Instamoto

I get this question asked ALL the time through e-mail, Twitter, Facebook, Quora, snailmail, notes in class, and written on the dirt of my Nissan Cube. I want everyone to know that we’re listening! We’ve been actually trying to figure it out here at Nuwomb. After months of iPhone photography and Instagram madness we’ve finally got something to show you.

The above video is Instamoto in action! The guest room was occupied and once Instagram and Animoto were finished smushing, here’s what we got.

What do you think of the results? Should we continue to breed the Instamoto here?

Share this around and see if we can get word from Animoto or Instagram directly!

My city of London, Ontario has held two Ignite events already and we’re gearing up for a third! In anticipation for Ignite London 3, I’ve created a short video of photos I took at the first 2 events. The photographs from the first Ignite London can be found in the post titled: Ignite London Volunteer Photographer and some of the images from Ignite London 2 can be found in this post: Ignite London 2 – Part 1 and View More Ignite London Photographers – Part 2

The internal confidence gained from each event has been fantastic. I don’t mean confidence in the form of my photography skills, though. I mean confidence in myself as a whole.

I cannot wait for the next few months of activity that seem to surface in the city as it slowly thaws. There is not a shadow of a doubt that I will be at Ignite London 3 before the event starts to get some much anticipated photos that I intended on getting for Ignite London 2.

Ignite is a style of presentation where participants are given five minutes to speak on a subject accompanied by 20 slides. Each slide is displayed for 15 seconds, and slides are automatically advanced. Pecha Kucha is a similar format that features 20 slides for 20 seconds each. – Wikipedia

Ignite Events are not exclusive to London, Ontario. The first one apparently happened in Seattle (Thanks Wikipedia) and happens all over the place now. I am not sure how many are planned or possible for London, but I am hoping to face a fear and give a talk someday.

Does your city host Ignite Events? Have you looked into it?

If you’re in London and want to give an Ignite Talk, you don’t have much time! Your talk proposal must be submitted by January 25th at midnight (that’s tonight). Feel free to check out how to get involved with Ignite London.

Wondering about the video? It was created through Animoto (Affiliate link) – The service that killed boring slideshows!  I would be recommending the use of Animoto even if I wasn’t an affiliate.

This video is not something I created. It’s awesome, very crisp and clear. I am wondering on the number of wedding photographers out there making the time to create killer slideshows like these for clients? With the addition of video in DSLR’s now, you could easily add short elements of fluid video into something like this too. With a lower barrier of entry to photography and videography, I think it’s going to be very important to keep up or someone that offers services with both will get the business.

A couple I talked with during a real estate photoshoot mentioned how great it would be to have some quality slideshows created of family photos. It was the time to learn and create that was the hard part.

As we move in a more and more visual and creative context, I definitely want to increase my use of video in 2010.

When starting a photography business, there are usually some doubts or questions that come up. I know that wanting to stand out from the crowd is troublesome because everyone is a photographer these days. It’s easy, when starting a photography small business, to struggle with the idea of setting yourself apart from all the other photographers (aka your competition).   Nothing will do more good than getting out and taking the pictures.  Getting out and taking the pictures is what gets your comfortable and allows your style to emerge.  And I am not talking about the use of Photoshop or Lightroom Actions.

But.

This post is going to take a different spin to set your photography services apart from others.  Hopefully anyways! I also view this a possible way to market your photography.
What the hell am I talking about? I know. I know. Wait for it….

ANIMOTO!

If you’re wondering, “What is Animoto???” Don’t worry.
I talked about how Animoto Killed the Slideshow in a past article, but the guys at Anitmoto have just realeasd a fierce new feature that’s got me very very interested.   They just released the ability to incorporate video footage into your video.  Oddly enough, right after my girlfriends uncle Ben has shown me a way to do it myself.  The amazing thing about this ability is that you don’t have to fuss around with any crazy video editing software.  Upload the shoft video clip and you can incorporate it into the video and break up some of the stills.    I think istockphoto is going to be happy about this feature as well! Istock has got a lot of video footage in their database already!

You might be saying that your a photographer so what does video have to do with anything?

Video is changing the game. You don’t need to be a pro videographer, although I’ve seen some amazing work coming out of the recent DSLR’s that offer video capabilities.  3-5 seconds of video can add so much depth to your slideshow or to your work in general.

Show this to a client, and tell me they would not be blown away?

If a client had the option to go with a photographer that offers a slideshow like this in their package versus a photographer that doesn’t, what do you think might happen? Assuming that both photographers are similar in style, cost and skill.  One photographer would stand out. I am pretty pumped that I currently have my iphone 3Gs and it can shoot shot videos.  In the future it makes me more excited for a DSLR to shoot high quality video footage.

A Marketing Product and a Sales Product

I did a quick edit of my Newsletter Video to encourage people to sign up for the e-mail list. I included a short clip right at the beginning that I think helps to show that this is a broadcast message. In a sense I viewed it as a way to market my e-mail list. I posted it up on You Tube.

I also created a new video, and it took pretty much no time at all. I had litterally a couple minutes before I had to run out the door. I uploaded everything and came back to it to select the music. These examples are probably really quick and using a few of the stock clips that Animoto provides.

The Animoto Blog has a few more examples – 1 skateboarding vid! There are photographer’s taking advantage of it in their packages they offer clients for portaits. Your clients then go and share the video on Facebook, Twitter, and You Tube and do the marketing for you.

If you havn’t checked out Animoto, or you were on the fence, it’s time to hop down and get on this train. This is a great way to feel like you provide something remarkable to people.

This is the part in the post that you now go and check out Animoto and sign up.
I also suggest doing a bluesky activity to try and think of many ways to incorporate this service into your work for clients and for your own marketing plan. Animoto touches on all aspects for your business – Photography, Kickass, Marketing, and Social Media.

Please leave your comments about what you think of this new tool available and ways you could see it benefitting your business. Or if you’re already using it, how has it benefitted so far?

How are you finding your slideshow galleries? Feeling a little frustrated and want to shake things up? This article will hopefully give you the vehicle to share your images the way you always dreamed. Ever better though, let’s find a way to set your Photography Small Business apart from everyone else in your area or city.

So, slideshows? They’re great right? If you’re starting a small business in photography, you’re probably looking at other photography business to see how they are working online. Or, perhaps you’ve been running your photography home business for a long time and you’re looking to change some things and create a buzz around your work. It’s time to read below!

How often though do you quickly lose interest when clicking through a portfolio? Sure you can sit back and watch a slideshow but they can be pretty bland. I’ll give you an example. When I was on my vacation in April this year, I was subjected to some slideshow DVDs  that my girlfriend’s great uncle had made using his photography.  Yes, there is an 85 year old great uncle out there making slideshow DVDs with iPhoto and his digital camera (You now have no excuses why you are not creating something more interesting than an 85 year old when it comes to your photography business).  These DVDs included music as the images transitioned across the TV.   He sends them to family to watch and show what he is up to these days.  They are pretty well received and I was impressed with the idea of taking his images offline like this and making that connection with family.

Animoto And your Photography Home Business

The slideshow sparked my interest becasue I knew that I could create videos that were much more current and able to capture the viewers attention. I started thinking about relating this to a photography business. It brought up my memory of Animoto.  I could create some pretty interesting slideshows with my photography! I had made a few test videos in the past and posted them on this blog; however, I lost that content when everything crashed a while ago.  I still have the 30 second videos in my Animoto profile though. You may have heard of Animoto already or this might be something very new to you.   I mentioned the company in my last posting – “Digital Era – Do more with your digital photos,”  but I couldn’t fully get into it.  Hopefully you followed the initial link in that post and checked it out.  I’ll go over what I love about it and what I hope it can do for photography and small businesses.

What is Animoto?

That’s right! Animoto is the end of slideshows.  You can forget about those slideshows your saw yesterday.  They are officially dead.  Seriously, go back and try and find it and you’ll realize it’s gone.  You can upload your images, or import them from popular photo hosting websites like Flickr.  Pick the music from their long list, or upload music you have the rights to and Animoto does the rest.  I’ll let Animoto Explain:

The heart of Animoto is its newly developed Cinematic Artificial Intelligence technology that thinks like an actual director and editor. It analyzes and combines user-selected images and music with the same sophisticated post-production skills and techniques that are used in television & film.

- Animoto

Cinematic Artificial Intelligence technology? AWESOME! It might take you 10 minutes to make a video that will blow everyone away.   Once your video is fully rendered, Animoto sends you an e-mail to let you know.  There is a big benefit here that you may not be aware of yet.  Animoto is rendering your video, not your computer.  This is a web application and they are doing all of the hardwork, not you! You computer still runs quick, allowing you to focus on some other work or activities while Animoto makes your kick ass video.   While it was rending my video of Las Vegas, I went into Photoshop and continued to edit images from a photoshoot with no system lag.  I have heard of videographers say their computer is useless while it renders a video for them. They could be working on something much larger, but it’s still pretty cool to know that Animoto isn’t taking over your computer usage.

Photography Video Creation

I took some screenshots while creating the video above.  All it took was a few click’s and processing time.  I am expecting one of those commercials on TV that show a 3 year old creating a dynamic slideshow online.  Animoto does an unbelievable job at turning this complex technology into a web application that is so easy to use.

Just before getting into the screen shots, I wanted to go over a tip from Animoto about image size that will save you time.
Most of us probably think that you need to upload your highest resolution image files; however, you do not.  Animoto recommends free software for Mac and PC.  DroPic for Mac and VSO Image Resizer for PC.  Hear it from Animoto:

We recommend a size of no less than 640×426 (about 50kb per image), and no more than 1024×768 (about 100kb per image).  If you plan to make videos for DVD or to download onto your computer, it’s best to upload images that are at least 1024×768–but still, no need for pics more than 1 or 2 mega pixels.

You aren’t sacrificing any quality at all and you’re saving a lot of time.  My first ever video was 30seconds and it took forever at full 300DPI.  Waste of time when there is no benefit.

With that information presented, take a look at these screenshots moving through the video creation process:

I admit, I was sad to see SmugMug here.  I love their competitor, Zenfolio, much more.  But I realized that I upload files to flickr that are in resolution range that work for Animoto videos, so my images from Zenfolio would be much too large anyways.

The last screenshot shows Animoto producing your slideshow killer photography video. You don’t have to stay on this screen.  If you leave the screen, nothing is going to happen to your video.  Animoto will take care of everything and you’ll be blown away when you receive their e-mail notification.  Animoto will e-mail you to let you know the video is fully pimped out and ready for you to show off.

This is the screen after your video is finished.  You can share, remix, edit, export out to YouTube or get the code to embed the video like I did on my blog. The 1 click remix will send the video back into the Animoto artificial intelligence and come out with a completely different video.  No two videos are ever the same.  I hope you’re starting to notice some of the possibilities with Animoto, not even just for photography.  If you do the Hi-Res Upgrade, it does cost money unless you sign up for a professional or business plan.  I plan to use these videos as products as I develop my own photography business.   I will have DVD Quality downloads and physical DVDs.  The point is to share these images and videos with others.   I also plan to use the videos for promotion and marketing.  You should get a sense of that from the Las Vegas Video of mine.

Enhance You Blog with Video

I’ve read countless times that inserting a main image with each article will drastically improve it.  We all love pictures because they break up those huge blocks of text. Step out of the Dark Ages, get over the death of the slideshow, and look to Animoto for your ballin’ blog article improvement.  I am expecting to see a lot, and I mean a lot, more blogs utilizing these soon.  If you follow my blog here, you’ll be seeing a lot more of these videos.

Blow people away with your Work

If you haven’t already noticed, I love this application. I think it’s going to help me blow people away.  I know that other photographers are using Animoto to increase their sales and gain interest in their work.  What I found fascinating, being that I am an iPhone users, is the iPhone app for Animoto.  I watched my Las Vegas video on it and I was amazed.  It seriously felt like a movie trailer.  I envision the ability to show a video of your amazing photography, or promoting your business, to be an opportunity you can’t ignore.  People often stop to ask you questions about what you’re taking pictures for and you can instantly show them what you are capable of doing right away.  You can play these videos on your iPhone or via DVD at trade shows.  I am excited for social events where you’re asked about what you’re doing these days or what you do for a living.  The ability to pull out my iPhone and say, “Well let me show you!”   I am pretty sure it will intrigue the person. If a photographer showed me something like this, and their photography was great – I’d set up a meeting right away.  Blow them Away! Be Incredible!

My Challenge For You

Go over to to Animoto and sign up to create your first video.  Come back here and post it into the comments (I think that is possible).  If not, send it to me by e-mail (info@nuwomb.com).  I’ll create a post of the videos if they cannot be added to the comments.  I’m just interested in seeing what you can create with this application.  If you decide to sign up for another of the plans let me know too because we can be contacts (or friends) on their website.  Check it out and let’s display our photography with kick ass video from now on!