Seeker News is a unique business website, showcasing stories from Dorset and the South West. If your company or organisation are staging an event, Seeker News will help put it in the shop window, through words and pictures.

Founded in April 2010, Seeker News continues to grow,offering a first class service for businesses, organisations and events throughout the region.

Visit Seeker News.co.uk and you will see a host of stories, written by our own journalist and illustrated by beautifully taken photographs.

They will now be able to use these images as part of their presentation in the regional finals in Torquay later this month.

So what is an Engagement Object?

An “Engagement Object” is an element or multimedia component that you can add to your website that is engaging and causes users to interact with your website.

Recently Google has added to it’s algorithms used for Search Engine ranking to take account of these elements which it recognises add to the surfers experience when visiting your website.

By adding video or audio to your site you can actually improve your search engine results.

At Seeker Photography we have recently started video blogging, shooting short video clips for the web whilst out on still image shoots. This is a move that is increasingly common in news photography as the news media moves over to delivering more content online.

We use a variety of methods to create compelling video content for ourselves and our clients using both video and still images, edited together, with or without audio.

Bruce Clay, one of the world’s top SEO experts believes that it will develop to the extent that if you don’t have video, if you don’t have engagement objects on your website, you are just not going to rank.  “It will make you last among equals if you don’t have it.”

To find out more about Engagement Objects and how Seeker Photography can produce video to help your web presence call us now on 01202 779604

Local business representatives were invited to partner up with professional ballroom dancers and enjoy a gala dinner followed by one heat of fancy footwork.

Steve Cook of Seeker Photography joined Richard Cossey of Humphries Kirk, Emily Johnson of Morris Lane Accountants, Sue Langley of Marketing Solutions, Andy Lear of HSBC, Karen Rickman of Parcelhub and Jo West of Team Recruitment who were the superstars of the evening as they took the challenge.

With sparkles and dance moves the audience were hooked cheering and clapping as each couple graced the floor.  With only a few hours practice the contestants were judged by a panel marking on performance and technique.

Seeker Photography’s Steve Cook showed grace and style with the famous Paso Doble dance guided by professional, Olesia.  With a tricky technique, Steve did so well and the crowd erupted with applause as the music came to an end.  Each judge gave a high score of 10-9-9-9, a total of 37/40 but Steve was beaten into second place by the last performance of the jive by Andy Lear of HSBC.

The whole event was organised in just five weeks and raised £6,000 for the cause.  Such a fantastic concept that aims to be a yearly occasion.

If you’d like to sponsor Steve, please visit his JustGiving page.

Twenty3 win Seeker Photography Young Enterprise Company of the Year

Their collapsible mobile phone holder would make an ideal company giveaway or promotional product and their research, development and presentation skills helped them to capture this prestigious award from a final list of eight companies.

Jasmine Tombs of Twenty3 receives the Young Enterprise Company of the Year Award from Steve Cook of Seeker Photography

“The quality of planning and the professionalism and drive of all of the finalist companies would be a great asset to many of the adult businesses that we see” said Seeker’s Managing Director Steve Cook whilst presenting the Award.

Steve Cook of Seeker Photography presents the Young Enterprise Company of the Year Award

Twenty3 will now go on to the regional final with a PR photoshoot from Seeker Photography as an additional prize.

This award is backed by The Daily Echo and is part of the Langtry Manor Business Women’s Awards.

Please visit the Daily Echo website now to vote for Dawn in this award.

On May 12th, I, along with seven other local business people will be competing in a Strictly Come Dancing event for the Wessex Cancer Trust.

Teamed up with (hopefully) very patient pro dancers we will be tripping the light fantastic to raise money to support this local charity.

The Wessex Cancer Trust is an independent charity which has raised approximately £17million to help support and improve cancer services in the Wessex region. Established in 1981, this unique Trust supports many aspects of cancer care, including leading edge research, the improvement of patient facilities, purchase of much needed equipment, patient grants, complementary therapy and counselling services.

My only previous connections to dancing were photographing the wedding of Strictly winner Karen Hardy on the beautiful Greek Island of Santorini and capturing various performances over the years – but definitely only from BEHIND the camera!

Gary Rhodes lends his support to Steve Cook of Seeker Photography

Whilst photographing former Strictly contestant Gary Rhodes this week, he told me how he’d always wanted to learn how to dance properly and how he fancied taking it up as a hobby when he retired.

Gary wished me luck with the event but didn’t pass on any killer moves to boost my chances.

I’ll keep you updated on my training progress but in the meantime please visit our JustGiving page and sponsor me, having lost family and friends to Cancer recently I know how important the cause is – thanks!

As the business has developed we don’t do so much of this sort of work now, but the service is available to our clients if they require it.

In fact we’ve won a few awards for digitally composited images

Of the images above, we had to comp two images together to make the Santorini wedding shot to ensure that the exposure was good across the entire image.

The Matrix inspired shot originally included a chair that the model was stood on, and the Fish shot included multiple images of toy sharks and various fish from the local aquarium shop!

Having done lots of digital comping myself it was great to see how a designer does it as opposed to a photographer, and boy, do I wish it could be done it 2 minutes!

Love the “ooops!” moment.

So when I’m asked which is my favourite image from all of the shots I’ve taken it’s very difficult to pick out just one image.

Would it be a shot from the wedding of Strictly Come Dancing winner Karen Hardy on the beautiful Greek island of Santorini? Maybe a black and white image of a newborn baby or pregnant mother?

Some of the aerial photography that I’ve done of places like Corfe Castle? Or fashion shoots with top London models?

Perhaps it was Wimborne Town lifting the Wessex League Cup with my logo emblazoned across the front of their shirts?

No, after much deliberation I had to go for a shot I took at rehearsals for a Teenage Cancer Trust gig with Peter Doherty and Roger Daltrey.

I’ve been a Who fan since I was 12 and a school friend introduced me to Quadrophenia, that was the day I became a Mod and it hasn’t gone away since.

My business is named after a song by The Who – The Seeker, and I’ve worked closely with Peter and Babyshambles on a number of occasions.

So to be stood on stage with Roger Daltrey, during soundcheck whilst he and Babyshambles ran through the ten Who songs they would play together was a great experience.

Should I quit there and then? Would anything ever top being in that situation? Who knows.

I just know that this is the photo that’s closest to my desk, alongside a framed Wimborne Town shirt, complete with the Seeker Photography logo and the signatures of Roger, Peter and the rest of the band – sometimes I think I’ve got the best job in the world!

But can you take it too far?

L’Oreal are obviously full of very intelligent marketing people but after seeing this Shampoo for “Mid to Long, Fine Hair, that turns Greasy” I wondered if that might be TOO specific.

Maybe I should start offering PR photoshoots for “Businessmen in their late 50′s who are carrying a few extra pounds, losing their hair and dreaming of their youth” or “Business owners, late 30′s, in sharp suits, planning on building a business empire before they’re 50″.

This might be too specific?

Perhaps a wedding package for “Brides, size 12-14, mid-length, auburn hair, with 2 or more bridesmaids”?

All I know is that I won’t be using this shampoo as it’s not for “Short to Very Short, receding hair”.

I’d love to see comments from all of you marketing people.