Above Photography
A Case Study by Nathaniel Jones
The story of how a company
transformed their website with 800 photos
into Australia’s premier photography library
earning over 600 visitors a day
Marketing the marketer
Thousands of photos, all hiding away
In 2005, Above Photography was just starting out. They had tens of thousands of photos they wanted to showcase and sell online, but creating a web page for each one just wasn’t an option.
A valiant effort
By the end of the 2005, Above Photography managed to publish about 800 photos. But if the rest of their amazing library was ever to be seen, something would have to change.
A breakthrough
Impossible, but not complicated
It may have been an extraordinary task for man, but for software, it was the perfect problem. Nathaniel set to work. Soon, thousands of photos were categorized automatically.
Free to do what you do best
Overnight, Above Photography was a different company. Not only did they run Australia’s most famous aerial photo library, but they didn’t even have to manage it.
They just continued to do what they do best: capture beautiful photographs, and deliver amazing customer service.
The Results
Mike Swaine of Above Photography and Nathaniel Jones crafted the following projects together, from concept and design, to prototype, implementation, setting up servers, and final product launch.
Above Photography
Online Photo Library — Ruby on Rails, PHP, MongoDB
Aerial Library
Prototype for Above Photography — Ruby on Rails
Above Photography Map
Marked with Photo Coordinates — Ruby on Rails
The Technology
Shoulders of Giants
Architecture
Above Photography’s custom solution is built onto the latest web technology.
Utilizing the Ruby on Rails framework, the photos are first uploaded to Amazon’s redundant S3 file service. A Rails worker then pulls the original photos, and creates several smaller images to be used around the site.
API Integration
Many parts of the system rely heavily on third parties. Integration with Google’s Fusion Tables API allows Above Photography to quickly mark the location of their photos on a Google Map, embedded on their website.
Image Processing DSL
Problem
Easily specify thumbnail dimensions and options for Shadow, Above Photography’s image processing server.
Solution
Create a DSL (domain-specific language) for Shadow, allowing us to specify dimensions, add watermarks, and decide whether to force the photo size (100x100) or to resize based on the image ratio (i.e. 66x100 for a 0.66 ratio image). View on GitHub
Testimonials
Nathaniel’s skills have allowed me to simultaneously show and sell tens of thousands of photos whilst leaving me to do what I do best, shoot aerial photographs! Before I found Nathaniel I had only a few hundred photos online, now AbovePhotography.com.au has over 600 visitors a day browsing through my incredible aerial photo library.
No matter what ideas I’ve requested over the years, Nathaniel’s answer to “can we do it?” has always been “Yes!” and then he has figured out how to make it work. That I brought him over to Australia twice instead of hiring locally is a testament to his skills and insight.
Mike Swaine — Above Photography