Last night the B shift photo department had a going away party for our beloved Jeremy I. and Travis A.

Luckily, Zappos is not losing these fine boys completely, but our shift will have some big shoes to fill now.

Jeremy has been working at with us in the photo department for around 11 months. He has been an asset to the apparel department during his 9 months on B-shift Photo. Next week he is transferring to A-shift Photo!

Travis, has been working at Zappos for almost a year. He has been working as a very helpful photo assistant in the apparel studio for the past 3 months on B-shift Photo. He will be venturing back out to the FC as a C-shift Receiving team member.

One of our apparel photographers, Abby, had an opportunity to ask them a few questions during the party:

Q: What are you going to miss the most about B-shift photo?

Jeremy: I am going to miss pranking A-shift with the annoy-a-tron. Since I will be on A-shift, I won't be able to play pranks on them with the annoy-a-tron, but I will miss working with the B-shift crew, and 11 o'clock trivia!

Travis: I will miss everyone's sense of humor and inside jokes with random people!

Q: Are you excited about your new position?

Jeremy: I'm nervous about waking up so early, but excited to have my nights free!

Travis: Yes! It presents me with new opportunities to better myself.

Q: Tell me a memory from working in B-shift photo.

Jeremy: Winning the annual photo Beard Off! (After 12 weeks Jeremy won the beard off and donated his winnings to Dreams with Wings.)

Travis: The going away party with great food, especially the awesome queso and dirty rice!

Q: Do you have any parting words of advice as you venture onto your life outside of B-shift photo?

Jeremy: In the words of our old pal Joe C. "Liquor before beer never fear. Beer before liquor never sicker."

Travis: Make sure when you are in the LS, (the apparel studio) everything is straight, steamed, and ironed or there will be heck to pay, HECK I TELL YOU!!

GOOD LUCK GUYS WE"LL MISS YOU!!

Just about every month, the photo and imaging teams try to go out and do something in public! Most recently we all went to Cherokee Park for a little cookout. We brought our spouses, friends, children and puppies for some fresh air, food, and even a few different ball games for the real adventurous folks. If you weren't there you missed out, it was perfect weather. Good times for good people!!

Here is a group shot of us who came with our furry friends:

from left to right:

andi with zeus, myself with danger, maggie with penelope, and kaya with lola.

Our beloved Lynn has been working with us at Zappos since 2005, but that is only a fraction of the amount of time she has been studying for her degree. With working full time and other life intrusions, it has taken Lynn 10 years to get her bachelors degree in social work. We at Zappos are so very proud of her. After all, she is a part of our family, and families know how to celebrate!

Thursday we surprised her with a couple of gifts and cards letting her know how proud of her we are and how wonderful a person she is. Here is the short interview we did later in the evening:

Q: Now that you are done with school.... are you going to keep partying or will you settle down?

A: I'm never going to settle down, I will party to the grave!

Q: If you were going to do a psychological study of your fellow employees, what would you focus on?

A: All your childhoods, to see why you are all so crazy!

Q: What is your favorite color and what does that color stand for?

A: Blue. It is cool, calming, universal and peaceful.

Q: What type of social work are you currently involved in?

A: I work with Kentucky Impact through 7 counties services assessing children 6-18 years in their current environments and ongoing daily struggles.

Q: How has what you've learned at school helped you with your work at Zappos?

A: School has taught me to always look for the good in people, even in frustrating situations it has helped me be more tolerant of others.

Q: If you knew it was going to take 10 years, would you do it all again?

A: Yes - it is what I have always wanted to do.

Q: What will you do with all your free time now that you won't have to go to school and work around the clock?

A: Catch up on sitcoms.....relax!

In conclusion, Lynn, YOU ARE AWESOME, and we all love you!!

So... as I promised before... I am going to share with the world some of the very random things we say in the live photo studio.....

To us, these statements make complete sense. Not one person thinks twice. We just "get it". That doesn't mean we are crazy, we have just learned to adapt to our environment, like mutated animals working for survival of the fittest. Outsiders may find us confusing, inappropriate or just down right odd, but don't judge too soon... we get the job done day after day, and I must say, we can bring it when quality AND quantity of our products combine!

Mannequin related quotes out of context:

"I can't find the hole, which leg is it in?"

• This occurs often. Our mannequins have holes in the bottom of one foot to place them on stands. When holding the mannequins in the air, sometimes we have trouble getting them on their stands without being able to see which foot has the allotted hole.

• Again with getting the mannequins on their stand. The females have corresponding holes in the butt cheek and bottom of foot for stands to hold up the mannequins. We typically only use the ones in the foot, but the one in the cheek can provide guidance when the mannequin in lifted up as to which leg will match up with the stand.

• Pretty simple. The mannequins arms come off for an easier change of clothes, however, if too many mannequins have their arms removed at the same time, it can get confusing!

Last night, myself, the photographer heading up the Gala (Abby), and our assistants set up for our art show. We were cutting wires + strings, twisting, tying, hooking, taping and labeling 41 pieces! Once everything was prepared, they had to be displayed on a table, mannequin or in the air without putting anything on the walls!! Eight glorious hours later we had our beautiful presentation ready for the public.

The Gala is a small representation of what the KY Content Team ( which includes both Photo and Imaging Departments) can create in their spare time. We had submissions ranging from paintings + photographs to three dementional pieces such as sculptures and a handmade designer dress!

Our official show opening was today at 3:30, made complete with catered snacks from Lady Fingers Catering, some jazz music, and the rest of the team joining us. The show was a raging success!!

Our hard work payed off and everyone had a great time. Winners will be announced later this month.



For any KY employees reading, and any Vegas employees visiting Kentucky right now, the show will be open until May 9th, so please swing by the training room and take a look at our creations. All we ask is that you please not touch any of the submitted pieces.

ENJOY!

As most of the world knows, the Kentucky Derby is a HUGE deal for KY. Each year, from the kick-off at "Thunder over Louisville" to the "Chow Wagon" and "Hot Air Balloon Race" and all the way to the main event, the actual Derby race, the entire city is in celebration.

Here at Zappos we are no different, having our own mini-version of several events.We spend an entire night dedicated to the festivities. Having some "Kentucky HotBrown" for dinner, with our supervisors and managers serving nachos and cotton candy to the team, followed by our own horse racing (actually hopping), a horse decorating contest, AND a Derby Hat contest!



Each department and shift received a stenciled foam-core horse to cut out and deck-out for display by our break-room. Night shift photo department took an hour of our friday night to enjoy some pizza dinner and decorate our horse.


We decided to focus our horse in the direction of two fashionable and flashy brands, Ed Hardy and Betsy Johnson. All complete with an actual Betsey Johnson jockey and finished off with a pair of New Balance running shoes to win the race. We are very proud of our "Zappotariat" A.K.A. "Betsy Hardy".

There has been a pretty big change here at Zappos.com. What was once known as Product Information, Photo and Imaging has now officially made the change to the Content Team. It makes sense when you look at the inner workings of the site.

Here’s a quick breakdown of what each area is responsible for:

Product Information (PI) is in charge of all product descriptions on the site. Yes sir, that means every piece of leather, canvas, nubuck or tweed that is on the site must be described by Product Information first. PI is also in charge of creating the brand “about text” which gives the customers a quick rundown of the brand history and what they bring to the table. PI reads every single customer review as well. No simple feat might I add. There is so much more, but Ash touched on that stuff in his past blog here.

The Photo and Imaging teams in Kentucky and Las Vegas have also fallen under the Content Team umbrella. Photo is in charge of all of the product shots that we have on the site. They make sure the customer gets a good idea, visually, of what they are getting. After Photo takes the pictures, the Imaging team makes sure the pictures are in the right places and that the blue you see is blue and the pewter you see is pewter. How many of you guys would order something with out seeing it? It’s important that we all work hand-in-hand, since I would never buy anything without being able to read about it either.

That’s just the quick nuts and bolts of it all. In short, say hello to the Zappos.com Content Team.

LV Content Team

Look out for the KY Content Team coming soon!

Hello world!

This is my first Zappos blog entry, and I am excited to be introducing myself and the photo department to the rest of you, inside, and outside the company. My mission here is to give your hungry eyes a feast of photo department fun. We are a very active group of creative people not only looking to please our vendors and customers, but have a lot of fun in the process.

The core values are held in high regards in our studios. I have been with the company for about 3 years myself, and I couldn't imagine myself anywhere else. As I post more blogs, and you read further, I think you will understand why we all love it so much! ( As if all the other bloggers haven't given you enough reason already!)

Be looking for our department "quotes out of context" (coming soon) for a good laugh!