Inspired by WPPI

Photography by Whitney and David Scott

Today I am flying home from Las Vegas where I have spent the last four
days in the Black River Imaging booth at the WPPI Wedding and Portrait
Photographers Conference and Expo. Over 16,000 professional and
aspiring professionals attend this conference every year to improve
their skills and network with their peers.

The thing that impresses me most about WPPI is the energy level. The
people who attend the WPPI convention are passionate about photography
and eager to learn more. Those who have been in the industry for years
are enthusiastic about sharing their experiences and excited to learn
more. The event is particularly supportive to those just getting
started in the industry.

Photography by Corrine Alavekios

I have been attending WPPI since the early 1990's when the show was
tightly focused on wedding photography. It has been exciting to watch
it grow and expand to cover birth, preschool, sports and fashion
photography as well as wedding and family portraits.  The classes
cover everything from lighting and posing to business planning and
law.

Black River Imaging has changed a lot since the 1990s too. In those
days the images were all captured on film which was processed on giant
dip and dunk Refrema machines. We used Lucht V7 printers to make any
print size you wanted. Today the book and album binding areas are
bigger than the print room and our fastest growing product lines are
luxury stationery and wall decor printed on metal.

Photography by Amanda Reed

I really enjoy meeting with our customers during the trade show. It's
a perfect venue to learn what we're doing well, where we need to
improve and what kind of new products people want. We introduce new
products continuously, and the conversations we have during the show
influence every product development meeting.

The Black River imaging booth is divided into two sections. Half the
booth is used to display products including the new lay flat picture
books and the LOFT line of luxurious cards and stationery. The
products that draw the most attention are usually those that have rich
textures and unique shapes.

Photography by Dawn Shields

The other half of the booth is dedicated to education. The Black River
Imaging featured artists, whose images accompany this post, teach a
series of classes about photography and the business of photography.

I always leave WPPI inspired, invigorated and looking forward to
coming back next year.

Photography by Dixie Dixon

Photography by Elise Ellis

Photography by Martha Dameron

Photography by Spencer Beorup

Photography by Vanessa Joy

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Sincerely Social


The Creativity Paradox will be taking a break from publishing for the next two weeks.  Please look for our next post on April 4th.

Stages of Investment

Books by Zen Oracle

Most people desire the independence that comes with financial security. For most of us, that independence is acquired though careful investments of time, attention and money. Here is a process that has worked for generations.

Invest in Learning a Trade

In the beginning, select a skill you love doing and learn to do it extremely well.  Enroll in the classes required and study diligently. In the workplace, identify the best people in your field and try to emulate their techniques. Read all of the books, manuals and trade publications that are relevant. Most of all, practice constantly with the goal of becoming better everyday.

While you are investing your thought and energy in learning a trade, remember to save five to ten percent of every paycheck. You will need it later.

Invest in Learning to Lead

There is a limit to what you can accomplish by yourself. The most skilled craftsman in the world is limited to what can be completed by a single pair of hands in a day. If you want to achieve more, you must learn to lead others.

Leadership requires knowledge, optimism and empathy. Knowledge is important because people won't follow someone who is obviously wrong. Optimism matters so it is clear that you believe the mission is possible. Empathy is critical because people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. It needs to be obvious that you care about the mission, the organization and about them.

While much of leadership is a state a mind, it is also a learned skill. Pay attention to the leaders you admire and watch how they do it. Even if you feel you have a deep understanding of your field, this is not the time to cease learning. Continue to study the new developments in your field, but broaden your reading to include techniques in management and leadership and the biographies of great leaders.

By now, saving five to ten percent of your earnings should be a habit and your savings are beginning to accumulate. A stock mutual fund is the easiest way to ensure a return higher than the rate of inflation.

Invest in Learning to Own

For those fortunate enough to grow old, there will come a time when they no longer have the interest or perhaps the ability to actively lead every day. At that point, independence and security come through ownership. Companies pay dividends and continue to appreciate in value without constant supervision.

When looking ahead to this stage of life, it is important to make sure that the savings accumulated are deployed where they can earn the most. Unfortunately this is a difficult skill to learn because most of the recommendations in the news and most professional advice is wrong. As in the other stages, pay attention to the methods of those who have been successful: Shelby Davis, Warren Buffet, Peter Lynch.

Read the books, learn the basics and apply the wisdom acquired over your lifetime to develop a methodology and style that works for you.

Study is the Constant

Amazon probably appreciates this post because the one thing is remains constant through all of these stages is reading and learning. One of the books I am currently reading is Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. One of the most remarkable traits of our greatest President is that he never stopped reading and never stopped learning.

What are you learning this week?


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You Would Even Say it Glows

New Fire and Ice by Thomas Mangelsen

A few weeks ago, a friend asked me to take a look at the images at the Thomas Mangelsen Images of Nature gallery in Las Vegas. These images are not only visually stunning, they also seem to change with different light levels and the gallery exhibited some of them in a room with a dimmer to demonstrate this effect.

Most of the images in the gallery were printed on silver halide photo paper laminated to the back of a sheet of acrylic. This is a beautiful way to mount a photographic print, but most of the visual impact, including the interesting effect with the dimmer, was in the original photography. These images will exhibit similar characteristics when printed on high gloss metal or any other method which has crisp and vibrant color reproduction.

Cypress Sunset by Thomas Mangelsen

This style of photography draws characteristics from a group of American painters in the mid 1800s who painted landscapes and seascapes that were infused with light. These “luminist” painters created works that radiate light, whether from a window of a stone cottage or through shafts of sunlight penetrating through the clouds. This was was a favorite technique of the Hudson River School and was incorporated into western landscapes by Albert Bierstadt and others.

Between the Sierra Nevadas by Albert Bierstadt

Luminism strongly influenced the popular “Painter of Light” Thomas Kinkade who called his use of light the “Kinkade Glow.” He has explained that his method for creating the glow relies on three visual aspects: “soft edges, a warm palette and an overall sense of light.” The effect is particular effective for Kinkade in suggesting romanticism and nostalgia with a sense of mystery.

 

The Beginning of a Perfect Day by Thomas Kinkade

To emulate the Luminist style, your image should contain saturated pastels, particularly the warmer shades of yellow and orange. The edges of the image can be darker so the eye is drawn to the main source of light and the reflections the light creates.

After becoming familiar with this style of painting and photography, I decided to dig through my own image archives looking for examples. I believe these images of a sunrise over the Indian Ocean, which my wife Terri captured last year in Mozambique, fit the description perfectly.

Indian Ocean Sunrise One by Terri Williams

Indian Ocean Sunrise Two by Terri Williams

I had some of these printed by Black River Imaging on 16x20 metal and tested the effect with a light and dimmer in my dining room. The pictures really do change dramatically as the light level changes. 

Try it for yourself and see what you think!

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Mizzou in 3D

Lead, Follow AND Get Out of the Way!

The phrase "Lead, follow, or get out of the way" has often, and probably incorrectly, been attributed to Thomas Paine.

As a leadership philosophy, the admonishment is not quite right.  It works better with "and" instead of "or." A great leader leads, follows and gets out of the way.


A great leader leads by clearly articulating the mission and building the right team. A leader follows the conversation about the mission and considers how input from the team should refine the mission. Finally, a great leader gets out of the way and lets the team accomplish their mission.

Are you leading or getting in the way?


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Desktop 3D Printers from Stratasys

For me, it started with Stratasys, the 3D printer company. I had been researching additive manufacturing tools for building a new product and had even visited the Stratasys headquarters to see the machines in operation. Ultimately, we selected an Objet printer for the project and our new product was not successful.

Statasys remained intriguing however.  This was a mostly unknown technology that seemed like it could change the world.  So after carefully research and consideration, I took some of our savings out of some slow growing mutual funds and purchased a portion of the company.

Since that purchase, the company has grown, added new printers, introduced new modeling materials and made several acquisitions.  As an owner, it has been thrilling to watch.

There is an important psychological difference between buying stock and purchasing part of a company, even if the actual financial transaction is exactly the same. Often, buying stocks is similar to a poker game; you try to guess what the other stock buyers are thinking and whether investor sentiment will push the stock price up. In purchasing a company, the focus is on the intrinsic value of the company, the suitability of the products for the marketplace and the skill the management team has in operating the company.

As an owner, I have a responsibility to understand the marketplace and know the strengths and weaknesses of our products compared to those of our competitors. I need to pay attention to revenues and margins.  I need to watch cash flows just like any other business owner. For me, this is both exciting and good practice for the assessments that I have to make regularly for my employer.

Since that initial investment, I have purchased a few other companies. Ownership is a lot more challenging and rewarding than following the daily fluctuations in an index fund. Instead of watching the game, you are in the game.


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Opportunity in Personalized Manufacturing

Yesterday's disclosure of stellar performance by Shutterfly proves something I have known all along: there is tremendous opportunity in personalized manufacturing. The online photo imaging company's fourth quarter profit jumped 50%, topping their own estimates and exceeding analyst expectations.

The company no longer separates prints from other personalized photo items in their financial statements, but it is a safe bet that their 35% increase in full year revenue did not come from making more 4x6 prints. The growth came from stationery, greeting cards, photo books and photo based merchandise.

There are still people in the photo industry complaining about the changes that have taken place over the last decade. In the meantime, Shutterfly continues to demonstrate what can be accomplished through consistent new product development, continuous improvement to web user interfaces and aggressive marketing.

How does your growth compare to Shutterfly?

What are you planning to do about it?

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Textures and Shapes

Textures and Shapes

LOFT cards from Black River Imaging are thick and luxurious!

I have just returned from working back-to-back photography trade shows for Black River Imaging: Imaging USA in Atlanta and the Sports and School Photography Annual Conference in Las Vegas. In my visits with professional photographers, they want textures and shapes!

Texture as in the 51 point thick LOFT cards printed with a luxurious eggshell finish that invokes memories of the letterpress era.

Shape as in the elegant die cuts around the edges of the specialty shaped cards.

Texture as in the snakeskin and ostrich leather choices available for the Mosaic albums.

What are your favorite trends in photographic products?

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