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For years now, I’ve been waiting for someone to take full advantage of the web and to allow photographers to better connect with their audiences. I’ve always found that traditional media rarely offer up a way for photographers to connect directly with their readers/viewers. Photoshelter has just recently released a little widget that allows anyone to embed flash galleries in their (and other people’s) websites. This tool allows photographers to easily share their images - and perhaps to generate some income. In this case - you can simply view the photographs within the widget - and if you’d like, you can purchase a print as well.
I think this has a tremendous potential - so much so, that I’m going to try to encourage you to embed this gallery into your personal sites (or publications!) by applying all of the profits from these print sales for the next 30 days to a student internship/scholarship…
Yep - all of the income (minus the cost of printing, labor, and shipping) will be put towards a student internship/scholarship that I set up. I’ll determine how to select the student (and perhaps students depending on how popular this experiment becomes) and how the money will be dispersed etc. I will work out all of these details at the end of the 30 days once I know how much we have raised and how we can maximize those $$$ to best benefit a student (or students)… Sounds fun no?
One more benefit - there are a total of 88 images in this gallery - all but the first one are limited edition prints. The first image in the gallery of an aerial of Times Square however - will be offered at a significant discount - often more than 10 times cheaper than the limited edition prints (see image below.)
This print of Times Square - will be sold for up to 10 times cheaper than limited edition prints.
This is in an effort to drive the sale of this print - as many of you know, selling prints in these economic times is not easy - so this should help. Each print (whether limited edition or not) is 100% archival and will be signed by me. I’m hoping the cheaper price will lead to more sales and benefit the student(s).
So why am I doing this? Well I think this “embedded” gallery is a fantastic idea - and will allow photographers to hopefully find new business models to generate potential income in the future. Most photographers today rely on agencies, print sales, stock sales, and a variety of publications to make a living… wouldn’t it be great if we harnessed the true power of the web to allow readers to in effect sponsor a photographer’s assignments? Imagine paying a few cents a day or per picture to your favorite photographer… and allowing them (through a good volume of subscribers - each paying a very small amount) to chase their wildest creative dreams - sponsored by their viewers - not publications with limitations etc…
I DO think this is a VIABLE business model… so let’s give this a go. As I said - all of the profits from the print sales over the next 30 days will go to a student (or students) minus the costs of producing and shipping the prints (For the skeptics out there: The total amount of money raised will be made public - and I will have Grover Sanschagrin of Photoshelter verify the amounts etc. so that they can confirm that the money does indeed end up in a student’s (or multiple students’ hands…) sound good?
So go ahead - and share the link below with as many people as you can - and embed the gallery within your sites. While I will obviously benefit from having people see my images - any financial benefit for the next 30 days will benefit a lucky student or students!
Also - pls go ahead an link your embedded gallery in the comments below - and people can go visit your sites. If you e-mail me the page you create with this embedded gallery - I will put a list of all of the sites that have done so on this post - send an e-mail to blog (at) vincentlaforet.com - and I’ll add your link to this post…
To embed this gallery in your blog/publication please paste the following code into your html document: ( simply click on the bottom right arrow of the flash gallery and you can copy and paste the code directly from there):
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I never cease to be amazed at the power of the web - and that’s why I think the future is bright for visual journalists - they just need to harness the power of the web - in less than 20 minutes two sales have gone through… and at least one student will benefit from it!
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Comment by Vincent Laforet 11.08.08 @ 2:38 amHi Vincent, good to see this Photoshelter widget being promoted. It seems like you’re only shipping within the US though. Is it possible for anyone outside the US to buy prints? There are quite a lot of us 
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Gavin 11.08.08 @ 3:37 amHey vincent, Aaron Dressin was featured on the pocketwizard blog about what he carries when he goes out to shoot and i was just wondering, what do you take out when you’re just going to explore? i saw your interview with the CDLC people but i was wondering if you could elaborate more on your favorite lenses and why? thanks!
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Comment by Joe Cha 11.08.08 @ 4:54 amHi Vincent,
Just tried ordering a print. I can’t order one to ship to Toronto Canada though?? Can you please email me andreas@andreasphoto.ca to put the order through?
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Vincent Laforet Reply:
November 8th, 2008 at 9:24 am
Andreas - Canada was added too! Let me know if it works - v
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Your gallery has been added! Thanks for the extended workshop time Sunday-happy editing! Yes- make everyday epic… Hope all is well-BL
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Comment by Bill Lee 11.08.08 @ 10:47 am[...] View original post here [...]
Pingback by New Ideas: Embedded Galleries, Prints & Scholarship | deleteblog.com 11.08.08 @ 11:03 amAmazing Vince. Nothing but a win-win and just so thoughtful of you. I tried to embed the code into my blog entry and it showed up blank. I’ve done this before but I’m having a bit of a problem with this one.
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Comment by Tom 11.08.08 @ 11:12 amThanks for the idea. I’m a high school photo teacher and would like to explore this for students. I can’t seem to get it to work on our class website though. I created a page, pasted the code and can’t seem to get it to work. If you are a better web guy than I am take a quick look and see if you can find where I went wrong.
http://www.whiteriverphotoart.org/LinksLaforetWidget.html
Thanks, Adam
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Sander Reply:
November 8th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Hi Vincent,
I thought I might ask what everybody probably would like to know: How do I apply to one off the internships…..:-)?
Cheers,
Sander
Ps, the gallery code only works if you use the photoshelter functionality. I tried the same.
Use the “up” arrow at the right hand bottom of the widget and select the code from the “embed” functionality.
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Grover Sanschagrin Reply:
November 8th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Hi Adam - I think the code inside of your page is slightly different than the code contained in the embedded gallery itself. Just like Sander said (below)- make sure you grab the code from the gallery itself by clicking on the triangle in the lower right.
If you are already doing this, perhaps the embed code is not permitted on your school website?
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Also - pls go ahead an link your embedded gallery in the comments below - and people can go visit your sites. If you e-mail me the page you create with this embedded gallery - I will put a list of all of the sites that have done so on this post - send an e-mail to blog (at) vincentlaforet.com - and I’ll add your link to this post…
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Comment by Vincent Laforet 11.08.08 @ 2:21 pm[...] das sollt ihr! Nein… nicht bei mir. Bei Vincent. Der ist begeistert von einem neuen Plugin für Webseiten, über das man Drucke von Fotos verkaufen [...]
Pingback by Kauft Bilder! | Big Apple Blog 11.08.08 @ 4:07 pmHi Vincent,
just added your gallery to my blog. Great idea! If you decide how you will select the student - let me know 
Regards, Jonas
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Vincent Laforet Reply:
November 8th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
I’ll figure out who to pick and how - not to mention how this money can best benefit someone (or more than one person) once we see how much is raised… make sense? More info on that will come at the end of the 30 days - in time for the Holiday season
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[...] I think this has a tremendous potential - so much so, that I’m going to try to encourage you to embed this gallery into your personal sites (or publications!) by applying all of the profits from these print sales for the next 30 days to a student internship/scholarship…(more…)” [...]
Pingback by Sander van der Borch Photography » Photoshelters embeded flash gallery! 11.08.08 @ 5:26 pmHi Vincent,
I’ve added your gallery to my blog.
Here is a link to my embedded Photoshelter Gallery in my blog. Yours is included too.
http://www.sandervanderborch.com/blog/?p=72
Cheers,
Sander
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Comment by Sander 11.08.08 @ 5:40 pmFirst of all, the widget doesn’t quite work. The images keep changing but the image number in the bottom right corner stays the same. Also, when I click on the image, the new pop-up window takes me to an image other than the one I had clicked on.
Second, all those copyright lines on top of the widget are very distracting. I mean, c’mon, are you really afraid that someone would steal your 240×420 px low res images?
Otherwise, I commend you for trying to setup this 30-day scholarship fund. I’m sure it will be a success with all your followers. The above-mentioned issues are a real turn-off though; I’m not impressed at all with Photoshelter at this time.
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Patrick Baldwin Reply:
November 9th, 2008 at 6:05 am
Widget works fine here. Numbers change as images change and I tried clicking through five times and each time it went through to the correct image. I agree the copyright is over the top although strangely I hadn’t actually noticed until I read your comment! As it happens people will steal a small image copyright sign and all. Just look at flickr slideshows covered in Getty watermarks that kids make although personally I don’t think that is worth fighting about and trying to prevent with aggressive watermarking.
Photoshelter can definitely improve and it will. Point me to something better if you can?
Regards. Patrick.
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Vincent Laforet Reply:
November 9th, 2008 at 9:14 am
Go to full screen mode - you’ll see how large the photos run - and perhaps understand why I decided to go with the admittedly aggressive watermark - it would be far too easy for someone to steal the photograph and run on a website with less prevalent watermarks… I’m not a big fan of watermarks - but in this case you can easily see the photograph and the watermarks are at least a mild deterrent … I hope…
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This is a great thing that you are doing, best of luck. I am looking forward to a print.
cheers,
Ben
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Comment by Ben Spell 11.09.08 @ 1:14 amVincent,
I am really curious to see what the outcome will be. The embedded slideshows helped making the descision for me to go join Photoshelter.
However I do see a downside from the way it is set up now. I have spent all my time to customize my photoshelter page and when people click on the slideshow they are led to the standard photoshelter website, rather than the one I want them to see.
Also I think it would be a good thing if Photoshelter would add the possibility to link the slideshow to the gallery rather than the image that was visible on the moment if clicking.
Off course your experiment is based on the marketing principal, but I thought I contribute this anyway.
Keep up the good work!
Frits Meyst
<a href=”http://Adventure4ever.com” title=”Adventure4ever.com Outdoor, Travel, Diving Photo Features.”
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Grover Sanschagrin Reply:
November 9th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
Hi Frits — it actually is possible to make the PhotoShelter embedded galleries and single images link to a customized page, and not just the default PhotoShelter page.
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Sander Reply:
November 10th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
how?
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Sander Reply:
November 10th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
I got it. Just put the /c/yourname/ in the code of the widget, just after http://pa.photoshelter.com/ in every place where this is used.
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Greetings Vincent,
I have tried to add your slideshow to a very basic blog hosted by google (http://pozograf.blogspot.com) and it didn’t work. All I get is a blank white rectangle. Any suggestions?
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Comment by .felix 11.09.08 @ 1:52 pmDear Vincent,
I have been following regularly your blog and I really appreciate your pictures.
It is great to hear that you will be donating the proceeds from the sale of your work to the students.
Since you are still undecided about the recepients. I would like to inform you about the charity organization we are running here in belgium.
ROSE vzw is a volunteer organization based in Leuven, Belgium with the objective of giving a helping hand to less-privileged children in rural India. ROSE was established in 2001 as a VZW organization (Registration Nr 0474.242.896) with this objective. It should be noted that this organization was started and is being run by the Masters/PhD/Postdoc students from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium.
ROSE raises money through a variety of fund-raising activities and uses the money to improve educational infrastructure in schools that are in need of financial support.
ROSE also believes in being a completely transparent organization and as a result you can find all the reports of the finances, projects, etc. on the website.
We here at ROSE will be extremely grateful if you can have a look at the activities that are being carried out.
Thank you so much.
Sincere regards,
Jay
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Vincent Laforet Reply:
November 10th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Jay - I will definitely consider it - sounds like a great thing that you are doing!
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[...] post today is about selling works through embeddable galleries. I’m not sure I totally [...]
Pingback by wayner · Vincent Laforet & the lack of a Long Tail 11.09.08 @ 5:58 pmGreat idea and I agree with your comments on Photoshelter. Excellent service. Thanks for your commitment to projects like this.
I hope everything from your “Carpe Diem & Family” post is as well as can be expected….
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Comment by Rob 11.09.08 @ 7:46 pmJust added your gallery.
http://keegansparks.blogspot.com/
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Comment by Keegan Sparks 11.10.08 @ 1:00 amVincent, I’m a big fan of your work. I’ve been building a website to display the results of my work and your post was the kick I needed to finally complete the CSS and get my blog running.
I set up most of my galleries in Phtoshelter and will continue adding throughout the week.
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Comment by Carlos 11.10.08 @ 1:19 amAwesome gesture on your part. I follow your blog and work regularly and although I deal primarily with youth sports, I’ve still embedded the gallery to my blog (http://blog.photofxpros.com). You just never know . . . Thank you Vincent for a wonderful body of work.
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Comment by Steve 11.10.08 @ 2:02 amHi Vincent, after reading your interview about the Canon 5D Mark II, you mentioned about trying the new 50mm 1.2L lens. Reviews from all over the web are saying it has issues with back-focus. I really want to know what’s your opinion about the lens.
Thanks.
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Vincent Laforet Reply:
November 10th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
I honestly haven’t had a problem with it… that being said - there can be certain lenses that do have backfocusing issues once in awhile - and that would of course be most noticeable at 1.2 - you can micro adjust the AF in the MKIII series bodies. However here’s what I would honestly say - 1.2 is SO critical - that I very often use the 10X magnification in LiveView whenever possible - on stationary objects -and have been getting fantastic results - that being said - I’ve been doing well with AF as well - just not 100% - and to be honest: you never know if it’s you, the camer or the subject moving when you’re shooting at f1.2 - it’s THAT cirtical - but w/ LiveView - I’ve gotten amazing results that I never did before - v
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UPDATE - so we’ve DONE REAL WELL with the print sales so far! Thanks so much! We’ve reached a point where a student will definitely benefit from this - I’d like to somehow find a way to raise enough for a 3 month paid scholarship/internship with me or someone else - so please keep going and share the link and feel free to embed it on your site - thanks! v
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Comment by Vincent Laforet 11.10.08 @ 3:04 pm[...] for added content/fun.. Here’s a gallery that Vincent created for embedding.. check out his blog post for more details. He’s planning on taking all the proceeds from the sale of his images in the [...]
Pingback by photorama » Blog Archive » Beyond Beverly Hills 11.10.08 @ 4:48 pmVincent, you are fantastic! Not only that you realize the power of the internet, you also help talents to get evolved, even beyond the motivation your blog provides to someone like me! Keep it going!
Wolfgang
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Comment by Wolfgang 11.12.08 @ 3:46 am[...] photoshelter, scholarship, Slideshows, student, Vincent Laforet In Vincent Laforet’s blog he talks about a new feature from Photoshelter, it being the ability to quickly make your own [...]
Pingback by Helping along a good idea « Jonathanjk’s Weblog 11.12.08 @ 7:22 am[...] Laforet has a print sale going (here) and he’s using the money to fund a paid student internship. Seems like a good [...]
Pingback by A Photo Editor - Laforet Internship Print Sale 11.12.08 @ 10:30 amgreat idea Vincent, hope it goes well.
I have added a link to your sale on my flickr!
all the best
Maciej
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Comment by Maciej Dakowicz 11.12.08 @ 11:18 amHi Vincent, thanks for this, I was only just looking for something similar and mentioning it in Lightstalkers because I wanted to show my work in a slideshow.
I copied the HTML code on my blog but it doesn’t seem to work, has it NOT worked for anybody else?
I had to paste the older style link 
Would be great if I could get it to work.
http://www.jonathanjk.wordpress.com
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Comment by Jonathanjk 11.12.08 @ 1:24 pmI posted about the widget and your generous offer on my blog http://aseattlephotographer.wordpress.com/
but have been having difficulty in getting it actually to embed and be published. I do have links back here so for now it will do. I will try another time.
Great idea.
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Comment by daniel 11.12.08 @ 1:50 pmWell I realized that the code taken directly from from the gallery itself by clicking on the triangle in the lower right works better.
I posted it on my website’s links page. http://www.danielsheehan.com/home.html
I will try again on my blog.
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Comment by daniel 11.12.08 @ 2:39 pmStill cannot get my Wordpress blog to publish the widget.
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Comment by daniel 11.12.08 @ 2:45 pmLập văn phòng công ty trong 15 phút giá chỉ 15$/tháng tại Trung tâm Quận 1 - Số 4 Nguyễn Đình Chiểu, P. Đakao, Q.1. Nhiều thông tin tư vấn hữu ích cho Doanh nghiệp mới khởi nghiệp, tham khảo tại: http://www.vanphongao.vn hoặc gọi số 08.222 00 911.
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Comment by Lập văn phòng công ty trong 15 phút giá chỉ 15$/tháng tại Trung tâm Quận 1 11.13.08 @ 6:06 am[...] Original post here. [...]
Pingback by Vincent Laforet Selling Limited Edition Prints | Michael Holtzman 11.14.08 @ 12:13 amHi Vincent, glad to see you embracing some new features from Photoshelter. I posted a blog entry and embedded the gallery (after I purchased a print!). Thanks,
Mike
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Comment by Michael Holtzman 11.14.08 @ 1:01 amReally great idea. A good use of web strenght.
Thanks.
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Comment by Fotografo 11.14.08 @ 3:12 amVincent -
I love to see that someone else is using this! I think it is a great idea and I have been using it on my blog for several weeks now. It makes it so much easier to display photos this way, rather than the traditional photos that you have to post one-by-one after your post. Glad to see you using this, and I hope others catch on, too.
Cheers,
Crawford
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Comment by Crawford Ifland 11.16.08 @ 12:21 pmVincent, this is one great gesture to young photographers. With people’s generous input, I’m sure you’ll easily reach the total you need.
When you work out the best way of picking candidates, I’ll be sure to apply.
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Comment by Henry 11.17.08 @ 5:40 pmhey man i love your site.. your friend michael told me you were looking for a new way to earn some extra income online.
i own an awesome website where you can make money online..most our users are making like 20-50 bucks a day.. with minimal work.. its pretty simple to do.. its actually so easy to do you won’t believe ill actually pay you to do it.. and its 100% free to sign up and try.
another positive about my site unlike all the other sites.. i will pay you out daily.. so you earn 5 bucks in the first 5 minutes you work on my site.. request a payout and i will pay you out right then.. i guarantee no other sites like mine will pay out daily multiple times..
i’d be glad to help you.. if you sign up..
http://tinyurl.com/6duk5y
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Comment by XYFloyd 11.20.08 @ 10:57 pm[...] from Vince’s site: [...]
Pingback by Vince Laforet; prints, scholarships and photoshelter™ embeds at pictures to prove it™ 11.21.08 @ 5:10 amHas certainly made me think about new ways and ideas to distribute images….. linked to http://www.kampic.com
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Comment by Kerry 11.24.08 @ 4:15 am[...] those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about - look at the post here or below. The sale from these prints will contribute to a student’s paid internship -all [...]
Pingback by Internship Update - it’s on! « Vincent Laforet’s Blog 12.03.08 @ 1:11 amI’ve just got out of the forest and seen that I’ve missed a lot of news! My own embedded gallery and printsale is now up. The sale benefits documenting local knowledge with forest communities in the heart of Southeast Asia. See http://pa.photoshelter.com/gallery-show/G0000bBwJcpLdeCM?&
Thanks,
Noah
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Comment by Noah Jackson 12.08.08 @ 11:33 amLeave a comment
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Vincent Laforet Reply:
November 8th, 2008 at 9:23 am
Gavin -
Just added international shipping to all countries - pls try again and let me know if it works - thanks -v
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