Shooting Pictures by Season

One way to attract more people to your website is to have photos of the various seasonal events during the course of the year. People are likely to want to do picture or travel research anywhere from several months ahead of time to the month of the event. So if you are known as a source for quality photos during these times of the year then your website will likely gain a boost in seasonal traffic accordingly. As an example, I will post the top 20 searched terms on my website for the current month and of September.

September

1. pumpkin patch
2. fall foliage
3. fortune teller
4. la county fair
5. monterey bay aquarium
6. pumpkin farm
7. john deere
8. zoltar
9. fall colors
10. puddingstone lake
11. l.a. county fair
12. monterey california
13. pomona california
14. pumpkin patches
15. pictures of weddings
16. romantic kiss
17. santa barbara beach california
18. christian cross
19. los angeles skyline
20. John deere tractors

October

1. pumpkin patch
2. fortune teller
3. pumpkin farm
4. monterey bay aquarium
5. fall foliage
6. john deere
7. fall colors
8. pumpkin patches
9. zoltar
10. john deere tractors
11. kentucky fall foliage
12. lucha libre
13. puddingstone lake
14. abilene kansas
15. asian railroad workers
16. aspen foliage
17. bird eating fruit
18. christian cross
19. dia de los muertos
20. downtown Louisville

In particular, observe the top ten list. The L.A. County Fair just ended this past Sunday and draws over 1.5 million visitors annually. Pumpkin patches obviously start to show up at the end of September, and fall foliage is about to kick into full swing soon to last through November. Observing your web statistics is a good way to find new ideas of what to photograph as well. Take Dia de Los Muertos for example. That is the Mexican celebration for "The Day of the Dead" which traditionally takes place on November 1st and 2nd. I haven't photographed it yet, but there is a big evening event at the end of the month at Olvera Street which I hope to photograph. I've wanted to photograph this particular event for the past several years but I haven't been in town on that week to photograph.

I'm a location photographer so my seasonal list skews toward events, places and nature-related subjects. A surfing photographer would obviously have a different list of subjects such as the Mavericks surf competition, The Wedge in Newport Beach, North Shore, etc... The point of this article is that we all have our pet subjects so utilize the peak moments of their popularity to your advantage.