Freeze Frame

We’re back from our quick business trip to Charleston and nearby Edisto Island. Came back with a lot of great footage and more than a few nuggets of wisdom. Definitely going to make it a regular trip. My main website focus over the last week or so was on ways to streamline images and Photoshop has been an absolute lifesaver. I’ve dusted off my scripting abilities and can resize, clean up, and watermark my photos with relative ease. I haven’t used Photoshop since the early 90’s, and it’s surprising on how much easier it is to use today. Well, easier once you know what you’re looking for.

I’m still unable to use a script to straighten the card photos due to the backdrop I used, but I like the backdrop. I want to show the condition of my cards and not use regular stock photos. It does take longer, and some photos are a bit cockeyed, but it will be worth it in the end. I could individually straighten the photos, but that would take literally months. In any case, instead of 5 MB photos they are around 130 KB. They still look good, their new size will go a long way in a quickly moving Shop.

There’s still a lot of grind work involved though. Due to the way Woocommerce handles products I need to attach each photo to the product individually. This is brutal when it comes to individual Magic the Gathering cards…we’re looking at around two thousand. It took me the better part of seven hours to add around 180 photos with corresponding information to products in the Shop. I tried a few plugins to make the process easier, but they didn’t work properly. I think there’s a way to import the photo information as well. I’m guessing I will have to use the proper photo link in the product import file – it might just work. I’m going to investigate that next.

There is still a ton to do. However, I’m continuing to find ways to speed things up while maintaining good quality – which is what it’s all about. I think I’m going to take a break from the website for a day. I need to spend a good bit of time characterizing all my business expenses. I’ve been putting it off while the website was in disarray, but I think things are moving in the right direction so I can pause for a station identification. Then, if I get it done quickly enough I can dive back into that product import possibility for photos! Isn’t owning a business fun!