A place for you to learn, get inspired, and keep up to date with all things SmugMug and photography
Let’s be honest: Photography can involve more than its fair share of busy work. That’s why at SmugMug, we’re always looking for ways to get you more time behind the lens and less time behind the keyboard. With that in mind, our latest development is one we’re *very* excited about.
The SmugMug iOS app is now compatible with Apple’s Shortcuts app! This revolutionary tool helps you accomplish multiple actions with a single click. For example, you could make a “morning routine” shortcut that would give you the day’s weather, a stock update, and start playing your favorite morning podcast, all with the click of a button.
What this means for your photography is you can automate complex, multi-step processes into a single, streamlined shortcut. With the new Shortcuts integration on the SmugMug iOS app, you can:
To help demonstrate this amazing new tool, our friends over at TWiP put together a handy walkthrough showing two great ways you can put this update to use:
We can’t wait to see how you streamline your photography. After all, sometimes it can be good to take a shortcut. Download the SmugMug App for iOS today.
At SmugMug, we’re always looking to improve your experience and provide you with the best tools and services to preserve, show off, and sell your photography. So without further ado, please help us give a warm welcome to our newest lab partner, world-renowned leader in photo printing and imaging solutions, Fujifilm!
For over almost a century, Fujifilm has been at the cutting edge of innovation and excellence in the world of photography. Known for their high-quality prints and state-of-the-art technology, Fujifilm shares our commitment to delivering the best possible products to photographers of all kinds.
SmugMug users will now have access to Fujifilm’s state-of-the-art printing services. Here are some of the exciting features you have to look forward to:
Pro Tip: For those who sell photos, check your pricelists and make any adjustments necessary. We are doing our absolute best to make this a smooth addition behind the scenes but we always recommend that you stay in control of your margins and product offerings.
We believe adding Fujifilm will help you improve your photography and your business. Whether you’re printing family photos, creating custom gifts, or setting up a shop for your customers, you can trust that Fujifilm will deliver the highest quality prints and photo products with the care and precision you and your customers deserve.
Thank you for being a part of the SmugMug community. Cheers to a new lab partner, and a new chapter.
Happy printing!
My name is Jill Valenzuela Schapiro, and I’m the Chief People Officer at Awesome, the company behind SmugMug, Flickr, and This Week in Photo. I’ve been with the company for thirteen years, growing from Recruiting Director to a C-level executive who oversees our entire people program. It’s been an incredible journey, and I’ve grown an immense amount, but today I’m truly tackling something scary: my first blog. Don’t get me wrong, I love to write, and I have *so* many things to say about this amazing company, but my inner critic often stops me from putting my voice and ideas into the universe. So, in honor of this year’s celebration of International Women’s Day, I’m choosing to step far outside my comfort zone and share part of my story as a woman of Awesome.
I grew up with a career-oriented mother and saw work as a core part of identity from an early age. Despite this, it took a *lot* of trial and error to discover my own passion and drive, and I found that in tech recruiting—specifically, when one routine cold call led me to a family-owned photography start-up named SmugMug.
If you’re reading this, chances are you know and love this company just as much as I do today. But at the time, I didn’t know them from a sea of start-ups, and I had three amazing years of recruiting to understand just how special this company was. When they offered me a dream job as their in-house Director of Recruiting, needless to say, I jumped at the opportunity.
As the first member of what was dubbed the “People Team,” I was given the opportunity to grow into a leader overseeing all facets of the employee experience. This was simultaneously terrifying and thrilling. There was so much to do that the first few years felt like a blur, but I had established myself as a senior leader in the company, began building a people program from scratch, and for the first time in my life, I was passionate about my work. What I was doing felt important and challenging. I loved my job, and I had never been happier. Then I unexpectedly became pregnant.
I need to be honest up front: Having kids was never something I planned for. In fact, I was terrified of being a mom. When I saw the positive pregnancy test, it felt like time froze, and I knew at that moment that, despite my fears and not feeling ready or equipped to be someone’s mother, I was going to have a baby. As my pregnancy progressed, I felt conflicted: While I was surrounded by people celebrating this momentous milestone in my life, I mostly felt anxious because, like many women, I wanted to have it all—a successful career *and* the ability to be a great mother. The societal pressure on women to achieve a perfect balance between work and family is immense, and, for me, it meant a lot of internal struggles and self-doubt.
Although I knew the kind of company I worked for, and constantly boasted about our incredible work–life harmony and support systems, what I experienced as I entered this new phase of my life still amazes me. As a new parent I was able to take a generous parental leave that I even extended a bit when I realized I needed more time with my son. I created a flexible schedule that allowed me to have a productive work life and a present home life. I even pursued therapy to help me talk through my own conflicted feelings, all with the full and enthusiastic support of my company.
Importantly, it wasn’t just the policies in place, but the compassion I experienced in the day to day that blew me away. On one occasion, my son, dressed in full Batman attire, appeared behind me on camera during an executive Zoom call. Naturally, I felt flustered and panicked that I was disrupting our work—but just then, our CEO Don MacAskill exclaimed, “It’s Batman!” and encouraged my son to come closer so everyone could say hello to the caped crusader. He was greeted with genuine enthusiasm and laughter, and my fears were immediately calmed. These moments, and so many others like them, have allowed me to continue unapologetically prioritizing my family and well-being while pursuing my career.
I recognize that not every company operates like Awesome. But that’s why I take my role here all the more seriously. As a woman and an executive, I carry an enormous amount of privilege, and I want to use that to ensure we’re creating equitable experiences for all the women who work here, today and into the future. Today, that looks like braving my fears and writing a blog—sharing my story and elevating the stories of other amazing women I work with. But in the big picture, it’s a team effort, every day.
I am fortunate to work with a world-class People Team. They are fiercely committed, hard working, and deeply empathetic. Together, we have continued to raise the bar every year on what it means to be a people-first organization. As a team, we’ve worked hard to define career levels and promotion processes. We provide coaching for our managers to ensure career-growth opportunities are accessible throughout the entire organization. We’re focused on taking an already generous parental-leave policy and evolving it, to include structured planning before and after that leave so our newly returning parents can better manage this momentous time in their lives. And we’ve grown our employee benefits to encompass mental health, too, offering company-sponsored therapy and coaching sessions to our entire employee population.
In celebration of this year's International Women’s Day, I am so proud to represent this company as one of its leaders, and to share the stories of other amazing women I work with. I feel a tremendous amount of gratitude as I look around at the people I’m fortunate to work beside. Together, we support each other, challenge each other, and build an equitable, inclusive environment where women can thrive. I am humbled and honored to be on this journey and look forward to the future we continue building together.
My name is Smrithi Mohan, and I am the General Counsel of Awesome, the incredible company behind your favorites: SmugMug, Flickr, and This Week in Photo. As I sit down to write this blog article for World Intellectual Property Day, I find myself reflecting on the theme of this year’s celebration: “IP and the SDGs: Building our common future with innovation and creativity.” Not sure what SDGs are? Neither are a lot of people! Which is why I think this year’s theme is so important, and why this subject is near and dear to me personally.
Sustainable development goals, or SDGs for short, are part of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In the UN’s own words, this agreement “provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future.” At its heart are 17 SDGs around ending poverty and hunger, providing quality healthcare and education, and building sustainable growth and infrastructure.
At Awesome, the world’s best and brightest photography company, I find myself sitting squarely at the intersection of intellectual property and sustainable development—and innovation and creativity have played a pivotal role in getting me here. So, today, I’d like to reflect on how I got here, and what makes this such a special place to be.
From a young age, my parents instilled in me the ability to see the world through the lens of creativity, emphasizing how we could make a difference and improve people’s lives through innovation. My father, a Ph.D. in electrical engineering, is an inventor with numerous patents to his name, a published author, and a seasoned veteran in the telecom industry and academia. Meanwhile, my mother holds a master's degree in computer science and brought the spirit of innovation not only to her workplace but also to our home, shaping my brother's and my upbringing with the power of creativity.
This early foundation was pivotal in shaping my worldview. Though the concept of sustainable development goals did not exist at the time, when I visited remote villages and slums in parts of India as a child, my eyes were opened to poverty, hunger, and a lack of access to good health, well-being, and quality education. It was through this experiential education my parents gifted me with that I became acutely aware of the vast number of underprivileged children and orphans worldwide. This realization ignited a passion within me to leverage my privilege and resources to create positive change.
With the limited power I had during my high-school years, I founded an organization called Reach Out, where students fostered pen-pal relationships with orphans in underprivileged countries. During a time when the Internet was still in its infancy, I honed my skills in HTML and web design to create a website to showcase our organization's efforts and appeal for donations and partnerships. It was a way to extend our reach and bring something special to a child in a distant corner of the world who lacked the privileges we often took for granted. We fundraised to send care packages to these children, delivering food, clothing, books, and toys, particularly during holidays. What started as a small initiative blossomed into a movement as other high-school students from different schools joined in, spreading our efforts far and wide.
This profound lifelong passion to leverage my creative and innovative abilities, along with my dedication from a young age to volunteer and give back to the community, has guided me to this extraordinary company, whose values align so closely with my own and where I am genuinely honored to spearhead legal initiatives. Our mission at Awesome is building a better world through the power of photography. Through this creative medium, I am so grateful that we engage in vital missions that align with many SDGs, especially those around climate, sustainability, and environmental impact.
As proud partners with The Conservation Alliance, alongside esteemed organizations like Rivian, REI, and Patagonia (among many others), we are part of Mobilizing for Monuments—a coalition dedicated to protecting our public lands for the benefit of our economy, culture, and way of life. Last month, we leveraged our intellectual-property strength of copyright to create compelling photography and videography, immersing viewers in the essence of these landscapes as we showcased their magic in Washington, D.C. We joined forces with fellow advocates and engaged in meetings with key decision-makers, advocating for national-monument designations and expansions. These endeavors have the potential to safeguard more than three million acres of public lands, highlighting the transformative influence of photography and demonstrating the impactful application of intellectual property, creativity, and a shared commitment to continuously enhance our world and secure our future.
And that’s just in the past year! Looking further back, Awesome’s commitment to environmental sustainability is clear: In addition to being a Climate Pledge signatory, we are proud to have achieved Climate Neutral Certification, demonstrating our dedication to reducing our carbon footprint and combating climate change. The rigorous standards set forth by Change Climate, the managing body of Climate Neutral certification, helped us implement a range of innovative ways to measure, reduce, and offset our carbon emissions. And while we’re now certified, we’re far from done. We're committed to continually improving our sustainability practices to help build a greener, more sustainable future for all.
Beyond sustainability and climate, Awesome is also focused on other SDGs like gender equality and reduced inequalities, and our people team is constantly reevaluating our company policies to ensure we’re consistent in important programs like pay equity, family benefits, physical and mental healthcare, and work–life balance. We also go out of our way to showcase these principles outwardly, as when we participated in the #InspiringInclusion campaign for International Women’s Day, elevating the stories of remarkable women photographers across the globe. We’re actively building a culture that fosters inspiration, growth, and opportunity for all.
Now, you might be asking what all this has to do with intellectual property? Well, photographers are creators, and creators need the protections of intellectual-property policy to safeguard their art, their memories, and their livelihood. The longevity and sustainability of Awesome and its brands is absolutely essential to ensuring our customers’ photos are safe, now and long into the future. That’s why in addition to our work addressing key SDGs, we are also actively developing an innovation and intellectual-property program here at Awesome. This initiative will harness the value of innovation, intellectual property, design thinking, and creativity to benefit our colleagues, customers, partners, and the world at large.
World Intellectual Property Day is a reminder to me that each of us must collectively think about and discuss how we can tackle the obstacles facing our world today. The little girl in me, whose eyes were opened to the stark contrast of privilege and disadvantage, and whose world expanded when her parents revealed the impact she could make by thinking beyond conventional boundaries, is overjoyed to be part of a company that encourages me to continue exploring, applying, and building upon the foundation I established during those formative years.
Each step we take, both individually and collectively, brings us closer to solutions and makes the world a better place. Today is our reminder to keep applying our creativity and innovative power to continue developing intellectual property that serves the betterment of all. The more we do so, the more we can build a brighter, more equitable future for generations to come. Happy World Intellectual Property Day!
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Nov. 29, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading photography management and sales platform SmugMug is approaching the holiday selling season in a brand new way this year. Instead of offering discounts and deals to attract new customers to the platform, the company is devoting their entire marketing focus to promoting and supporting their existing users.
In practice, this looks like a wide range of initiatives launched during the month of November, including a worldwide directory of professional photographers for hire, a paid digital media campaign promoting the work of SmugMug Pros, and hyper-focused out-of-home marketing in select cities showcasing local photographers on SmugMug.
"Imagine, as a photographer, seeing your work on a billboard across the street from your office. Then you see it advertised online. Then you're able to find it in a directory that leads right to your website," says SmugMug Senior Director, Brand Marketing Christine Fradenburg. "We're building a new sales funnel for our photographers, from scratch, because they deserve to be found and supported for the work they do."
The heart of this fresh approach is ShutterScout, a brand-new, worldwide directory of professional photographers on SmugMug. The directory is searchable by location and subject, helping people find, hire, and purchase photos from SmugMug photographers. Backed by digital and out-of-home marketing campaigns showcasing photographers on the platform, the company hopes to leverage their decades of experience and global reach to help their users find success.
This is far from the first time the innovative photography brand has shaken things up: recently SmugMug offered to pay the entirety of their Pro-level subscription fee back to photographers who hit $500 in sales in their first year. Photographers around the world jumped at the opportunity, and many of them far exceeded the benchmark.
"We described that as "we believe in your success so much, we're betting on it" and folks really took us up on the challenge," says Scott Kinzie, SmugMug VP of Marketing. "This is a natural progression of that. We're putting our money where our mouth is and truly throwing our weight behind our photographers, because we know we can be instrumental in helping them succeed."
In addition to paid initiatives, SmugMug is also releasing The Development Lab—a wealth of fresh content to educate, inspire, and equip SmugMug users with the tools they need to build a business and sell their photos on the platform. From instructional videos and how-to blogs to inspiring interviews with other successful pros, this holiday season will be full of opportunities for SmugMug photographers to grow and thrive.
"Ditching discounts is just the beginning," says Kinzie. "We can't wait to see where our photographers go from here."
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA – (August 22, 2022) – Photography management and sales platform SmugMug just launched a new entry in their award-winning SmugMug Films series. Titled Where the Fire Is, the film features extreme nature photographer Mike Mezeul II as he attempts to document one of the world’s most active volcanoes—Volcán de Fuego in Guatemala.
As a self-described “extreme nature photographer,” Mezeul has built his life and career around daring to capture the shots that others won’t. From supercell storms to active volcanoes, his photography puts him in risky and sometimes downright dangerous positions in order to capture the power of nature at its most volatile.
Mezeul found photography at a young age, discovering an early love of the sky and all it had to offer. “As I began to capture the sky with my photography, I wanted to see and experience more of it,” he says. “Not just the pretty sunsets. I wanted to feel the power that was above my head.”
Soon he was right at home in front of some of the most powerful storms on earth, and braving danger became second nature. It was only a matter of time until volcanoes were calling his name.
In his SmugMug Films debut, Mezeul packs up with a hardy crew of Guatemalan locals to document Volcán de Fuego, a volcano that has been regularly erupting since 2002. Combatting elevation, the weather, and unpredictable eruptions, he braves it all to capture images unlike any other.
“Besides having a deep and understanding knowledge of your subject, you’ve gotta be willing and able to put yourself and keep yourself in some of the most uncomfortable positions ever,” Mezeul says of his work. “When others are running and seeking shelter, your feet are firmly planted on the ground, and your mind and camera are ready to tell a story.”
---
About SmugMug
Photographers across the globe trust SmugMug with more than just their photos. They trust SmugMug with their memories, their passion, and their businesses. SmugMug provides passionate photographers at every level of experience a place to store, share, and sell high-quality photos. At SmugMug, we love your photos as much as you do—and we’re focused on helping you celebrate and preserve all of life’s important moments.
