Tweetique™, Get Your Photo Critiqued!

Beta Testing Photo Critiques On Twitter

Photo of model Candice Marie during my most recent Virgin Islands photography workshop.

Photographers are always asking me for critiques of their websites, online portfolios and photos—and if you know me personally, you know I love photography passionately along with spreading the gospel of photography.  But unfortunately, like all professional photographers (and authors), there are not enough hours in the day to get emails, messages, tweets, comments, etc. answered. I’m always swamped, but I think I found something that will work—tweetiques™.

Tweetiques™, something I launched off my Twitter and Facebook Fan Page today, is a constructive, not destructive photo critique of photos safe for work viewing. Yes, even though I do nude photography, nude photography is not my focus for tweetiques™.

One thing that tweetiques™ will do, is force every photographer interested in a quick critique of their photos to use Twitter. Twitter and Facebook are must social networking and marketing tools for any photographer—and if a tweetique™ doesn’t encourage you, then perhaps my photoblog post, “Twook To Build Your Brand” will convince you otherwise.

Here are things to consider in order to get your personalized and concise tweetique™ off my personal twitter account:

1. Simply upload, an image to Twitpic.com or Yfrog.com then add the photo URL to your tweet to me. No direct messages (DM’s) to me, this must be a public tweet @rolandogomez. I will not answer DM’s asking for photo critiques.

Example: @rolandogomez, please #tweetique this image, http://www.yoururl.com/shortened

If you have a photo on your own website, Flickr or similar services, use a short URL from Bit.ly, Goo.gl, or TinyUrl.com. This is key, in order to properly tweetique™ photos as Twitter will limit me to 140 characters. The shorter your URL, the better as I have to also do an @yourtwitter name for you to see it and I want to include your photo URL for others to benefit by this concise and constructive critique.

2. As mentioned earlier, it must be a non-nude and “safe for work” photo, no exceptions! Spamming is not allowed, so please limit photos to one per day. I will answer no more than 20-25 photo critique/tweetique™ requests per day as we do not want to put a strain on Twitter resources. First-come, first-serve. If your request for a photo critique is not answered within 24-hours, please try again. (Please see closing remarks at end of this photoblog post.)

3. It must be a photo you personally captured with your camera(s). Please do not link to a photo you did not create. If you do this, chances are I will ignore all your future tweetique™ requests and block your twitter account.

A flower photographed during my recent Virgin Islands photography workshop.

4. You must have permission, i.e., a model release if anyone in that photo is recognizable. You also grant me permission to link from my twitter account in my reply, publicly, to your image and make the tweetique™/photo critique public for all my followers and others to see. Links back to your website photos actually help your SEO, search engine optimization.

5. The photo must not be a part of a full-bleed design—in other words, I only want to see the photo, not a photo in a logo. Which also means, don’t send me a URL to your website, send me a URL to a PHOTO ONLY! I will not answer or post a link to your domain, it must be to the photo or page that the photo resides on. If I find that page is filled with too much spam, advertising, or abusive materials, I will not respond to your request.

6. Rules are always subject to change and to updates. By tweeting a request to me for my photo critique, tweetique™ or photo review, you accept my tweetique™ (photo critique off twitter) as my opinion only and you release me from any liability arising from this tweetique™ (photo critique off twitter). In other words, tweet me images/photos at your own risk and you hold no one, including me or anyone associated with me or my Twitter account liable for my tweetique™, reviews, critiques, and/or opinions.

Helocast photo of U.S. Army Rangers during my combat photography days.

7. Don’t expect sugar coating—so if you don’t like my critique/tweetique™, promise me you’ll work harder at your photography and not be discouraged. In other words, you promise not to take it personal!

8. To help support my Twitter time for you, all I ask in return is for you to “follow” and “list” me on Twitter. This is very important and those that follow this guideline, along with the other guidelines, will always get priority treatment.

One of my photos from my sports photography days shooting NBA games.

9. Do not tweet a request to review, critique or tweetique™ a thumbnail of an image. The image must be at least 450 pixels on it’s longest side for a proper photo critique. I recommend no smaller than 550 pixels, the larger the better, for a proper photo critique.

10. My tweetique™ and/or photo critiques on Twitter is not endorsed, affiliated or associated with Twitter.com nor it’s owners or agents. These tweetiques™ and/or photo critiques are from me only, Rolando Gomez, a professional photographer and author of five photography books. Book six due out shortly! Not sure who I am, feel free to read my bio at: Bio on LensDiaries.com.

11. It is not my intentions to violate any rules or terms set forth by Twitter.com nor will I allow any requests to do so. All tweets and participation in these photo critiques must abide by Twitter.com TOS (terms of service) http://twitter.com/tos and Twitter Rules http://support.twitter.com/articles/18311-the-twitter-rules

I close with one last thing for those wanting photography critiques off my Twitter, please understand, I’m not on Twitter 24/7, I do travel, so please be patient. Sometimes I post on Twitter off my iPhone, so if you see me posting on Twitter, please don’t assume I will do a tweetique™ immediately, as I want to view the photos off my laptop or home/business computer monitors, not off my smart phone. That’s it, so don’t delay! Thanks, Rolando Gomez

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