WEBSITE PHOTOGRAPHY GUIDELINES

HELP US MAKE YOUR WEBSITE AS COMPELLING AS POSSIBLE!

Important notes:

Photographs are the building blocks upon which a website is designed. The single most common delay in getting a new website launched is not receiving enough good-quality photos in a timely fashion. The sooner we have the photos we need, the sooner we can get the ball rolling and design a great new website for your park.

  • We can’t make your website (and therefore your park) look great without lots of good quality photos to choose from, so please review the tips below carefully.
  • If available, a professional photographer (like a local real estate photographer) is very helpful, but a non-professional can do an acceptable job… if they have a good eye, and a fairly late-model camera or phone.
  • Photos cannot be e-mailed! They must be uploaded! We use WeTransfer. Complete details below.
  • The better the photo quality, and the more we have, the better we can make your new website look. We typically receive at least 50-100 photos, but there’s no such thing as too many! We’ll be culling through and selecting the best shots, so providing as many as possible helps us feature only the finest images of the park.
  • Photos pulled from the web are almost always copyrighted, and can’t be used.

Even a professional will likely benefit from some of the following tips for taking great RV park photos:

BASIC TIPS FOR TAKING GOOD RV PARK PHOTOS TO MAKE YOUR PARK LOOK ITS BEST

  • Shoot only “landscape” (horizontal) photos. (A few vertical/portrait shots are okay if the subject warrants it.)
  • Use the widest-angle lens setting for every shot (we can crop in, but can’t make the shot wider).
  • Only shoot on sunny or mostly sunny days (scattered clouds are fine). Photos on fully overcast days make the park look far less colorful. But don’t face the sun directly (having the sun behind you or off to either side is fine).
  • Photograph happy, smiling, willing people whenever possible (you’d be amazed how many people will pose happily when asked if they’d mind being in a photo for the park’s new website)!
  • Turn off the date/time stamp. We can’t remove them, and they look unprofessional.
  • Keep the camera as level to the ground as reasonably possible, but not aimed too high (photos that are 1/2 sky aren’t great).
  • If possible, shoot good subjects at least twice, once in the morning and once in the afternoon, to take advantage of different lighting and position of the sun.
  • Really nice subjects warrant several shots from different angles and distances.
  • Move unsightly items out of the shot if you can, or stand in a different spot if possible.
  • Don’t shoot from a car or golf cart (mirrors, reflections and a-pillars don’t look very good). Walking around the park is the best way to get lots of good shots.
  • Look around the camera’s entire viewfinder to see what will be in the whole shot, not just at your main subject (which doesn’t always have to be centered). For example, an RV may look great, but garbage cans next to it probably don’t. Standing just a few feet left, right, forward or back can sometimes hide things that don’t flatter the park.
  • Photos of nice, newer RVs are always better than old ones. Don’t bother shooting older RVs that look run down. Take twice as many of newer units instead!
  • When shooting interiors, stand far back into each corner of a room as possible. This makes the space look as large and open as possible. Just as with exteriors, the camera should be held level to the ground… and not too much ceiling (the most common mistake people make, especially shooting interiors, is aiming the camera straight ahead all the time). Those photos end up being composed 1/3 or more of the ceiling, instead of making the room look larger by sharing more floor area. Angling the camera down just a bit, so just a small amount of the ceiling is visible, usually works best in those cases.
  • Last but not least… Digital is free, so click away! (no film or developing costs). There’s no such thing as too many photos! The more bright, sunny, colorful photos we have to choose from, the more beautiful and wonderful the website will look!

 

SEND US YOUR PHOTOS, ANY PARK MAP, LOGO OR OTHER IMAGES VIA WeTransfer:

  1. Gather your original photo files in one place, such as a folder on your desktop, or a flash drive.
  2. Original hi-resolution image files can be very large, so use Wi-Fi if you’re uploading directly from your phone.
  3. Visit rvparkwebsites.wetransfer.com. You may then have to “accept” cookies, and/or “agree” to their terms of service.
  4. Click the blue “+” to Upload files and then navigate to and select your photos, or an entire folder of them.
  5. If you want to add even more, click “+ Add more files“. You can select, add, and upload all of your photos at once.
  6. Add “Your email” address (ours — [email protected] — should already be there)
  7. Under “title” — Enter the name of your park.
  8. If desired, you can add a “Message” for us.
  9. Click “Transfer“
  10. Verify your email address by entering the verification code that We Transfer should have just emailed to you.
  11. Depending on how many files you’re sending and how fast your internet connection is, it may take anywhere from a few minutes to an hour or more to upload, but the progress will be shown the entire time, so you’ll know how it’s going. If you send a batch of photos and then want to send another batch later, you can simply repeat the process.

Once the upload is complete, WeTransfer will send us an e-mail notifying us that files are ready for us to download. Be sure to let us know if you have any questions, and Happy Shooting!