ACME Photography

Last year I discovered Valley PR Blog a Phoenix based blog brought to you by five local Marketing and Public Relations experts.

Their website was in the process of being re-designed by the web gurus at Forty Agency. I heard that the gang at Valley PR blog needed some more professional and professional headshots for their web presence. I was “online friends” with most of the contributers on facebook, linkedIN, and had met Dan Wool at some local Techie and Marketing type functions. I offered to help with photography for the new site. Below are some of their new images.

Have you heard of the mechanic with a broken car, the cobbler whose children have no shoes, or the plumber with the leaky sink? I have been doing my best to have current head shots of myself as well as keeping on top of sending current photos of our boys to my parents, the in laws, etc. (Good thing my mother isn’t an on line person, or there might be some comments below on this topic!) Yes, Photographers need photos of themselves and so do PR people. In fact I’ve made it a goal to post more photos of myself. I’m not stuck on myself or even a big fan of photos of me, yet neither are many of the business clients when they first call to book photography. Possibly me “going first” will make them realize that it’s really OK and that photography should not hurt.

Regardless of how much you like (or dislike) photos, a good portrait is key to telling your story and building a brand. People can relate to a happy, thoughtful, serious, or playful photograph. After the new Vally PR Blog site was launched Len Gutman posted a blog post titled “Hire Adam Nollmeyer” as he gave a review of the photos created for their project. The interesting thing will be seeing if PR and marketing folks will understand that I’m not a crazed maniac axe murder with a camera. Check out the photo of me that Len used!

[backstory: I had a minor accident involving a hatchet and my finger requiring a few stiches. I decided to ham it up and poke fun of myself through my own fun photo]

If you found this blog through google and you didn’t know about VallyPRBlog, then do check them out and get involved in networking online and in person with those in your industry. If you found ME through valley PR website and are thinking about hiring me…. I promise that I can leave my axe at the studio. I promise I’m not (quite) as crazy as I look.

Speaking of crazy, stay tuned for an article on how you can use crazy to promote your brand while NOT getting fired.

Adam Nollmeyer
Phoenix Photographer
http://acmephotography.net

BE RIGHT BACK.

Yeah! (if you are reading this text….. then our move to the new site is complete)

If you need to email me today, use adam [at] nollmeyer.net
if you are getting a bounce back from an acmephotography.net email

This post is here to let you know that this site may be 1/2 up and 1/2 down as the DNS propagates to a new host, everything will look the same, except that this post will not be there…

….unless I republish it.

*edited…. I’ve decided to keep this post up, because I would be upset if I signed up for a lousy host because someone deleted a well deserved post.

I’ve been with Host Department for over 5 years I believe. I was never a power user, but recently their hosting services has been more of a “non-service” than a service. I believe this web host goes by hostdepartment.com and hostdepartment.net The supposed owner / chairman is Jimmy Tanzil.

I subscribed to some different “uptime” tracking tools and every week they would be down for 1/2hr to 2 hours at least one day per week. In fact last week they were down for…. 3 hours one day and 14 hours another. Here is a report via HostTracker.com

Total uptime:96.57% Downtime:21 hour(s) 14 min(s)

Weekly uptime:88.76% (fail in my book) Downtime:18 hour(s) 52 min(s)

Day 2008-05-04 Uptime:100.00%
Day 2008-05-03 Uptime:37.78% Downtime:14 hour(s) 55 min(s) = maga FAIL
Day 2008-05-02 Uptime:100.00%
Day 2008-05-01 Uptime:83.55% Downtime:3 hour(s) 56 min(s) = another failure
Day 2008-04-30 Uptime:100.00%
Day 2008-04-29 Uptime:100.00%
Day 2008-04-28 Uptime:100.00%

What’s almost as bad as this type of downtime is their “Uptime Guarantee”

99.99% Uptime Guarantee

We guarantee that your website will be up all through the year! However, if your website uptime should be lower than 89.9%, we will give you a full refund of your hosting charges for that particular effected month. Please see your Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) for additional details.

So they say that they are, or rather should be at 99.99%, yet they really only mean 90% uptime. Say what you mean Host Department, or go back to school to learn better math!

This blog post is not meant as a review however if you are wondering which web host to use, I can tell you that host department sucks.

Who should you use? I hate to sound political, but ANYONE BUT HOSTDEPARTMENT ( also 1&1 stinks too) They both suck and are evil.

See you on the flip side.* I’ll probably flip the switch later tonight.

(*Edited…. Yeah, if you see this text we’re already on the new host)

Adam Nollmeyer
http://acmephotography.net