 |
IN
THIS ISSUE
|
Dear
David,
I hope everyone is having a great 2005! A few photogs say they are
down for 2005. Kodak says there are 23% less brides out there this year
and we won't be back up to 2004 numbers till 2007. So that being the
case, we just got to be a bit creative in our selling and marketing.
Check out this issue's article - "The Only Game in Town"
On a personal note, I know many of you will be attending WPPI next
week. I hope to see you at my Tuesday morning program - 8:30 - 10:30
a.m. The program is entitled: "It's About Time" (to get back
to the other side of beautiful wedding photography) - nuff said. Hope to
see you there.
DAZ Master Class Ready to Go! 
We announced David's Spring Master Class several weeks ago. We still
have a few seats left. Mark your calendars for April 11 - 15, 2005 for
another great week of learning, good food, and good times.
This time we are going to concentrate on really streamlining your
workflow and spend a bit more time on marketing and sales ideas. We have
been producing all of our output in-house now for over 2 years - AND
loving it. When are seminar guests get a chance to check it out, they
can't believe the utter simplicity and beauty of the set up. Our system
ramps up the quality and profitability of any studio. Check it out.
Some really good news - for all past Master Class participants, you
will receive $100 off the $495 price. Also, the second attendee from the
same studio also receives $100 off, and lastly, any member of PDIA
receives a 10% savings - there "just ain't no better deal than
that!" Call Susan at 800.292.2994 to reserve your seat.
P. S. Don't forget - we have a Wine and Cheese Party Tuesday evening
and Dinner on me Thursday. See you there. ---David
David's Master Class info
|
|
Be
the Only Game in Town! |
|
Wouldn't it be great to get every vendor in town talking about
you and recommending you? Here is how we do it. Come Monday
after the weekend wedding, we select about twenty-four of our
best digital images, open up LumaPix FotoFusion and quickly
design an 8.5x11 eight page promo booklet of the event.
After printing and coating the images, we head to Office Max
for a quick spiral binding - about $2.00, pop it into an Albums
Inc. portfolio cover and deliver to our vendor buddy(s). We have
more that a dozen of these little booklets all over town, and our
vendor buddies love them. They are easy to keep up to date and
fresh. We have several more marketing ideas we will discuss at
the Master Class in April.
|
|
|
Updated
Digital Resource Kit! |
|
We have completely revised our Digital Resource Kit for 2005.
It's core is still Fotofusion by LumaPix - This is still the
most unbelievable software I have ever seen. We talked about it
in my last issue, and it has only gotten better over the last
several months.
We have added quite a few goodies to it as well - like over
240 TEMPLATES, TEXTURES, EDGES, and more. In addition to adding
more "Wedding Photographer" functionality to
FotoFusion, we have also completely updated our Digital Resource
Kit.
Our Digital Dashboard is making life quite a bit easier for
digital workflow. We've even added a couple of cool image
enhancing features like "MirrorFlip" to the set we
think you will like. 
We have also updated our DVD Slide Show software with a new
product by ArcSoft. I've personally worked with the engineers
for a couple of new features that work really well for us
"wedding/portrait" guys and girls. It's quite a bit
faster to use and gives a great result. The Digital Resource Kit
is a suite of software products that we use everyday here at the
studio. We are getting RAVE reviews from photographers as well
for it's functionality and range of features. Check out the
article link for more information. Or, give Susan a call at
1800.292.2994 for Digital Resource Kits and Updates.
More
info on David's completely updated Digital Resource Kit »
|
|
|
Noise
Ninja! - WOW! |
|
Picture Code, the developers of Noise Ninja, is one of my
favorite pieces of software these days! We have seen a lot of
improvements among all the digital cameras these past few years.
They just keep getting better, faster, and cheaper. The
"Better" part has included much better noise
characteristics than some of the earlier models. I was a big fan
of the Nikon D1x BECAUSE OF THE FAIRLY LOW NOISE AT 1600 ISO AND
ROUTINELY USED THAT SETTING for a lot of my sanctuary shots and
available light PJ shots. The results were just fine when made
into 5x7's and 4x5's for the album.
But now things are better still. I've been shooting the Canon
20D for about 6 months now and couldn't be happier. One of the
striking features of the camera is the low noise characteristics
again. I routinely shoot the camera at 800ISO and many times at
1600 ISO. Ok, Ok, I see a little bit of noise, but less than
before. This is where Noise Ninja 2 comes in. Running these
images thought this wonderful piece of software works magic on
the files. Heck, the processed ISO 1600 files now look like they
were shot on fine grain Panatomic-X film. The same magic works
on the 3200 ISO file as well. The results are amazing - check it
out. I prefer the more expensive Pro bundle version with the
batch processing capability and the just added a PhotoShop
plug-in version as well.
Check
out their web site for all the info. »
|
|
|
NAPP
- Round #3 |
|
Just returned from the NAPP convention held in Las Vegas last
week. WOW! What a great time - if you like that PhotoShop kind
of thing. More info in 3 days than your brain can hold. This is
a highly recommended conference to attend - particularly in our
digital age.
While I was out there, I got a chance to visit with Scott
Kelby - he is the guy who has written all those terrific books
on PhotoShop - i.e. Down and Dirty Tricks for PhotoShop, etc. He
is also the president of NAPP. I talked with him about the
possibility of presenting at the Fall Show in Boston. It looks
like a "go" for now. I'll keep you posted.
|
|
|
Count
Me In |
|
| I
just wanted to make a little mention about this newsletter. I
really appreciate all the kind remarks I receive via email about
the newsletter. I try to keep it fun and informative, with each
issue pointing up something new, exciting, and/or useful for the
digital photographer. I will continue with that philosophy. On
the other hand, if you would prefer not to receive this
newsletter, just opt out at the bottom of the issue. We are
pretty good about keeping up with any such requests. Thanks
again to everyone who enjoys the newsletter. - -David
|
| Quick
Links... |
|
|
