A lot of photographers look to you and your work as a source of inspiration. Who has influenced your vision and growth as a photographer?

You come from the land of Martin Schembri, David A. Williams, Jerry Ghionis, Tero Sade and Yervant. What makes Australia such a special place for photographers?

How do you distinguish yourself from your peers? What is it about your style that sets you apart?

Who or what do you photograph the most?

Tell us what you use to post-process your images. (Feel free to discuss your Photoshop actions, Lightroom presets and Textures here)

“To photograph truthfully and effectively is to see beneath the surfaces and record the qualities of nature and humanity whcih live or are latent in all things.”

That quote by Ansel Adams is on your site. How does it guide you in the way you approach either portraits or weddings?

Your business now includes a team of photographers. Do their styles and approach complement yours or are they intentionally diverse and unique?

How has PhotoOne Software helped your business?

What other software apps do you use? Tell us about QuickFlow.

You have a book called A Masters Guide To Wedding Photography, published by Amherst Media and a documentary called Shooting From The Heart. What has the response in the portrait and wedding photography communities been like to these products?

Do you have any plans for workshops in the US or Canada in 2009/2010?

Tell us about one of your recent memorable photo shoots.

Lastly, what would your one piece of advice be for a photographer who is just starting out?

This post was on Skip Cohen’s MEI blog post yesterday. Thank you Skip for letting me guest blog — if you haven’t checked out Skip’s blog, you should. He is blogging 7 times a week and is augmenting his own posts with a lot of guest bloggers that he has befriended over the last 40 years.

So much has happened in a year’s time in the way businesses are approaching SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Google has done a fabulous job interjecting SEO into our culture with phrases such as: keywords, metadata tags, page ranking, and 301 redirect. Our lives revolve around The Search . . . not the yellow or white page kind, dropped off at the end of our driveways, but the search through the incredible amount of information at our fingertips provided by the internet. This weekend I was watching the Vikings/Packers game and I asked which college Adrian Peterson had attended. My son was at the computer and did a quick search for the answer-– 15 seconds later: University of Oklahoma.

There is an endless amount of material describing SEO and why and how to incorporate it into your business. The new marketing approach, using SEO, is titled, “Inbound Marketing” versus the marketing we grew up with which is “Outbound Marketing.” Outbound Marketing is a “push” approach using print ads, marketing calls, email blasts, trade shows and mailings. Inbound Marketing is a “pull” approach based on good rich content provided by your website, blog, podcasts, Facebook, Twitter and landing pages.

As a photographer, the amount of time and effort you put into your website, blog, and podcasts can result in significant long-term dividends. Over 90% of the brides searching for a wedding photographer on a non-referral basis will use a search engine to put together a short list of wedding photographers in her area. Whether or not you will be on the short list is largely determined by SEO. It’s very important to be on the first page of any search because it’s rare that the reader will go to the 2nd or 3rd page.

One of the key ingredients to ensure that your business shows up on the first page is to analyze your site to determine whether or not it’s being favorably viewed by the search engines. There are many free tools out there to analyze, diagnose, and improve your website.

The tool I’ve found to be most useful is Hubspot’s Website Grader. Hubspot is a marketing consulting firm that is working with small to medium-sized companies to reengineer their approach to marketing. They have put together several “Graders” to assist their clients in measuring the effectiveness of websites, Facebook, Twitter, press releases and blogging. The Website Grader asks for your URL address and then analyzes your website using many of the metrics devised by Google to crawl your website for SEO purposes. Although Website Grader isn’t perfect, it’s a pretty effective check to see what’s working and what isn’t. Then you can get with your webmaster and refine your website and rerun the site through Website Grader to measure the various improvements.

Check to see what your Website Grade is today with an eye on improving your SEO.

Skype is a communication application in which PhotoOne puts a lot of trust and we find it gives us a tremendous amount of value week-in and week-out. It has made the coordination of communication between our two offices, sales relationships in Australia and New Zealand, and our clients, more manageable and consistent.

Skype is a voice-over internet program (VOIP), or in terms you and I can understand, it’s a phone that uses your internet connection to make calls. We use Skype to make all of our phone calls out of the office because it’s easy to use and integrates with PhotoOne, which makes it even easier.

Unlike a standard phone that needs a phone line, a clunky receiver, and a phone jack to plug into, Skype uses a hands-free headset and your existing internet connection to place calls. While Skype isn’t free to use, it is only $2.95 a month (so it might as well be!). Coupled with the ability to place phone calls directly from a customers account or appointment in PhotoOne, Skype leverages communication in PhotoOne.

I also find Skype helpful with:

1. Instant Messaging: A great way to IM with other people on Skype.
2. History: Skype retains a history of calls and IMs so you can go back and check on details.
3. Virtual Post-It: You can leave a message for someone and they will receive it upon their return.
4. Travel: You have access to Skype on the road as long as you have access to the internet.
5. Economics: Skype to Skype is free. Skype to land line is cheap and really cost effective for international calling.
6. Video: Skype has video capabilities allowing you to see the person on the other end of the line, assuming they have Skype.

To use Skype you will need to purchase a headset, download the program, and then sign up for the unlimited USA and Canada plan. Then in PhotoOne you go to Setup > Business Settings > Phone and Date Settings, click the “Phone Dialer Settings” tab at the top of the page, and change “Communication Device” from Phone to Skype.

You can call directly from PhotoOne in two locations. The first is directly from the customer’s account. Simply click on the “home”, “work”, or “cell” buttons to the left of the phone numbers to dial that number. This allows you to easily call clients when their orders are ready or if you need to follow-up with them.

The second is from the Appointment Confirmation screen. Simply double click an appointment you’re confirming, and then click the “home”, “work”, or “cell” buttons to the left of the phone numbers to dial that number. The benefit of calling from here is that you can mark the appointment as confirmed after you have finished the call and with the hands-free headset you will be able to take notes without interference.

PhotoOne has no vested interest in Skype or serve in any marketing capacity for Skype. PhotoOne uses the application to help manage our own internal and external communications. We have integrated Skype into our studio management software so that you can realize the benefits if you decide to use Skype in your business.

I want to thank Shane who works in our Technical Support area. Shane did much of the research on this topic and is a big fan of Skype at work and at home. Thanks Shane!

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.

As most of you heard, Microsoft released their new operating system, Windows 7, last week and received a lot of favorable reviews. One thing is clear from the discussions is that Vista was a real disappointment and created a lot of computer heartache. Our studio management software will be happy to move on. A successful release of Windows 7 and a new and more intuitive interface is critical to Microsoft and their perceived position in the global software arena.

The typical protocol around a new operating system release is roughly an 18 month wait before it it is rolled out in a major way. This allows some of the major kinks to be worked out and triaged before a broader deployment takes place. We did a little testing at PhotoOne while Windows 7 was in beta and had a very positive experience. Now that Windows 7 has been released to the marketplace we will do a more complete testing. As you transition your studios from older operating systems to Windows 7 please provide our technical support team feedback. It will be helpful for our developer and technical support teams as you experience the new Windows 7.

I have also heard that there are going to be some great deals on hardware to go along with the new software. This may be a great time to look at new hardware for your studio and realize the operating benefits of upgraded software and hardware.

With the holidays right around the corner I’m sure you’re busy creating and designing promotions to attract customers to your studio. Let PhotoOne assist you with this process by tracking any gift certificates or cards that you sell or use as a promotion. Gift certificates and cards that have a holiday theme are an easy way for you to promote your studio or offer as an “upsell” item when you are processing a holiday order. They make a great gift for those of us who don’t need another tie or shirt, but instead would really appreciate images of events or special moments with family and friends.

So let’s go ahead and set up cards and certificates in PhotoOne. The process below will allow you to quickly and easily set up both offerings in your studio management software. The entire process will take you less than 15 minutes. If you have any questions please email or call Technical Support and they can assist you with the set up.

Initial Setup:

1. Go to the drop down menu Setup > Gift Cards > Gift Cards
2. Put a check mark in the FIRST box, and then decide if you want either of the other 2 options.
3. Then click on the Manage Gift Cards/Certificates.
4. At the bottom of the screen, you will see a box titled “# of cards/certificates to add.” You will put the QUANTITY of cards/certificates you are adding.
5. Your cards/certificates will be in sequential order, so in the box titled: “At what number should PhotoOne start generating card/certificate numbers?” type in your LOWEST certificate number (e.g., 2009 0000 0000 0001) it must be 16 numbers (you could also type in the date they were created 2009 0010 0019 0001 for 10/19/09 ).
6. If the cards/certificates are going to be assigned a PREDETERMINED amount ($25, $50 or $100) you would type in the amount in the box titled: “If you want to generate cards/certificates with a built-in amount.” If they are not Predetermined, leave the box at $0.
7. Click the Generate cards or certificates button on left. PhotoOne will automatically add the quantity and correct sequential number of your cards or certificates, and the correct amount of money for each card.
8. Close and then save.
Note: Anytime you receive more cards or need to print more certificates, you will just repeat steps 1 – 8.

To let PhotoOne know how to Sell the Gift Certificates:

1. Go to the drop down menu Setup > Pricing > Prices
2. Click Add, and then create a new price code for Gift Certificates making sure to mark the box in lower left corner “Price is a gift card/gift certificate.”
a. If you added a predetermined dollar value on your gift certificates, you’ll need to define a price code to reflect that the gift certificate has a price (i.e., predefined at $25, create a price code of GC25 with a price of $25.) If your gift certificates have ZERO amounts predefined, create a price code of GC with NO PRICE and be sure to mark the box “Yes, discounts are ok for this item.” This will allow you to sell the gift certificate for any dollar amount.
3. Save and close prices.

To Sell your Gift Cards:

1. Create an order for the gift card/certificate sale. Either create one customer named Gift Card Sales or under the customer account of the person buying.
2. Choose Quick as Order Type.
3. Use the appropriate price code for gift cards or certificates you added earlier.
4. PhotoOne will now ask for the card or certificate number (entered earlier when you added the gift cards/certificates). If you are using gift cards, and you have a credit card swiper, you can swipe the card. If you are using certificates and you included a bar code for the certificate number you can go ahead and scan the bar code. If you don’t have a swiper or scanner you can simply type in the number of the card or certificate.
5. If the customer knows who they will be giving the gift to, you can type it in the Given To box, or you can skip that field.
6. If it’s not a predetermined amount, type in the value of the gift. If it’s a predetermined amount, PhotoOne will automatically fill in the value of the gift certificate or gift card.
7. If there is an expiration date, type in a date, otherwise skip that field. Note: Check your state laws, in some states it is illegal to issue a gift certificate that will expire.
8. If you want to add any notes, type them in the notes box.
9. Click Save.
10. Collect the money, and save the order.

Let PhotoOne know how to Redeem the Gift Certificates:

1. Go to the drop down menu Setup > Payment Setup > Payment Method
2. Click Add, then create a new payment method of GC – Gift Certificate/Card, or GI – Gift Note: you may ONLY use GC or GI for Payment Methods.
3. Save and close Payment Method

To Redeem a Gift Certificate/Card:

1. Add an Order.
2. Click on Payments/Deposits; add the Payment using the Payment Method GC or GI. Fill in the amount the customer wants to pay on the Order.
3. Swipe the card or certificate, or type in the card/certificate number, and PhotoOne will tell you the value that is redeemable. It will then change the value on the gift card, or tell you how much is left on the card/certificate after making this payment.
4. Save the payment.
5. Make additional payment if a balance is due on the Order.

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 blog post was contributed by Chris Harley at Instinctive Desires in Australia. Chris is a guest blogger and provides us with his thoughts and observations about PhotoOne. Chris and Instinctive Desires use PhotoOne in their three different photography businesses and they also provide sales, marketing and technical assistance to PhotoOne in Australia. The overriding theme from conversations with his PhotoOne clients over the last four weeks is the subject of this post and our P1Action for the week.

A useful way to personalize your invoice and promote your brand is by inserting your studio logo into your invoice. The default setting in PhotoOne displays your studio details in the middle, top section of the invoice (ie, name, address, phone and website URL which is housed in Setup > Studio Address Change). On the right hand side it will also display your GST number and ‘Tax Invoice’ per the settings in Setup > Tax > International. Note: Australian studios can enter ‘ABN:’ in place of GST number.

There are Two Options for Inserting your Studio Logo

1. A 1” square logo in top left corner (retaining the contact details in the middle); or,
2. A banner logo along the top.

Note: The second option will replace everything at the top except ‘Tax Invoice’ so your banner logo should include your contact/tax details.

Does your logo work best in a square or banner format? Once you’ve decided you’re ready to:

Create/Edit Logo

For a logo to display properly it must meet the following criteria:
Dimensions: 1”x1” for square logo, 7.25”x.85” for banner logo
Resolution: 200-300dpi
Color setting: RGB
Type: jpg, gif or bmp

Once you have your logo ready, it needs to be saved into the PhotoOne folder (usually on your C: drive of the main computer). You can then go back into PhotoOne for the next step.

Specify Invoice Settings

Go to Setup > Invoice > Invoice and in the first tab click the first or second radial button.

Add Image to Invoice

Go to the Setup > Invoice > Invoice Logo

1. Select the appropriate tab at the top for either square or banner format
2. Ensure that the picture directory is pointing to the PhotoOne folder
3. Click ‘select an image’ and point to the file you saved in the PhotoOne folder, then save.

You can then preview your new invoice image by going to Orders > Invoice Menu > Preview Standard Invoice.

Thanks for the blog post, Chris. We appreciate a fresh perspective on leveraging PhotoOne and its studio management software features.

We’ve received a lot of calls recently about the time management function in PhotoOne. Some of our newer clients and those who have recently added staff want to leverage PhotoOne when it comes to keeping track of employee time. Please note, the field of pumpkins doesn’t have anything to do with this blog post except for the fact that it’s October and Halloween is fast approaching — Ioka Valley Farm in the Berkshires is a great place to enjoy a Fall day.

A good place to start is to make sure you have passwords setup for each employee. Go to Setup > Employees and edit each employee record with respect to their password.

While you’re at it, make sure that you have a password. Go to Setup > Security > Passwords and type a password into each box with an asterisk and in any other areas you may want to protect. To see details about the areas you are protecting, click the Help button and you can get a list of areas and reports you might want to password protect. Finally, put a checkmark in the box at the top of the window to turn on the protection and save the action — close and relaunch PhotoOne to initiate the password protection.

Now you can have your employees sign in and out of PhotoOne. Employees just needs to click the Time Clock icon underneath Reports, type in their password, and then click the Close button. When they want to punch out, they just enter their password and click the Close button.

What do you need to do if you want to V/E/P? Go to Setup > Employees and click the Time Cards button on the right. A password protected and secure area gives you the ability to view, edit or print the time cards. Some quick and easy actions:
> the Expand/Collapse All button provides a tree-style display
> the Print 1 button prints the time sheet for the highlighted employee
> the Print All button prints a separate time sheet for each employee
> the Clock Out Entire Staff is for the manager when everyone is leaving at the same time
> if someone forgets to clock out simply click on the employee’s folder and go to the Clock Out section on the right and put a time and date into the tabs
> in the event you need to edit a time you can right click the time, click change, and update the time card.

There are lots of nice features for Keeping Track of Time in your studio management software — let us know if you have any additional questions about the features and how they might assist you in leveraging PhotoOne and your business.

A locked order can happen for several reasons, all of them having to do with communication over your network. Three examples of the “Lock Down” scenario:

1st example, is when a workstation experiences an error and shuts down unexpectedly with an open order. PhotoOne is processing as if the order is still open since the server didn’t receive the “safely close this order” message.

3rd example, is when an interruption in the transferring of data has occurred. It is triggered by a kink in the network cable, a loose connection, a faulty network card, etc.

So the P1 Action of the week is the “key” to unlocking the lock down.

A quick fix is to Open the order in the workstation that has the locked order (the error message will specify the workstation) and then Save out of it — quick and easy.

A second quick fix is from any workstation go to Setup > Business Settings > Orders. Click on Settings, Part 3 and type in the Order [#] to the right of the Unlock an Order button and then click on the button.

If you need any additional assistance, please call PhotoOne Technical Support at 888-428-2824.