Grizzly Creek Gallery Helps Bring Serenity of Nature to High-Stress Workplaces

Georgetown, Colorado is a former silver-mining camp nestled in the mountains about 45 minutes west of Denver. Although the town only has about 1,000 year-round residents, a steady stream of tourists visit Georgetown to get a sense of what life must have been like during the Colorado Silver Boom in 1850s. The well-preserved, historic town has proven to be the ideal location for the Grizzly Creek Gallery operated by nature and wildlife photographer Gary Haines and his wife.  And in fact, the gallery is located in the town’s first framed commercial building, which dates back to 1867.

Most images displayed in the gallery are Gary’s, but the Grizzly Creek Gallery also represents other photographers who specialize in Colorado scenics. In addition to selling a wide selection of matted prints, notecards, and decorative furnishings to tourists, Grizzly Creek Gallery offers customized mounting and framing services and large-format digital printing. Gary also provides complimentary, on-site consultations to interior designers and art consultants who want help choosing which images would work best with existing home or office décor.

Designing Trade-Show Displays with Your Images

When you exhibit in a basic 10 x 10 ft. booth at a trade show, you only have about 3 to 5 seconds to grab the attention of each attendee strolling the aisles. That’s why it’s better to use a big, eye-catching visual in your booth graphics than multiple lines of small text.

Because trade-show graphics rely so heavily on high-res, high-quality visuals, they can represent a real opportunity for professional photographers who know how to print big.   

Photographer Clark Marten created these multi-panel and single-panel displays with LexJet’s I-Banner Spring Back Banner Stands and Water-Resistant Satin Cloth (www.clarkmarten.com)

If you already have a wide-format printer in your studio, we can teach you how to use it with LexJet materials and portable banner stands to create free-standing displays for bridal fairs, sports events, seminars, and other gatherings. You can also produce ready-to-go displays and sell them to business clients who hire you to shoot their product images or to seniors, athletes, or executives who want attention-getting ways to display their portraits.  

LexJet knows a lot about trade-show graphics because that’s how we got our start. In 1994, LexJet started selling new combinations of materials that could help exhibit producers fabricate more durable inkjet-printed trade-show graphics and exhibits. We continue to sell dozens of different materials and display systems for producing multiple types and sizes of graphics for trade shows, stores, museums, and events.

Whether you want a low-cost portable system for occasional use or a display rugged enough to endure a multi-stop event tour, we can help you choose the most cost-effective combination of print materials and display systems.

As for designing the graphics themselves, check out this great article entitled 10 Small-Booth Graphic Mistakes on Exhibitor Online.

The article starts out by emphasizing that the graphics “must clearly communicate who you are, what you’re selling, and what benefits your company’s product or services can offer.” Then, the article’s author Linda Armstrong explains how to avoid the 10 most common mistakes people make when creating graphics for 10 x 10 ft. booths. Here are the most common mistakes: 

  • Too Many Words
  • The Wrong Words
  • Competing Colors
  • Artsy Fonts
  • Tiny Type
  • Text Below Eye Level
  • Too Many Images
  • Poor Image Quality
  • Bad Lighting
  • Nicks and Dings (Damaged Graphics)
Fine Balance Imaging Studios displays banners stands both in their studio (above) and trade-show booth (below). (www.fbistudios.com)

Exhibit designers quoted in the article recommend using one large main image to fill the display instead of a smattering of small images. And, they say the graphic will be more eye-catching if the image is cropped to eliminate distracting details. 

The experts also advise graphic buyers not to use low-quality images that don’t have sufficient resolution to be enlarged without becoming blurry or grainy.

Many LexJet customers who are converting their images into displays like using  Water-Resistant Satin Cloth with an economical I-Banner spring-back banner stand. The fabric graphics are lightweight, don’t require lamination, and can easily be shipped and stored.  But LexJet offers dozens of options, including a retractable banner stand made of environmentally friendly bamboo and tabletop systems for set-up at smaller shows.

So call a LexJet account specialist at 800-453-9538 whenever you’re ready to get started. We’ll be happy to tell you more about how to convert your images into attractive, portable displays.

Five Good Reasons to Hire an Experienced Pro for Product Photography

LexJet’s In Focus newsletter helps professional photographers discover new ways to generate revenues by using wide-format inkjet printers to display their work, promote their businesses, or create new products and services. Our customers like receiving new business ideas because widespread, easy access to more powerful cameras and image-editing software has dramatically altered the traditional markets for photography services. It occurred to us that some current users of photography may not have considered the true value of hiring an experienced professional photographer.  So after featuring the innovative work of commercial photographer David Humphreys in the Printing for Profit section of our In Focus newsletter, we invited him to write a post explaining what marketing managers may be missing when they ask someone on their staff to shoot product photography.

What’s missing, explains David, is the artistry involved in capturing the true essence of a product. As a result, the product’s value or uniqueness can easily get lost among the miasma of similar-looking commercials and marketing campaigns. Here are the five top reasons he would list for hiring an experienced pro to shoot your product photography:

By David Humphreys 

1. A Unique Approach. The first and foremost reason to use an experienced pro is a completely unique and fresh approach to your project or campaign that is 100 percent reflective of your company, your marketing needs, and your brand. Too often, a company’s brand or desired focus gets lost when turning to a staff marketing intern or a stock photography resource.

2. Quality Images with Impact. The experience and expertise of your photographer ultimately shows through on the images of your product or brand. Collaboration with an expert, and the outside perspective they bring, can make a tremendous difference in whether a marketing campaign is memorable for years, or forgettable after a few seconds. Plus, professional photographers have a keen eye for small, even miniscule, details or color issues that can be corrected during printing and production.

3. Long-Term Dividends. Invest now to earn dividends down the road. Yes, adding another team member naturally adds another expense to your campaign, but that amount is a small percentage of the overall cost of product marketing. An expert image produced by an expert pro can make a difference between this quarter’s loss and next quarter’s gain. An expertly crafted image by the right pro has a higher likelihood of making a greater impact on your customers. Plus, the image can be designed to used in multiple forms and media.

4. An Outside Perspective. Having a fresh, outside perspective is always helpful when considering the overall sales effort for any product or the branding campaign for a company. Often times, executing a project entirely with in-house staff can dilute the power of the final campaign or make it bland. And these days, bland doesn’t draw the attention of consumers, nor does it make them want to buy.
 Finally, while new innovations in digital technology have brought photography to almost anyone interested, only professional photographers will bring thousands (or hundreds of thousands) of dollars in equipment to capture the myriad technical details involved in crafting an artistically great photograph. While often unnoticed in the 30-second window we have to make an impact on our consumers’ minds, these technical differences and creativity are often the precise factors that draw viewers to an image in the first place. In essence, equipment and technique matter, just like expertise, creativity and a new perspective.

 
 
 
 

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Based in Baton Rouge, La., David Humphreys’ studio includes equipment for shooting high-end digital as well as 35 mm, 2-1/4 in., 4 x 5 in., and 8 x10 in. film. He also has a state-of-the-art suite for image retouching, digital enhancement, and high-end color printing for art, décor prints and display graphics.

 

5. Equipment and Technique. Finally, while new innovations in digital technology have brought photography to almost anyone interested, only professional photographers will bring thousands (or hundreds of thousands) of dollars in equipment to capture the myriad technical details involved in crafting an artistically great photograph. While often unnoticed in the 30-second window we have to make an impact on our consumers’ minds, these technical differences and creativity are often the precise factors that draw viewers to an image in the first place. In essence, equipment and technique matter, just like expertise, creativity and a new perspective.

 HumphreysHeadShotDavid Humphreys has been a professional photographer for more than 30 years—photographing people, products and places around the world. He has been recognized for his work by many organizations, winning such awards as, most recently, a national ADDY for black and white photography from the American Advertising Federation,  the Photo District News Award from Nikon, the Communications Arts Award for advertising, and the Pete Goldsby Award. (www.fabphotos.com)

Why and How Pro Photographers Are Using Twitter

By Eileen Fritsch

PPElogo_mainAt PhotoPlus Expo today, I attended a fabulous session entitled The Twitter Revolution: Changing the Photographic World 140 Characters at a Time. It was a panel discussion, in which Jack Hollingsworth, Seshu Badrinath, Taylor Davidson, Jim Goldstein, and Rosh Sillars talked about why Twitter is such a powerful marketing tool for photographers and how it has changed the ways they think about branding and self-promotion. (I know this topic isn’t directly related to printing, but knowing how to connect to customers in different markets is important for photographers who want to get the most revenue from their wide-format inkjet printers.)

Hollingsworth noted that pro photographers can attract Twitter followers like rock stars because so many people are fascinated with photography. But he cautioned that you shouldn’t join the Twitter conversation” until you have a clear strategy in mind for what you’d like to accomplish. When you write your bio for your Twitter account, word it carefully so you’ll attract the type of followers you want. Consider your bio like a unique selling proposition, in which you define what makes you different.     

Here are some other tips the panelists provided:  

Twitter isn’t what you think it is. It’s not a time-sucking tool for mindless chatter, but rather a new media platform. If you like being on top of the latest news, trends, and ideas, tune into Twitter. It’s actually an enormous, searchable database, through which you are showing other people who you are. It’s also a database through which you can learn a great deal about what’s happening in the world and new markets you want to enter. As with any database, you can control what type of information you’d like to extract and use. For example, if you are an architectural photographer and want to learn more about how about architects think and what’s important to them, you can use search tools to find and follow architects on Twitter. (Then, when you see an opportunity to offer some advice and introduce yourself, you can do so.)

Use Twitter as a soft marketing tool to get referrals. Before you even get around to showing a client your work, you can use Twitter to let someone know who you are and how you think. Once you establish credibility, trust, and rapport, potential clients will invite you to show you them your work. But don’t overmarket and use Twitter simply to promote yourself. The more helpful you are to others and the more good information you provide, the more you’ll get noticed and trusted. One reason Twitter is so popular is because it humanizes communications and provides an escape from a world in which we’re constantly bombarded with marketing messages.  

Twitter creates an intimacy that doesn’t exist in direct mail. And it can be far more productive than making multiple phone calls to multiple prospects. Some photo buyers in the seminar audience said that they hate being interrupted during the day by phone calls from photographers and vendors. But since they’re toiling away at their computers anyway, they don’t mind interacting with photography pros through Twitter.

Use your real name instead of some sort of funky made-up name, because your name is your brand. Then, make sure that every tweet reflects how you want to be known. With social networking, a brand isn’t what you say about yourself, but what others say about you. Would you rather be known for continually making comments that are snide, hyper-promotional or self involved? Or would you rather earn a reputation as an expert who is helpful and generous with their knowledge?

You’re creating opportunities for the right people to find you. Even if you only have a few followers, you can potentially reach millions of people if your tweets are remarkable enough to be re-tweeted again and again. Plus, hashtags make it easy for non-followers to find your comments through searches. Major corporations and media organizations are following Twitter to find new sources of information and expertise about various topics.  

In effect, Twitter provides a platform through which you can connect with lots of other people and subtly give them reasons to buy from you. It allows your work to reach people who should know what you’re doing. One of the panelists observed that great work spreads better, faster, and cheaper than great marketing. But that doesn’t mean you should be posting your images on Twitter, because Twitter is actually more about your personality than your portfolio.   

I have lots more to report from PhotoPlus Expo, including news from HP, Canon and Epson and some interesting new suppliers of print-finishing services and equipment. I’ll be writing a complete wrap-up in the next issue of LexJet’s In Focus newsletter.

Learn How to Get More From Your Wide-Format Inkjet Printer

By Eileen Fritsch

Décor Photography: Because photographing food is one of Humphreys’ specialties as a commercial photographer, he offers many artistic images of fresh fruits and vegetables in The Carlysle Collection, his online site for décor photography. Many of his images are ideal for the walls of restaurants, kitchens, or food stores. Humphreys will make prints of any of the images in the collection in sizes ranging from 8 x 10 in. up to 30 x 40 in. Typically, he uses either LexJet’s Sunset Select Canvas or Sunset Photo eSatin Paper. To see more of Humphreys’ décor photography, visit www.thecarlyslecollection.com
Décor Photography: Because food is one of Humphreys’ specialties as a commercial photographer, he offers artistic images of fresh fruits and vegetables in The Carlysle Collection, his online site for décor photography. Humphreys will make prints of any image in the collection in sizes ranging from 8 x 10 in. up to 30 x 40 in. Photo ©David Humphreys

At PhotoPlus Expo, which opens Oct. 22 in New York, many sessions will help photography professionals adapt to the changing economics of the photography business. Some sessions will explain how to branch out into new fields such as weddings, portraiture, cinematography, or fine-art photography. Other sessions will talk about different marketing channels and techniques, including websites, social networks, personal branding, photo books, and selling stock direct.  It will be a very timely conference, and I expect to return with many new ideas and sources of helpful information.

Many of the business diversification and marketing themes at PhotoPlus Expo dovetail nicely with the content I’m developing for future issues of LexJet’s In Focus newsletter. If you’re not familiar with In Focus, check out the current issue and explore the archives.

One of the main editorial goals of In Focus is to help photography professionals find ways to generate new revenues, especially by doing more with the pro-model Canon, Epson, and HP printers they purchase from LexJet.

For example, for the most recent issue of In Focus, I profiled David Humphreys an accomplished, Addy-award-winning commercial photographer who runs the Fabphotos studio in Baton Rouge, LA.  He owns both an HP Designjet Z3100 and an Epson Stylus Pro 9900 and uses a variety of materials from LexJet, including LexJet Sunset Select Canvas, Sunset Coatings, and Sunset Photo eSatin Paper.

His primary business is high-end product photography for corporate clients, publications, and organizations. But he also markets décor prints online through The Carlysle Collection and creates one-of-a-kind, photo-collage prints that he sells through fine-art galleries.  And with connections he made through the gallery, he has started making prints and limited-edition reproductions for artists and other photographers.

Although this diversification has helped his photography business, Humphreys says it does require almost constant attention to marketing, including learning more about new markets for your work, finding ways to differentiate yourself, and producing and promoting high-quality work that people will gravitate to.

During the transition from film to digital photography, Humphreys says he invested a lot of time and money in researching and buying new equipment. Now he is focusing on generating more revenues with the equipment he already owns—including his printers.

“I used to send all my work to a lab,” says Humphreys. “But now I not only print 95% of my own work, but I also do high-end printing for other photographers and artists.” When he shoots products for commercial clients, he will sometimes print banners and displays for them as well.

Humphreys uses different signature photos in his e-mails, depending on whether he is corresponding with clients for his editorial, fine-art, or decor photography.
Humphreys uses different signature photos in his e-mails, depending on whether he is corresponding with clients for his editorial, fine-art, or decor photography.

As printing has become a more important part of his business, Humphreys relies on LexJet for continuing advice and support (which is partly why we publish In Focus).

 “I feel like I can call my rep Darren Vena any time, ask him questions, and have him research different types of materials for me,” says Humphreys. “The information LexJet shares with its customers is a wonderful thing.”

If you’d like to learn more about how to get more from your printer, call a LexJet account specialist for more details at 800-453-9538 or subscribe to LexJet’s In Focus newsletter.

In addition to the In Focus article, Finding New Markets for Photography Talents, you may also be interested in the article that describes Fantastic Deals on New Printers Through Oct. 31.

Businesses of All Sizes Can Afford Custom Wall Art

By Rob Finkel

At LexJet, we work hard to help customers find ways to do more with their wide-format inkjet printers. One of the coolest things that can be done with a wide-format inkjet printer is to make high-quality enlargements of good photographs. Prints can be made at all different sizes and on many different materials, depending on where and how the image will be displayed.

To add a focal point to the banquet room of Norton’s Restaurant in Red Wing, Becker created a five-panel panorama shot of the town. Each 40 x 40 in. panel is printed on LexJet Sunset Photo eSatin and mounted on hardboard with a reverse frame standoff. “The image on the far left was deliberately put on a set back wall to create visual interest,” explains Becker.
For Norton’s Restaurant in Red Wing, MN, John Becker created a five-panel panorama shot of the town. Each 40 x 40 in. panel is printed on LexJet Sunset Photo eSatin and mounted on hardboard with a reverse frame standoff. “The image on the far left was deliberately put on a set back wall to create visual interest,” explains Becker.

As result, many managers of hotels, restaurants, stores, theatres, and corporate offices now realize they no longer have to use mass-produced posters or paintings to decorate their facilities. Instead, they can afford to custom-decorate their buildings with images that have special meaning to their organizations, their communities, and their customers.

This growing demand for custom wall art is creating new opportunities for talented photographers, artists, and other creative imaging professionals to replace some of revenues that have been lost to declining demand for other types of imaging services.

In a previous post we showed you the 80 x 120-in. mural that photographer Norman Gilbert output onto a wallcovering material for the entranceway to the Tower Room Restaurant atop the tallest city in Memphis, TN.

In this post, I’d like to present an example that makes it clear that big-city businesses aren’t the only ones interested in buying custom art for their walls.

The owners of Red Wing Framing & Fine Art Printing Company recently sent us some images that they had produced for small, local restaurants in the quaint, Mississippi River town of Red Wing, MN.  Their story is a perfect example of how entrepreneurial, forward-thinking imaging businesses are adapting to the changing markets for images and framing services. 

Red Wing Framing & Fine Art Printing is one of three visually oriented businesses owned by photography-enthusiast John Becker and his wife Valerie, who has achieved Certified Picture Framing status from the Professional Picture Framers Association. Together, they also run Red Wing Portrait Studio and Red Wing Digital Studio.

While custom framing continues to represent a big share of their business, more and more of their work is now related to what the Beckers describe as “art project management.”   

“Customers have a certain objective in mind of what they want to accomplish with the images on their wall,” says John Becker. “We work with them to figure out what their pain points are and how we can relieve them.” Red Wing can help clients select the right images, then suggest different options for printing, mounting, and installing them.

For example, when the owner of the Bev’s Café restaurant first consulted Red Wing Framing, she knew the type of artistic look she wanted to create for her establishment. But she also wanted to make sure that the new look didn’t alienate her long-time, regular customers. So, Becker found 10 images from the 1930s that had been donated to the local history center, scanned and restored them and printed them out at 24 x36 in. on the HP Designjet Z6100 that Red Wing Framing & Fine Art uses for a wide variety  of art reproduction, retail graphics, and professional photo enlargement projects.

The images were printed in black and white on LexJet’s 11 mil Sunset Photo eSatin 300g paper and matted with 8 ply neutral white mats and displayed in simple black frames. The historic photographs have been a big hit, especially with older customers who can remember visiting some of the locales depicted in the image.

Compared to some of the multi-store art-management projects that Red Wing Framing now handles for corporate clients, that restaurant project was small. But John Becker talks about the project with great sense of pride and satisfaction because the client was so pleased with the results. He says, “It accomplished exactly what she wanted to do.”

Becker chose to print sepia-toned images to complement the brick walls of the restaurant Potter's on Main.
Becker printed sepia-toned images to complement the brick walls of the restaurant Potter's on Main.

For a different restaurant project at Potter’s on Main, Becker produced two series of wall prints. For the first series, he hired a model wearing a vintage dress to pose at various sites around town. For the second series on an adjacent wall (shown below), he shot photos at the annual Flood Run® motorcycle ride/run that raises money for a children’s hospital.  He printed all of the images at 40 x 40 in. and 26 x 40 in. onto LexJet Sunset Photo eSatin 300g paper and mounted them on hardboard with a reverse frame standoff on the backside. 

You can read more about some of the other projects of Red Wing Framing & Fine Art Printing in an upcoming issue of LexJet’s In Focus newsletter or visit their website (www.RedWingFraming.com)

If you’d like to learn more about how to use a wide-format inkjet printer to convert art and photographs into custom décor, give us a call at 800-453-9538. If you don’t reach me directly, any one of the account specialists on LexJet’s staff would be happy to help you.

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