It was back in the summer of 2007. One evening I was surfing through the Smugmug popular photos page and came across Jaki Good Photography. I spent awhile surfing through Jaki’s site admiring her photography. I was truely amazed and I e-mailed Jaki complimenting her on her wonderful art!
Soon after, Jaki contacted me about customizing her smugmug site. Over the past few years, I have had the opportunity to work with Jaki on implementing a variety of new technology on her site. Since our collaboration her site now includes slideshow pro and PayPal collections for sitting fees/wedding down payments. You can see Jaki’s willingness to try different things in her photography. Jaki challenged my technical skills as well. She called me one time and told me she did not want the same slideshow on the home page to appear all of the time. “I get a lot of returning visitors and I want them to see something new!” So we came up with a method in which slideshowpro would generate a random slideshow for the site visitor. They may see the weddings slideshow or the seniors slideshows or the family slideshow – randomly selected.
With the amount of inquiries I receive on smugmug customization, Jaki’s site is one of the top sites I get compliments on (“I want my site to be just like Jaki Goods!”).
Every year I like to introduce some new technology to offer my customers. I thought would start off the year early with customizing
Showit/Smugmug/Wordpress together in one seamless website. After returning from Imaging USA, I decided to take on this challenge I had set for myself, and I wanted to work with a photographer to make this initiative a success. At the same time, Jaki e-mailed me about some changes to her site. I called Jaki and shared with her what I learned about Showit and Smugmug and how well the platforms integrate with each other. Jaki really wanted to take her site to the next level to show off her wonderful art. She said “Jerry – I just want my site to kick ass!”
When we launched Jaki’s site on Facebook, the amount of comments, e-mails and phone calls was overwhelming. “Amazing” was the word we heard most often!
Jaki Wrote to me “sometimes i am truly amazed that i get paid to do something i love so much. when i am on a photo session, i am in FLOW – in the zone. time passes so quickly and i absolutely love every minute of it. i have many interests in my life, but photography is truly my passion. my photo sessions delight me – from helping my clients with clothing choices, to deciding on the perfect locations, to spending time with my them and bringing out their personalities in my photos. i have recently ventured into studio photography, but my niche is certainly on location, using natural light and real, dynamic settings. i feel blessed to be a photographer. sometimes the large amounts of editing, deadlines, and ordering seem like work, but taking pictures, creating snapshots in time, and getting to know so many wonderful people never gets old. my love for nature, art, and people all make photography the perfect fit for me.”
If you have not already done so, visit Jaki Good Photography to see more…
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