Instagram (!) photo by Roger Kisby

This appears to be a big week for Yahoo! with their $1 billion Tumblr acquisition announcement followed by a number of changes to their Flickr service. Exciting stuff in the tech world. However, amid the Yahoo! hoopla, CEO Marissa Mayer managed to insult the entire professional photography community with her comments, being widely interpreted as “there’s no such thing as professional photographers” anymore.

Oops. Now, we’ve all been in a position where an off-the-cuff comment doesn’t come out as intended, fair enough. But this one continues to sit poorly with me. Here’s the actual quote, in context:

“…there’s no such thing as Flickr Pro, because today, with cameras as pervasive as they are, there is no such thing really as professional photographers, when there’s everything is professional photographers [sic]. Certainly there is varying levels of skills, but we didn’t want to have a Flickr Pro anymore, we wanted everyone to have professional quality photos, space, and sharing.”

OK, so we are all now “photographers” thanks to the fact that a camera is always with us. Sure, I buy that. I’ve taken more than a handful of good photos with help from my inexpensive DSLR and a few good lenses. And, I’m as guilty as everyone else when it comes to Instagramming my kids and my dinner (only the stuff I cook, mind you). We can all apply lovely filters and share our images via websites, social networks, contests, and even on any number of corporate “communities” where brands may showcase user generated photos. But let’s be very clear…NONE of these tools makes us anything close to “professional” and the role of the real professional photographer is very much alive and in demand.

I’ve had the good fortune of surrounding myself with professional photographers for several years. And from them, I’ve learned that there are more than a handful of traits that define a professional photographer. So, for Marissa Mayer and anyone else who may feel that there’s “no such thing” as a professional photographer anymore, I submit the following list.

13 Traits That Make a Photographer “Professional”

 A professional photographer…

1. Approaches a project in a manner that shows respect for both the subject and the client’s goal.
2. Works with a client to achieve that goal under specific budget constraints.
3. Delivers the end result, as agreed upon, on time and in a manner that shows the client’s most critical needs are understood.
4. Finds ways to make a client’s life easier from the beginning of a project to the end, including saving them time and making them look like a hero.
5. Is prepared to face any problem with a creative solution, from the most dire to the off-the-wall.
6. Takes criticism and adjusts (quickly) in order to get the job done.
7. Can completely pivot among all kinds of changing circumstances.
8. Presents, negotiates, agrees, executes, invoices, and follows up with consistency and personal pride.
9. Knows how to pitch and market oneself with accuracy so the promised service is what’s delivered.
10. Researches the subject of a story and contributes insights and vision that make the end result better.
11. Builds rapport with a subject in a way that gains unique access, makes them more comfortable, or exposes their personality.
12. Keeps one’s composure while dodging bombs, borders, and mobs, linebackers and foul balls, sharks, elephants, horses, and bees, roadies, divas, tornadoes, and brides and any other incoming threats or obstacles, and still gets the job done.

And to the final one (#13) I’ll add – there’s nobody I’ve met on this planet who can tell stories like a professional photographer can. Period.

Filters, “likes”, and terabytes of storage don’t make any of us any more “professional”. Being a professional is about how photographers conduct themselves while carrying out their projects and serving their clients. These are skills that are learned and honed, and those who excel at it deserve our respect.

Please don’t hesitate to add to this list, I’m sure I’ve missed more than a few.

UPDATE: As of this afternoon, Marissa Mayer has issued a clarification via Twitter. And, I continue to stand by items 1-13, above.

We’ve been cooking up something really exciting here at PhotoShelter, and today, the project takes a big step forward. We’re kicking off the private Beta release for our new platform for portfolio websites.

For the past few months, we’ve been testing this new platform – and our initial portfolio designs – with a small group of photographers, and now we’re opening it up to a larger population.

Our new designs are a pretty radical change from our current website options. They are modern and bold, and tap into emerging user interface paradigms to give you more powerful and engaging ways to showcase your work. They incorporate responsive design and HTML5 so they’ll optimize for various screen sizes and devices, including tablets, and give you a range of customization options you’ve never had before with PhotoShelter, like much greater control over fonts, colors, and custom pages. Making changes and updates is super easy and intended to save you time with a “live edit” tool – i.e. the ability to see your edits as you make them and save/push live what you like, as you go along.

Example of one of the new portfolio websites/robinmoore.photoshelter.com

The All Galleries page/robinmoore.photoshelter.com

An example of a second new template/www.inger.net

The new portfolio sites include Vimeo integration/www.inger.net

Going beyond the advanced design, the big differentiator for our portfolio websites will be the way they integrate with the rest of the tools packed inside each PhotoShelter account. Nowhere else will you be able to combine high-end portfolio designs with the power of your entire image archive in one seamless, elegant experience for your clients and prospects, including your image sales, client proofing, image delivery, and downloads.

But that’s not all. In fact, it’s really just the starting point. The portfolio sites sit atop a new API-based platform that will allow us to be agile and stay on top of the latest advancements in technology and design – and make it available to you. So, in essence, you continue to store and manage your photos in the same way on PhotoShelter, and we will continuously add new features and design templates more rapidly than we’ve ever done before. Personally, I’m excited about the flexibility that this new platform will give us to expand what you can do with your photos online in entirely new and imaginative ways.

So what’s next?

Everything we do supports our mission to help photographers succeed as business owners. In order to do that, we need to take advantage of the latest technology. And we need to provide a modern website experience that meets your audience’s expectations. Rather – an experience that blows away your audience. This new platform is our first step in that direction.

It’s a big, forward-looking step for PhotoShelter. It’s taken a lot of time and focus for our team, and I’m proud of how far we’ve come. I can promise there is much more to come – a public Beta will soon follow this next private phase.

As always, user feedback is a critical part of our product development process.  So, we invite you to sign up for the Beta if you’re interested in being an early tester and are willing to tell us what you think (the good, bad and ugly). We’ll be bringing on testers in waves over the next 6-8 weeks to help us further refine the templates we’ve built thus far and gather ideas for upcoming designs. In the meantime, you can  find answers to more detailed questions on the whole process here.

FotoVisura is known as a self-publishing platform where art and documentary photographers can share and promote their work through images, video, audio, and text. The site also acts as a search engine for editors and curators who can browse the public archive for work. You’ve likely heard of Visura Magazine’s Your View and Visura Spotlight, as well as The FotoVisura Grant that recognizes  outstanding personal projects worldwide.

This summer, FotoVisura is hosting a unique 3-day intensive workshop in Stowe, Vermont that features an impressive list of guest editors. The workshop includes editing, sequencing, design layout, and final presentation. Photographers will be paired with a guest editor in one-on-one and group sessions to help consult photographers on their goals – whether it’s a photo essay, portfolio, multimedia, book or exhibition.

The guest editor list covers a range of publications and industries, and spots are filling up fast. The editors include:

• Elizabeth Cheng Krist: Senior Photo Editor, National Geographic Magazine
• Sam Barzilay: Creative Director, United Photo Industries
• Angelika Hala: Photo Editor, Stern Magazine
• James Estrin: Co-Editor, New York Times Lens Blog
• Whitney Johnson: Director of Photography, The New Yorker
• Denise Wolff: Senior Photobook Editor, Aperture
• Emily Keegin: Deputy Photo Editor of Bloomberg Businessweek Magazine
• William A. Ewing: Directorial of Curatorial Projects for Thames & Hudson
• Graham Letorney: Co-Founder, Web Producer, FotoVisura, Inc.

Every editor hosts a different weekend, so check out the schedule to match your availability with your favorite editor. Accommodations, food, and transportation are included in the ticket price.

For more information, visit www.fotovisura.com/features/workshops.

Experts confirm the integrity of World Press Photo winner Paul Hansen’s image

There was a lot of swirling debate after Paul Hansen’s image was named World Press Photo of the year. People argued that the image must have been digitally manipulated (Allen even wrote a blog post titled, “Why Do Photo Contest Winners Look Like Movie Posters?”).

Photo by Paul Hansen, World Press Photo winner 2012

As a result, the Word Press Photo submitted his image files for forensic analysis. Here were their conclusions:

“We have reviewed the RAW image, as supplied by World Press Photo, and the resulting published JPEG image. It is clear that the published photo was retouched with respect to both global and local color and tone. Beyond this, however, we find no evidence of significant photo manipulation or compositing.” – Dr. Hany Farid and Kevin Connor of Fourandsix Technologies.

Eduard de Kam, digital photography expert, adds, “When I compare the RAW file with the prizewinning version I can indeed see that there has been a fair amount of post-production, in the sense that some areas have been made lighter and others darker. But regarding the positions of each pixel, all of them are exactly in the same place in the JPEG.” (via World Press Photo)

Launch: Corbis Crave offers exclusive imagery for art buyers and art directors

Corbis launched a new image platform this week directed at creatives from “the world’s top ad agencies”. The site features “the most premium imagery without the stock image ‘flavor’”, according to the About page on Corbis Crave. The platform is accessible via the web and iPad, and features specific photographers’ portfolios. (via PhotoArchiveNews.com)

Unused Lightoom tools by Janice Sullivan

Fine art photographer Janice Sullivan specializes in macro, landscape, and travel photography. When she’s not taking photographs, Janice is passionately sharing her tips and tools with fellow photographers. Her YouTube channel features valuable information on sharpening and noise reducing, Nik software Viveza 2 tutorial, and even exporting image to PhotoShelter.

Janice was kind enough to create a unique video for the PhotoShelter community featuringunused Lightroom tools, including: tone curve adjustment and split toning. Check out her video below, and big thanks for passing this along.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Polaroid Years

After Polaroid announced that they would stop producing instant film and cameras in 2008, Vassar College curator Mary-Kay Lombino heard an outcry from artists who had once loved the medium. She started collecting Polarids largely considered to be works of art – some of which have appeared in museums, and some that have been largely forgotten. Polaroid was actually known for giving artists supplies on the condition that they would donate work to the company’s collection.

Prints from “The Polaroid Years” will be on exhibit at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College until June 30. See one of our favorites by Chuck Close below. (via CNN Photos)

Self-Portrait/Composite/Nine Parts, Nine dye diffusion transfer prints. (Chuck Close/Courtesy Pace Gallery)

Eddie Adams Workshop still accepting applications

The Eddie Adams Workshop is one of the premier photojournalism events for students and young professionals, and the only one that is tuition-free. The weekend workshop held in upstate New York offers an excellent opportunity to meet the top photojournalists in the world, and to work alongside the best photo editors in the business. Applications are being accepted until May 31, 2013. Find more information and apply here.

Harold Feinstein: Why I loved my Rolleiflex

Celebrated photographer Harold Feinstein has recently been making frequent updates to his blog, the latest of which professes his love for the Rolleiflex medium format TLR. “In fact I would call it the most beautiful camera I’ve ever seen,” writes Harold. “It was relatively easy to use, light weight, extraordinarily well-constructed, simple and had the best lenses in the business.” Harold shared a handful of archived images in the post from the late 1940s – check them out here.

Photo by Harold Feinstein

Comprehensive map of the photography landscape

Part venture capitalist, part professional photographer describes Taylor Davidson, creator of the map you see below. Taylor was inspired by LUMAscapes, a collection of maps of the advertising technology industry. With over 380 billion photos taken last year, Taylor thought it was high time to map the flow of a photo from the creators to a variety of users (people., consumers, brands, marketers, buyers, etc.). “It’s not meant to be exhaustive in naming all the companies in each bucket, but directional in capturing the main players that exist today,” says Taylor. He expects to make this an ongoing series.

By Taylor Davidson

TED talks: Brandon Stanton on The Danger of Good Stories

Last fall Brandon Stanton spoke at Columbia University on “The Danger of Good Stories”. Brandon is the photographer behind the wildly popular and inspiration blog Humans of New York, which stemmed from his idea that “it would be really cool to create an exhaustive catalogue of the city’s inhabitants, so I set out to photograph 10,000 New Yorkers and plot their photos on a map.” That idea transformed into a new two-year-old blog tha tprovides glimpses into the lives of strangers in New York, and worldwide.

Brandon speaks to the difference in what’s covered in movies and the news, and the reality we live in. Check out his talk below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

The top 100 travel photographers in the world

UK off-the-wall blog Chillisauce (which claims to feature “the most utterly bizarre things people are doing around the world as they embrace a life less ordinary”) has compiled a list of the top 100 travel photographers in the world, featuring many PhotoShelter members. The list includes Ken Kaminesky, John Lander, Craig Ferguson, Robert Caplin, Jim Goldstein, Jacob Maentz, David Sanger, and surely many more. We hope everyone was notified!

Photo by John Lander

10 young and talented photographers

In another list of the best-of-the-best, My Modern Met named its picks for top 10 young and talented photographers. “Over the course of several years, we’ve watched them grow, their innate ability coupled with their undying passion produced some incredible results…Believe us when we say, these ten are the ones you want to keep watching.” The list features mainly surrealist fine art imagery, including work from Brooke Shaden and Alex Stoddard.

Photo by 25-year-old Brooke Shaden

Mesmerizing facades of beach hotels in Venice by Luigi Bonaventura

Many of us don’t notice the architectural wonders around us, either because we’re not looking up or simply can’t isolate particular features. Thanks to New York-based Italian photographer Luigi Bonaventura we can appreciate the color and symmetry of the hotel facades in Jesolo Beach, a town in Venice, Italy. (via Design Taxi)

Photo by Luigi Bonaventura

Photo by Luigi Bonaventura

Photo by Luigi Bonaventura

Photo by Luigi Bonaventura

Eduardo is one of those distinguished visual storytellers who’s regularly asked to speak at events and workshops worldwide. That’s because he’s an inspiring educator who’s mastered his editing process – plus he’s very dedicated to helping fellow photographers enhance their own creativity.

Eduardo recently traveled to the Middle East, where he took 2,000+ images, and needed to bring that number down for an online gallery on his PhotoShelter website.

Some of his golden rules for both the online portfolio and physical books to show to clients are to get a second opinion, make friends with the “delete” key, and the 1% rule: only include 1% of all photos you took in your final story.

Check out the video recording of this hour-long webinar for more great tips on Lightroom rating and sequencing workflow, as well as quick tips on how to improve your image quality with the ColorChecker Passport, white balance, and custom camera profiles.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Follow Eduardo Angel on Twitter @EA_Photo and his blog.

Photo by Peter Casey

Senior portraits have come a long way since the days of the dreary (and often dreaded) school photos. Compared to the creative environmental shots of today, those images look vintage – and not in the good way. And since the work is improving so drastically, this vertical is also gaining a lot more attention among the pro photography community.

Senior photos can be a lucrative revenue stream for portrait photographers. They’re almost always in demand and the client base continuously replenishes itself. Many teenagers (or their parents) want their story told through photographs before they move on to the next phase in their life. But what basic tips do you need before setting out to shoot this sometimes tricky – and picky – client?

We talked to Virginia Beach-based photographer Peter Casey, who works primarily as a sports photographer for clients like the NCCA, MLB, and Sports Illustrated. But when he’s not covering sports, Peter takes beautiful, natural senior portraits in his beachside community. Here are his 5 “back to basics” senior portrait ideas for fellow portrait photographers:

1. Forget the studio – shoot environmental

By the time they’re seniors, high school students have likely had their portrait taken every year for 12 years in a studio setting. Here’s your opportunity to get them out from under the artificial lighting and into a natural setting where their unique personalities can shine.

“Teenagers are so much more dynamic than what they feel they are forced into at school and with their friends,” says Peter. To get them out of their social shells, Peter takes the time to learn about  his clients before the shoot, and scouts locations where they let loose and be themselves.

Environmental shots add more personality to your portraits (especially when you live somewhere as beautiful as Virginia Beach). That said, Peter advises photographers to find a place that provides an interesting setting and cover if the weather turns bad. “Choose a place that makes it easier to roll with the punches,” he says.

Photo by Peter Casey

2. Ask your senior to smile only 20% of the time

Portrait photographers know that asking your subject to smile is a surefire way to guarantee fake smiles. Peter elicits genuine emotions by being genuine himself. It sounds cliche, but as Peter says, “Teenagers can sniff out the bull crap quicker than anyone else.”

Get your senior involved in the process by building the idea for your shoot and poses together. That way, both of you can genuinely be on board with the photos you want to produce. Ask what they like to do in their spare time. If they’re a surfer, get them on the beach in a bathing suit and holding a surf board. If they play music, get them posing with their instrument.

Photo by Peter Casey

Props can be a good idea, just beware that they can sometimes get in the way of a clean photo. Let your senior play around, and then suggest putting anything distracting to the side, and start shooting before they loose the genuine happiness that it brought on.

3. Avoid working in front of an audience

It’s likely that the people paying you (i.e. parents) will be around, supervising. But as anyone who’s raised a teenager knows, they’re not always themselves around family. Even friends can cause your subjects to have a different vibe.

“At some point during the shoot, I like to try to get away from the parents or friends they brought along. Their involvement can be good, but sometimes it’s nice to get some distance and see how that changes their dynamic.” says Peter.

Peter likes to walk with his seniors to another location, maybe 5-10 minutes away. “That way we can talk a just ‘hang out’ for a bit.” They’ll likely relax and get in a different mindset – one that might bring out their best features and give you the best images.

Photo by Peter Casey

4. Start with headshots, then move to full body images

If your seniors are immediately comfortable in front of the camera (which many aren’t), then start with some simple headshots. Most are already familiar with someone photographing them like this, so they can start to loosen up.

“I like to start out with the generic headshot type of photos, and from there my subjects’ walls start to come down, which makes for a very natural session,” says Peter.

What about poses? “Everyone has a particular way about them,” notes Peter. “My directions are more guiding seniors toward their best natural pose. If there’s a pose that absolutely works, then I’ll ask them for hold it for a minute. If something just isn’t working at all, we move on.”

Photo by Peter Casey

One of the keys to successful senior portraits is to be natural with your subject and let your personality shine. Most people react by being themselves, too, and then as the photographer you need to be observant and ready to capture the right moment.

5. Bring a camera body, lens(es), and nothing more 

You don’t want to be lugging flashes or strobes around on an environmental shoot; plus, the light during sunset is often the best. Peter likes to shoot with a 70-200mm lens, and moves closer and further away from his subject to get the right frame.

Photo by Peter Casey

“I think there is an organic quality to natural light that lends itself well to senior portraits,” says Peter. “So most of the time I go out with just a camera and lenses.”

This minimalist mentality should apply to your shot setup, as well. Keep in mind the golden rule of environmental portraiture: remove as many distractions as possible from the background so the focus can be on your subject. “I am pretty obsessive over clean backgrounds,” says Peter. The environment should add something to your image, but not be the main event.

Learn how PhotoShelter helps portrait photographers run a better business

Today, making a personal connection with your client comes way before the day of the shoot: it starts with an elegant website that’s customized to fit your brand – one that gives potential clients a sense for what it’s like to work with you.

The Portrait Photographer’s Tour of PhotoShelter is an 18-page PDF guide that details how our customizable websites help draw attention to your best work, and add some branded personality to your online presence. With PhotoShelter you also get the best image delivery for your clients, so creating and sharing private galleries is fast and easy. Check out our websites and features in this free guide.

10 things an art director looks for in a photographer

Advertising photographer Dennis Davis has shot for businesses ranking from Bank of America to Intel to Swarovski and even NASA. This week he posted an article on 10 Things an Art Director Looks for in a Photographer, and what keeps them coming back for more. On the top of his list is being enjoyable to work with, able to problem solve when the unexpected happens, and loving your job. (via PetaPixel)

12 ways to use your camera for good

Earlier this month Pop Photo posted 12 ways to give back through photography, which was a huge hit with their audience. Our post, 5 Ways Photographers Can Give Back, also gained a lot of traction. It’s inspiring to see so many photographers interested in using their skills for philanthropic causes. Among our favorites are Flashes Of Hope, which photographs children with cancer, and Heart Gallery, which helps raise awareness of the foster care system and provide children with respectable portraits.

Kickstarter: Black Tsunami by James Whitlow Delano

Photojournalist and PhotoShelter member James Whitlow Delano was there the day of the nuclear meltdown following the devastating tsunami that hit Japan in 2011. Delano has lived in Japan for 20 years, and photographed the conditions immediately following the disaster and “eerie emptiness of the contaminated no-entry zone and the conditions facing displaced people.” He plans to publish a hard copy of his book “Black Tsunami: Japan 2011″ with FotoEvidence. Preview some of his work and consider donating to his Kickstarter campaign here.

Photo by James Whitlow Delano

Sedar Sunny Unal photographs Los Angeles to Buenos Aires via motorcycle

Editorial travel photographer and PhotoShelter member Serdar Sunny Unal traveled for two years and 42,000 miles from Los Angeles to Buenos Aires via motorcycle to explore and photograph the Americas. Upon his return, he started working on the photo-travelogue of his epic journey, which was recently released exclusively for the  iPad. Check out his route and resulting images here.

Jill Knight’s emotional series “Special Delivery” explores surrogacy

Kristen Broome originally contacted photojournalist Jill Knight for advice on website design. Kristen was starting a site to document her surrogacy, which she took on after her second cousin Jamie Pursley lost her 16-week old baby and became infertile. Knight followed the remainder of Kristen’s pregnancy, up until the point that the baby boy was born, and the Purselys named him Liam and took him home. Her series “Special Delivery” explores the emotional connection between both mother and surrogate, and of course the newborn.  In an essay she plans to publish soon on her blog, Kristen writes, “I have been asked more times than I can count how I felt when I gave Liam away. My first response is always that I didn’t give Liam away; he was never mine to give.” (via Lens Blog)

Photo by Jill Knight

The faces of McDonald’s customers

Is there such a thing as an average McDonald’s customer? Photographer Nolan Conway set to find out, photography 150 restaurants in 22 states. You’ll be surprised by some of the results. (via Co.Create)

Photo by Nolan Conway

Photo by Nolan Conway

Photo by Nolan Conway

Photo by Nolan Conway

Photo by Nolan Conway

Photo by Nolan Conway

Photo by Nolan Conway

Photographer hitchhikes with teenage freight train riders

In 2004, photographer Mike Brodie began documenting a group of his friends who hitchhike across the country by freight train. The project came about somewhat by accident when Mike discovered a Polaroid camera behind a car seat. Now his adventures have taken him through 46 states and over 50,000 miles. His amazing images shot with 35mm film are part of a collection featured in his book, A Period of Juvenile Prosperity. Check out a few shots below. (via So Bad So Good)

Photo by Mike Brodie

Photo by Mike Brodie

Photo by Mike Brodie

Photo by Mike Brodie

Photo by Eduardo Angel

Eduardo Angel – acclaimed visual storyteller, educator, and consultant – possesses a keen sense of aesthetics and vision, as well as a technical expertise in digital photography and film-making workflows. His global workshops help photographers and filmmakers use technology to enhance their creativity.

Eduardo shares stories from a recent trip to the Middle East, and he walks us through a streamlined online portfolio that he created from more than 1,500 images. We also gained insight into Eduardo’s digital workflow, which includes how he uses the ColorChecker Passport to improve image quality, and witness the thought process behind one of his latest photography projects.

You know who…Instagram by Sarah Jacobs

You might think that bearded, Carhartt-wearing, ironic dudes riding fixed geared bicycles in Brooklyn are obnoxious – but a different brand of 21st century hipster is helping make photography, er, awesomer. Let’s celebrate the nerdtastic dedication that possesses these photo hipsters.

1. The Impossible Project

This list wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the group of individuals who thought it was unacceptable for Polaroid to stop making instant film. Instead, they bought the production equipment from Polaroid, and within two years, concocted their own formulation, thus making the impossible, possible. In the words of the founders, they “decided to take action against the death of Instant Photography.” Shooting Polaroid is like owning vinyl. In a world increasingly filled with the digital, there’s just no analog to analog.

Website: the-impossible-project.com

2. New 55 Project

Although The Impossible Project has succeeded in making film for the traditional SX70, Polaroid 600, and 8×10 view cameras, there’s a huge gaping hole for all the 4×5 owners. Not to fear, the New 55 Project was designed specifically to fill this niche (and help revitalize the Sinar F1 that is sitting in my living room). If there’s one thing hipsters like, it’s DIY projects, and New 55 founder Bob Crowley took this to heart in explaining why he created the project: “One day on Twitter I noticed that The Impossible Project said they were not going to focus on 4×5 materials, so I said that I would do it.” No biggie.

Website: new55project.blogspot.com

3. Instacube

Originally started as a Kickstarter project (hipster alert!), Instacube is an appliance that can display your Instagram feeds, which is so much better than those lame digital picture frames of year’s past. Do you really need one? Nope. That’s why we bought the two-pack.

Website: goinstacube.com

4. Instagram Halloween Costume

Hipsters don’t buy Halloween costumes, they make them. But not all handmade costumes are alike. My costume, for example, consisted of strips of construction paper glued to posterboard. Eric Micotto was inspired by a spat of iPad-related costumes, and decided that he would rig up his Nikon and iPad, print out an Instagram shell, and glue it to some cardboard he had lying around.

Website: petapixel.com/2012/10/26/a-instagram-camera-halloween-costume-that-actually-takes-pictures

5. Digital Tintypes

“I’ma take your grandpa’s style, I’ma take your grandpa’s style,
No for real – ask your grandpa – can I have his hand-me-downs?”

– Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, Thriftshop

Yeah, you want an old school tintype because you’re a retro hipster who wears his grandpa’s style. But ack, those chemicals! Who needs the hassle or the fumes? Fortunately for you, Digital Tintypes allows you to upload any digital picture and order several sizes of tintypes. I would suggest a portrait of yourself with a thick beard and an Abe Lincoln top hat.

A black tintype made from a digital file

Website: digitaltintypes.com

6. Tiny Atlas Quarterly

Most photographers maintain a crappy old blog where they post some “personal” pictures and talk about their creative slump. And then there’s Emily Nathan, who travels around the world to exotic locales, often with a team of producers, make-up artists, and models. She has a lot of talented friends who do the same. So why not make a really cool blog that makes you wish you were her, and use it as a subtle marketing piece of your enormous talent, which will continue to make you wish you were her?

Website: tinyatlasquarterly.com

7. Lens Stool

Sculptor and Etsy proprietor Sandra Díaz decided that someone should have a stool that looks like a lens. It’s a one of a kind (duh) made in Andalusia, Spain, and undoubtedly the hipster who made it would love for another hipster to sit on it every day.

Website: www.etsy.com/listing/127895091/reflex-lens-stool-dsrl-paparazzi-stool

8. Photoville

Maybe you’ve been thinking about producing a civic art installation, and wondering exactly how you might accomplish that feat. In the olden days, you might request a grant, or petition the city council. But this is Brooklyn, so fuggedaboutit. Last summer, the folks at Photoville raised over $30,000 via Kickstarter to create a “photo destination” in Brooklyn Bridge Park composed of empty shipping containers and lots and lots of photography. Did ya miss it? Don’t worry, it’s coming back in September 2013.

Website: www.kickstarter.com/projects/upi/photoville-in-brooklyn-bridge-park-this-summer

9. Ona Bags

Black ballistic nylon is so passé. Hipsters prefer leather. Rich corinthian leather, or something like that. Ok, you might prefer your rolling suitcase, but you have to admit that these bags look pretty scrumptious. In the words of the founder, Tracy Foster, “In summer 2010, I launched ONA with a simple vision: to offer style-conscious photographers and photography enthusiasts camera bags and accessories that complement their life and style.” So you see, it’s less of a bag, and more of a lifestyle.

Website: onabags.com

10. Phoot Camp

No, that’s not a typo. That’s called cool. Phoot Camp is so cool, in fact, that you need to be invited to participate. No amount of money will get you into this exclusive retreat, well, unless you want to personally sponsor the thing.

Website: phootcamp.com

11. Self Publish, Be Happy

Even just the name “Self Publish, Be Happy” embodies the new-age hipster photographers’ attitude. The organization’s goal is simple: promote the work of self-published photographers. SPBH was founded by Bruno Ceschel in 2010, who prior to launch worked in traditional publishing. Bruno became frustrated by the long process of publishing a body a work, and seeing the work he loved get rejected simply because it was not “commercially viable”. He decided to take matters into his own hands, creating an online store front and advocate for the little guys publishing their work in zines, and books. SPBH now hosts events all over the world, including many at the Aperture Foundation.

Self Publish, Be Happy

12. Fourteen-Nineteen

Publishing house Fourteen-Nineteen was started by two young British photographers, Alex F. Webb and Lewis Chaplin. Alex and Lewis felt there was a place needed online for young image-makers who were still developing their talents, and carving their space within the fine-art and documentary world. Mainly, images of skateboarders, rowdy boys, and of course some blood. Inspired by friends and each other’s work, Fourteen-Nineteen became a popular online platform for  photography students to see what their fellow peers were creating. The project took off and soon the two were expanding the business, publishing books and stocking them at swanky shops such as Fourth and Main. Did we mention their recently published I Don’t Warna Grow Up by Sean Vegezzi made Time’s Best of 2012: The Photo Books We Loved? Check it out here.

Image by Theo Lloyd-Hughes

Website: home.fourteen-nineteen.com

13. Mossless Magazine

The success of Fourteen-Nineteen allowed the boys to sponsor other online platforms and zine producers such as Mossless – which was started by Romke Hoogwaerts while he was studying in New York City. Like those before him, Romke’s ultimate goal was print, but he knew like any young hip photographer should: he had to start online. He began producing his humble blog Mossless a little over 3 years ago which interviewed emerging photographers such as Bobby Doherty and David Brandon Geeting before the two had starting shooting for clients such as New York Magazine and Bloomberg Business Week.

Issue 2 of Mossless

Website: mosslessmagazine.com

14. Little Brown Mushroom

If you are unfamiliar with the work of Alec Soth, let’s just say it’s hipster-tastic. Alec is an enormously talented photographer who took a series of roads trips along the Mississippi River and produced a book of stunning portraits. But you know, hipsters or Alec’s ilk aren’t content to just take photos. So Alec founded his own publishing house called “Little Brown Mushroom” which takes an experimental approach in working with artists to produce new modes of story telling. How do we know that this is truly a hipster endeavor? Because Little Brown Mushroom books are featured in the new Warby Parker retail store in Soho.

Upstate by Alec Soth and Brad Zellar

Website: littlebrownmushroom.com

15. Indie Photo Book Library

As we’ve seen, self-publishing is a massive movement in the photography space that is helping to produce tremendous works of art. But did you ever contemplate the longevity of those pieces, and what will happen to this incredible canon of work? Worry no more because Larissa Leclair is collecting, exhibiting and archiving as many self-published photo books as she can out of her home in Washington, D.C.

Website: indiephotobooklibrary.org

16. JR

The ultimate hipster is a French street artist who started out tagging graffiti on the sides of buildings, and somehow wound up winning the 2011 TED prize while putting up massive photo installations in the favelas of Rio, the train tracks of Kenya, and most recently in Times Square. And lest you think JR is just some flash in the pan, take some time to listen to him speak, and find out why “authenticity” is the calling card of a true hipster, and why he has inspired so many people throughout the world with his brand of photography.

Inside Out New York City by JR

Website: jr-art.net

Do you have any hipster-esque projects to add?

So what’s been the result and how has it affected your website? The change means that the source page (i.e. your website) will no longer load up in an iframe in the background.

Users can click the displayed domain name, “Visit page”, “View original image” or the image itself to navigate to the source page. While the new search seems highly intuitive for someone searching Google Images, analytics suggest that fewer users are clicking to the source page.

Users can click any of the four links boxed in red above to navigate to the image’s original source page.

In the past three months, we’ve seen a 78.69% drop in traffic to PhotoShelter members’ websites from Google Images search results (not Google web search results, but specifically image search results).

Why did Google do this?

One idea about the “why” of this change is that it’s a content grab on Google’s part. Other updates, like including IMDb results on the sidebar when you search a movie or Wikipedia results when searching a notable person, are other recent tactics that Google has employed to keep you in their ecosystem instead of visiting the “destination” site.

Google now displays IMDb and Wikipedia results when search for movies or notable people.

In many ways it provides a better user experience, but it also removes the need to utilize other sites. Some SEO consultants also suggest there’s danger here, because users no longer find the need to navigate to the source page now that they can see (and potentially steal) a high res photo directly on Google.

Is anyone else seeing these results?

PhotoShelter members are far from alone on this point – it’s an issue that the entire SEO community is grappling with. Webmasters were quick to react on dedicated forms like WebmasterWorld and Digital Point. An SEO consultant shared the effects one of his clients saw within a month of the change. The client is an artist and her site is 99% images – the consultant observed an 80+% drop in referral traffic from Google Images.

More recently, SEO consulting firm Define Media Group analyzed 87 domains worldwide from a variety of networks and business verticals, and found an average 63% decrease in referral traffic from Google Images after the January update. Those defined as “photo sites” are down 74%. Fashion, lifestyle, and entertainment sites are down 78%.

What happened?

PhotoShelter members have always seen a steady stream of referral traffic from Google Images (as is the case for most photographers’ websites). In 2012, the average number of visits to PhotoShelter members’ sites (in aggregate) from Google Images actually increased by 35.19% in the second half of the year.

Referral traffic to PhotoShelter members’ sites from Google Images increased by 35.19% in the second half of 2012.

Then on January 27, 2013 – the first full week after Google’s update to its image search – something changed:

In the three months since the January 23rd update to Google Images, referral traffic from Google Images has decreased by 78.69%.

Here’s a closer look at that data from the past 6 months:

Referral traffic from Google Images to PhotoShelter members’ sites in the past 6 months.

A nearly 80% drop in referral traffic from one of the top three referring sites to PhotoShelter members’ sites is nothing to scoff at. But there are some important things to note:

• Referral traffic from Google web search has remained relatively consistent over the last year and a half.
• Average site visit duration (how long someone spends on your website during one visit) and number of pages per visit have also stayed nearly the same.
• Bounce rate and percent of new visitors (people who have never been to your site before) have also stayed about the same.

The community is also talking about the concept of a “truer visit”. Internet marketers at MoreVisilibity explain that with the new image search, Google Analytics code does not have a chance to fire, “removing page view credit and decreasing referral traffic.” Meaning that it’s possible many of the visits you were seeing before were people who saw your image in the iframe that popped open in the background, but these people never actually clicked through to your website at all. So while this change may seem extreme, it might just be a more accurate count of visitors who click through to the original source.

So while the absolute number of visitors to your site may have decreased in the last three months, the true visitors are still behaving the same once they land on your website – which makes sense assuming you haven’t made any major changes in that time.

What can you do about it?

First, you need to truly assess the impact beyond simply reading the analytics. Start by asking if your business has been materially impacted in any way. If not, then the concept of a “truer visit” may actually be relevant to you.

Still, if Google Images is only sending a fraction of the “useful” traffic to your site as it previously did, then you might consider focusing on other traffic sources. For example, the #1 source of referral traffic to PhotoShelter members’ sites in 2012 was Facebook. Google Images and PhotoShelter.com were #2 and #3, followed by Twitter and Pinterest.

It’s also clear at this point that Google is taking social media – specifically Google+ – activity into account when ranking search results.

The photographer community has continued to grow on Google+, but if you’re still averse to getting active on another social media platform, consider this: Google Authorship, which links the content you post on a specific domain (i.e. your photography website) with your Google+ profile, is becoming a huge factor in how Google ranks your website. People who have set this up are often ranked higher for their targeted keywords. (Read more and learn how to set up Google Authorship here.)

Trey Ratcliff, known for his huge presence on Google+, ranks on the first page of search results for the term “hdr photos”. His headshot and name show up in the search results because of his Google Authorship (of course, over 5 million people have Trey in their circles, so keep that in perspective).

Overall, best practices in the wake of Google Image search update will likely be to continue optimizing your website with on-page text that Google can crawl and index in regular search, and build authorship via Google+ to help influence how your content appears in search results. Likewise, we will continue to optimize our own tools to help facilitate this.

How can you see the changes to your website’s traffic?

To see how your traffic has changed, log into your Google Analytics account and navigate to Traffic Sources>Sources>Referrals. Click on the google.com link and look for /imgres. Clicking this will give you a picture of how referral traffic from Google Images has changed over time. Be sure to look at a time period containing the week of January 28th, 2013 (the first full week after the update).