“When Greek houses demolished, Terry College will take its place”

“Women’s studies department happy with Benson demolition”

Hopefully many more (and more consistent) blog posts to come this week.

(Full article here)

The photo’s from the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince premiere. The little wizard in the photo is named Jared Wilkerson. He was one of the few younger kids there, and he was definitely rocking the best little kid costume. I really enjoyed talking with him; he had the vibe of serious, intense anticipation of a true fan who really couldn’t wait to see the film.

Of course, attending the premiere wasn’t purely a work function. Kate and I were already planning on attending the premiere before I got the assignment, and we did so in style:

John and Kate Plus Capes

The three-dollar twin-size sheets from Wal-Mart truly are God’s gift to thrifty costumers…

Also today, my first photo for the R&B was published in this story on a summer concert series at the Georgia State Botanical Gardens. I had a great time touring the facilities and taking the photos.

(Web version of the image)

What’s interesting is that this isn’t my favorite photo that I shot, or even the strongest from a technical standpoint; however, it is the most newsworthy. That’s a different end-goal from what I’m used to working toward, which is the whole point of this endeavor. I’m enjoying getting to know the staff and getting to be a part of our local news. More to come as more assignments (hopefully) come my way.

Welcome to the newest, latest, greatest incarnation of RiverOakPhotography.com!

There’s much to write and to catch up on, but that will have to wait for later–this post is just to inaugurate the new setup.

Cheers!

-Photo quality. Simply put, we took the highest-quality photos we’ve ever taken. As seen in the featured photos from this meet, the sharpness, clarity, color, and composition of our photos has reached a new high for us here.
-Photo quality consistency. A higher percentage of shots were usable, our shots required less editing out of the camera, and we took fewer shots overall (thus speeding up our workflow considerably) while still taking more keepers.
-Retail setup. Our retail setup looked better than it ever had before. We added a second table (thanks to the friendly Ramsey center staff), our two computers (one for browsing our website, one to run digital signage) and two new 22-inch LCDs, and a new database system. Things looked great thanks to the hard work of Kate and Matt.
-New employee. The recently engaged Matt Deitzel came on as our first new hire, and he knocked it out of the park. He was punctual, friendly, willing to learn a still-too-complicated setup, and much, much more. I look forward to having him at any future events we can snag him for.
-Composites. We offered a new item for sale–composites (comps) for short, and they were a hit. The sample we created sold immediately, and several more people were interested. We’ll definitely be looking to improve our offerings in that arena as time goes on.
-New database. This was our first stab at using FileMaker Pro live at an event, and it worked brilliantly. Hopefully we’ll have time to set up the web forms that will allow customers to input data themselves in time for our next event.
-Prompt service. Thankfully, we were able to edit and post some photos on Saturday; all photos were edited and posted by Sunday afternoon; and email alerts went out at 5:30am thanks to the wonderful MailChimp we keep as a pet. This is the level of service we’ve always aimed to offer, and I feel that we pulled it off quite well.

The bad:
Happily, not much (if anything) was out-and-out bad at this event. That doesn’t mean that there weren’t plenty of areas in which we want to improve or grow for next time. In no special order:

-On-site marketing. Waaaay too many people came up to us as they were leaving the meet to express their chagrin about not knowing that you had to sign up with us to have your photos taken. At future meets, a mix of print and digital signage, clearer announcements, and possible print advertising (in programs / heat sheets) will be used to make sure that everyone who would want to use our service knows about it.
-Digital signage. While not really awful, I want things to look a lot better in this department at our next meet. Enough said.
-Data entry. Our current print-based format makes it too easy to forget to include essential information. Which is why we’re aiming to move to an electronic, database-driven entry system.

What we’ll change:
-On-site printing. One of my big projects for this week is to work out how to offer on-site printing. At a one-day event. Fun time.
-Print signage. In anticipation of a busy event, we’ll be adding print signage to direct people through the flow of our operations.
-A few items we need to aquire. Namely: A heavy-duty extension cord, a hand-truck (a nice-to-have right now), another table cover (and possibly another table of our own), a trailer and a trailer hitch (within the next month), Kensington locks, new composite prints, new storage bins. Already handled: another easel, composite frames (and mats), photo kiosks / ink / paper.

And the rest:
That’s really it for now. I enjoyed this, and I’m looking forward to continuing this series in the future. Goodnight!

Sam made his 500 Free State Qualifying Time for the first time, beating the time standard by less than 3 seconds.

It’ll be OK.

Just breathe.

–.

* * * *

The Good:
A lot, thankfully. Our first event of 2009 showed a marked improvement in many regards over all of our 2008 events. While we had a few events last year that brought in more income, this event was our best ever in several regards. Specifically:

-Photo quality. Simply put, we took the highest-quality photos we’ve ever taken. As seen in the featured photos from this meet, the sharpness, clarity, color, and composition of our photos has reached a new high for us here.
-Photo quality consistency. A higher percentage of shots were usable, our shots required less editing out of the camera, and we took fewer shots overall (thus speeding up our workflow considerably) while still taking more keepers.
-Retail setup. Our retail setup looked better than it ever had before. We added a second table (thanks to the friendly Ramsey center staff), our two computers (one for browsing our website, one to run digital signage) and two new 22-inch LCDs, and a new database system. Things looked great thanks to the hard work of Kate and Matt.
-New employee. The recently engaged Matt Deitzel came on as our first new hire, and he knocked it out of the park. He was punctual, friendly, willing to learn a still-too-complicated setup, and much, much more. I look forward to having him at any future events we can snag him for.
-Composites. We offered a new item for sale–composites (comps) for short, and they were a hit. The sample we created sold immediately, and several more people were interested. We’ll definitely be looking to improve our offerings in that arena as time goes on.
-New database. This was our first stab at using FileMaker Pro live at an event, and it worked brilliantly. Hopefully we’ll have time to set up the web forms that will allow customers to input data themselves in time for our next event.
-Prompt service. Thankfully, we were able to edit and post some photos on Saturday; all photos were edited and posted by Sunday afternoon; and email alerts went out at 5:30am thanks to the wonderful MailChimp we keep as a pet. This is the level of service we’ve always aimed to offer, and I feel that we pulled it off quite well.

The bad:
Happily, not much (if anything) was out-and-out bad at this event. That doesn’t mean that there weren’t plenty of areas in which we want to improve or grow for next time. In no special order:

-On-site marketing. Waaaay too many people came up to us as they were leaving the meet to express their chagrin about not knowing that you had to sign up with us to have your photos taken. At future meets, a mix of print and digital signage, clearer announcements, and possible print advertising (in programs / heat sheets) will be used to make sure that everyone who would want to use our service knows about it.
-Digital signage. While not really awful, I want things to look a lot better in this department at our next meet. Enough said.
-Data entry. Our current print-based format makes it too easy to forget to include essential information. Which is why we’re aiming to move to an electronic, database-driven entry system.

What we’ll change:
-On-site printing. One of my big projects for this week is to work out how to offer on-site printing. At a one-day event. Fun time.
-Print signage. In anticipation of a busy event, we’ll be adding print signage to direct people through the flow of our operations.
-A few items we need to aquire. Namely: A heavy-duty extension cord, a hand-truck (a nice-to-have right now), another table cover (and possibly another table of our own), a trailer and a trailer hitch (within the next month), Kensington locks, new composite prints, new storage bins. Already handled: another easel, composite frames (and mats), photo kiosks / ink / paper.

And the rest:
That’s really it for now. I enjoyed this, and I’m looking forward to continuing this series in the future. Goodnight!

Kate and Matt both did an absolutely fantastic job.

I very much wanted to take a few quick snaps so that I have a record of how our retail setup looks as it changes (hopefully continually for the better) over time.