A Few Key Words About Keywords
Key Words Are Key.
I will readily admit that I am not an expert on SEO (Search Engine Optimization). But the one thing I do know, is that in order for your images to be found, Google and other search engines need to be able to “see” them. To that end, proper key-wording, file names, and captioning are essential.
The last-minute purchase if this image, just 6 days before Christmas, was a strong reminder of just how important. Proper key-wording and a descriptive file name helped the buyer find my image in her search for photos of Baxter Lake, the small lake I happen to live on. As luck would have it, this was to be a gift to the parents of the woman’s boyfriend, who also happen to live on the same lake. Yup, small world.
When I delivered the print, I asked the woman how she found me and this image? She had simply Googled “Baxter Lake,” while looking for photos, and this image of mine came up front row center in Google Images, among others of course, several more of which were mine as well.
Without proper key-wording, changing the file name, and adding a good description in the metadata the sale may never have been made.
Google is blind.
One of the first thing I do with any image that I plan to post to the web, be it my website, Facebook fan page, or right here on my blog, is change the file name. The original file name of the image above was “_MG_0301.CR2.”
Quick, without looking at the photo, only the file name, can you tell me wat that image might look like? Google’s web crawlers can’t either, to Google, and other search engines, it’s just numbers and letters. Now try it with, “baxter-lake-sunrise-with-boulder-and-reflection-0301.jpg,” I bet you and Google will have a better idea of what the image looks like.
More than just a name.
The file name is just part of the equation for getting your images discovered. It all begins with keywords. Second only to telling Lightroom where to put the file upon import, is key-wording. I do this not only to help me find the images later, but also so they are part of the file from that point on.
Here is the list of key words in this images metadata as they appear in my Lightroom catalog.
Helping the blind to see.
The caption, or description, you add to the image file is also very important. You can get as elaborate, or as basic as you wish, but the best description I’ve heard of how to write that caption is to write it as if you were describing your image to a blind person, trying to covey not only the look, but the emotion of the image as well.
Here’s where you get to put your creative writing skills to good use.
What you do before you even think about sharing your image with the world, has a lot to do with how much of the world is able to find it.
Some light reading about key-wording and SEO.
Sunday’s Hidden Treasure
From late October through most of November, the most gorgeous golden light passes through the woods on the side of the road to my house. So far this is the best I’ve done to capture it. Taken back in 2008, only a few months after I bought my first camera, this is also my first attempt at HDR, not half bad if I do say so myself.
Canon 40D
Canon EF 24-70 f2.8L
ISO 100, 45mm, f8 @ 1/100
Four Years In The Making: The Perfect Baxter Lake Sunrise.
Attempt Number One.
I love living on a lake, no surprise there. When I got my first camera, four years ago this month actually, one of the first things I knew I wanted to photograph was a sunrise over the lake. So one morning I grabbed my camera and tripod and went down to the beach closest to our house. There are a few boulders just a few feet from shore that I knew would be just the thing for that all important foreground element.
Being new to photography then, I figured all I needed to do was be there around sunrise, point my camera in the general direction of the rising sun, and wa-la, award-winning sunrise. Well it didn’t take long for that bubble to burst and realize that it takes just a bit more than that.
This is my first attempt, more of a “blue hour” photo than a true sunrise, but the clouds came in and this was as clear as it got.
It’s also pretty obvious, to me at least, that at this point in my journey to becoming a photographer I needed to learn a thing or two about composition as well.
Strike Two
My second effort didn’t turn out much better. If it wasn’t for the fisherman in the boat I’m not sure I would have kept the two images from this particular morning that have so far escaped the delete key. Not the most horrible photo I’ve ever made, but I don’t see any awards or sales orders in its future either. I do love the golden glow on the rippled surface of the lake though, so there is that going for it.
Jackpot!
Third time’s the charm. I was all set to head to the seacoast in the morning, but just didn’t feel like getting up early enough to make it for sunrise. So I settled one more time on the lake.
One of the biggest reservations I have about putting much effort in shooting this lake is the utter featurelessness (is that even a word?) of the far shoreline. It looks like someone took a giant pair of hedge trimmers and went nuts. Not a hill or mountain in sight, just a straight, flat treeline. I was going to need a great sky, along with my already chosen foreground element to make it work to my satisfaction.
Yesterday morning it happened! And I almost missed it, can you believe that? I got up at 5 a.m., stepped out on the deck, looked up, seeing mostly clouds I seriously considered going back to bed. Then, while having my coffee I looked through the trees toward the lake and saw the horizon to the east was open. Not much, but enough to make me grab my tripod and camera bag and make a fast walk to the closest of our beaches. Knowing that with only a sliver of open sky at the horizon, things could be spectacular, but they would happen fast and be over quickly, I didn’t waste any time getting to the water’s edge.
Mother nature did not disappoint, and the sky lit up just as I had hoped. It also came and went as quickly as I had anticipated, so I was glad I picked up the pace when I did. At best, I had 7-10 minutes of the most glorious sky I have yet to photograph over “our” lake. And the reflection on the surface of the lake, I’ll just let the photograph speak for itself…
And to think I almost drove an hour to the coast…
