Pet portraits and new competition

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

For those in the know... we dig deep in the interwebbings for good stuff regarding our industry and inspirational stories to get us going. Enjoy this week's post featuring pet photography and some buzz that has caught our eye...

Did you know that Newsweek has officially pulled out of the White House photo pool?

I got a lot of Tweets about this article last week with the sensational headline: Photography in NY no longer illegal! Cute?... Yes. Interesting?... Well, you be the judge. (In case you just want the dirt, it’s an April 2009 memo to NYPD officers reminding them that taking photos and videos in and around NYC is not illegal).

Both the NY Times and Resolve Community featured articles on pet portraits. Each spotlight popular photographers – The Times features Li Ware while Resolve interviews Sarah Zemunski – while asking them tips and tricks for getting the right picture with notoriously difficult models. Both are interesting on completely different levels while being quick and inspiring reads for any kind of portrait photographer.

Household printing gets a new capability. According to the recent PMA Data Watch (they put out good stuff, if you didn’t know, well worth the price if you are interested in the topic, btw), “High income households, those with children present and those with high speed internet access are [nearly twice as likely] to purchase photo-quality printers.” Add the new Epson inkjet (retailed at under 100 bucks) that enables CD/DVD printing provides just a little bit more generalized concern that the general public is stepping more and more into the territory of the pro photographer. Therefore, we should all be asking… if our clients have pretty good cameras, decent 4x6 printing capabilities, and personalized disk writing production… how are we going to stand out?!? Our answer, of course, is do it better than they ever could.

Read more...

Yin and Yang

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

In our scouring of photography tidbits that are both interesting and informative we are faced with the yin and yang of pro photography, i.e. the market research of the status of our industry and the technically fun stuff that inspires us. Enjoy this week’s roundup that has a little of both.

Yin stuff: Market reports are out that describe the photo book market and how “moms” are influencing online purchases…

According to the most recent PMA Data Watch report, the classification and description of photo books is perplexing to the non-photographer as it is often lumped with scrapbooking and creating your own album pages with digital ownership of images (and printing to local, inexpensive home printers) versus how pros want the term “photo books” to equate a very specific photography product offered to the masses. As marketing experts put their minds together to mitigate this confusion, those that sell photo books are seeing an increase in demand (4%) but that demand is far less than anticipated in comparison to last year. Is the solution simply about getting the word out? (You can buy the 2009 PMA Photo Book Report here)

In the latest InfoTrends report, they surveyed Western European “females between the ages of 25 and 44 with children under the age of 12” whom represent a very large market segment in the $900 million photo merchandise market. The research indicates that this particular demographic takes, prints, and shares more photos than the general population while also being a little more elusive to market to as they represent a very specific socio-graphic (i.e. marketing to moms, in particular, is a very niche-based science). In addition, this segment is more likely than total photo merchandise buyers to purchase from online sources, citing convenience as a powerful deciding factor. (You can purchase the very thorough InfoTrend report for a pretty hefty price tag here. For a better summary, you can also review PMA International’s report synopsis here.)


Now the Yang stuff: Cool photos and is 3D photography “in” again???

Two prominent online sources have been getting a lot of “hits” with 3D concepts because they are relevant, fun, cheap and inspirational… or so I assume. Check out this Flickr page (courtesy of the #photography feed on Twitter) that gets you to cross your eyes and give yourself a headache for some pretty fun results. After that, check out an older post on Photojojo on how to make your own 3D images (for crosseyed viewing or with instructions on how to animate your 3D image for online viewing) for under 15 bucks. Of course, if you have an iPhone, and to quote their recent advertising campaign, there's an "ap for that."

Our favorite photoblog post of the week is from Discover Magazine. Science can be fun… especially with a good camera, eh?


And finally… just a reminder that PhotoReflect Users are entitled to free webinars in the next week designed to get you selling online.

* If you are not a PhotoReflect User sign up is free and easy. Learn more here.

** A basic primer to PhotoReflect’s free internet storefronts will be held on Tuesday, May 26 at 3:00pm Central. Sign up and more information can be found here.

*** A more advanced user webinar (for those that are already familiar with PhotoReflect but want to take their storefront selling to ‘the next level’) will be on Wednesday, May 20 at 3:00pm Central. Sign up and more information can be found here.

Read more...

Artist Meets Photography

Graffiti Wall
by Graham McFarland

Todd Van Fleet, one of our spotlight photographers and long time friend of mine, just returned from a trip to a Senior Portrait Artists (SPA) workshop seminar held at Anitsdels Studio in Louisburg, Kansas. He raved about the workshop and got plenty of creative and business ideas that he said he would be trying out in his own studio in Denver. I highly recommend SPA to anyone who is currently shooting seniors or wants to.

The studio asked Todd to stick around an extra day to paint a graffiti wall to be used for a background for portraits. Todd is an excellent artist and one of the most creative individuals that I have ever met. Check out his creation.


The wall turned out great and is really an out-of-the-box idea to bring a new dimension and relevancy to professionals portraits. Here are some shots taken by the studio using the new graffiti wall that Todd created.


Learn more about Todd and his creativity at his Darkroom Photographer Spotlight.

Read more...

Protect your digital rights before the economy comes back

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


Is the economy really getting better?
According to PMA’s Monthly Printing Camera Trends Report, “camera sales [are] inching back upward,” but what we are finding a bit more interesting in the article are the printing statistics. According to their research, online ordering is the fastest growing method of printing growing “at a rate of 19 percent in February of 2009, compared to a rate of 51 percent in 2008.” All methods of printing are seeing figures of modest growth but no where near that of last year’s percentages. Read the full article here.


We never want to have to say we told you so…
The Professional Photographers of America have published advice on educating yourself and your clients on copyright infringement of your photography. They give pretty good tips as primers such as getting in touch with local retailers about your policies as well as educating your clients after obtaining an understanding of their intentions. At the end they mention that PPA members can call their Copyright Defense Department for support and advice and have also linked to a previous article about defending your work when found online. We agree this is a VERY important topic –- especially considering the recent craziness with Facebook –- which is why we initiated a discussion about selling digital rights last year. Read the full article here (but you’ll have to register which is free).


Free service gives you 2GB account to store your digital files and manage via mobile phone
SugarSync has just announced a free version of their service that will allow you 2GB storage that can be accessed from two computers (or cell phones with free apps for BlackBerry, iPhone, iPod Touch, and Windows). Their pay per versions expound upon options and functions dramatically but free is free and 2GB (if not dealing solely in RAW) is as much as the flash drive I cannot leave home without. But all this begs two questions in my opinion? For one, how comfortable are we just sending all our files to some random website despite their assurances? And, for another, is a “free” introductory product line the only way companies can introduce you to their latest and greatest work –- is the equivalent of a free sample mandatory these days? If you have an opinion on either question, post a comment. I want to know your thoughts on the matter, for sure. Read about the announcement from SugarSync themselves, here.


Hey, that’s our idea! Panasonic giving away 30 HD cameras in 30 days
To announce their “social networking site designed to demystify high-definition technology,” www.LivingInHD.com will give away one HD product each day for 30 days (through the month of May) including two LUMIX digital cameras with HD video recording and the HDC-TM20 HD camcorder with 16GB internal memory. We will never admit that we came up with the idea (except in our attempt to create attention-grabbing headlines) but we are celebrating our new website for DARKROOM with social networking contests as well. Click here to read about ExpressDigital’s DARKROOM contest.


Our favorite Twitter find of the week: The Windy Pixel
Beautiful work from Mike Boehmer are posted on his picture blog. Although I am biased about Chicago (the windy city holds a special place in my heart), I believe anyone can find the awe in his most recent post taken from Lake Street Bridge. Who says Twitter will suck inspiration out of you? Quite the contrary today.

Read more...

Photography as a Fundraiser

Trend Watch: Born Out of the Digital Era, Schools Using Do-it-Yourself Model
by Graham McFarland, CEO

Over the past several months I have been asked many questions surrounding a new business model that seems to be catching on in both the school and sports segments of the photography industry. One company in particular - Picateers has come across my radar screen recently and so I decided to find out more.

Picateers offers schools and school districts the opportunity to use picture day as a fundraising activity. Instead of giving that contract to a professional photographer or photography company, Picateers encourages schools to do-it-yourself with their help. The school chooses a volunteer to take the photos and Picateers provides them step-by-step instructions, on-line training and coaching videos to help ensure the photos are taken properly. The volunteer uploads the photos to Picateers and they are placed on-line for the parents to view and purchase prints and gift items. Picateers produces all of the orders and mails them directly to the parents. Pictateers controls the pricing and gives 50% cash back to the school on all print orders and 25% cash back on all gift orders. Get more details at http://www.picateers.com/.

I have also seen a few local and regional labs test out this business model as a means to drive production through their facility. With schools facing ever growing budget deficits and on-going pressure to generate cash, this model has seemingly taken hold and appears to be growing in popularity. Although the model sounds easy for schools, those of us that are familiar with the business understand that there are many potential problems that are inherent in the process. The biggest is picture quality. The right equipment doesn't make the photographer - a good eye and artistic ability are the key ingredients to a good photo. Good photos sell but great photos sell more. Maybe folks don't mind average quality for school pictures. Only time will tell.

If you think Picateers is just a fad and will soon fade away, then your mistaken at least on the soon part. They raised over $6M in venture funding in the second half of 2008 and have been actively marketing themselves nationwide. I even saw 2 Picateers staffers at the PMA show in Las Vegas attending educational sessions.

This is definitely a trend to watch and one born from the digital revolution. Learn all you can about your competition and as the ancient Chinese general Sun-tzu said "Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer."

Read more...

Weekly Run Down of Photography Goodies

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

Like everyone else impacted by the economy (who isn’t?), photography magazines are getting resourceful… * PC Photo is changing its name to Digital Photo next month. * Professional Photographer (UK) is getting a new editor (with experience as a professional photographer) and with him new vision for the mag. * Shutterbug’s parent company has privatized – with no impact to the publication except that they won’t be operating in debt. … If we see significant impact on quality, we’ll be sure to let you know. (source: all sent personal emails –sorry no source links; quote me but with some caution)

(UPDATE: Didn't want to forget this one too: Rangefinder Publishing Inc., Los Angeles, Calif., announced the resignation of Skip Cohen as president of Rangefinder Publishing and WPPI, effective immediately. Steve Sheanin, CEO/president of Rangefinder Publishing, and George Varanakis, newly appointed executive vice president/group publisher, will absorb Cohen's responsibilities and commitments. source: PMA Int'l)

PhotoReflect announces free weekly webinars designed to get your started or “re-primed”. Spend 50 minutes with one of the top technical account representatives and learn the basics of setting up a free PhotoReflect internet website and/or storefront. The goal is to have you be able to set up your products, pricing, delivery and payment options. Sign-up for tomorrow’s (Tuesday, May 5) edition here. (source: Email from PhotoReflect; verified by yours truly)

Interesting article written by Crain’s Chicago Business detailing a ‘new wave’ of digital photographers competing with and undercutting (in price and quality) professional commissions. I have always been suspect of the zombie hobbyist (replace ‘braaaaines’ with ‘piiiicture?’)… but remember when we started out that way? Perhaps it is newsworthy because of a sudden increase due to the economy and the cheapo products out there. I’m an optimist at heart, so I think it will take no time for people to catch on and for the really talented to stand out and pay their dues. Do you have a different opinion? Post a comment. (source: PMA Int’l Newsline)

In “how did we not know this?!?” news, last week we mentioned the Webby Awards, but did you know that the new and improved PPA website is an official honoree ? To be clear, they are not one of the five category nominees (so you cannot vote for them), rather they are noted for an outstanding “caliber of work in regards to content, structure and navigation, visual design, functionality, interactivity, and overall experience.” Kudos to our friends at PPA. They do good work for our industry on and off -line and we are happy for them! Click here to learn more about the Webby Awards. (source: PPA)

Don’t forget that our

Facebook Friends and Twitter Followers are privy to special contests. We also like to send shout-outs to friends with really cool pictures and ideas so comment, tweet, post, blog as you wish.

Read more...