The SmugMug Blog

We’re so danged proud of our Support Heroes at SmugMug. They’re the hard-working, endlessly knowledgeable face of our company and they field orders, emergencies and panicked Pros 365 days a year. They’re the shoulder you cry on, the hand you hold… and they love turning that frown upside-down. Isn’t it time you met the person behind the screen?

Spotlight on Wendee

Meet Wendee Stevens from Utah. We love her because she comes ready with a happy smile and the perfect attitude to handle any crisis that comes her way. You probably know her from when she rescued your recently-submitted orders from print purgatory. No address? No problem. She’s our mistress of making sure orders get placed, printed and shipped without a hitch.

What’s your hiring story?

Before SmugMug I worked as a massage therapist at the Bellagio in Las Vegas and the Homestead in Virginia.  I never worked with any celebrities, but when Ocean’s 13 was filming in Vegas I did work with family members of one of the stars. 

I started heroing at SmugMug in November 2007, after almost a year of bugging Andy and Baldy. My computer and photography skills may not be as great as other Heroes, but I try to be awesome with customer service and I can solve nearly any order problem you give me.

Got any gossip about being a Support Hero?

The majority of my work is with order problems, particularly cropping problems. I feel so sad when a customer orders a 4×6 and 8×10 print of the same image, and they’re upset and confused when the 8×10 arrives cropped. “It fits perfectly on the 4×6, so why is it cropped on a bigger print!?” We hear that a lot.

These days people are still not that familiar with different ratios and customers should know that almost no camera takes pictures in an 8×10 size.

Also, being painted as Mystique took quite a while, longer than an hour if I remember right. But getting that orange goop out of my hair definitely took longer than an hour!

What’s Wendee like when she’s not answering emails?

I’m learning to sew, and it’s something I really love. I’m horrible at reading patterns but I can wing it nicely. I especially love making Halloween costumes, it’s so much more satisfying than buying one. I’ve been encouraged by SmugMug’s annual Halloween costume contest, even though we haven’t won it’s so fun to have something to compete with!

My husband Samuel is also a SmugMug Support Hero and we have two kids: Vienne is 3 and Everett is 1. Our six-year-old dog is named Osker Mosh, and he’s some sort of mix between Lab and Vizsla.

I love fixing up furniture. It’s amazing what you can do with spray paint.

What’s the one SmugMug feature you can’t live without?

Since I’m all about sharing with family and friends, but I don’t want my photos super-public, my favorite SmugMug features are Owner Share and SmugIslands. I keep my SmugIslands set so Google and other search engines don’t find me, and I have the Share button removed for viewers. I want to be the only one that can share my photos, and I do, OFTEN, on my blog and on Facebook.

Finish strong. Give us one more juicy piece of Wendee trivia!

I had the opportunity to see Les Miserables in London, but I was so jet-lagged I slept through nearly the entire play. Someday I’m determined to see it again!

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Check out these Smug-related features Wendee mentioned:

• How to crop your orders
• Sharing your own photos
• Private sites with SmugIslands