FocalPower…the blog

Every year for for Christmas, my siblings and I usually get a family present for my parents. This year my brother headed up the present project and bough my parents a digital picture frame. Next came the scurry to gather together a bunch of photos from all the kid’s families to pre-load on the picture frame.

So this morning he calls me to see what photos he could download from my website for the picture frame. Funny how these things always happen at the last minute…but since I have a large collection of images on my personal photography website, I figured it shouldn’t be a problem to grant him access to download some originals.

Wrong.

Once again, my frustration shot up with the lack of flexibility of current photo hosting services that are available. This frustration started about two years ago and was the driving force behind starting FocalPower. In this particular instance, why was it that all of the photos that I have uploaded to my hosting service are locked into a single organizational system and doesn’t allow me to get them to those who need them?

My photos are organized for public display as my photographic portfolio to showcase my work as well as allow print purchases. However, I couldn’t grant my brother access to download a high resolution version of the images he wanted to for my parent’s Christmas present! If I granted him access, I gave it to the entire world. So I had to spend a couple hours redoing a lot of work that I already did. What a waste of my time!

At FocalPower, we think this is wrong. Once you do the work processing and uploading your photos, your photo hosting system should be flexible enough for you to meet all your sharing needs. Not just the basic needs of most systems today. The needs of the sophisticated photographer, the advanced enthusiast and the professional.

The FocalPower elves (i.e., Dave and I) are working on addressing just this problem…and a few others…professional grade photo hosting.

The FocalPower photo hosting system (being delivered in a closed alpha just after the Holidays) will prevent me from having to redo all my work. Once the photos are uploaded, they can be organized in different ways for different audiences. One organization for public display on my photography website; auto determined high resolution viewing of my images for maximum impact while maintaining my photographic brand. And when I need to grant special access to photos (like for my brother, or say a client), I can create a second organization without having to upload my photos again…a wonderful time saver. Within a couple of minutes, I will be able to create another organization system to meet any need that may arise in the future.

So, while us elves finish the final touches for the closed alpha, the FocalPower team hopes everyone enjoys a relaxing Holidays! After taking a short break for the holiday’s ourselves, we’ll be delivering a shiny new photo hosting system to our Alpha Users!

Happy Holidays from the FocalPower Elves!

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Managing photos online has been a challenge since the start. The one thing that the online photo sharing sites did right was to keep the organization of photos simple (the old KISS principal, Keep it Simple Stupid, still rules). When sharing photos online, you need to be able to upload a photo once and then use it where ever you want. This is the beauty of the flat storage structure. Rather than deciding first how you want to organize your photos, just dump them into a big bucket and organize them later. Even better, configure smart tools to auto organize them based upon the meta data contained within the photos.

Being a Professional Photographer today means wearing many hats; many hats in the operation of your business and, even more importantly, in the way you present your business to the world. Unless you are well known for a specific type of photography, you will need to follow the concept of multiple streams of income and offer your services into multiple vertical markets. Thus, a portfolio that showcases your work for each vertical is needed. However, many times a single photo can fall into multiple portfolios. This is where the power of the flat storage structure shines…after you upload the photo once, you can place it into as many portfolios as you want. The organizational structure is virtual and lives side by side with the actual photos (versus the photos physically living inside your organizational structure).

Likewise, just being a photographer—professional, semi-professional, or enthusiast—requires fun and creativity to keep the spark alive. Many times this means creating something new or just capturing a moment as it presents itself. And many times this also means having a photo or two which are worth sharing but don’t fall into your organization structure (or at least not yet). Again, the flat storage structure allows you to just toss it in the bucket and share those photos just by themselves. Damn the organization….full speed ahead!

Ahh, but the pain of manually organizing hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of photos! Technology to the rescue…to the rescue of time wasted doing something manually that computers can do much faster and dynamically. Smart tools that allow you to create portfolios on the fly based upon meta data contained within the photos. This is where the investment in a strong and consistently executed work flow comes in. Always keyword your photos. Always add as much IPTC meta data possible about where the photo was taken, what the photo depicts, etc. Once that data in there, it can be leveraged in the future to save you time and give you dynamic control over your images. A portfolio that dynamically changes as you add new photos to your bucket. The ability to quickly create new portfolios to display your work in new and fresh ways. This is when the fun begins!

Make sure that the photography tools you choose are flexible and utilize technology to save you time and not lock you into something that can’t be changed easily in the future. Your time is the most valuable asset you have…closely followed by your skill and photographs!

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