A Great Website For Bird Lovers

Thanks to Twitter, I found a great website for bird lovers.  The photography is great and the website is very informative.

Here is the URL for the bird website;  http://www.thebirdersreport.com/

Be advised that if you are on dial-up connection like I am,  due to all of the images on the websites home page, the images will take some time to load.  I love birds so I feel that this website is well worth waiting for the home page to load.

Follow me on twitter;  http://twitter.com/jim_juris

Enjoy,

Jim Juris

Selling Handmade Jewelry

I have been asked on numerous occasions by artisans to recommend some books on selling handmade jewelry.

I am Happy to recommend products specifically for selling handcrafted jewelry written by Dr. David Weiman.  Dr. Weiman and I have known each other for about 4 years.   The two of us met on a jewelry forum that we use to participate on.

Dr. Weiman is an expert in marketing handmade jewelry products.   I have placed a link in my blogroll that will take you to a website where you can learn more about the products offered by Dr. Weiman.  Click on the link in my blogroll that says Selling Handmade Jewelry.

Jim Juris

http://www.inexpensivejewelryphotography.com

Who Am I?

Besides being a photographer, I am a teacher and a coach to artisans who need help taking great photographs of their jewelry and craft creations.  I teach artisans how to photograph their beautiful handmade jewelry with my Inexpensive Jewelry Photography Techniques ebook.    It took me one year to create my ebook and a website for this book.  I have been selling this ebook online for 3 years.

My other specialty is critiquing websites for people that need assistance in optimizing their website for the search engines.  This is known as search engine optimization or SEO.

Most people don’t know how to optimize their website or why they need to optimize their website.  If your website is not optimized your site will not be ranked high in the search engines.

I began selling products online nearly 6 years ago.  During the time that I have been selling online I have critiqued 600 websites.  I have the knowledge and experience to show people how to improve their website search engine rankings.

In this 6 year period I have seen websites that are extremely well designed, some websites that are poorly designed, and everything in between.

If you have a website and you want your site to be ranked high in the search engines and you also want your visitors to stay on your website, once they arrive, for more than 10 to 15 seconds then you need my services.

Maybe I can help you with your jewelry/craft photography or by critiquing your website.

If you would like my assistance in either one of these two areas please visit the two websites shown below;  http://www.inexpensivejewelryphotography.com  

http://www.inexpensivewebsitecritiques.com

Jim Juris

Be Creative, Make Your Photographs Unique

orange and yellow slinky

Here is a photograph of a orange and yellow slinky.  Nothing unique or fancy, just your typical slinky image.

I don’t want typical images, I want unique images.  So I figured out how to make my slinky image look unique and that is what you see in my second image of the slinky.

I felt that the best way for me to make a unique photograph of this slinky was to only use a small portion of the original image. 

I cropped a small area of my original slinky image and I came up with the image that you see below.

 I also  adjusted the contrast and darkened the image somewhat to give my photograph eye appeal.

Now my slinky image looks unique.

orange and yellow slinky after cropping and enhancing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Feel free to leave me your comments, both good and bad, about my slinky images.

Jim Juris

Photograph Enhancement Services For Artisans

Necklace Before Enhancement

I look at a lot of photographs that are taken by artisans and occasionally I see some that are lacking in quality.   The images that I am talking about look something like the image that you see to the left of this text. 

The photo shown on the left has been cropped and resized but it has not been enhanced in any other way.   The enhanced image is shown further down in this post.

Some of these artisans feel that the reason that their images don’t look as good as they should is because they need a new camera.  There is probably nothing wrong with the camera that they are using now.  Contact me first and let me take a look at some of your photographs before you go spending money on a new camera.  I will give you my honest opinion about this issue free of charge.

There are two parts to having good images that you can use online.  The first part is knowing how to take good photographs.   If you don’t know how to take good photographs my Inexpensive Jewelry Photography Techniques ebook can guide you.  You will find a link to my ebook at the bottom of this post. 

The second part is having good software for enhancing your images and knowing how to enhance your images properly.  Learning how to use some photo enhancing software programs can be challenging.

Necklace After Enhancement

For those of you that sell jewelry or any type of handmade craft items online I would like to offer you my assistance with your product photography.  Since people can not see and touch your product when they go to your online store having great photographs is essential.

I can enhance  your jewelry or craft item photographs for a very small  fee.

Here is my fee structure:

Enhancing 1 to 3 images @ $3 per image

Enhancing 4 to 8 images @ $2.50 per image

Enhancing 9 to 12 images @ $2 per image

Enhancing 13 or more images @ $1.50 per image

How do you know if your photographs are enhanced properly?  Simply compare the colors of the craft item and the colors of the background in your image to the actual colors of your product and the background.  If the color(s) of your product or the color of the background are not the same colors that you see in your image, then you more than likely need my assistance.

Of course if your image is out of focus or under or over exposed a great deal then I probably can’t help you.  In those cases you will need to retake the photograph.

To prove to you that my services are worth paying for, I am willing to enhance one photograph of your choice for free and without obligation.

 Since I can not see your jewelry or craft item you will have to let me know if I don’t get the image enhanced properly on the first try.  If I am not successful at enhancing your image on the first try I will try to enhance the image again.  Chances are pretty good that I can enhance your image properly on the second try with feedback from you regarding my first attempt at enhancing your image.  If I can not enhance your image properly with Photoshop Elements or GIMP, you probably will need to retake the photograph.

Should I not be able to enhance any of your images properly I will gladly refund your money for any images that I am unable to enhance to your satisfaction provided that you inform me within 48 hours from receipt of the enhanced images.  After the 48 hour time period has expired my work will be considered accepted by you and no refund or credit will be given to you for my services.

Here is what I will need from you should you desire to utilize my photograph enhancement services;

Send me one image and let me enhance it for you for free.

Please resize your image so that it is not over 500 pixels on the longest edge when you send it to me.  Feel free to crop the image before you send it to me, or I can crop it for you, just let me know if you would like me to crop the image for you.  If you need to send me an image that is larger than 500 pixels on the longest edge because you are selling your jewelry or craft items on Etsy, please let me know before you send me the image.

I will need 12 to 48 hours to do the enhancement and return the enhanced image to you.  I may finish enhancing your image and send it back to you in just a couple of hours but I can not guarantee that.  I may not be home, sleeping,  critiquing a website, or doing photography.

Using my photo enhancing services can make a big difference in your website or online store appearance.  Remember that potential buyers can not see the actual product when they shop online compared to shopping in a brick and mortar store.  Having great images is vital to making sales online.

If you have any questions about my service, or if you would like to send me one image for me to enhance for you for free please contact me by email at:  jrj_50[!at]yahoo.com  Simply replace  [!at] with @.

If you are satisfied with my work and you do want me to enhance more images for you I will need you to pay me in advance.  Payment will be made by PayPal for my services.  I will give you PayPal instructions once you contact me with a request for me to enhance your photographs.

Please note that the free photograph that I enhance for you DOES NOT count towards one of the photographs in my fee structure.

Jim Juris

http://www.inexpensivejewelryphotography.com

Denver, Colorado Christmas Lights Photograph

I went to downtown Denver to photograph this government building that is all lit up with Christmas Lights.  This was my second attempt to photograph this same building.  My first attempt failed because I didn’t use the tripod that I brought with me.  The reason that I didn’t use a tripod is because my body doesn’t care for cold weather and it was very cold, at least for me.  The photos that I took of this building looked good on my LCD viewing screen when I checked them, but when I saw the photographs on my computer I saw that they where slightly out of focus.

This photograph required a time exposure of about 2 to 3 seconds and I ended up moving slightly the first night that I took the photograph of this building.

Tonight the temperature was only 22 degrees F at a little bit before 7 p.m.  I think that the temperature was a little bit warmer the first night that I photographed this building. 

My body wasn’t cold tonight but my hands where.  I was wearing two pairs of gloves both nights.  I had on a heavy pair of gloves over a light pair of gloves and my hands where still cold.

I now have several other Christmas photographs, which where also taken at night, along with photographs on various other subjects, on my Flickr page.  Check out my photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimjuris  I will be adding more of my best photographs to my Flickr page in the near future.

Merry Christmas,

Jim Juris

I Am Now On Twitter

I just signed up with Twitter.com.  Twitter only gives you 140 characters to tell people what you are doing.  That means that you have to make your posts short and sweet.  That is fine with me.  I am sure that some of you would rather read my short posts rather than the loooong posts that I normally write.

I have to admit that I was hesitant about joining Twitter.  Twitter allows you to get the word out and build up a following.  I am using Twitter to market my ebook and the photographs that I sell.

Be being on Twitter you can see what your friends are up to and meet new people.

You can find out what I am up to by going to- http://twitter.com/jim_juris

 

 Jim Juris

Photo for sale of 6 Burning Red, Green, and Yellow Candles

I just listed the first photograph that I am selling in my new etsy store.  The photograph was taken by me.  This photograph is 6 lit candles that are red, yellow, and green.  The flame and the top of the 6 candles are the only things that are visible in this photograph.   The area that surrounds the candles is black.

6 burning candles

The photograph is mounted on matte board and has a foam core backing.  The image also shrink wrapped and there is a hanger on the back of the shrink wrap so that you can mount the photo on the wall without having it framed.

Note:  All future photographs that I will be selling will be placed on my Photos For Sales page instead of this page.  Just click on the link above to go to my Photos for Sale page.  I want to keep this part of my blog for jewelry and craft photography.

You can find out mhttp://www.jimjuris.etsy.comore details about this photograph by visiting my Etsy store at

 

 Jim Juris

Thanksgiving Banner Photograph

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone that is celebrating today.  It is a little bit cold here in the Denver, Colorado area today, but it is a nice day.

Today is a great day to be thankful and appreciate all of the things that we all take for granted.

A couple of days ago I was walking to the mail box to mail a letter and on my way I saw a great banner hanging outside of a house close to where I live.  The banner was of a Thanksgiving turkey.  Since the weather was fantastic, sunny and no wind, I took out my camera and tripod and photographed the Turkey banner.

Thanksgiving Banner

I have never seen a banner like this before.  Quite unique in my own opinion.

Jim Juris

http://www.inexpensivejewelryphotography.com

Your Website Photographs Are The Equivelant Of A Retail Store Display Window

Imagine this scenario.  You receive an invitation to attend the Presidential Inaugural Ball in January and you need a new outfit.

You hop in your car and go down the street looking for stores that sell outfits that are appropriate for the inaugural ball.

There are many stores in the city where you live and the first store is only 2 blocks away.  As you approach the store you notice that the display windows all have very long, large cracks in them.  The windows are filthy because they haven’t been washed in years.  The display items in the windows are poorly arranged and the same clothes have been on display in the store windows for several years. 

Knowing that there are numerous stores in your neighborhood that sell similar outfits, will you go into the store that you are approaching or will you hop back into your car and go to the next store a few blocks away?

If you think of your photographs as being the equivalent of a retail store window display you will be able to see why it is so important to use good photographs when selling your jewelry/craft items online.  Otherwise your shoppers will just jump back into their cyberspace cars and go to the next store.  There are thousands and thousands of stores to choose from in cyberspace.  Don’t let your website visitors skip going into your store.

Always remember that first impressions are very important and that you only have one chance to make a great first impression for your website visitors.