Professional Photo Lab and Photo Printing Blog

To take a look at a few of our recent interviews, follow the links below.

Kirk Voclain is a long-time customer of our photo lab.  A professional photographer with a studio in Houma, LA, Kirk met us for an interview and was entertaining as usual!

View Kirk Voclain’s Interview

John C. Pittman is C.E.O. of Sport Stars Inc., an international photo manufacturing company specializing in the youth activities market.  He has been an asset to our photo lab’s sports programs and universities.

View John Pittman’s Interview

Blair Phillips, of Blair Phillips Photography has been in business for five years, and has already made waves with his couture style photography, engaging personality, and seemingly endless energy.

View Blair Phillips’ Interview

Scott and Adina Hayne, of Hayne Photgraphers are another couple who, although fairly new to the professional photography business, have been getting noticed and making a splash.

View Hayne Photographer’s Interview

As an author, speaker, trainer and social media and photography evangelist, Georgia McCabe’s perspectives entitled “A Picture is Worth a Thousand Friends…or Enemies” appear in print in the book entitled The Relationship Age, with social media guru Mari Smith. Georgia is a frequent guest blogger for our photo lab.

H&H Color Lab customer Blair Phillips shares a blog post and video with us today. Blair and Suzanne are the owners of Blair Phillips Photography in Landis, NC. In business for five years, they specialize in seniors, weddings, child/family, newborn/maternity and boudoir. They do it all….couture style! You can find them on FaceBook, Twitter, and on the Blair Phillips Blog.

Upon completing a huge marketing campaign, the natural thing to do is to sit back, take a deep breath and take it easy.

Well, that’s not exactly the case here at Blair Phillips Photography. We’ve just completed our high school senior season and we surpassed every goal we set, which is amazing, especially with this economy. With the last click of the shutter and my Nikon D3 feeling overworked (and under paid), we went back to the drawing board and immediately started planning for the next high school senior season. There’s a new philosophy this year that is a tried and true way to reach high school seniors in a way that gives us more connection, feedback and immediate excitement toward a session with us.

Facebook, of course, is one of our main avenues for reaching and contacting our high school seniors and we’re not content with simple text updates any more. So, we have been utilizing our HD video capable DSLR to produce short, to the point videos that visually share information to our seniors rather than using text posts. When we recently launched our 2012 Senior Ambassador program, not only did we post a teaser video to our wall for all of our high school senior fans to see but we also sent prospect Ambassadors a link to our Vimeo account where they could watch a password protected video giving them details about being a Senior Ambassador, what we have to offer and what’s in it for them. The “Exclusive” password protected video helped reiterate the fact that our Ambassador program is very selective and it helps make the senior feel even more chosen.

The “Net Generation” is 100 times more likely to watch a quick video than read paragraph after paragraph. It’s hardwired in them and it’s not their fault. It is just the culture they have grown up in. But there are some exceptions. You can’t just sit a camera up on a tripod, say a couple of lines and expect 200 seniors to come pouring in the doors. A video, geared toward a high school senior, must have plenty of movement and stay around 2 minutes long, if not shorter. The attention span of a high school senior is rather short these days so anything longer than 2 minutes is usually never finished, especially if it’s just a talking head. Incorporate some filler shots and footage to help fill in the gaps and to help maintain their attentions.

Another tip when creating videos where seniors are targeted is be very specific. Don’t try to cover 3 or 4 different programs in one video. Create 3 or 4 separate videos that highlight each program separately. By having different videos for different purposes, we’ve been able to target a more specific audience much more effectively without throwing too much at them all at once.

As of the moment, we have only created videos for our senior market but we do plan to do more videos touching each of our target markets. You better believe we will share them with you once they are finished too. Until then, take a look at our Senior Ambassador video below and try using video rather than text posts or updates. Video cameras are so affordable these days and with many DSLR’s equipped with video capabilities, it’s easier than ever.

Just imagine how much more enjoyable if this would have been explained in a video!

Here is a video on using the Align – Distribute tools in Adobe Photoshop CS5.

These are great techniques to use when you need to layout a canvas with multiple image openings to arrange them with an even space between each image. This is also an easy way to lay out signature lines for a guest book page!

Every day I discover new methods to make Facebook Fanpages unique and more usable! Here are a couple of simple tips for customizing your profile image and for optimizing your personal information so that it is more search engine (SEO) friendly. I have also included a quick tip that will make your shared links look neat and clean! Georgia has spent her 30 year career at the intersection of photography and digital technology. As an author, speaker, trainer and social media and photography evangelist, her perspectives entitled “A Picture is Worth a Thousand Friends…or Enemies” will appear in print in the upcoming book entitled The Relationship Age, by social media guru Mari Smith. Georgia is a frequent guest blogger for our photo lab.