tricks ‘o the trade

So, you do a search for photos of your dog, entering your dog’s name and breed. You’re browsing through the results, looking at lots of great pictures, when all of a sudden you come to a photo and think—”That’s not my dog!”

There are a couple of reasons why this might happen. First, some dog names are just really popular! For instance, there are at least three Golden Retrievers named Rosie in our photo catalog. And if you just search for “Rosie” you’ll get Golden Retrievers, Labrador Retrievers, an Australian Shepherd, a Rhodesian Ridgeback, a Border Collie, a German Shorthaired Pointer, and probably a few other breeds.

Another reason is that I may have made a mistake. It’s not too tough to do, especially when I’m not familiar with the dog. If this is the case, I really want to know about it so I can correct the error.

So, what can you do about it?

First, if you’re viewing the image and you see a “Comments” section (see red box in image to left), please leave a message letting us know it’s not your dog. If you know whose dog it is and their name—even better! Please include that information in the comment. I’ll get an email with the comment and I’ll be able to go edit the data.

If you don’t see a “Comments” section, then please contact me by email. A quick link to the contact form is available in the footer of every page. Just scroll down and look for the envelope icon on the right (see image below).

It seems you can’t go anywhere, turn on the TV, or open a magazine without hearing about Twitter these days. There’s a lot of hype surrounding the site, but what does it actually do?

Twitter is a social networking site that allows you to post short (160 character) messages. It’s a little like instant messaging, but anyone can follow you, not only those you approve. The best tweets I’ve seen are a lot like instant messaging in that they provide online question and answer sessions that anyone can join.

So, why should you follow Karen Hocker Photography on Twitter? It’s a quick way to get the scoop on Karen Hocker Photography. I’ll be using Twitter to post quick updates—where we’ll be out and about, when proofs from an event are available online, new blog articles, etc. I’ll even be answering questions via Twitter.

So, if you’re on Twitter come join us at: http://twitter.com/khphotography.

If you’ve been to an event or portrait session that I was photographing, there are a couple of ways to find out when the proofs are available. I will:

1. send out an email alert to everyone on the proof notification list and also tweet when the proofs have been posted to the gallery
2. write a blog posting when the proofs have been added to the searchable photo catalog

If you can’t wait, you can look for your dog’s proofs as follows:

Shortly After the Event

When I put up our proofs, I first add them to browseable galleries. This way the proofs are available relatively quickly. You don’t have to wait while I go through all the database entry. You can find them by following these quick steps:

1. Click Proofs, browse proofs in the navigation bar at the top of any page.
2. Find the year the proofs were take (the most recent are at the top of the page)
3. Find the type of event (Agility, Obedience, etc.) and click that link
4. Find your event, click that link
5. Click view the gallery

Click view the gallery to go to the browseable proof gallery

This will take you to the browseable gallery for that event. You will then need to find the day you were competing (if it’s a multi-day trial) and your class to look for your dog. Unfortunately, you can not search the proofs by dog name yet. That comes next.

One Week+ After Event

The Search the Event box appears when the event proofs can be searched.

The next step is to identify each dog by call name and/or registered name and breed. This, as you would imagine, takes time.

How can you tell if an event has been added to the searchable photo catalog? When the proofs are searchable, a mini search box will be shown in the right column on that event’s page (see right). Also, the “view the gallery” link will be replaced by a list of classes photographed on each day of the trial.

To find and view just your dog’s proofs, enter their name (as shown on the run list or event catalog) and search. To narrow it to only your dog’s name AND breed, then include the breed. This search box will ONLY search the proofs for this event.

If you’d like to browse through the proofs, that option is available as well. Simply follow the steps as above until you get to your event’s page, then choose your dog’s class to browse the thumbnails. Page numbering and next/previous are at the bottom of the page.

That’s it!

If you have a question, please leave a note.