For visual media teams, a client asking “Where are my photos?” could either be the start of a living nightmare or the easiest question to answer. The deciding factor? — workflow.
Miami Marlins Team Photographer Joseph Guzy has been checking his workflow since his intern days with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2016. We connected with Joseph during the 20/21 Vision Summit Series to learn how his workflow has evolved over the years.
How It Started: “File Does Not Exist”
Back in 2019, going through Joseph’s workflow was like navigating a labyrinth. On a typical game day, Joseph sent photos to the social media team through a private FileZilla server. Recipients couldn’t preview the images, and they had to manually open each image and guess when in the game it was taken to determine the sequence.
Post-game, Joseph uploaded all images to a clunky DAM system called Extensis Portfolio. To find every Roberto Clemente home run image, users would have to search for “Roberto,” “Clemente,” “Home,” and “Run” as separate search terms—a cumbersome process that confused stakeholders. Nobody could find the photos they needed, so Joseph and his boss had to email and text back and forth with frustrated sales, marketing, and creative team members to individually send them requested files. Despite having a DAM system, Joseph and his boss essentially functioned as the Pittsburgh Pirates’ archive.
When Joseph joined the Miami Marlins in 2019, he tried to streamline his workflow by switching from Extensis Portfolio to Dropbox. But with hundreds of separate Dropbox folders and different permission settings to comb through, stakeholders kept complaining photos were missing. Joseph struggled to sustain the workflow.
The Turning Point: A New DAM System
Finally, prior to the start of the 2020 season, Joseph decided to create a solution to everyone’s favorite question, “Where are my photos?” After meeting with different teams in the Miami Marlins—from creative to sales and partnerships—he came up with a simple, centralized workflow in which various stakeholders’ assets all live in one place: PhotoShelter.
On game days, Joseph transfers photos from his camera directly and instantly to social, creative, and scoreboard teams through PhotoShelter FTP and FileFlow. Post-game, he ingests photos using PhotoMechanic, edits them in Lightroom, and then uploads them to PhotoShelter for everyone to use.
How It’s Going: Access Photos Anywhere, Anytime
This new workflow enables everyone to seamlessly access their assets and collaborate in real-time. The result?
“[This] means our scoreboard team can use images for bumps in the middle of a game for things that just happened on the field. It means creative services can grab photos to make end-game graphics on the fly. It means our social media team can get the most important moments out to our fans as quickly as possible—and they can do it from their desktops via the PhotoShelter portal, or they can do it via their phones with FileFlow, and no one has to think about where to find their pictures.”
– Joseph Guzy, Miami Marlins Team Photographer
An effortless FTP-enabled DAM system allows the Miami Marlins to send images anywhere at any time. Now, when someone asks Joseph “Where are my photos?”, the answer is simple: PhotoShelter. The answer to “When can I get them?” Now. “How can I get them?” Using Photoshelter or FileFlow if you’re on the go.
To learn more about the Miami Marlins’ creative workflow and how you can improve your own, watch our full conversation with Joseph from the 20/21 Vision: Workflow Summit below, and check out other Major League sports teams workflows here.
