AtkinsTechnicolour

Supply us with 5 photographs and we will put print out and mount ready to hang you own 50×75cm weekly planner, normally $139, only $90 until March 31st.

March 4th 2010 at 5-6.30pm we will be hosting an evening to introduce our on-line ordering software. While you may have already given it a go, we would love the opportunity to show you through the software.

There will be drinks, nibbles, the opportunity to network and a voucher code for 25% discount when using @tkins online service for the month of March, for anyone who attends the show.

An addition to this – we will be repeating the presentation 6.30-8pm for those who cannot make the earlier time.

Get out this March with your camera a grab a great shot of Adelaide in the grip of the arts festivals. Submit your chosen shot(s) to us by March 30th 2010, and we may choose to print and display it in our front shop.

If your image is chosen, we will display the image printed (at least 20×20inches in size, possibly bigger) and mounted together with your contact details for 2 months in the front shop, the end of which you will receive your print(s) as a thank you.

CD/DVD or email or FTP in your image(s), and notify peg@atkins.com.au that they are submissions for the "Shoot March" project. You will retain full rights to all of your images, we will need permission to display them both in store and on-line with full credit to you and link back to your website.

At PMA2010 and CES, Kodak ran a chat show to discuss many different topics, during the PMA at Anaheim last Monday, Paul was asked to appear on a panel discussing the importance of printing. If you enjoy the video, more can be seen by clicking here.

Thankyou Glynn Lavender from  PMA newsline for this piece. Love your work Glynn!

Over these past few days it is becoming clear to me that the trouble some photographers are having in selling their work is that they are not packaging their images in a contextual way. By this I mean, the print alone has lost meaning, it is no longer the currency of images, if you want to move your clients to purchase images from you you need to show them your work in context, that is, you need to show them not only great images, but products that INSPIRE.

Look at how Ikea sells furniture, they make up room sets, you visit it and imagine it as your room, you see it all in context. If you want to sell more than a DVD of your work, if you really want to see your work in your clients’ lives you must show them awesome products that you can deliver.

It is not good enough to just be a great photographer.

There is more margin in products that your competition does not offer, being unique in what you offer can be your point of difference that will free you up from being a commodity that is bargained for down to the lowest price.

'The Who' themed wall paper.

I am sure all you fans of the show Madmen, the series set in an advertising agency in the 1950s-60s, this episode (13) deals with a pitch to sell the Kodak Carousel Projector. According to the series, Kodak wants it to be called the wheel, but our hero Don Draper spins the perfect tale of what photography means to all of us.

You will weep. This says it all, about why we are in the industry, here is the Youtube link. Paul

Miller's Professional Imaging, Colombia MO, the main production room.

It is a reasonably nice day here in Anaheim California, I have been travelling for five days heading towards the Photo Marketing Association’s (PMA) annual international conference, and I’m only hours away from the opening sessions.

The reason I have taken five days to get to the conference is that I have been touring professional photo labs through out the USA. This tour was instigated through the Association of Professional Colour Imagers (APCI), of which I am Australian President. The APCI are one of many organisations that come under the PMA umbrella. PMA represents School Photograpers, Sporting Photographers, Photo retailers, Camera stores, Framers, Photo Imaging Educators and many more diverse groups.

The tour has been amazing, I am still reeling from the numbers quoted by these labs, I won’t list them here as they were very generous with what I would deem ‘private information’. I will say one of the operations turned over 45 times our volume in one year with 3 hour turn around on most products, including albums!!!! I gives me pause….

The labs visited were Burrell Colour in Crown Point Indiana (40 mins drive from Chicago), Miller’s Professional Imaging in Colombia Missouri, and White House Custom Color in Minneapolis Minnesota. If you check out a map you will find quite a distance between all three, but the common location factor is they are all in central USA, allowing for shipping to each coast easily. All three are shipping based businesses, and two of them rarely have customers visiting.

Each lab has a different focus and business model, and I’ll blog more about this another time. This trip is one of the few ways you can plan for the future. I believe you find your way forward by both having a clear understanding of the past and a complete map of the present. I intend for AtkinsTechnicolour to be at the forefront of photographic services and this trip is keeping us on track. Paul Atkins