Photography
People close to me know that photography has been a passionate hobby for me for quite a few years. I’ve always been shy about promoting my work as a photographer because I’ve never been confident in my work. I know that the work that I show is good but i don’t feel that it’s consistent. I’m pretty much self taught – full disclosure I took photography 101 my Frosh or Sophomore year in college. I shot with a 35mm Minolta. I did learn a little about composition like the rule of thirds, how to develop black and white in the dark room, etc – I don’t want to say it was a waste because it wasn’t but it was with film. I was more concerned about wasting money taking bad photos than I was about taking good pictures. It’s a lesson that I frequently reflect on in other categories but that’s a whole another conversation.
I’ll talk more about my photography as I continue to write but photography related subjects are something I regularly read about. I review other photographers work, I read articles about gear that ranges from cameras, to lenses to bags etc. I’m not planning on posting any photos here, today but if you are really interested in my photography you can take a look at my Instagram page.
Lightroom Presets
Today was no different, I looked through my normal sites and I stopped to linger at fstoppers.com – I read an article about Lightroom Presets and it really got my head scratching. Here is a link to the article about the DVLOP presets. I’m not against commerical presets I’m just generally too cheap to buy them! However, I have to admit that $150 for three of the packages/bundles isn’t bad. Years ago I did buy the nik collection before Google purchased the company. I knew I wanted the Silver FX for converting photos into Black And White. I don’t regret that decision at all and I still use it regularly. To be honest I look at the DVLOP presets and I wonder if I shoot consistently enough to be able to really get my money out of them. They seem great but a little expensive. With that said, I am a big believer in being more efficient and spending money wisely to help you finish sooner. I seem to change my style of shooting depending on who or what or where I’m shooting. Part of me thinks that this is fine but part of me recognizes the lack of consistency. I mostly shoot in full manual mode and always raw to give me the most flexibility in post production.
What’s my point? I don’t have one. It’s just what i was reading this morning and I wanted to share my thoughts.
SEO
HTTPS and SEO
My morning SEO reading today was about an old argument regarding “https” as opposed to “http” and SEO. The “s” is for secure or security and in the past was generally used for sites utilizing some sort of E-Commerce. Google came out that it’s in everyone’s best interest to have a secure site (to avoid deceptive practices and such). The basic concern had been that it changes your web address (url) and that you would be penalized in PageRank for changing your url even though Google wants you to have the https – In this article, Google Big Shots say that if done properly it won’t make any impact on your rankings at all. Because I work with a lot of small business this concerns me. Many Mom and Pop places don’t have the infrastructure or budget to make these changes and or to do them properly. To me it feels like the little guy gets screwed again.
Mobile First Index
This part isn’t exactly new and breakthrough information but Google really seems to be advancing with their Mobile First Index testing. What this means is that that Google is testing how your website looks and operates on a cellphone/smartphone and your PageRank will be scored on a mobile device index. Conventional wisdom is that this Mobile First Index will be the primary index that the public will use to find your phone. Without going into the boring details, just know and be ready to have your website primarly viewed and found on mobile devices.
