Drama and buzz in the photography market

Photography News that's Fit to Blog (This Week)
by Kerry Raminiak

August is half over my photography friends and with it, I hope, the blistering heat in Austin, Texas (cross your fingers).

Here are your headlines…

Did you see the new PhotoReflect logo and sneak peek? Pretty exciting stuff is coming down the pipe, I hear. Stay tuned.

Nikon Photo Contest Winners announced and displayed online. Considered the world’s largest and most prestigious photo contests, this year’s theme was: “At the heart of the image.” The event attracted over 50K entries from over 150 countries. (I am just sad that the website is so clunky… I know, pot calling the kettle black and such, but I want to see more!) Regardless of my case of “the Mondays” the winners are truly spectacular.

Three photo sharing and management sites are shutting down. BubbleShare, Riva and PicMe announced last week that they were shutting down and explaining that the consumer-photography industry is dominated by the some of the largest players on the net… whom, also make it impossible to charge for these services (because, for example, Facebook’s photosharing is free). Source, PMAI.org.

Drama over the Kelly Clarkson’s Self mag photoshopping experience. I post this, first, because if I can sneak in some pop drama into my blog, I normally do so. Secondly, anytime a famous magazine editor says, “Of course we do retouching,” I feel vindicated. Finally and more importantly, this is a very nice article explaining that it is pretty easy to blame photoshop in this situation but that it may actually be taking away some kudos from a very talented photographer. Take a good look and you will find some good tips on taking great portrait shots. Honestly, two of my favorite things (gossip and photography), why wouldn’t I post this?

Sears announces online-presale and text registration for the Samsung DualViews. I am predicting that these new consumer point and shoot cameras will be the “hot” purchase this holiday season for your picture taking, gadget lover. The new DualView cameras have front and back LCDs so the person in the picture can see how the look. Click here to learn about the DualViews. (They are the TL225 and TL220 with front and back LCD screens -- the link is for the TL220). Click here to go to pre-order from the Sears site. If you want to participate in their texting/online event, the phone number to text is 73277. Type “SAMSUNG” and you will get a link back to Sears2go.com where you can read more about the festivities.

Cool blog article: Are you going to your customers or are you waiting for them to come to you? You have to scroll down the weekend synopsis but when you do, there is a good article about how there is inherent success in discounting for your current customers to gain new business. Now, I think this is industry kismet simply because last week, in our monthly newsletter we provided a demonstration for a way for you to create promo codes, gift certificates and shipping discounts on your PhotoReflect websites. If you missed the step-by-step instructions, here is a link to an online copy of our August newsletter. Keep in mind we normally do not publish our newsletters for general view. I am simply posting it so you can take advantage of this buzz and do more this month to ensure greater profits. Sign up for the newsletter here for more of these tips which are typically exclusive to our readership.