Jim Zuckerman left his medical studies in 1970 to pursue his love of photography and turn it into a career. Jim specializes in wildlife, nature, and travel photography, macro work, photomicroscopy, and digital effects. Currently, he is traveling to Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia leading a photography tour to take pictures of Victoria Falls and large game. His diversity in technique and style is unique ... read more
Champs-Élysées is la plus belle avenue du monde (“the most beautiful avenue in the world”). With its cinemas, cafés, luxury specialty shops and clipped horse-chestnut trees, the Champs-Élysées is arguably the most famous street — and one of the most expensive strips of real estate — in the world.
What could be a more fitting name for the most richly appointed HTML5 Content Site we have ever produced? The next installment in our new “Designer Series” for HTML5 Content Site, Store, and Blog, Champs-Élysées is loaded with customization possibilities.
The entire content area of the Champs-Élysées design has a drop shadow surrounding it, with space for your logo at the top and the navigation menu just below it. The content area has a stylish embossed look, and the list items have drop shadows for a layered effect.
Champs-Élysées is all about textures. The border, logo background, and navigation ‘ribbon’ are all one expertly crafted, color integrated unit. These organic Design Elements might best be described as themes, or styles. The sample site uses ‘Burgundy and Birch’ but you can choose from among eight different textures and colors in the Design Element menu.
As you can see, each choice makes a difference in how your site appears. Play around with these eight Design Elements to find the one that suits you the best:
The Champs-Élysées Blog Site is designed to be social. The flawless transition from Content Site to Blog is readily apparent. It shows off our new custom social media icons at the top of the page. These large, 34 x 34 pixel icons can be custom colored to match your site by using the Perimeter Highlight Text Color selection.
The Store Site demonstrates how well Champs-Élysées is constructed. Just below the page name and at the bottom of the content area are bold colored bars. You can select the bar color to either compliment or coordinate with the rollover highlight on the selected product.
The HTML5 Content Site Designer Series and Champs-Élysées in particular have more potential for personalization than ever. For example, you can upload your logo with a background and use Photoshop to continue the drop shadow theme of Champs-Élysées.
Special thanks to Lisa Mark for sharing her images for the sample of Champs-Élysées HTML5 Content Site, and to Pure Tots, organic baby clothing for sharing images used on the Core Business Solution and E-Commerce Solution sample sites. Is it time to make the switch to the new Designer Series for free?
Two weeks ago we launched a brand new tool, Point of Sale. It is a fantastic addition to our PhotoBiz ToGo app that is powered by our Store to help people accept payment whenever and wherever you may be. We’ve received wonderful feedback, and have put together a list of several ways you can use the Point of Sale to help get you thinking about how to incorporate it into your business.
Collect photography session fees on the go, such as taking a deposit while meeting with a bride at a local coffee shop
Sell extra prints when you see a customer out and about that remembers they wanted to get a picture for Grandma
Sell products and services at tradeshows and events such as local business expos, craft shows, and more
Sell educational resources at a workshop you are speaking at across the country
Accept payment for hairstyling and make up when traveling for weddings, proms, and more
Sell menu items from a food truck or food cart
Sell concert t-shirts and memorabilia at a show
Receive payment for a personal training session
Collect membership fees for an organization or association at an event
Use the custom items feature to sell a brand new item not set up in Store!
Have more ideas about how you are or might use Point of Sale? Share them with us! We want to know how you are using our Point of Sale.
Want to learn more about the new Point of Sale? Give us a call or check out this webinar giving you a tour.
Jim Zuckerman left his medical studies in 1970 to pursue his love of photography and turn it into a career. Jim specializes in wildlife, nature, and travel photography, macro work, photomicroscopy, and digital effects. Currently, he is traveling to Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia leading a photography tour to take pictures of Victoria Falls and large game.
His diversity in technique and style is unique in the professional arena. He states that he only photographs beauty, leaving the dark side of life to other photographers. Jim is contributing editor to Photographic Magazine, and he is the author of 15 books on photography and has self-published seven ebooks.
His images, articles, and photo features have been published in scores of books and magazines including Time-Life books, publications of the National Geographic Society, the Economist, Omni Magazine, and Life Magazine.
Jim leads photo tours all over the world and is often a guest speaker to a wide variety of photographic organizations. He teaches all aspects of photography online as well.
The Interview
1. Tell us something about your business and how long you have been a professional photographer?
I have been a professional photographer for 43 years. I specialize mostly in wildlife, nature, travel photography, and digital effects. There are three aspects of my business. First, I am a stock photographer. I submit images to various stock photo agencies and I derive income from that. Second, I teach photography in various venues. For example, I teach online courses, I give photo seminars, and I lecture to clubs and organizations on various aspects of photography. Third, I lead photo tours and photo workshops all over the world.
2. What equipment do you use?
I am a Canon shooter. My arsenal of lenses includes: 500mm f/4 telephoto, 300mm f/2.8 telephoto, 70-200mm f/2.8 zoom telephoto, 50mm macro, 24- 105mm zoom, 14mm ultra-wide-angle lens, and 15mm fisheye. I use an Induro tripod along with a reallyrightstuff BH 40 LR ball head. My camera bodies are 5D Mark II and 5D Mark III.
3. Where are you located?
I am based out of Franklin, Tennessee.
4. What type of photography do you like to create?
My favorite types of images are wildlife, nature, spectacular architecture, primitive tribes, and digital effects. Most photographers don’t include in their portfolio such a diverse range of subjects, but I will shoot almost everything: fantasy, nudes, microscopy, fashion, and anything else that I find to be visually compelling.
5. Price range of events?
I charge a minimum of $2,000 for a speaking engagement, and for a photography workshop or tour it varies depending on how many days are involved and where I have to travel.
6. When did you notice you had a passion for photography?
I realized I had a passion for photography the first time I went into a darkroom. That was 1968. A friend of mine showed me how to develop black and white prints, and I was instantly hooked. I sold my stamp album of American mint stamps and bought my first camera – a Canon FT QL – and all I wanted to do was take pictures.
7. What is unique to what you do or what you offer?
Every photographer has their own vision, but I think what is unique about what I offer is the diversity of my interests. Whenever I speak to a large group, there are people who have a wide variety of interests in photography. I feel they can relate to my work because somewhere in the presentation are pictures that they like to take. In addition, because I have photographed in so may different situations and I’ve had to deal with so many photographic challenges, my knowledge base is extensive. I thoroughly enjoy sharing my experience and knowledge with anyone who wants to learn.
8. Most awkward moment during an event?
The most awkward moment in a photographic event that I’ve experienced is when I was setting up the digital projector and my laptop and about to speak to 200 people, and I didn’t have the right connecting cord between the laptop and the projector. I had just purchased a new laptop not realizing that Apple had changed its connecting cord. Without photographs, it’s very difficult to lecture about photography! Somebody in the audience had to go out to a local Apple Store and purchase the right cable.
9. What is the scariest thing that ever happened during a shoot?
The most frightened I’ve been during a photo shoot was in Kenya. Photography in the game parks is always done from a vehicle, but in this one particular location we were allowed out of the vehicle for breakfast. Right below us was a river, and there were several crocodiles close to us. I walked down to the river’s edge to photograph a monster crocodile – it had to be at least 5 feet wide – and even though I was using a 500mm telephoto, I knew that I was really positioned too close for comfort. I was probably 70 feet away or so, and I looked behind me to see an embankment that I could scramble up if necessary. These reptiles can move a lot faster than I can run, and I was extremely nervous. I took a couple of shots and got out of there fast.
10. Best advice that you’ve been given in your photography career?
The best advice I was ever given was to join a stock photo agency. This was in 1987, and it made a serious impact on my business. With a continuous royalty income, I was able to pursue the kind of photography that I really love to do and not worry about paying monthly bills.
11. Best advice that you could give someone else that is pursuing a photography career?
The best advice I can give to somebody pursuing a photography career is to follow your heart. Do what you love to do and learn how to market your work. Marketing is just as important as producing excellent photography. Most artists don’t like the business end of their art, but it’s necessary and you have to become good at it. In essence, you have to learn two things at once – the business side and the artistic side. Shoot what you love to shoot and this will keep your passion for photography alive and well for the rest of your life.
12. Best moment of your photography career?
The best moment of my photography career was when I held my first book in my hands. I’m most proud of the books I’ve written, so this was a very exciting moment for me.
13. How many sessions/events do you do each year?
I do about 15 events per year including photo tours.
14. Have you changed anything to adjust in the current economic times?
I’ve changed my business plan a lot due to the current economic situation. I’ve put a bigger emphasis on leading photo tours because they are still selling. There is a never ending supply of amateur photographers who want to take better pictures and are who willing to pay people like me to show them where the most awesome pictures can be found. This might be in the US or abroad.
15. Describe your shooting style.
It’s hard to describe my shooting style because it is so varied. Having said that, I like saturated color, strong graphic design, and exciting subjects. I would say these qualities characterize my style.
Here comes another month of great PhotoBiz Live webinars. Take a look below at June’s lineup of FREE educational webinars and sign up today. Plus we have added a bonus webinar to the May schedule!
The PhotoBiz ToGo app is now even better! Find out everything you need to know about our newest addition, Point of Sale. This new add-on is powered by the PhotoBiz Store and is now available for $5 a month. Attend this webinar to get a tour of the Point of Sale and see how it works.
In this webinar, Carl will show you how he uses creative, quick posters to add to sales and set himself apart from those who just do the “normal” work. He will give examples and create a group poster live during the webinar. This is for those of you who want to make extra money on jobs you already have and to promote your talents for future work, all at the same time.
We live in a mobile world. This webinar will cover all the details from making sure your company has a mobile presence, to utilizing the PhotoBiz ToGo app in organizing your business. You will learn how to use the tools that are literally at your fingertips to plug in to the power of mobility.
Spice up your retail or home-based studio with these 10 creative and inexpensive ingredients! Get ideas on DIY backgrounds, fun signage, spoiling your clients, and more! With over 18 years of photographic experience Monica has learned what ingredients it takes to operate a successful portrait studio.
With this webinar you will learn just how easy it is to sell anything online with the PhotoBiz Store. Jeff will show you how to set up the perfect buying experience for your customers. Plus, now with Point of Sale added to the PhotoBiz ToGo app it’s easier than ever.
Practically anyone familiar with London knows about Fleet Street, as it is synonymous with the publishing industry in Great Britain. Fleet Street is also well known as the home of Sweeney Todd, the ‘Demon Barber of Fleet Street’. That is the inspiration for the “Barber Pole” border that surrounds our Fleet Street design.
The entire content area of the Fleet Street design has a drop shadow surrounding it, with space for your logo at the top and the navigation menu just below that. It is with the left and right border of the content area that the PhotoBiz magic begins on this design. As we ‘publish’ our 18th HTML5 Content Site, Store, and Blog design, we’re revolutionizing the capabilities of customization. With Fleet Street we’re introducing customizable design elements to our repertoire of personalized options, in this case the “Barber Pole” border.
This brand new design element brings with it a new area in the control panel labeled ‘Design Element’. These elements are expert selected in a variety of color schemes to compliment the design, and can be changed to personalize your site. For Fleet Street there are eight “Barber Poles” to choose from. On top of choosing from the expert selected design elements that’s right for you, certain parts of the design element can be controlled through the on color picker, specifically the Site Border Color, for an even more unique look, much in the same way as a transparent background allowing you to choose colors to “peek through.”
In addition, Fleet Street is a groundbreaking design in that the entire content area has a semi-transparent overlay, where the navigation bar and list items are then “cut out” to give them a special highlight. This is also illustrated particularly well on the Video pages with the video descriptions, so be sure to check out this unique feature on the sample site. On all other pages, regular text has the tinted overlay as its background.
We have used a slanted bar motif for title bars to build on the barber pole theme and unify the whole design. Fleet Street’s blog pages show how perfectly our Content Sites, Store, and Blog integrate. The tabs at the top of content area integrate with the barber pole’s slanted bar. This theme is also repeated for your individual posts and post titles.
Fleet Street is also available for the PhotoBiz Store, continuing the theme to give your customers a truly seamless shopping experience. As you can see, the Sign In/View Cart tab at the top of the page complements the design.
That’s not all! Fleet Street is also the first design to feature designer social media icons to match the style of the design. You will notice them in the top left of the design. You can choose to use these designer social media icons and change the color to match your site by changing the Perimeter Highlight Text Color using the color picker, or upload your own using our custom social media icon option.
There are many new customization options and features introduced with the Fleet Street HTML5 Content Site, Store, and Blog design. What do you think about these latest innovations?
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