think about getting a custom domain and logo to fully brand your business. Also monitor your growth easily with SmugMug stats and sales reports as well as third-party analytics.

4. Timing is key. 

Tim's knack for identifying and addressing industry frustrations didn't stop with weddings. He saw an opportunity to revolutionize the timing of dance-company photoshoots, shifting them from the bustling spring season to quieter winter months. This not only alleviated financial strain on parents but also ensured a steady stream of income for Tim during the offseason. 

Tim’s strategic shift in photoshoot scheduling demonstrates the importance of timing in maximizing sales while easing the financial burden on clients.

5. Problem-solving = success. 

He also changed how studios could approach their photo days to make them less disruptive and more customer-friendly. During his pivotal conversation with the wedding DJ/dance studio assistant, she explained why picture day was difficult: time had to be set aside to pose all the kids and to collect prepayments for packages—which might include photos the parents didn’t even want. 

After listening to her woes, Tim had an idea: “What if we took photos during class instead of on a separate day? And instead of making parents prepay for photos, what if I posted the photos online for them to choose from?" And so began a new chapter.

Tim's entrepreneurial ethos centers around solving problems for his clients. Embrace this mind-set and offer innovative solutions to problems in your industry that satisfy your customers and give your business a boost at the same time.

6. Leverage technology. 

Also central to Tim's success was his partnership with SmugMug—the “answer to everything," he said, emphasizing its indispensable role in streamlining his workflow and facilitating seamless transactions. The platform's robust features, coupled with exemplary customer service, have been instrumental in his ability to deliver exceptional experiences to his clients. “The superfast delivery of digital images is a strong selling point for me,” Tim said.

Partnering with platforms like SmugMug can simplify your workflow and enhance your customers’ experience. 

7. Customer relationships are key. 

Tim's dedication to excellence extends beyond business transactions; it's ingrained in every interaction he has with his clients. "I love what I do, and I don’t take myself seriously," he remarked. His success is rooted in the bonds he's built with his clients over the years. “People remember how you make them feel.”

Cultivate genuine connections with your clients by prioritizing their needs and delivering exceptional experiences. 

8. Stay approachable. 

A lighthearted approach can go a long way in building rapport. "I just love to have fun with my clients," Tim said. His down-to-earth demeanor and humorous anecdotes create a welcoming environment that fosters trust and loyalty.

9. Continue learning. 

A couple years into his dance-photography journey, a studio owner challenged Tim by asking, "Why do we take the same boring pictures? Why don't we capture leaps or something?" Instead of shying away from this knowledge gap, he approached the question with one of his own: “How would I do that?" The studio owner responded by borrowing his camera, giving the dancer a countdown, and snapping the photo with one shot. 

From there he discovered his studio strobes couldn't stop action, so he invested in better lighting. And he continued to learn the timing of leaps. “That's what changed me as a photographer, and when sales started going through the roof,” Tim said.

Embrace a growth mind-set and remain open to learning from both successes and failures. Tim's willingness to adapt and evolve has been instrumental in his journey as a photography entrepreneur.

10. Efficiency is essential. 

On the day of a photo shoot, Tim hands out letters to parents that explain how SmugMug works and hangs QR codes around the studio. These codes, generated on SmugMug, take parents directly to the photos’ online gallery when scanned. “I’ve already seen an increase in early sales with the QR codes,” he said.

“Also key to what I do is fast turnaround,” Tim said. “I use only three things for post-production: ACDsee for viewing and numbering the photos, Lightroom to edit the photos, and SmugMug to display and sell the images.” This allows him to edit and upload 12,000 studio images in three hours or less. 

Tim's efficient approach to post-production and client communication allows him to handle high volume with ease while maintaining quality. Streamline your workflow and optimize your processes to maximize productivity. 

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By incorporating these insights into your photography business, you can carve out your own niche in the industry. Remember, it's not just about taking photos—it's about building relationships, solving problems, and delivering outstanding experiences that keep clients coming back for more.

SmugMug users photograph everything: be it weddings, cats, races, mountains, architecture, or cat races, there’s room for you on SmugMug. And we’ve got great features built in to every account type to help take what you’re shooting to the next level. Here are a few recommendations for SmugMug features that can boost your site, depending on what you love to shoot.

Event and sports shooters.

If your adrenaline gets going when the competition does, you probably have a number of galleries with exciting photos. Stay in the game by staying organized and ensuring every subject in every photo can be found.

• Keywords.
  Keywording is just as important as the photos themselves. You want to keyword your images not only with the event name, but also with location, date, and player name if it applies. Don’t forget to add a search box or display a keyword cloud so clients can find their photos easily.

• Sitewide organization.
  Organization with SmugMug’s seven layers of folders and galleries is invaluable when it comes to busy event seasons, so structure your site clearly and easily: simple enough for you, your assistants, and your clients to find exactly what they’re looking for.

Client-seeking pros.

If you’re putting your business online, there’s a few things we recommend to help impress your client base. Whether your profession is photography, graphic design, architecture, or something else—SmugMug’s great for businesses of all types.

• Best-of galleries.
  Your site should show off what you do. Whether it’s pictures, video, or text, your clients want to get a taste of what you do and what makes you unique. Create a gallery or page that visually delivers your elevator pitch, then upload your best content, or collect and curate it from around your site. Then highlight this gallery in your navigation bar so it's easy for clients to find.

• Contact form.
  We still see websites that make it difficult (or impossible) to contact the site owner. If you want people to hire you, make sure your contact information is clearly visible on your homepage. SmugMug gives you a safe, ready-to-use contact form you can add to your site menu.

World travelers.

It may be tough to keep track of which time zone you’re in, but you can always remember where you took those photos with a few SmugMug features.

• Maps and pins.
  If you shoot with your phone, or if you have geotagging enabled on your camera, your photos keep their location data when uploading to SmugMug. You can also manually add locations. If you want to share where that secret beach is with your visitors, use our built-in map content block.

• Text content blocks.
  A photo may be worth a thousand words, but a few lines about what you did and how you got there adds to the story. Try out title and text content blocks on your homepage and custom pages, and fill in title and caption fields under every photo for some extra SEO.

Family snappers.

Stay closer to home? Photos capture important memories for you and your family, but you don’t want those photos falling into the wrong hands. Your favorite memories should also be easy to find for the feels.

• Privacy settings.
  We recommend logging out of your account to view your SmugMug galleries as a guest. Are the galleries you unlisted hidden? How do passworded galleries appear? We’ve got several privacy options available for you in your account settings and individual folder and gallery settings.

• Folders and galleries.
  SmugMug gives you the ability to nest your folders and galleries up to seven layers deep.. Organize your content so it makes the most sense to you, whether it’s by child, by event, or by year. Or a combination of all the above. Then use your photo library to find specific photos quickly.

The socially savvy.

Social media is great, but you never know how long your content will be relevant online. Build one forever home on SmugMug and use it to share to all your social-media outlets.

• Social designs.
  Put all your cards on the table with our default SmugMug design template, or the Dash design. Both let you set a profile pic, display your name and a cover photo, and list your favorite social-network sites.
  

• Comments.
  This is a simple content block you can drop anywhere on your site to encourage your visitors and friends to engage in discussion. 

• Share galleries.
  Want direct-sharing options instead of additional buttons? Enable social sharing in your gallery settings to share individual photos or entire galleries with a click.

We hope no matter what you shoot or how long you’ve been with SmugMug you’ve discovered something that’ll give your site that extra oomph. What features have you made the most of?

Pictures tell stories, but sometimes the story is bigger than the frame: crazy moments, behind-the-scenes secrets, you-had-to-be-there experiences. A photo blog offers the perfect opportunity to share those stories with the world. But managing another site or customizing it to match your main site is a tedious task. So why not keep it simple and keep your blog where your photos are—on SmugMug?

This step-by-step guide will walk you through everything you need to set up a photo blog on your SmugMug site.

Step 1: Create a folder for blog entries.

First, you’ll want to create a folder to contain all your future blog entries and name it something simple, like “Blog.” This will not only help you keep things organized, it will also give your blog a shorter, readable URL. This makes it easier for your visitors to remember, and it can also boost your search-engine optimization (SEO).

Step 2: Create a gallery outside the blog folder.

You’ll need a place to upload the photos you’ll be sharing in each blog post, but you don’t want this gallery to live within your blog folder or else the gallery itself will show up on your blog landing page. We recommend naming the gallery something that relates to your blog, such as “Blog Photos,” and using the Organizer tree to drag the gallery close to your blog folder. This will help keep things organized as you add more content to your blog in the future.

If you don’t want this gallery to be discoverable in your site’s navigation, change its accessibility setting to Unlisted. This will keep the gallery itself hidden from view but allow the photos within it to be seen when you add them to a new blog post. Have a Portfolio or higher plan? Encourage more sales of your blog-worthy photos by making the gallery Public instead and creating a pricelist for it.

Step 3: Upload photos to your new gallery.

Now that you’ve got your new gallery, it’s time to fill it with photos! Upload photos for each blog post as you go, or upload several photos at once for blogs to come in the future. For an extra SEO boost, title and keyword your photos after you upload them.

‍Step 4: Create a page for a new blog post.

Now you’re ready to blog! Create a page within your blog folder for a new post and select from one of the available layouts to kick things off with ease. Want complete control? Choose the Custom page option for full reign. 

We recommend making the page Public and filling in all the page-settings information for the best SEO, but at a minimum you’ll want to enter an eye-catching title. Your title will automatically create a custom URL for the page, but you can change the URL to anything you want. Keeping it readable and informative will help search engines and potential visitors get a great idea of what they’re in for before they even click the link. And if you add a feature image, a thumbnail will appear alongside your blog’s search results.

Step 5: Customize the post.

Now that you’re all set up, it’s time to design your blog. Navigate to your new page and open the Customizer to reveal all the goodies available for your blog post. Drag and drop different content blocks onto the page to craft your perfect post. These are just a few ideas on how to use the blocks to bring out the best of your blog:

Photos, slideshow, or carousel.

Show off what the people came for: your photos! You’ve got several options in the Photos category to display your images in style. Drop in Single Photo blocks to maximize the size of your work and fill your page with large, beautiful images, or drag in a Slideshow or Carousel block for a more compact display. Want your visitors to be able to fill their screens with your work? Buy a photo? You can choose how you want your photos to react when clicked: open large in a lightbox, take the viewer to a gallery or different URL, or keep it as is.

Text, HTML, and CSS.

Use Text content blocks to fill in the story between your photos. For additional styling, use the HTML and CSS blocks for more control over how text and other content appears on the page, like we did for the sample blog at the top of this article.

Title.

Title content blocks are a great way to break up text on the page and give your visitors strong entry points into the story behind your photos. Use them as subheads to chop up larger blocks of text or highlight photo captions. We recommend using at least one at the very top of the page for the title of your blog post.

Separator.

We love this underrated feature for creating clear boundaries and visual breathing room. You’ll find it under the Design category of your customization options, perfect for giving your page a polished look.

Step 6: Get social.

For a finishing touch, don’t forget to invite your readers to join the conversation!

Comments.

Even if a conversation is happening on social media, it can be nice to give your visitors the option to leave direct comments on your blog post. Add the Comments block to give fans one more way to communicate with you. We offer a moderation option so you can review all comments before they’re posted to your site. To enable this feature, visit your Account Settings > Stats > Comments section and click on the Details button. You’ll see a checkbox in the upper right of the following page to require comment approval.

Step 7: Publish.

Photos are in. Story is written. Design is polished to perfection. Your post is ready for its debut! Once you’re ready, click the green Done button in the upper right-hand corner and select Publish Now. Still unsure? Try the Preview button instead to get a glimpse of what your visitors will see before the post goes live. Or if you’ve written posts for future release, choose the Save for Later option after you click Done. You can come back to the post later and publish whenever it’s time.

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Ready to start your own photo blog? Share it with us on Facebook, X, or Instagram! Or if you’ve gotten stuck somewhere, our Support Heroes are standing by.

Richard Burley is an educator, photographer, and the founder of Epic Action Imagery. He travels the world photographing sporting events from football and hockey to obstacle races like Tough Mudder and Spartan. We caught a moment of his time to talk about luck, sofas, and velociraptors, among other fun details.

SmugMug: Hi Richard. To start with, tell us about yourself!

Richard Burley: I’m a sports and action photographer based in the UK. Prior to taking up photography as my full-time job, I worked in education. Initially as a college teacher progressing up the career ladder to management roles. In 2014, just as my photo business was starting to grow, a conversation about volunteers for redundancy saw my hand shoot up. A few weeks later I packed up my desk and headed out of my office and on to what became a huge adventure. I do still teach a few hours and enjoy that side of my life too, but I fell in love with action photography early.

SM: How’d you get into photography?

RB: I’ve had an interest in photography since I was a child watching my dad in his home darkroom developing photos. It wasn’t until much later that I started to think more seriously about taking photos professionally, but my interest in capturing sport, action, and movement was growing.

I bought my first DSLR with the royalties from a text book I co-authored and started to learn lessons by trial and error. I prefer to learn by experimenting and finding out what works and what doesn’t rather than reading or watching others. The only qualification I’ve actually got is a badge from Cub Scouts. I’m very much self-taught.

SM: Tell us about starting and growing a photography company?

RB: The real start of it was in January of 2010. I’d stopped coaching football and decided I wanted to get into photography, and was shooting semi-pro matches for a friend. But I just wasn’t getting the shots I wanted, because I was convinced I didn’t have the right lens.

So I go to the camera shop, just to look at a new 70–200mm lens…and 30 seconds later I’m walking out with the box. [laughs] And I’m thinking “I’ve just spent the sofa deposit on a new camera lens, this is gonna take some explaining.”

So I told my wife I spent the money we’d saved for a sofa on a camera lens, and she responded “Well you’re gonna have to take that lens and make that money again.” Which I took very literally! I said okay, I’ll start a business.

SM: The right equipment can make all the difference! What happened next?

RB: A couple of months later, I’m shooting the occasional sporting event, making a little bit of money, but still employed full-time with the college, when on a trip to Cambridge with the family I spot a billboard. On this billboard is a picture of someone jumping over burning straw bales, and I thought “that looks like fun, why don’t I see if they’ve got a photographer?”

There’s a concept people in business will often refer to called “luck.” I think I’ve benefited from an enormous amount of luck. This was a billboard for Spartan Race. They’d just started — one event in the US, no events anywhere else, this was their first event in the UK — and they said “you know, we hadn’t thought about course photography, of course you can come!”

That first moment at a Spartan Race really told me what it was gonna be like: I’m set up along the course, waiting for people to come from the right, and suddenly they appear to my left like velociraptors. And that was it. That said to me “don’t ever expect everything. You know that thing where you like things to be predictable? You’re gonna have to part with that.”

SM: What a lesson to learn on the first day. How’d you grow that into the Epic Action Imagery we see today?

RB: Well, one thing led to another and soon Spartan was asking me to shoot their international events. Then other events start asking me to shoot, because they’re pulling from Spartan’s pool of course photographers, and suddenly I’m doing this full time and building teams. I’d call it an accidental business, really. An experiment that got entirely out of hand.

I think I was fairly lucky, again, because I was an educator and a manager in my full-time work before this. I was used to recruitment, I was used to building teams, passing on information, delegating, and allowing people to grow. Everything I did was very developmental.

The whole purpose of education is to help people grow to become better than yourself — and not be intimidated by that, which is a great fit for photography. It’s really something I look for while building a team of photographers: work that makes me stop and go “whoa. I’ve gotta know how you got that.” I’ve had the privilege of working with other photographers that inspire and enthuse me to work hard and to keep learning.

SM: What is it about action photography that calls to you?

RB: I enjoy the challenge of capturing movement at the right time. Facial expressions in sport really tell a story too. Emotions are often amplified in a sporting environment and seeking to tell the story is a challenge that I enjoy. Participants on a Tough Mudder course emerging from ice filled pools or getting zapped by electricity really brings out a range of expressions. And I’ve done a couple of the events myself so I have an inkling of what they’re experiencing.

I enjoy the people too. Sports events have an energy and a vibe that I find motivating. Capturing people overcoming fears or beating their personal bests is a responsibility I take seriously and I work hard to ensure that moment is captured for them to share with their friends and family. There’s been several moments where I’ve captured people who’ve overcome significant changes in their life to achieve a sporting goal. Often I find there’s a bit of dust in my eye when seeing such a victory.

A big motivation for me to make amateur sports people look like pros, giving them an image in which they look truly epic. From my personal perspective I always try to take a picture that makes a person look and feel like Usain Bolt. When they’ve had a bad day and they’re reaching for that beer in the fridge, they can see a picture on the fridge door of themselves leaping over flaming hay bales and think “I am awesome! I am epic!”

SM: Last business question: what’s the biggest challenge in shooting action photography?

RB: The vagaries of the weather, absolutely. I’ve worked in 42 degree heat (108° F) in Bahrain, and I’ve worked in -20 cold (-4° F) in Canada. Thigh-deep snow, I’ve been swatting flies off, days where it feels like someone’s hitting me with a firehose, but I love that. I love being outdoors. To reframe that: I don’t think there’s a challenge apart from loving what you do, really.

Even when you’re shooting the same thing — someone jumping over flames or crawling through mud — how do you tap into the journey they took to get there, to be fit enough to run five miles and leap over these flames? The biggest challenge, and the biggest joy, really, is tapping into the energy and euphoria of these participants each and every time.

SM: What gear do you use to capture those moments?

RB: Canon 1DXs (3 x mk1 and 1 x mk2) with a range of lenses from 16mm to 400mm. I started with Canon in 2006 and have yet to be tempted to try anything else. I am curious to try a few mirrorless options and listen to the experiences of other photographers when considering my kit choices, but the 1DX is a versatile workhorse and has coped very well with the range of conditions that I find myself working in and the image quality means that I can get the images I want.

The lenses I favor for events are the 16–35mm and the 70–200mm. My kit gets a fair amount of scuffing on rocks and hard ground so I use an EasyCover to try to keep my kit protected.

For football, I’ll have the 400mm and 70–200mm as a main set up and the 16mm on a remote camera positioned behind the goal using a PocketWizard set up. The 400mm is my favourite lens. It’s an old-school mark 1 IS 2.8, but so crisp and ideal for capturing the action that unfolds at the other end of the pitch. It’s a little heavy and if the teams change ends before kick off, it’s quite a challenge to run round the pitch perimeter with all the gear. I hear the mkIII may be a little more mobile and I may make the switch in the future.

SM: Speaking of gear, what got you started with SmugMug?

RB: I started with SmugMug in 2013. I met a representative at the PhotoShow and at the time was looking for a platform to host event images in a cost-effective, reliable, high quality, and simple to use manner. I was also in search of something that would let me search my photos by keywords and bib numbers so I could easily sort participant photos. We had to be able to deal with the kind of peak demand that these events generate. Fortunately, SmugMug met all these criteria and I signed up that evening. 4.7 million photos later we’re still going — if I posted one photo every minute, it would take me 7 ½ years to get through them all. We love it.

SM: What’s your most-used or favorite SmugMug feature?

RB: I actually just redesigned the site last week. Part of our post-COVID recovery has been taking the time to think about what we do and why we do it, and engaging with my local business community. I met with a local marketer who told me “your photos are amazing, but man your website’s old fashioned.”

So I tried a landing page, liked the look, and three hours later I’ve got the whole site looking brand new. It was that easy.

In terms of what I use a lot, it’s image library management. SmugMug works as part of our client relationships, so Spartan or whoever can go in and retrieve images easily, and we manage their photo library as part of the business relationship. They tell us what details they want for the photo — keywords, metadata, factoids, you name it — and we’ll get those set up for them.

Photo sharing is a big part of it, too, and obviously sales, which we like because they’re all seamless. It’s also visibility. I can see what photos people are buying, track stats, keep up with what’s popular. Sometimes you get excited about an image as a photographer because all of the elements came together, and you get to see people excited about those same things enough to buy and share them, too.

SM: Lastly, any tips for a new SmugMug user?

RB: Learn. Keep learning. See what others do, interrogate the style, and let that style influence you as you capture your images and organize your site. There’s so many wonderfully talented photographers showcasing their work on SmugMug, it’s a great way to find inspiration and to showcase your own work.

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Follow Richard Burley on Instagram and Facebook. Also, visit his website at https://www.epicactionimagery.com.

And, tell us what you think of this interview! Start a conversation on SmugMug’s Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

As a SmugMug Pro subscriber, you have access to some game-changing features that help you run your business. One valuable feature we’d like to highlight today can revolutionize your client photography sessions: client downloads. This feature is designed to simplify and enhance the photo download experience for both you and your clients. If you haven't explored it yet, we’ll walk you through it.

What are client downloads?

Client downloads are a feature that allow you to offer a specific number of photo downloads to your clients as part of your photography packages. This means you can provide your clients with a convenient and efficient way to select and receive their favorite photos, all within the limits of the package they've chosen. 

Why is it valuable?

1. Streamlined selection process: With client downloads, your clients can easily choose their preferred photos from the session, saving both you and them valuable time. No more sifting through hundreds of photos—they can focus on their favorites.

2. Customized experience: It enhances the client experience by giving them control over which photos they want to download. Clients appreciate this level of customization, making them happier with your service.

3. Clear communication: Offering a set number of downloads helps set clear expectations from the start. Clients know exactly what they're getting, reducing misunderstandings and potential disputes. Also, No longer will you have to send them galleries with downloads disabled, communicate back and forth about the images they want to choose, and then send them only those photos.

4. Value addition: Including a specific number of downloads in your packages adds perceived value to your services. Clients see it as an extra benefit, which can influence their decision to choose your photography services over competitors.

5. Efficiency: For you, it simplifies the delivery process. You don't have to manually send each selected photo; clients can download them directly from their account.

How to use client downloads.

Picture this—You photograph family portrait sessions. Typically, you book a session for a flat fee. This session fee not only includes the portrait session, but also includes the ability for customers to download 20 of their favorite photos after you edit and deliver them. On SmugMug, here’s how client downloads help:

1. Set the limit: Decide how many photos you want to allow this particular client to download. In this case, 20.

2. Inform your clients: Generate a dedicated one-time link for your client from your SmugMug gallery and send it to them.

3. Client selection: Your clients follow the link to your gallery and choose their favorite photos up to the agreed-upon limit of 20.

4. Effortless delivery: Once they've made their selections, they can immediately download their chosen photos (and only their chosen photos), simplifying the delivery process for you. 

Don't miss out on the opportunity to improve your client experience and add value to your photography services. Client downloads are a feature that can make your client delivery workflow easier than ever.

To get started with client downloads and see the impact it can have on your photography business, simply log in to your account and explore this feature today. Watch this quick video to see it in action.

Available only for SmugMug Pro subscribers. Not on the Pro plan? Learn more about how the Pro plan can help you elevate your photography business.

Are you ready to revolutionize the way you connect your customers with your photos? Enter SmugMug QR codes.

We know that one of the big challenges in photographing an event is finding an efficient way to let the attendees know how to view and purchase your photos. We also know that speed is everything when it comes to monetizing your photography. The quicker your event clients visit your gallery, the greater their interest in the photos, and the more money you make!

That's where QR codes come in.

Picture this scenario: You're booked for a youth sporting event next week. With SmugMug QR codes, you can create relevant galleries and generate QR codes for them well in advance. Simply print out the QR codes on fliers, business cards, or any other marketing collateral that you prefer and hand them out at the event. 

Here's where the magic unfolds for both you and your clients:

Effortless engagement: No more scribbling down long URLs or hoping clients remember your website. Your QR code becomes an instant bridge between the event attendees and their cherished memories. They just need to scan, and voilà – they're taken directly to their dedicated photo gallery!

Elevated exposure: QR codes don't just streamline client access; they supercharge your marketing efforts. Display your QR code at the event entrance or on marketing materials, instantly impressing attendees with your tech-savviness. And guess what? They're more likely to share your QR code, organically amplifying your brand reach!

Customer delight: The joy of reliving event highlights shouldn't be overshadowed by the hassle of tracking down photos. With a simple scan, your clients navigate effortlessly through their personalized gallery, ensuring a seamless and delightful experience.

Time-saving: We understand that your time is precious. SmugMug QR codes liberate you from the tedious task of individually sharing galleries, freeing you up to focus on what truly matters – capturing stunning shots.

So, are you ready to elevate your brand, simplify your workflow, and make more money? Try out QR codes at your next event. Available only for SmugMug Pro subscribers. Not on the Pro plan? Learn more about how the Pro plan can help you elevate your photography business.

Watch how to use QR codes on SmugMug.

The SmugMug Events feature, available for our Pro subscribers, gives your clients a way to pick their favorite photos from galleries you've curated for them, streamlining the purchasing or photo delivery process in a simple and elegant way. Set up is easy and the benefits are many: 

You provide easy access to a group of galleries via a single click.

You even get to customize the URL. Your client sees a gorgeous, personalized presentation with each gallery displayed before them, highlighted by an optional slideshow.

Your important clients can pick favorites.

Just add them as participants. Click the Share button and send them a personalized email invitation with their unique link to the event.

You can control access by making your events public, unlisted, or protected with a password.

If your event is public, you can set up the option for viewers to register themselves, meaning you get to collect their email addresses and they get to pick favorites. Win–win.

‍How it works.

Registered participants (your clients) browse the event galleries and choose their favorites, marking them with a little red heart. As favorites are clicked, virtual copies of each favorite photo are placed in a special Favorites gallery. Favorites galleries are unique to each registered guest or participant and visible only to them (and you). And your visitors will always know where to find their favorites gallery because we'll send them an email that includes a link to it.

In short: It's easy for your clients to pick, choose, and view their favorites.

They can review them, whittle down their selections, or add new favorites at any time. Participants can purchase any of your available products directly from within their favorites gallery, or anywhere within the event. If you’re working with a client on selections for a special project, like a wedding album, their choices are only a click away. No more trying to hunt down cryptic file names from an email.

Tips to maximize your events.

Feature the event on your homepage. SmugMug allows you to set up your event and generate a URL beforehand so you have that info at the ready. Online, you can modify your event and add new photos as they become available. If that’s too complicated, you can even feature an event on your homepage, putting it front and center.

Feature the event gallery (or galleries) on printed materials at the event. Include the event URL at every opportunity, like the following. (Make sure your printed material matches the formality of the event.)

• In the event’s program.
• On business cards you make just for the event.
• On postcards included in swag bags given out at the event.
• On elegant formal event cards displayed on tables, at the guest book, or at the registration table.

Talk to your host. If your event has a chairperson, director, or simply a social butterfly, exchange email addresses and information. Chances are they have access to a mailing list, registry, or directory in which to distribute info about the event, the photos, and you.

Remember, the people you photograph want to see their images. It’s up to you to get them to where the photos live. Events are one way to make that process a little bit easier on you and your clients.

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.”

The camera you usually have on you is the one in your pocket: your phone. So it’s probably the one you’re using the most. Making sure our phone photos are securely stored is important, and we’re going to show you how to do it. .

Don’t let your best memories die in a digital graveyard. Get them off your phone and safely into SmugMug, where you can rest easy knowing they’ll be there forever, no matter how many times you drop, dunk, or destroy your device.

Use our free iPhone and Android apps.

If you have an iPhone or Android phone, use our app to browse your site, share your photos, make edits, and automatically back up everything on your phone.

Download SmugMug’s iOS or Android app and sign in to your SmugMug account to get started. When you open the galleries on your site, tap the green plus icon in the lower left to add any photo from your photo library to the gallery you’re in. 

Even better, you can set up the app to automatically back up all your photos from your phone to a gallery on your SmugMug site. Just go into the app’s settings and turn the auto-upload feature on. Here’s how to do it on iOS and on Android.

Upload to SmugMug from any iOS app.

You can also upload your mobile photos directly from your camera roll and other apps to SmugMug. This is an excellent way to quickly backup and store your on-the-go photos, which are probably some of the most precious photos we take. So keep them safe!

To do this, you’ll need to have the latest version of the free SmugMug app installed on your device. Simply hit the Share icon in your chosen app, or from the camera roll, and choose SmugMug from the list of available services. In some cases, you may have to look under the “more” option. Here's full details on our help page.

Upload from your desktop to SmugMug.

Even without specific apps, your phone should still allow you to access your images manually so you can upload them to your SmugMug site for safekeeping.

Once you connect your phone to your computer, it’s simply a matter of dragging and dropping the photos you want into SmugMug to begin uploading. 

We’ve got several great ways for to get your files into SmugMug; use the one that works best for you. We like using the default browser drag-and-drop window, with the option to automatically skip or allow duplicate files.

Make sure to download and back up your photos on a regular basis so you won’t miss a single memory you’ve recorded. We’ve all had this happen to us, and with SmugMug you can retrieve thousands of lost memories with a single click.

Happy snapping, and remember: always back it up!

You’re a photographer who makes money from sales, so you’re in control of how your images can and should be used. SmugMug gives you tools to know exactly where your photos are going...and where they’re not.

You can also tweak every setting listed below (except for #8, pricelists) in your gallery settings and save them as a preset. Total time-saver.

Control what visitors see.

1. Set your largest viewing size.

Every gallery on your site gives you the ability to disable your original-resolution images and limit how large your fans can view your photos. We suggest you allow at least the XL display size to create a big impact and allow your potential buyers to see all the glorious detail in your photos. Used in concert with other image-protection features below, your photos will still be safe and sound.

2. Gallery privacy.

Protect your galleries with a viewing password or keep them unlisted to be sure only the right clients with the right credentials are browsing your photos.

Control how visitors share.

3. Share versus owner share.

The Share button is on by default so fans can spread the word about you. If you'd rather be the one sharing, turn this off in your gallery settings. You'll still be able to post and share; the button will instead say "Owner Share" and be visible only to you while logged in.

4. Right-click protection.

With this enabled, we’ll display a message whenever someone right-clicks on your images in your gallery. Keep in mind that snapping a screen grab is a basic function on any computer and isn’t prevented with right-click protection, so we recommend using this feature together with custom watermarking. The result? Your name stays associated with the image, no matter what.

Sign your work.

5. Watermarking.

Put your name, URL, or logo on every photo you shoot. At SmugMug, watermarks are completely non-destructive, meaning they're applied to display copies only. Any print, gift, or digital download purchased from your site will be clean and clear.

Tip: Let your watermarked photos loose! When fans share photos watermarked with your logo, they're doing free advertising for you. So be generous and attract new customers all at once. Win–win.

6. Backprinting.

Add your brand to the back of every print purchased from your site with backprinting (available with Portfolio and Pro accounts). You can customize this with your name, URL, email address or even the image caption so clients know which print is which.

7. Printmarking.

Stamp your prints with your brand. Like watermarks for your purchased items, printmarks are most often used to put your logo or signature on the corner of each print and digital download. It's fixed to a percentage of the area of your print, so don't worry about it taking up valuable real estate.

Charge for the privilege.

8. Set pricing.

It may seem like a no-brainer, but it's important to set up pro pricing on your galleries so you make money on every sale. Start by visiting your pricelist manager.

9. Turn off printing.

Not ready to sell? Simply set printing to No in your gallery settings. This way your clients can browse, but not buy.

You take beautiful photos. You’ve perfected your elevator pitch, and you’ve got business cards to match. You've built a beautiful website just waiting to be discovered by potential customers. What's next?

It’s time to promote your business.

It's one thing to have a website. It's another thing to drive traffic to it. Without a marketing plan, it's like putting a sign out at the end of your driveway and hoping for walk-ins. You wouldn’t build a brick-and-mortar studio without advertising your business, so don’t fall into the trap of thinking you'll make sales simply because you have a website.

Plan your approach.

Your marketing plan should have specific goals, which in turn will guide you toward the right tools for your business. For example, are you a wedding photographer? If so, then you want to draw in brides and book engagement and wedding shoots. Are you a landscape photographer? You want exposure for your fine-art images and your stunning, wall-sized prints.

There are more marketing tools out there than ever before, from traditional print ads to social media and everything in between. Many of them cost nothing more than your time; if you do it yourself, make sure you create relevant and meaningful content. And don't shy away from hiring an expert: Think about the impression you'll make with a polished presentation to match the polished product you'll deliver to your customer.

Tip: Make sure your site gets found among the hundreds of thousands of sites that potential clients will find in Internet searches.

For Awais Yaqub, photography is ultimately about sharing—sharing images, sharing views, sharing knowledge. SmugMug’s one-click sharing to social-media sites like Facebook and Twitter helps him fulfill that mission. “For me, there is absolutely no reason to create a photograph and keep it in cold storage. What good would it do if I was not able to spread the message, inspire someone, or help someone in their learning process?” he says.

SmugMug tools to help you market your business.

1. Share photos.

You've finished a shoot for a client and uploaded the finished product into a gallery on your SmugMug site. How do you let the client know you’re ready for them to come buy your work? There are a multitude of sharing tools built right into your SmugMug galleries, including good, old-fashioned email right from the Share button. Or send people straight to the shopping cart from a blog post by embedding shopping-cart links.

2. Request referrals.

Referrals and word of mouth are powerful ways to build your business. Give clients postcards or business cards with a code they can give a friend. When that friend books an appointment with you and references the code, give the referring customer a discount coupon, like a print credit. 

3. Use social media.

Social media is a powerful marketing tool for photographers. SmugMug’s sharing options allow your fans to post images to Facebook and Twitter with ease. 

Tip: Create a Facebook business page and start posting meaningful and relevant content. Link your blog posts, announce any large events you’re photographing, share any special promotions you’re offering, post portfolio-worthy photos. Your content needs to be beautiful and exciting so your visitors will love sharing it with their friends.

4. Promote yourself.

Don’t be afraid to solicit sales! Pitch your local news media, post samples of your work on the Facebook pages of agencies, make sure your SEO is rock solid. It's imperative that all your images link back to your SmugMug website so potential clients can see more.

Once you've established the basics of your business, you may want to consider advanced options, such as the following:

• Google Ad Words
• Facebook ads
• Mailers
• Email campaigns 

Think about what works best for you and your business, then get the word out! Your photography deserves to be seen.

What’s new.

• Digital image add-on for print purchasers. If your customers add a print to their cart and you have a digital download version available as well, a new upsell appears in the cart encouraging your customer to add on the digital download. This gives the possibility for the customer ordering prints to purchase the digital version giving them more products to enjoy and Pro & Portfolio subscribers selling can increase their sales.

• New controls for photo downloads. You can now choose the size of the download for each of your galleries and you can provide a customer or client a gallery without a limit on the downloads so they can “select all” if they so choose!

What’s changed.

• More details added to help pages! Additional info on how to use a subdomain with your account, setting up Google Search Console on your account, updates to the Assistants help page to include steps on how to set up this feature on your Pro account, and how to share to Wordpress when using a custom domain.
• Latest iOS app version 4.8.1 which provides the new download size feature to be available within the app.
• Lightroom Classic Plugin version 3.5.4 released that corrects some entanglements issues in regards to virtual copies.
• Android app version 4.6.4 released that includes the download size feature and better information for you when you’re trying to create a folder nested too deeply in your folder hierarchy.

Bug fixes.

• Jumped on a few bugs impacting the speed of uploads and digital downloads. We hope you didn’t notice any issues!
• Addressed issues with the Adobe Lightroom Classic plugin for RAW file upload errors, missing watermark settings, and other small annoyances.
• Resolved an issue where manual sorting was not honoring their gallery position so photos should be in the order that you want them to be!

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Remember to keep an eye out for updates in the ‘What’s New’ section in your SmugMug account. And tell us what you think or what features you’d like to see: start a conversation on our Facebook, Instagram, and/or X (formerly known as Twitter).

Friends, photographers, storytellers: Send us your originals!

We know you've got lots of choices for places to trust with your precious photos, from cloud-based storage services to free social-media sites. But we believe many of those choices come with risk.

At SmugMug we're dedicated to secure storage, and we'll keep every pixel of your photos safe and sound. We want you to trust us with your original, full-resolution files, so we'll never crunch, squish, resize, or compromise your photos.

We also won’t limit the number of photos and videos you can upload, nor the number of times you can access them. Your files are yours, and we'll never hold them hostage.

One upload. Many outcomes.

Once you upload your full-res file, SmugMug maintains it carefully in all its glory, and also creates a series of custom display sizes for easy viewing and sharing.  

You don't need to do a thing. We take your file and optimize your images for web display, all in the background. We resize images on the fly so your viewers get the perfect size photo no matter how big (or small) a browser window they're using.

This means your images will look great on any device, on any connection, anywhere in the world. 

What does this mean for you?

Archive.

SmugMug is your photo archive. All your memories are safely stored in the cloud, letting you access them from any computer at any time. With folders and galleries, you can organize everything in an easy-to-understand way, and arrange your files using our easy drag-and-drop system.

Your untouched, full-resolution originals are always available to be retrieved by you (at no extra charge). In fact, you can get them back individually, or we'll zip up the whole gallery for you. And if you use SmugMug Source, you can upload all your RAW files.

Print.

SmugMug provides you with easy access to high-quality print labs. Upload once to your SmugMug site and make prints, gifts, and merchandise at any time.

Gone are the days of having to deal with lost CDs, corrupt files, or the tedium of having to upload your photos to a second website just to buy prints.

You can also let your loved ones buy prints and gifts from your photos, too. Set your gallery settings' Shop View option to ON to reveal the shopping cart to your fans. They buy from the comfort of their couch, and we deliver the prints to their doorstep.

Share.

After you upload your full-size photos, you can still share any size photo from your site with whomever you choose:

• Send grandma an email with a photo of her newest grandson. 
• Post last night's shenanigans on Instagram. 
• Embed photos into your Craigslist or Ebay ads. 
• Collect your favorite wedding images into a "Best Of" gallery, then share that gallery with the bride. 
• Allow your clients to save high-resolution copies of their favorite images, direct from the proof gallery. (Or not—you can change this if you want to lock them down.)

There are as many ways to share your photos as there are photos to share. 

Protect.

Don't want to share? No problem. There's no need to reveal your originals to your guests. Keep them tucked safely away for your eyes only by restricting the largest display size your viewers can see.

Our Portfolio and Business accounts have extra image-protection tools, including non-destructive watermarks. 

A note about upload speeds: How fast you can upload photos is determined by your internet service provider (ISP) and the size of your files. Digital cameras keep producing larger and larger file sizes, but in reality, printing doesn't require all that data. You can help speed up your uploads with a tiny bit of image compression when you edit your photos. Here's how: Save your files at Lightroom quality of 85% (or Photoshop quality 10) to give you great prints and reduce your upload time. Getting proofs to your clients quickly: Are you a photography pro with lots of event photos to upload for sale? Use image compression to get your proofs uploaded in record speed, and use SmugMug's proof-delay feature to replace only the ones that sell.

A happy customer is a return customer. Your clients chose you over others because they knew you could meet their specific needs, but your job is much more than creating a few good photos: you need to deliver a quality experience from first contact to getting those prints into their hands.

Make a great first impression.

All websites have some basic, common elements: a landing page, header, footer, content boxes, and a way to navigate from page to page. You can change all these elements using customization on your SmugMug Power, Portfolio, and Pro sites.

In addition to the above, you should include the following:

• Your logo
• Contact information (a must!)
• Navigation
• Homepage description and meta keywords

You can also spice your website up with

• A slideshow or video
• Your most recent uploads
• A search box
• or any of the many different content blocks available on your SmugMug homepage.

Don't hide your email address.

Make use of your built-in SmugMug profile. Add your name or business name, an image of yourself, and a background image to take full advantage. You want this info to be easy to find, either on your homepage or in an “About Me” page.

All SmugMug accounts also get a contact email address to fill in on their profile. That, in turn, creates a contact request form available from the contact link in the footer or in your navigation menu.

Keep your site organized.

While galleries are the building blocks of your site, they can be categorized into higher-level folders up to seven levels deep. Keep your site organized to make things easier on your visitors. Then build a navigation menu to help them get around your site.

A navigation menu is a row of links at the top or side of every page, best used when you link to specific galleries, pages, or folders on your site. For extra assistance navigating your site, consider adding breadcrumbs. These additional links at the top of each gallery easily take your viewers back to a gallery’s category or to your homepage. Nothing's worse than a digital dead-end.

Prevent analysis paralysis.

Limit choices and don’t overwhelm the viewer. Cull your shoot down to the best of the best. Limit the products that you sell as well—price only those that best suit your photos' and your clients' needs. 

Then organize your photos to provide a great customer experience in a meaningful and easy-to-navigate way. Your viewer will have an easier time browsing their wedding photos if you take the time to organize them into galleries rather than showing them one gallery with all 1,200 photos.

SmugMug smart galleries can be a real timesaver. Create your galleries and define rules based on keywords, then upload all your photos into a single Unlisted gallery. The smart gallery settings will automatically pull in photos that match your rules based on your keywords.

Take this one step further by making use of events and favorites so customers can pick and choose their favorite photos. Favorites are put into a separate gallery that both you and your customer can see, providing a great way to discuss their choices.

Create a sense of urgency. 

Giving clients incentive to buy sooner than later can make all the difference. Try these tips:

• Create limited-time discounts immediately after the event. With SmugMug, you can easily create a coupon good for only a few days to get clients buying while their memories are fresh.

• Try seasonal or special-event discounts. Encourage customers to avoid the Christmas rush by having a special deal available only in September.
• Take galleries offline (make them unlisted or change the password) after a certain date. Just make sure potential customers know this deadline so they know exactly how long they have to browse and purchase.

Creating an easy and user-friendly site will encourage customers to linger on your site: clear, organized navigation, easy-to-find galleries, and a simple list of products they can buy are all incredibly helpful. Try these tips to keep your bounce rate down and your sale rate up.