Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Dude! What's With the Ads?

You might notice some additions to the blog. Sorry, but I've added some ads. I'll admit, it looks like I've sold out to naked and unabashed e-capitalism. What can I say? There was all this empty, black, space on my blogger page and I thought, "Why not put a few ads on there?"

I doubt I'll get rich off these ads. In fact, I'll be surprised if I make anything at all. But ya never know, ya know?

I'll try to keep the ads relevant to the subjects I write about. For instance, the gear I've selected to feature (from Amazon and it's e-commerce partners) is all stuff I have in my own, personal, arsenal of photographic weaponry. That's not to say everything listed reflects a complete inventory of what's in my camera bag but I figure, if I'm going to pimp camera and lighting gear, I might as well pimp stuff that I own and routinely use. In that way, I can stand behind the photo gear I'm pimping.

I'll admit I haven't read the photo-related books I've listed but they look like books I'd be interested in owning or reading or thumbing through. There are so many photography books available on Amazon, it would take me hours to go through them all and find the ones I do own. Maybe if I got better at using Amazon's search functions? But that in itself takes time.

I'm trying to get Google's Adsense ads to make advertising sense. So far, nothing they've provided has any relevance to photography or what I write about. It seems Google uses bots and algorithms to look at the sites where Adsense is used and determine what sorts of ads to post. So far, at least in terms of this site, Google's technology hasn't been too successful at figuring out what kinds of ads to post on the Pretty Girl Shooter blog. I guess I'll try increasing my use of words like "photography" and "camera" and "photo" to nudge Google's bots and algorithms in the right direction.

Anyway, I'm sure most of you will quickly develop the ability to subconsciously filter out the ads from your field of view so, in time, you'll barely notice they're there.

The statuesque blonde at the top is Tyler. I photographed Tyler while working the doomed (by the LAPD) shoot the other day. MUA was Lilian. I captured Tyler with my Canon 5D w/ a Canon 85mm, f/1.8 prime, ISO 100, f/8 @ 125th. I used a Photoflex 5' Octodome for my mainlight and a medium Chimera strip for my backlit highlights. Both modifiers were illuminated by Novatron monolights. Anthony, my assistant for the day (when he could break away from his other, on-set duties) bounced in a bit of fill using my Westcott, 5-in-1 reflector. All of the photo gear I used you can find in the Amazon ads I've provided. (Like I said, "naked and unabashed e-capitalism.")

Here's another of Tyler. Since I'm causing you to endure advertisements, the least I can do is post a bit more eye candy.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey PGS, google ads usually don't take on sites with nudity. There are a host of other online ad resellers who do though. I can't wait for you to start pimping your lighting gear, I keep looking for the lights you mention in shoots and have a hard time finding them, esp the mola beauty dish.

jimmyd said...

I keep looking for the lights you mention in shoots and have a hard time finding them, esp the mola beauty dish.

scroll down thru the ads and you'll find an amazon.com listing for the mola dish as well as photoflex's octodome.