The wedding world lost three bridal magazines in the fourth quarter of 2009 but actually added one during the same period titled Get Married. I am slightly intrigued by the idea that “management” thought it was time to jump into print, and more narrowly, into print in the bridal market — especially after Conde Nast decided it was high time to get out. I am more intrigued by the new technology they are including in the quarterly publication.

The magazine will include Microsoft Tag which is Microsoft’s barcode technology. The tags are incorporated into the full- and half-page ads to provide the new generation of brides a new and different buying experience.

The Microsoft Tags require the user to secure a free application called gettag.mobi which is downloaded to your smartphone. The Tag Reader allows you to take a picture of the barcode which will then generate additional content embedded in the ad, like images and galleries, videos, web sites and messaging. At this point, the bride can store the data and purchase products that appeal to them.

This is not the first use of barcoding in the publication industry but it is the first specifically marketing to brides. The bride now has an opportunity to interact with print through their smartphones and experience the bridal process the same way they are experiencing life — a great approach. It will be interesting to see if a quarterly magazine can find a niche with the new brides.

We just got back from the Mystic 5 workshop and trade show — what a great event. Walter van Dusen hosted a really fabulous event that covered a myriad of topics and ideas. Although the weather was a bit “frosty” the speakers did a great job of warming up the crowd and getting the creative thought flowing. Clearly many photographers in the crowd were looking for ideas, services and products that would better position them in 2010 after a less than forgiving 2009. The energy around the event was very contagious supported by the fact that Jerry Ghionis presentation ended at 12:30 am on Monday night after 5 hours of presentation to a packed “house.”

The list of speakers is below — you may want to think about attending this event in 2011 to get your new year started on the right foot.

Tony and Diana Cooper of TLC Photography will kick off their professional photography workshop series on January 23 and 24, 2010 — just 4 weeks away. The first of a three part series will be the “Nitty Gritty Workflow Workshop” which will be hosted at their 3,200 sq. ft. studio.

The two-day seminar/workshop will highlight the “best practices” Tony and Diana have developed for their studio business over the last 15 years including, sales and marketing techniques and suggestions, the use of Lightroom to edit and prepare images, leveraging ProSelect to sell more images, your lab and developing a great working relationship and much more. A complete overview is provided here.

This is a great opportunity to (re)think and refine your photography workflow for 2010. Their studio is conveniently located only 50 miles from Washington DC and 15 miles from Hagerstown MD — so easy to get to. Registration for this first event is now open, so go ahead and sign up. Also look for TLC’s “Lighting Essentials Workshop” in February and the “Successful Senior!” workshop in March.

Tony and Diana use PhotoOne as their studio management software and will be highlighting some of the features as part of their presentation. If you are sponsoring an event, seminar, workshop please let us know and we will share it on our blog with other PhotoOne users. Happy New Year!

I have read a couple of articles this holiday season that are proposing that it is just a matter of time before the demise of Christmas and holiday cards — really?!

I am posting this because ONE, I know that cards are a big part of some photographer’s year-end business and TWO, on a personal level, I am a little skeptical. This year probably saw a reduction in the number of cards sent (year-over-year) but I think that is more the results of the economic environment and the associated effort individuals are putting into their jobs to retain them.

Others are putting forth that the Christmas and holiday cards are being Grinch-efied because a paper card is viewed as ” . . . wasteful, impersonal, and bad for the environment . . .” on top of the tough economic times. Time Magazine ran an article titled “The Beginning of the End for Christmas Cards?” They cited in their article that a BankRate post stiplulated that ” . . . an e-card is mentioned frequently as a free alternative to ye olde Christmas card. Their “selling” points . . . They’re free, don’t require postage and no one has to wash their hands after opening them. Some even play music, making them a fun, free way to catch up with far-flung friends and family.”

Some of the other articles speak to the rise of social media. Social media allows more people to stay in touch in real-time which helps with the rationalization to not send cards. Catherine Taylor, in a Social Media Insider blog post, says “The [social media] system could use some improvement, since my Mom isn’t yet on Twitter, and for whatever reason, Facebook hasn’t yet suggested that I friend any of my cousins. However, the way things are going, I probably won’t need Christmas cards, instead replacing them in the future with YouTube Christmas greetings, . . . blog, . . . ” Although, this is a little tongue and cheek — there is a set of data points that could let you surmise the demise of “the card.”

I, for one, don’t think there is a trend — although I am not Gen X, Y or Millennial. I do think it is a great exercise to stay in touch with those you care about and enjoy the sense of tradition that is part of sending and receiving a Christmas or holiday card. There is something special about receiving a card that a human hand has touched and prepared just for you — it is not the same experience electronically. I have posted a poll below. Let us know what you think the trend is going to be around Christmas and holiday cards over the next several years.

‘Tis the Monday of the biggest holiday week,
shopping and scurrying — all those last minute tweaks.

We at PhotoOne are so grateful to all,
and look forward to celebrating and staying away from the mall!

Thank you for making it another good year at PhotoOne. PhotoOne looks forward to assisting you and your studio by providing a continued commitment to our studio management software in 2010.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. PhotoOne will be available until 2 pm EST on Thursday December 24th and December 31st. We will be closed December 25th through December 28, and there will be no emergency support. We will also be closed January 1st and will provide emergency support as normal starting January 2. Enjoy your family and friends during the holidays.

‘Tis the season to give and reflect on how thankful we are for our friends and family, clients and staff. All year, you’ve given your clients beautiful images for their homes and families. So how about a gift for you that may be the best gift you’ll receive in 2009.

Please join me and 27 other industry leading photographers for
The Joy to the World FREE Marketing Websummit on December 28, 2009. Registration link is here:

We’ll each share our best money-making ideas for your business in the New Year. From promotional ideas, to earning a larger investment from each wedding client, workflow improvements and more, you’ll learn so much in these 14 FREE hours to substantially grow your business in 2010. At the same time, we’ll be helping fund smiles for children in need of cleft lip and cleft palate surgeries through PPA Charities.
Want to know more?

Over 10,000 professional photographers registered for our Master Photographers Free Marketing Telesummit in September. You raved about how much you learned so we thought why not do it again to help you get off to a strong start in the New Year…and make it BIGGER and BETTER! This time, you can learn from Marcus Bell, Bruce Hudson, Sam Puc, Julia Woods, Kay Eskridge, Jerry Ghionis, Trey and Elizabeth Homan, Jennifer Turner, Alycia Alvarez, Scott Crosby, Will Crockett and more! The Joy to the World Websummit promises to provide you with serious money making ideas for your business.

All you need is a computer with an Internet connection to join us December 28 (and the latest version of Adobe Flash – it’s free, too). The Websummit will be available for 24 hours beginning at 12:01 CST on December 28. Listen to only those speakers you like best or watch all 28. You can start, stop and pause each speakers’ presentation to learn at your leisure within the 24 hour window. Simply REGISTER NOW for FREE

Peace, Love and Joy,
Sarah Petty
Owner, The Joy of Marketing and Sarah Petty Photography

P.S. If you’re not available on December 28, 2009 or want to get a head start on 2010 planning for your business, you can purchase the Adobe FLASH files of all 14 hours for $89 and receive access to the speaker presentations IMMEDIATELY. A pre-websummit special price of $59 is available until December 27. Just register before December 28, 2009, and you’ll receive this special offer!

P.P.S. The Joy of Marketing has partnered with PPA Charities to change the world – one smile at a time. Join us in raising funds for PPA’s charitable partner, Operation Smile, whose network of volunteers work worldwide to repair childhood facial deformities including cleft lips and cleft palates. Learn more here.

Happy Friday. We’ve had a busy week here at PhotoOne and can assume that our clients have as well, given the number of conversations we’ve had with many of you this week. Here are some quick snippets of the various discussions that took place — hopefully they’ll be thought-provoking or provide an “aha” moment.

Workshops in the New Year
Gary Box, of Box Portrait Gallery, and Tony Cooper, of TLC Photography, called this week to give us an update on their upcoming 2010 Workshops. As part of their presentations they will include PhotoOne and how they use our studio management software to leverage their workflow. We will be sending along promotional materials, demo cds, and a special offering for the events. If you are planning an event at your studio in 2010 and it includes PhotoOne, let us know now so we can get you on the calendar and send you marketing and promotional materials.

New Business Development
Kay Eskridge emailed this week to bounce a couple of ideas off of PhotoOne. She is busy building a new business and brand called Learn.Grow.Succeed – Education for Professional Photographers. Kay is developing “Best Practices” around the photography business and will share it as part of her webinars and speaking engagements.

If you happened to miss it, PhotoOne was a guest blogger on Skip Cohen’s MEI blog this week. The topic was SEO and how you might use certain tools to improve your standing with Google and the other search engines.

PhotoOne Development Suggestions
Wendy Rouleau added a great comment this week on our blog.

Thanks for your input…it is a great feature! For those of us “old timers” with P1, I am really wanting a way to import data that has been corrected. For example, I have over 13000 clients in P1. Once a year, we clean up our list and run it thru the NCOA system. This basically “fixes” all the addresses of those that have moved…it is great! My problem is getting this corrected info back into P1…we manually enter it. This past time we had over 700 changes! There has to be a better way!

Thanks for the great comment and we will get on it!

We also had a call from Dan Rother this week and he was looking for a finer parsing between his PhotoOne calendar(s) and his SmartPhone. Another great comment and we will get on it!

Six-Degrees of Seperation
I thought this was a funny coincidence. A friend of mine in Southern California sent me the following email yesterday. She knows that I’m in the photography software business and knew I would be interested in the fact that she received a promotional email from a photographer and took action.

” . . . literally, I wasn’t thinking about getting pics of the kids at all and it hadn’t even crossed my mind but I just got an email promotion. The promotion was for a discounted session and attractive pricing for any order from a studio that did my oldest daughter’s graduation pictures. Since I haven’t gotten a pic of all of them in about 4 yrs, I picked up the phone immediately when I opened it and made an appointment for when everyone is home for Thanksgiving . . .”

It turns out this Southern California photographer is a client of PhotoOne. Late yesterday afternoon, the connecting of the dots made me smile. Enjoy the weekend.

NYC in October is a great place to be . . . the weather, the people, and the energy are just right. PhotoPlus took over the Javits Center for 3 days and provided speakers and vendors an opportunity to exchange products, best practices, experiences and stories with both professional and amateur photographers.

Weddings

I was fortunate enough to get an invitation to visit the studio of Fred Marcus Photography on Wednesday before the Jason Groupp DWF sponsored party. Walter van Dusen, photographer and host/founder of Mystic 5, invited me to meet Andy, Judi, and Brian Marcus at their studio on 72nd Street between Broadway and West End Avenue. Having spent the better part of a decade living on the Upper West Side, I was looking forward to meeting the Marcus team and also having a chance to “run around” the old neighborhood.

Fred Marcus Photography was founded by Fred and Gerda Marcus almost seven decades ago. Today, Andy and his wife Judi, and their son Brian continue the tradition of providing first-class images and photography services to their clients. Andy summarized their approach best when he said that photography is ” . . . not a series of one-off experiences. Instead, it’s an opportunity that leads them to multi-generational photography experiences with that individual, their family and extended family.”

Andy did leave us with a teaser towards the end of our meeting. He told us that they had a “major” wedding coming up this weekend and that we should look for the images either in the Sunday or Monday news. I have attached the link here . . . yes, this is no apprentice at work, it’s the real deal! As a quick food sidebar, if you’re ever in the Fred Marcus studio neighborhood looking for a great meal, check out Cafe Luxembourg which has been a neighborhood mainstay for 30 years.

Earnings

Canon was out with their earnings this morning and the news is much of the same — operating profit down 54%. One of the few bright spots for Canon was that their digital camera demand was strong for the quarter. They continue to see strong demand for the SLR cameras which are high-end models with interchangeable lenses.

The takeaways for me is that corporations are slow to invest in copiers and other office equipment provided by Canon but the consumer is more optimistic and purchasing the SLR cameras. Since the US economy is best when fueled by consumer purchases, I would say that this is another positive data point for the economic recovery.

Happy Friday . . . we had a very productive week at PhotoOne and hope you had the same. When we left our office last night there were some pretty heavy snow flakes falling. I have spent most of my adult life in the Northeast so I “know” snow . . . but, October 15th is a little early! I’ve attached an image that I took with my iPhone this morning. The shot is from the second floor of our office looking down at the snow on the rooftop into the parking lot with the brilliant (more brilliant in-person) fall maple trees in the background.

This week included lots of great conversations with photographers and vendors along with additional manpower on the development side for our studio management software initiatives. We will be at PhotoPlus next week to tour a multi-generational, major NYC studio and attend a pre-party to PhotoPlus. Hope to see you there!

This is the perfect way to get your year off to a great start — Mystic 5 hosted by Walter vanDusen.

This is the 5th year for Walter’s event hosted in Mystic.  The first year had 44 photographers and this year there will be over 300 with a rocking speaker line-up.  The Sunday and Monday evening presentations include Joe McNally — “Big Flash, Small Flash” and Jerry Ghionis — “Reinventing the Wedding Album.”     These are two photographers you won’t want to miss!

Walter and Mystic 5 will provide a great experience at a very attractive price point.  The three-day agenda is an opportunity to hear and interact with first-class speakers and network with other wedding photographers.  This is a fun and easy way to ring in the New Year — PhotoOne will see you there.