NEWSLETTER  FOR THE END OF '82

FOGGING OF FILM WITH AN RB67
In our previous Newsletter we mentioned one of our customers was having problems with an RB67 fogging and he could not trace it.

However he has found out what caused his problem and it was.... Caused by going to and from a Polaroid back.

The Polaroid back for the RB67 requires that you take the 120 magazine mounting off for the Polaroid back to go on the camera.

The problem arises when you go to put the magazine back on again it can appear as if the magazine is on correctly, in other words it will lock in and everything, except it may not be quite in square, which of course will allow a little bit of light to leak through in strongly lit conditions.

Don't say this could not happen to me, as I would see it, because believe me the photographer that got caught is no novice so if you are changing from Polaroid to negative and back again, take care.

Michael Pemberton has told me that he experienced a light Leak problem and he finally traced it to what he calls a piece of masking paper in behind the mirror.

This had come unstuck and light was getting in through that when he was outside.   Evidently thats all that seals the mirror off when the mirror is in the down position.

So if you get an unusual fogging have a look in behind the mirror and see if a piece of masking paper is loose or has dropped down.

Treat the customer right
The signs are all there that 83 may not be a good year. It certainly won't be a good year for some.

The way of making sure that it is a good year for you is to make sure that every customer that step through the door is treated like a King.

You should treat every customer that steps through the door as if he may be your last customer.

Spend time with him and sell him, rather dashing through the sale and pushing him out the door to get ready for the next customer who may be or may not be stepping through the door.

All those passport customers who step through the door....  You know that in theory you are supposed to do a portrait of them it could be time to start considering doing this now.

Invitational sittings.. ..Don't hand these out holus bolus but hand them out with due calculation in looking at who could be a prospect.

Or better still...  do they have money to spend??

Perhaps its time to start considering premier proofs instead of 5x4s or 5x5s and using your print projector to make up the difference.

You must start planning some sort of promotion to be going on throughout the year.

If you take too many photographs at weddings and you can tell this by your returns box start looking at what you are taking and stop taking  those photographs that always get returned or if you have a heavy trigger finger outside the church and take 6 photos instead of one start looking at what you are doing in that aspect.

Whatever you do do not stop promoting promoting promoting.

NEWSLETTER FOR JUNE 1983      Volume No 63

BUSINESS EXECUTIVES
So many times I am tempted to write to Business Executives about how lousy their portraits are but I know the minute I do they are going to come back to me and say can you recommend a good business executive photographer.

Quite frankly I would be hard pushed to do this, but I know they must be about.... I can probably name about two to three people who I would go to for a photograph.  There are probably lots of others, are you one of them?

If so, drop me a line with some previews of a business executive you have done recently and give me ammunition so that when I write to somebody like Rank Xerox, whose
brochure I have in front of me with a bunch of candid photographs on it, I will be able to say,"Yes, you can go to XXXX Studio for great results"

ARE YOU A PROFESSIONAL

Are you a professional in photography?

Do you do more than just take money?
During the Van Moore course, Van had decided during an afternoon tea break on the spur of the moment, that he wanted to take a photograph of the writer.

At that particular stage the rest of the class were in all different areas, however, as soon as they saw that there was some action in the wind, they came down to observe what was happening     no problems, as that is what the class was all about....   THEN

One or two decided that they would try to help the photographer in either making me smile or adding props       in exactly the same manner that the guests or the ones in a bridal party would help       and no doubt be frowned upon by the same people who were "helping " in this case.

 Cont.Top of Page   

Is this professionalism?
When you observe a photograph being taken do you respect the author's (the photographer) integrity in letting him take the photograph himself?

Do you respect the inter-reaction between the photographer and his subject or do you try to help the photographer?

I can't think of any other so-called professional who would do this.

Certainly a doctor wouldn't rush up and help with an operation if he happened to be passing a hospital, nor would a lawyer rush in and help defend a client if he just happened to be passing a courthouse, even a plumber wouldn't rush over and help another plumber do his job if he was in the area , so just think before you "help" another photographer next time.

Is it professional?          Is it even the conduct of a tradesman?

There seems to be something about a person having a photograph taken that brings out the worst in those that do not know better.

They say, "Here's a person being photographed, let's see if we can make him laugh".  

PROMOTION IDEAS
When you consider your promotion ideas for the New Year don't forget the 4 good ideas of Patsy Hodges.
1.         You take double the amount of poses on a tots day and get all the children in on the one day.   Same studio fee different changes of clothes etc.
2.         The first 2 weeks in September you exchange a photographic sitting for a toy.   This has got to be promoted hard.   The toys go to a local hospital Intellectually Handicapped Home, whatever you have in the community, and if you approach your local Newspaper, Radio station or whatever you have in your town they should get right behind you and you should generate a lot of free publicity for this.  I would start promoting this in August and keep on pushing it.
3.         Get some balloons printed with the name of your studio, and fill them with helium great idea for giving balloons to children.
4.         Don't give away free sittings, but a $25 certificate (or any other amount of money) that can be used either on a sitting, photographs or whatever.

Patsy will not let them use the $25 certificate on the sitting fee but it must apply to the photographs.

NEWSLETTER for AUGUST 1983    Volume No 64

GUARANTEES
I suggest that every studio issue a guarantee for the photographs that they frame themselves. 
I would suggest that it be an unconditional guarantee for a specified number of years.  The guarantee would be that, within the specified number of years, you will replace the photograph if it is damaged in any way whatsoever, for a certain percentage of your current price list.

I would suggest that the guarantee could be something like this - that it be unconditional for, say three years, and then after that, for the following five years, say, 25% of your price list, the next five years, 50% of your price list, the next five years and older, 75% of your price list.

By doing this you have established, at the point of sale your warranty on this particular photograph.  This would then mean that if the photograph was to fade, come up in spots, be damaged by the frame dropping on the ground and the glass damaging the photograph, they would know under what conditions you were prepared to replace that photograph.

This could be in the form of a little sticker that goes on the back of every photograph and you could possibly date it and sign it in their presence, making a point that you are guaranteeing the photograph unconditionally for that period of time.

This, of course, could boost your frame sales as it would apply only to those photographs for which your customers have purchased frames and allowed you to frame it.

I suggest you make it unconditional for the number of years that you feel comfortable with as then it saves you having to dream up all the circumstances that you won't replace it within.

N.Z.P.P.A. DUNEDIN

Monday swung off at 9 o'clock to a real exciting course on marketing with Ronald Friedman, who is a Marketing and Management Consultant from America, currently employed as Senior Lecturer in Marketing at the University of Otago.

He had had some research on the Wedding and Portrait Industry and what he found was not very heartening.  The general image that photographers have with the public is not very high, and the general public's knowledge of the P.P.A. was, in actual fact, rather dismal.

This Monday morning's program was worthwhile attending the Convention for and we will certainly be hearing more on this from Ronald Friedman through our Close Up magazine.

PORTRAIT AND GENERAL GROUP MEETING
It was that the P and G Qualification be split up into different sections for purposes of public relations and promotion. 

I see this new qualification as a method of making the Association better known as a quality organization to members of the general public and also this qualification will be something that will give non-members of our Association some sort of impetus to join.