Laptops in the classroom seem so visually appealing.  It seems to express some magical bond between technology and learn.  But the more I see of that, the more bothersome it has become to me when I’m photographing student life on a campus. As I work a classroom I notice more students tending their Facebook pages than taking notes.  An article in Slate Magazine’s Big Money takes a look at this.  The conclusions are interesting.

Class change is a natural for photographing campus life.  Now however, it seems to be a requirement that cell phones come out as soon as students exit their classes.  It has become increasingly more difficult to capture those momentary connections that the class change offer.

One school that has taken on the cell phone issue is Sewanee: University of the South.  Students there have taken it upon themselves to put limits on using cell phones while walking across campus. Students politely remind them of their offense by saying “YSR” (Yea Sewanee’s Right).  As a result, students remain engaged with each other between classes.

I use Google Alerts for a number of reasons, but the best reason is when an unexpected surprise arrives.   Smashing Magazine posted “Showcase of Academic and Higher Education Websites” by Cameron Chapman .

Looking at others work is a great source of creative nourishment  for me.  What I like about the Showcase, besides the shear volume of sites,  is that Cameron encourages suggestions.  Compelling and relevant photography is a consistent theme for the most attractive websites.

At second glance I find that I like the change.  Not perfect but…  Perhaps I DID learn something from my graphic design professor, Mario Garcia.  Well we’ll see,  I’m not done yet.  My goal is to create a flexible yet consistent logo which will represent my “brand”.   I want it to work on my website, business cards, facebook fan page (below), or for that matter anything else I deem brandable (a new word perhaps, but it works).  Remember, higher ed. work represents the lions share of my market, but since I also do commercial and editorial work, it is important first to emphasize the photography.

I intend to modify or  ” grow”  the design as I see fit.  As long as I don’t stray from the basic “template” I’ll attempt to make this as adaptive as possible.  Stay tuned,  this should be fun.

Paul O’Mara

Christmas came a couple of days early this year in the form of an e-mail:

–“Dear Mr. O’Mara,

I graduated from Berry College in 2007.  …  I found your website and recognized your name and work immediately because I’ve seen it so often in the Berry quarterly magazine.  I’m so glad I saw your site because I’ve always been a big fan of your work since I first saw the magazine.  You capture Berry College so beautifully and now that I’ve graduated I enjoy your photos even more.  I hope Berry will continue to use your work for years to come.    I know this is really random, but I just wanted to let you know.  Everybody enjoys fan mail, right?  Keep up the great work and thank you for sharing it.   Merry Christmas too!

Sincerely,

Rachel M”—

It’s humbling to get such a note.  Affirmation by your audience is rare.  There is not a category of CASE award that could equal what this simple note means to me.

Paul O’Mara

Viewbooks, search pieces, post cards, websites, billboards and whatever else I’ve neglected to list are the stock and trade of my work.  But it’s the Capital Campaign and the Casebook that carry the heavy lifting.

It’s humbling for me to think about the amount of money that has been raised by my clients.  The casebooks which I have been directly involved with have raised more than $540,000,000 !  It takes my breath away to know that my work  has made that sort of impact.

The shot above was used by Darlington School , a private day and boarding institution.

My first shoot was an environmental portrait of a Dean of Students.  He relies heavily on statistics for his decisions. Below is how it worked out.  That should be a nice piece in the Presidents Report.

Last week I attended a program laying out strategies for modern marketing.  I now have a Facebook account (FB) and the friends are flooding in.  I need to back up a bit and explain:  My motivation for the FB page was more out of obligation.  I am the president of the Atlanta/SE chapter of the American Society of Media Photographers and the chapter now has a FB page.

The New York Times reported on Twitter today and there are some interesting findings.  One of the great quotes: “It seems more, like, professional, and not something that a teenager would do,” said 16-year-old Miranda Grazier. “I think I might join when I’m older.”  Wow, talk about putting the shoe on the other foot.  So it isn’t the young and “tech-savvy” who are responsible for Twitter’s success.

This new information should make admissions marketers take a step back and re-examine their recruiting strategies.  In the rush to fan out in all modern directions, are some of these platforms a waste of time?  Most likely not, but to have confidence that the time and energy put into getting the message out is productive, it makes sense to review the trends from time to time.

My college daughter made me her FB friend!  I hope she didn’t do it out of obligation.

One aspect of a campus photo shooting that gets little mention is aerial photos.  A well timed and executed aerial shoot can get some very strong imagery that tells a lot about the beauty of a campus.

Aerial shoots are not a cost prohibitive venture.  They can be integrated into even a one day shooting schedule.  Most private airfields and a good number of public airports have some form of flight service and the cost is quite reasonable for a small high-wing plane.  A helicopter can also be used but it comes at a cost that is much higher, but the resulting images can be worth the additional expense.

At least once a year I’m called to do an aerial assignment.  Interactive campus maps depend upon current aerial photos.  If you plan correctly you can make both happen and get some real value for the effort.

The image above was taken from a small plane and is a keystone image for the institution.  The clearing fog was the true bonus of this picture.

Paul O’Mara

A wonderful story on NPR last Saturday: Houston Community College has Global Appeal by Larry Abramson told a different story about the role of  two-year institutions.

The Hope Scholarship has also played into higher demand for junior colleges.  With the bar set so high at places like the University of Georgia, many pass through community colleges on their way to the more competitive flagship schools.

Marketing still plays a role.  Rome, Ga. has a high concentration of health care workers and Georgia Highlands College is an important “supplier” .  Their two year nursing program and dental hygiene provide a well trained workforce to area facilities.

Last week an external hard drive went bad.  It just stopped.  That darn thing only makes clicking sounds.  Reflexively my mind started to do the mental inventory dance.  There are a lot of important images on that drive.

As I stepped back to take stock of the loss, it began to sink in that my losses were minimal.  Only the most recent shoot had not been backed up to DVD and I found those on compact flash cards in my camera and camera bag!

I wish I could tell you that I can just pick up and move forward.  Something had slipped by me.  My external drives have more than one purpose.  They are the place where I transfer photos from my camera  and organize a shoot.  But it now is clear that I overlooked something.  While archived, there are images that I manage for my website and blogs.  These are sort of works in progress.  I now realize that some consideration needs to be given to an “active archive”.

I spoke with a local institutional IT director  about this and his thoughts were on a much grander scale.  Archiving images seems small in comparison.  Grade reports, schedules, student comments, faculty evaluations… This is just something that had not crossed my mind.  Back-ups of everything are replicated on off-site servers and back-up tapes are stored in a safe-deposit box!

Hopefully you will take from this is that the images you store on your hard drives and servers can vanish.  Photographers who treat archiving lightly tread on thin ice.  Since my work is always at risk of failure, I have to assume that the same could be true for my clients.

Paul O’Mara

The photo above was used as a double-truck contents page in an alumni publication, on this year’s calendar and in the most recent viewbook for Wagner College.   Don’t let these attractive and useful pictures get lost in an archive.

I just came across this in Aphotoeditor blog. My first thought was wow, Pentagram Design reworked the Auburn University alumni magazine, but what is most interesting is the comments by the photographers.  I do not think any have an understanding of the needs of alumni publications.

The best alumni magazines are the ones which are well organized and make the best use of images.  High quality visuals are usually reserved for the most prominent placement, but there is such an important place for the “lesser” images.  Pictures of faculty, students and alumni to go with many notations of achievement or the infamous class notes seem not to get the visual attention they require. In part it has to do with “making due”.  These publications depend upon submissions and therefore whatever they receive is what they have to work with.

Wagner College in Staten Island, NY addresses this reality extremely well.  Nina Ovryn a NJ based designer,  has created a wonderful alumni publication which give great design and thoughtful articles in a well organized way.  This happened because of the commitment of the communications office and the support of the institution.

Even if most of my work at a college is for admissions marketing there will always be time carved out for the alumni magazine.  I ask before I arrive on a campus if any of the “list” is for the magazine.  If they say no, I at least suggest that they consider the magazines needs.  School departments which communicate and share resources will always come out looking great to alumni and the prospective student.

Paul O’Mara

The weather will return to “normal” within a few days.  Then out come the shorts and classes on the lawn.  In a way this crazy cold snap makes you better appreciate the beauty of a college campus and how the students and faculty respond to their environment.

Paul O’Mara

www.photomara.com

If you keep at it you’ll reach that coveted goal of blogging for a year. I was never sure if I could do it, but at the very least I’ve now proved to be persistent. So let’s keep dancing!

Actually, it’s been a bit of a tonic to put down thoughts on my livelihood. If you pay attention to the things that are important everything else will take care of itself.

This has been a year of discovery. A new website, two blogs, Linkedin, Flickr, Friendfeed, Vertical Response and Google Adwords. Tweeting doesn’t fit my style, I don’t have an i-phone. Facebook is really a place I want to watch but not join. All of this stuff is so important if you listen to the noise “out there”.

All of this is about community, but what community?  If we join all of these virtual “clubs” what do we gain?   I send out an  e-mail and hope folks will want to look at my work.  What a great way to market, maybe.  The open rate on my VR is about 25%.  I’ve been told that’s great, but really?  The flood of junk e-mail makes us suspicious of legitimate contact.  That means that we see too much “stuff”.

I guess it boils down to quality versus quantity.  Unfortunately a filter has not been developed to make that call.  So we are left to make those decisions, but there are so many decisions to make that in the long run, we really are missing so many great messages.

I’ll keep it simple.  Let’s get the message out that there is a college or university that is a fit for any high school student who cares about where they want to spend four years.  Let’s show them the heart and soul of that institution.

Here’s to another year of blogging.

Paul O’Mara

“There’s a consensus that as the ability to store more and more data [increases], the data itself has become less and less reliable,”  Don Mennerich, an archivist at the New York Public Library. Excerpted from Bye, Tech: Dealing With Data Rot by David Pogue

So much has been put out there about longevity of digital images. The notion of using redundant hard drives to ensure that files are preserved still has it’s pitfalls.  The thought of continuously moving data to new technology is like placing it into suspended animation and does not solve anything. I just read about someone who has used redundant storage and he has experienced file corruption.  I hope he can recover everything.  If you Google search DVD longevity,  the sources thin out pretty quickly without really putting the debate to rest.  CBS Sunday Morning took a look at this on the March 1, 2009 show by Contributor David Pogue  http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/03/01/sunday/main4836569.shtml  . In the “industry” it’s called Data Rot.  

I have chosen to put my faith in the CD/DVD.  I am assuming that I will stir things up but here are my thoughts:

At least in the foreseeable future, disks will be readable by all systems. All of the archival testing by the Wilhelm Group has given a life span for CD/DVD’s that I think is based on criteria unrelated to reality. I have disks stored for 10+ years that come up first time every time.  My sense is that the disk is a reasonably stable medium.  If a disk is used a lot I can understand the risk, but for archive purposes, this seems as safe as anything else out there.

The cost of redundant storage is getting better but until mechanical failure can be eliminated, I would be at least considering CD/DVD back-up of at least all of what you determine to be your most valuable images.   Granted it’s an uncomfortable decision I have made, but one I live with.  When DVD/CD drives and firewire/USB2 stop coming with computers,  I will revisit my decision.

Note: The image above was taken in Costa Rica last spring.  While it has little to do with the matter at hand, it was during a high school ecology trip.  The gentleman holding the snake found it in his house.  And we worry about roaches.

www.photomara.com

Paul O’Mara

photomara.com

In my opinion there is nothing wrong with shots of college students in sweaters.  Part of a student’s decision about of where they will ultimately attend college has in some part guided by the climate.  Some actually want to experience some snow!

Paul O’Mara

http://www.photomara.com

This is a great time of year. I start getting copies of the projects I’ve worked on last year. It’s a thrill to see.  President’s Reports, Capital Campaign books, calendars and even a banner or two start popping up.   How my images are used is always interesting.  On average there are what I expect, but a few  shots that I just had “that feeling” about when I made them show up as centerpieces of a project.  That’s a boost I enjoy.  I’ve given more than asked and seeing them in a new piece is just the thing to get the new year off to a great start.

Paul O’Mara

www.photomara.com

I was invited to a student photography opening on Inauguration Day. Not only did I get to sit in a crowded auditorium to experience the swearing-in of our 44th president, but it snowed all day. That is a real treat for a photographer based in Rome, GA. Most clients plan for spring and fall shoots. Personally I think they’re missing a season that takes up a large portion of a school year and one that can be yet another reason to want to attend a particular college or university.   The student show was great.  I’m glad I went.

Paul O’Mara

www.photomara.com

The professor above is a member of the Society of Scholars at the Madison Center at Princeton University, and the George Washington Professor on the American founding for the Society of Cincinnati for the state of Georgia.  He is also a member of President Bush’s Council on Bioethics.  I think the potential student will think this guy must be pretty smart because of the messy office.  And they would be right.  He’s brilliant and is one of the most desired advisers on campus.  This became a postcard for admissions.  The response was enormous so I am told.
 

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The Yale Daily News from September 23 ( http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/25313 )a story about the debut of the institution’s new Viewbook. 

Personally the most telling portion of this comes from YDN staff writer Paul Needham. “Indeed, while the viewbook is in large part free of the saccharine photography that pervades so many admissions brochures (think smiling teens throwing a Frisbee on a sunny day), students are very much present on its pages. “  I could not have said that any better… and I have not seen the Yale viewbook yet!

Of course having the resources of Pentagram Design putting this together, it was guaranteed  to be a world-class publication.  Pentagram partner Michael Bierut, a senior critic in graphic design at Yale who headed the viewbook’s design appears to have put a strong emphasis on discovery.  Which is as it should be.

All of this is simply a matter of good planning and from the photoraphy side, a little bit of luck.  But as we know luck favors the prepared mind.  Every institution has a story to tell.  That’s what Admissions Marketing Photography should be.  Break out of the mold when you are planning your next viewbook. 

Paul O’Mara

www.photomara.com

“Regional climate change has delayed the peak time for leaf color change, and there have been some less than ideal conditions this year that will likely affect the vibrancy. However, Warnell tree expert Dr. Kim Coder predicts a great leaf color season.”

http://www.warnell.uga.edu/Members/smartin/othernews/Leaf_Colors_100708

For the past few years, as discussions about fall shoots comes up, conversation has turned to why haven’t the leaves changed yet.  Well I guess for future planning, experts say ten days later in the south.  Nothing earth shaking, but handy for next year’s fall planning.  Now let’s work on spring blooms.

Paul O’Mara

www.photomara.com

Illustrating those touch-points is critical as you attempt to connect with alumni AND future students.  Much of my recent work has been working with institutions reworking their image to attract students.  The most satisfying projects always make room for tradition.  The legacy of tradition is the bedrock of an institution.  How tradition is expressed visually for a 21st century audience is what counts.

To me the photo above has it all:  Tradition, unity and a broad community.  That moment has been lived out in some form since the beginning of the college.  I believe that a prospective student will look at an image like the one above and know whether they belong there or not. 

Paul O’Mara

It has become a bit more specific now that taglines are being used in most college and university marketing plans.  I am now hitting the campus with the goal of illustrating an idea which communicates the brand.  Since I have always guided my work by bringing out the uniqueness and personality of an institution, the tagline has become a great aid.  This also has been a tremendous benefit to admissions and communications offices.  They have a more refined view of their needs.  It frees them to conceptualize within the message.

But as the article states:”Colleges and universities will always be sprawling, consensus-building organizations whose very decentralized model is what makes them successful academically.”  Now that is a well said statement and one which addresses the unique challenge of academic marketing.

“…A bunch of former Google employees—techies who worked on Gmail and Google Maps—quit their jobs to start FriendFeed, a site that rolls up the output of 43 Web 2.0 servicesonto one auto-generated page. FriendFeed is basically a custom-tailored home page for people who are obsessed with the Internet. They can create their own FriendFeed page, or you can make one for them. Then, on a single page, you can see what videos they’re watching, whom they’re chatting with, and what pictures they’ve uploaded. If they add a DVD to their Amazon wish list, you’ll be notified. The beauty of FriendFeed is that it’s fully automated and requires no prior knowledge of any of the sites it crawls. You give it a name, and it’ll take care of the rest.”

–Slate.com 8/6/08

So now I get my head into their world and not be a party crasher on Facebook or any of the other hangouts where I know I’m not welcomed.  I can even make my daughter a “friend” and keep up with what she is doing.  Well, she’s 18 and I should trust her…

www.photomara.com

The idea of tapping into a prospective students Internet world to inform them of the value of a particular college or university is most likely a difficult and frustrating prospect.  My experience with “that place” is a far more rudimentary relationship than my 18 year-old. 

“Today the Internet is much more than esoteric discussion forums. It is a mass medium for defining who we are to ourselves and to others. Teenagers groom their MySpace profiles as intensely as their hair;…

 –The Trolls Among Us  By MATTATHIAS SCHWARTZ  –New York Times 8/3/08 –a great but disturbing story.