Editing Is Hard But Sequencing Is Harder

Editing down the images you want to show to a client, editor or audience can be difficult...but sequencing images for your web portfolio is even harder.

The images above are from a recent location shoot for Rapid Growth Media and feature the accomplished artist and art advocate Paul Amenta. The shoot came out nice and I had a really hard time making selects. Each of the set-ups above had slight variations that worked well, but these were the selects that I came up with for the Rapid Growth story that felt the best to me.

I wanted to put 1 or 2 of these up into my "People" section of my portfolio site. I had a hard time deciding which one(s) to place into my portfolio and where to drop them into the flow of images that were there already in the ; should they go toward the beginning, middle, or end of the flow of images? Plus, should I separate the images inside the portfolio or sequence them all consecutively because it's the same person/shoot?

Tough questions...there isn't really a hard and fast answer. I actually don't have a clue as to what will create the most impact on the viewer coming to my site cold. I'm much too close to the shoot and am biased somewhat by the circumstances around each set-up, i.e., was the lighting more difficult to accomplish? or was something funny said that we all laughed about, etc? These are all things that might influence me, but the viewer coming cold to the images is unaware of these circumstances (and probably doesn't care).

So this blog post remains open ended as to how to sequence your work. How do you handle this issue? Feel free to drop a comment and share your ideas and, perhaps, frustrations.

Here's my "People" portfolio as it stands right now with a few of the images above dropped in.

"Across The Grand" - photography commission

In September of last year, I got a call from Joe Tomaselli who is the top executive at Amway Hotel Corporation (Amway Grand Plaza Hotel, the new JW Marriott, Courtyard by Marriott downtown, etc).

Joe asked me if I would consider creating a special photograph to commemorate the opening of the new JW Marriott hotel. The commissioned photograph would be given to 1000 guests at a special gala fundraising event at the JW. The gala benefitted the Grand Rapids Public Museum (across the river from the JW Marriott in the Van Andel Museum Center).

Needless to say I was flattered and accepted. Joe had two requests:

1. The photograph should depict both the museum and the hotel (no easy task since there is a substantial body of water separating the two properties)
2. Each building should be given equal weight compositionally and not allow one building to dominate the other in the photograph

I also worked closely with Rebecca Westphal who is the head of marketing and PR at the museum (who is GREAT to work with btw). She helped coordinate everything I needed at the museum (lights, carousel operator, etc).

I shot the buildings from a variety of angles (even aerials!). But in the end we kept coming back to this image as the final choice. The photograph is called "Across the Grand." Let me know what you think:

Horses on the Carousel

Yesterday I was shooting for the Grand Rapids Public Museum at The Van Andel Museum Center...I'm still spinning from shooting while riding on the historic carousel! Above is an early favorite from the shoot.

Last fall I was commissioned to create a special photograph for a very high profile project for the museum's capital campaign...so I am very happy to continue working with the good folks there. When time permits I'll post an entry showing the results of that project...it was a great honor to be asked to commemorate such a special event.