Holiday Images

The holidays are fast approaching and we're considering images for our holiday mailer that goes out to thousands of art buyers across the U.S. If you have a photograph that might relate well to a winter or holiday theme, please send it along to our designer, peter@wonderfulmachine.com.

Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Weldon!

by Amanda Hanley

Many of our clients and photographers have worked with and gotten to know our producer Ben Weldon over the years, so we’d like to share some happy news: earlier this month he married the love of his life Rose DeFinis at a beautiful outdoor ceremony in scenic Yardly, PA.

Read more...

New York Diary: Addison, O, Interview, DraftFCB

by Maria Luci

Last Thursday Jess, Sean and I packed up nearly 40 portfolios and headed to the Big Apple. We had four meetings squeezed into a tight schedule, with our first starting at 9:30 am. (This meant that our day started at 5:45 am.) We loaded up and drove straight to Addison, a branding and design firm, where we met up with art producer Marcie Heffron. Addison's focus is on information simplification with a long list of financial clients including Wells Fargo, Liberty Mutual, American Express and Bank of America.

Read more...

September Emailers

Last month we sent 56,511 emailers to 28,415 unique art buyers at ad agencies, magazines, and corporations in the Americas, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. Click on the thumbnails below to view the full versions. This month, in addition to our regular photographer bio emailers, we sent out emailers featuring our Home & Garden, Automotive, Beauty, and Food & Drink specialties.

Corporate Portraits

by Jess Dudley

Corporations tend to use photography in two main ways: to illustrate their internal communications (like company newsletters whose audience is primarily employees) and in external communications (like annual reports, capabilities brochures, sales brochures and press kits whose audience is shareholders, clients, vendors or the general public). Before the advent of digital photography and desktop publishing, most big corporations had a steady need for professional photography and design for their internal communications. But advances in technology have made it easier for ordinary employees to do what they once hired professionals to do. And though the level of quality may not be the same, it is often considered good enough. That’s rarely the case for external communications which can often have a significant impact on the perception of the company, and ultimately their bottom line.

Read more...

Kathryn Russell's New Groove

by Peter Clark

Originally from New York state, Kathryn Russell headed west towards Colorado for the great skiing. It was there that she fell in love with taking pictures and ended up a state away, attending the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. After graduating, she opened her own studio in the Los Angeles area, where she specialized in food and product work for clients ranging from Target to Random House...

In the past, Kathryn had been savvy enough to create her own promos and send them out to a personal mailing list she’d built up over the years. However, she came to realize that it was time to change the way they actually looked. Her old type treatment and promos felt a bit bland and lacked the emotion that a lot of her work had.

That’s where I came in. Kathryn wanted a new brand and felt that doing an email promo using the new look would be a great start. I was excited to help her create something eye-catching that a lot of potential clients would really enjoy receiving in their inboxes.

Read more...

Google Analytics Tutorial

by Bryan Mills

Google Analytics is a free service that provides website owners with advanced statistics on traffic to their website. It tracks raw page views and provides information on unique visitors, traffic sources, search engine usage and more. It’s a valuable tool for any website owner to not only help determine how much traffic is coming into their site, but also analyze where that traffic is coming from and what trends are affecting popularity.

Read more...

• Watermarks: Protecting your Images, or Damaging your Business?
  http://blog.photoshelter.com/2010/09/watermarks-protecting-your-images-or-damaging-your.html
• Q&A with Martin Parr
  http://www.bjp-online.com/british-journal-of-photography/q-and-a/1732951/q-a-martin-parr-brighton-photo-biennial

• HOW Magazine Mind Your Own Business Conference | Date: October 12-14
• Visual Connections New York 2010 | Date: October 13
• PACA International Conference | Date: October 15-17
• Shoot NYC | Date: October 28-29
• PDN PhotoPlus Expo | Date: October 28-30
• NYC FotoWorks | Date: October 28-30
• FotoWeek DC | Date: November 6-13

• How Logo Design Awards | Deadline: October 15
• Photography Masters Cup | Deadline: October 15
• International Aperture Awards | Deadline: October 15
• Portrait Photography thru the Lens | Deadline: October 20
• Webby Awards | Deadline: October 29
• Altpick Awards | Deadline: October 31

We are constantly finding new ways to promote our photographers. It's a good idea, at least once a year, to revisit our Jumpstart page so you can be reminded of how you can help us help you.

Check out our Resources page to find lists of portfolio manufacturers, website templates, mailing services, and more. We have arranged for Discounts with many of them, as a benefit for our members.

Learn how Our Staff members pull their weight around here.

We are constantly striving to improve all the ways we help our photographers. Your feedback is crucial to that effort. Please contact our chief executive Bill Cramer with your comments, compliments, criticisms, ideas, or suggestions.