Woodward Dream Cruise was Saturday... what a blast! I spent a lot of time coordinating resources around this year's cruise.
So looking back on how things went...
We had a list of over 20 models we contacted and it looked like 10-12 would be coming for the photo shoot. I turned my information over to Heather to finalize bringing the models together so I could work on photographers and our process. I created a flyer for us to hand out that listed FAI Home Theatre Store as our sponsor.
I wanted to have the Cruizin Capturz website up and running, but it seems the information to get it rolling just isn't coming together quickly. I've been looking at Smugmug, Fotki, ezPrints, and a couple others. The standings when looking at availability of money from sales, look of the site and customizable features:
- Smugmug - has a slow payout rate requiring $500 per month or $200 per quarter in profits. I love the interface and it is what I have been using for www.fuzzytek.com. It is fairly customizable. Rating: 3 of 5
- Fotki - has great payout rate goes direct to PayPal, however the quality of the site looks like home photographers. I'm wondering what a co-branded professional site can look like. Rating: 4 of 5
- ezPrints - need to get specifics on payout rate. Default interface looks good. Nice features and Smugmug uses ezPrints as it's under the surface provider. Rating: TBD
- others - I got a call from ezPrints on Saturday saying they would send a list of their partner sites. Lew then told me he is a ezPrints partner, but his information given so far is sparse.
Photographers shooting: Mike (TimeFragment) and Lew (Darker Side of Midnight). Other photographers were interested but had other commitments.
Saturday morning arrived - RAIN. I'm learning that rain produces "rainy flakes"... models that can't handle rain and they flake out / no show. The t-shirts from FAI arrived, then Lew and Mike. We had t's for Mike and I, Lew is a larger fit than the shirts we got.
Heather got dropped off, she is fabulous and dependable. She is like a business partner for me. I'm blessed to have her around. Heather dressed up in a black and white polka-dot dress and brought her hair up. Mike, Lew, and Heather got themselves out to Woodward a bit after noon. The rain had stopped, sidewalks dried up and there were still heavy clouds in the sky.
I tried to get farther in setting up a site - decided to simply use my Comcast homepage as a place-holder site and point the domain www.cruizincapturz.com at it. Then it was time for me to get out there too. Rachel let us know she was out to Woodward selling calendars and would meet up in early evening.
We worked just a couple blocks of Woodward taking photos mostly in the street. Heather would run out, pose on the car while we would take photos. As we were working along Woodward Rachel showed up with the calendar folks... selling calendars along side us.
Around 3pm Heather drifted into Lover's Lane and picked up something for the afternoon. Mike, Heather and I headed back to my house, a bit hungry and ready to unload photos. Lew had wandered farther south down Woodward to meet a friend. Within 10 minutes of getting inside the skies opened up and sheets of rain fell. Heather changed up, we ordered some pizza and as we were getting done the skies had cleared up. Bright, sunny, beautiful skies waiting for great photos!
We pretty much hung out at Chester and took photos in the street again. We saw a few cars pulled over for laying rubber by the police officers stationed on bicycles on the corner with us. Heather got a cute photo with one of the drivers pulled over. The officers also had a little confrontation with some guys that kept crossing traffic and acted up at them.
Rachel got in touch with Lew and got herself ready for photos with us. We then went over on the south-bound side of Woodward just north of Normandy (13 1/2 Mile). It was a good spot to catch drivers stopped for the light. We shot photos there until dark, then it was back to the house and everyone relaxed as we unloaded photos.
So here it is Tuesday night and CruizinCapturz is not up yet. I've had photo shoots on Sunday and Monday that have pulled me away from home/computer and into some paying work that I really needed to focus on. Late afternoon I contacted ezPrints but it was too late for the research they need of Lew's account status with them. Tonight I'll review some other provider options and get things ready to assemble the site.
2 comments:
FYI, smugmug will payout for any amount upon request (says so on all their pages). The $500/$200 values are just for automatic payout.
The wording on the site did not lead me to that understanding. When I'm looking at "not paid", I'm thinking the customer didn't pay the bill yet. I've re-read that area and understand now that payment was received. I guess the next thing is to ask for the money to be sent my way. For me getting the first check is proof that things are working OK. With how I was understanding wording I was gonna have to wait a quarter to rack up $200 in order to get a check. I hope that is not true.
When I got back a response of "We have found that we can provide
more effective support through email"... that just comes across cold. All I wanted is a simple phone call. I can get that with other providers. Here I am a paying customer and left to dealing with email. I'm not sure if you (Anonymous) are a pro customer with Smugmug or staff there. I'm sending this exchange as a reply email back to Smugmug. I will revised and clean this post once I know things are being handled in my best interest. Yes it is about the customer being taken care of, especially when I'm looking at this as my primary job.
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