Through the Lens - CLOSED

ProFoto 09

Pro Foto, which has been going for 15 years now, is back in the Green Isle Hotel this February on the 10th and 11th 2009 from 10am to 17pm. Whether your looking for lighting, cameras, printers, wedding albums or frames Pro Foto is the place to be. The following companies will amongst the exhibitors

• GMS Professional Imaging - Professional printing from digital files with free colour correction, ROES- Internet Remote Ordering Entry System, Online album design.
• Stewart Photo Supplies - Studio Decor, Border Frames, Verka, GF Smith, Art Leather Canon , Epson.

What's happening with the Gallery.....

I used to love the Irish Times. The paper has good writers but, more importantly to me, good photographers and picture editors. They know how to make images and more importantly how to use them. When they launched the Gallery I was delighted. At last a weekly review of the best images from around the world. What a disappointment when I looked at it today. It was, in my opinion, very poor. The lay out of the first two pages was unstructured - the images used poorly. Looking at The Young Scientist page I got the feeling it was there for the PR company as much as the reader. Next four pages were OK but the readers pics have no place in the Gallery. They are page fillers! Something the accountants have come up with to fill pages for free. This is not why I buy the Irish Times. Readers pictures have no place in the Irish Times unless they are news worthy. While the wedding images were fine they belong back in the Saturday social pages. Back to the Guardian on Mondays then. UPDATE_********** Shortly after this blog was posted the Irish Times ceased publication of the Gallery -

How Much is Enough - Managing Expectations

Yesterday a Dublin photographer who has a listing with me emailed. He was writing to say he wasn't sure if he wanted to continue his listing as the responses weren't really coming in. I checked our stats (we are the only site I know that lets you see all your click throughs - LIVE) and in approximately a two and a half month period IPWS had delivered over 100 visitors to his website. Now I know that people will say not all of them were looking to hire a photographer but if only 10% were I personally would consider that excellent delivery. And this photographer hadn't even optimised his listing with Google Maps and sample images. In the motortrade the trick is to get the punter into the salesroom - after that the rest is up to the salesperson. Think of us in the same way - our job is to get people looking at your site - you need to convert them. And at what level - one percent, twenty percent. If it's only one percent then even at this level my client is getting value for money. One job a year is all he needs to justify the spend - after all it includes VAT and is tax deductible. But surely a photographer can convert more than one lead in a hundred - if he converts ten percent then the advertisement is a great investment. A listing on IPWS has to be worked on and evaluated fairly - you won't get thousands of enquiries but you will get a constant stream of visitors to your site which hopefully you can convert! And make sure you use all you pay for by uploading maps, sample images and news stories!

Don't forget to avail of our offer!!

Most of you by now will have seen the huge improvements we have made to our Directory of Photographers in 2008. With images, Google Maps, search by category and Favourite Folder it is by far the most useful powerful resource available to Irish photgraphers to advertise their business. The public can search by county, Dublin, Cork or Galway, they can immediately assess the return using sample images and can follow the easy links to see the photographers actual website. The results include photographers in surrounding counties - giving the searcher more information and as they are randomly returned no photographer is at a disadvantage because of the size of their advertising budget. Indeed we are so committed to value for money that we will not increase our rates this year. And considering it's cost compared to other directories and it's consistently good search engine optimisation it represents the best value around. As I said in my email before Christmas if you were to spend only 200 euro on advertising in 2009 make sure it is with IPWS!! And what's more do it before Jan 31st and we will extend the expiry date to Feb 28th 2010. The monies from the listing help us to improve the service we supply to the industry. Even if you don't consider it good value there is absolutley no reason why you should not avail of the free listing - this is available to all professional photographers in Ireland. It will help Google and assist us in providing a better service to the public. The first step in taking out a listing is to join the website - do this here