We made several enhancements to the AAJ Photo Gallery, including a new slideshow, a new look, improved security, increased website integration, and new ways to feature your photos.
We'd like to thank all the professional photographers who took the time to email us their gallery suggestions. We implemented nearly all of them, resulting in a new slideshow and significant improvements to the gallery's appearance, as well as improvements to image sharing and image protection—but most importantly, we now place a much greater emphasis on our professional photographers and their photos.
For a list of new features, improvements, and tips, please read on:
New and improved!
For pros only
The “Photos" dropdown menu on the navigation bar places a much greater emphasis on professional photos. Added a “pro" designation ( ) next to a professional photographer's name.
More security measures to protect your photos. A more prominent hotlinked copyright notice. It's now easier for users to contact photographers about permission. Improved Professional Photographer listing page. Speaking of, please upload your avatar and associate it with your AAJ profile. And while you're at it, add your bio and mini-bio.
More ways to view your images!
Improved Photos of the Week page. Added a “Recommend" button and created a Recently Recommended Jazz Photos page. Improved interface (better object placement, easier to make a photo a favorite, easier to navigate to next photo, easier to identify a professional photographer, search box added to all gallery pages). A new slideshow! We also included the slideshow on a musician's profile page. (example) Users can view the larger version of the photo as a screen overlay.
More interaction and sharing
More social options to maximize photo sharing. Users can comment on or discuss photos.
New tips; old tips
You can tag your photos after you upload them on your Manage Photos page. It's best to tag all photos with any combination of the following information: musician name, venue name, event name, photographer name, city name. Untagged photos are not searchable.
You can link to your AAJ photo gallery this way:
http://photos.allaboutjazz.com/gallery.php?o=[your aaj id]Do not use photo borders or border styles (we want your photos to appear just like they appear at Flickr).
ex: http://photos.allaboutjazz.com/gallery.php?o=47032
Minimize the size and presence of your copyright notice. We prefer that you not include one (again, like Flickr) as we have improved upon our already strong image protection method. Photos with prominent copyright notices will not be featured at the site.
Leave your copyright field blank. This field is only filled in when the person uploading the photo is not the photographer.
Use proper grammar, punctuation, capitalization in the “Title" and “About" boxes. Include meaningful titles. (no numbers!)
How are we doing? We'd love your feedback!
We felt we took a big step forward with the latest version of the gallery, but we'd like to continue to hear from you about further improvements. If you have an idea or suggestion, please contact me direct and I'll add it to our to-do list.
Help spread the word...
Please help us spread the word about the new gallery by circulating this announcement to photo groups, photo lists and photographer friends. Just click the Facebook Like, Twitter Tweet or Google +1 links above. Thanks!
New to the AAJ Photo Gallery?
Please review our Upload Essentials page before you get started.
For more information contact All About Jazz.
