Pipeline construction on ONEOK's Viking Pipeline in Wisconsin.

It was a little perplexing how to prepare a multi-photo entry for the Houston IABC Bronze Quill Awards.  I was in search of a presentation that would showcase my entry of pipeliners constructing the ONEOK Viking Pipeline extension in Wisconsin.

After reviewing options from Adobe, Photo Mechanic and iPhoto; I finally turned to I movie for my solution.

Apple’s iMovie allowed me the tools to format the photos, add titles, transitions and even music.  The ability to download the created slide show in a variety of formats from low res to HD was a big plus.

The only downside of using this system is that the still photos must be imported into iPhoto first.  As a professional photographer I forgo using iPhoto in favor of Photo Mechanic by Camera Bits.  The upload to iPhoto is simple, but in reality iMovie needs to access all photo files.

For my money iMovie is more than just a tool for those using video, it can also be a great asset to showcase the work of the still photographer.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The real reason Palin is so upset about the “retarded” comment, and has called for the resignation of Emanuel, is because she sees it as a way to remove one more word the media can use to describe her comprehension of political issues.

Ever since the Katie Couric interview, there has been a realization that there is a retarded person in the Palin family, and it is not her “special needs” child.  The fancy dressing hillbilly from Alaska continued her retarded act at the Tea Party Convention in Nashville last week.

After three months of presidential campaigning advice and handling by some of the best and brightest advisers, Palin learned what to wear, how to walk and chew gum at the same time, but eventually failed the “don’t be retarded and write on your hand so the media can see” part of the training.

The real scary part of this whole controversy is the fact that the media has played into Palin’s hand. They are afraid to say the “R” word. That is retarded. What the f*ck, oh wait a minute, shouldn’t that be “f’ck”. Actually the sad part of the whole controversy is the fact that neither Palin or the media is criticizing Emanuel for saying the “F” word.  I guess that Palin, and the right wing hillbilly conservatives she represents, have given up on that cause, or they just really must like to “f’ck around” too much.

As that great philosopher Lewis Black so eloquently summed up, “No one in their right mind would ever call a “special’s needs” person retarded.” Retarded in todays society has the new meaning of “politicians, religious zelots, and media acting in an irresponisble and stupid way.”

PS:  For those looking for the correct derogatory  usage of retarded, it is;  ”you retard.”

The News Group Nets clients at LSR groundbreaking. Lonnie Champagne, General Manager, Louisiana Sugar Cane ProductsAlan Willits, President, Business Unit Leader, Cargill Corn Milling North America, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and John Sheptor, President and CEO of Imperial Sugar at groundbreaking of new Louisiana Sugar Refining plant.

Event publicity is a tough business. There always seems to be something sexier, more appealing competing for the media’s attention. On top of that, resources of today’s mainstream media to cover stories is stretched by cutbacks and shrinking budgets.

So, what to do when a client asks for coverage of an event that’s to be held in a small town, 35 miles from any major media city?

The team at The News Group Net, of which I’m a partner, was recently given the assignment to handle news media coverage for a ground breaking event near New Orleans – a major, new cane sugar refinery is being built at Gramercy, La., along the Mississippi, 35 miles miles from both New Orleans and Baton Rouge. The sugar refinery will become the largest in North America.

Our clients included the groups that make up the joint venture – Imperial Sugar Company, Cargill and the Louisiana Sugar Growers.

Media surround our client, Lonnie Champagne, General Manager, Louisiana Sugar Cane Products, at groundbreaking event.

But, we had another formidable problem, besides distance – the event was scheduled for February 3, in the middle of Super Bowl week as New Orleans Saints were getting ready for the big game. Media attention, understandably, was focused on the hometown team’s first trip to the Super Bowl.

Our first task was to find a compelling and legitimate news story angle to appeal to the media, and that part was easy – the sugar refinery, biggest in North America, would be an economic development engine for southern Louisiana, attracting as many as 500 construction jobs for starters.

In this digital era of media, our focus turned to creating a content-rich media resource Web site which we got online in less than a day. We got lucky and registered a great domain name – LouisianaSugarNews.com. Credible-sounding and appropriate. This is important – the site’s sole purpose was to serve as a news media resource.

Reporter interviewing lan Willits, President, Business Unit Leader, Cargill Corn Milling North America.

Working together with Nicole Riechert, an outstanding professional on Cargill’s corporate communications team, we drafted an advance media alert and specific news stories for the site. Ed Lallo of The News Group Net went on-location to shoot high resolution news photos and HD video.

No news releases were used because releases are really the antithesis of what today’s media wants … reporters want stories. We created no media kit because everything was online. Rather, we also put all high res photos and HD videos on USB “thumb” drives that we handed out to the media.

Local Union leader Lloyd Kliebert, rode his bike to be interiewed by the media.

The traditional PR business … which is slow to embrace using the powerful tools of real news stories, authentic online news sites, photos and video … remains largely paralyzed in a kind of press release catatonic state, generating a blizzard of releases that the media no longer pays attention to.

We also avoided the paid news services – such as Vocus, Businesswire and PR Newswire – that lazy PR agencies persist in using even though they rarely achieve results. Instead, Hattie Horn of our team created a custom media list for southern Louisiana.

John Sheptor, President and CEO of Imperial Sugar, does interview with television media.

Hattie is absolutely the best media relations pro at finding the media contacts that really count.

When our media alert first went out 10 days before the event, it resulted in a national Associated Press story, among other local stories. We know of a little secret about how to get AP coverage and bypass all competing PR hype.

The event on February 3 was … well, astonishingly successful. It was covered by 21 reporters and photographers from newspapers, TV stations and trade magazines. The New Orleans Times-Picayune ran a half page about the event in the Metro section the next day. One television news team fed the story to 17 TV stations throughout the state.

The News Group Net doesn’t do PR. We work with organizations to achieve substantial results through what we call Corporate Journalism … and, it is powerfully effective.

I started ordering equipment from Vic when he was a sales person at Alkit in New York. At the time I found him knowledgeable, friendly and willing to go the extra mile in service.

Over the 20 plus years I have been his customer, I have followed him to Adorama and then later to Calumet. During those years I have sent countless amount of business his way from friends, relatives and other photographers.

I can no longer recommend Victor Frey, or Calumet to anyone, and I would suggest that others also re-evalute their business relationships with Vic and Calumet.

The downfall of Calumet and Vic started late in the fall of 2009. I had ordered a new Canon flash and needed it delieved by a certain date. The flash never arrived, and Calumet blamed their shipper UPS for having equipment failure.

A few weeks later my business partner at The News Group Net ordered a video camera from Calumet and Vic on my suggestion. Again, the camera was needed in DC on a certain date, but once again Calumet and Vic did not deliever.

The straw that broke the camels back happened two weeks ago. While in New York City for a Syracuse Newhouse School conference, I stopped by Calumet and in person placed a large order that I told Vic needed to be delivered to Austin by the following Wednesday.

To my dismay only part of the order showed up, two weeks later UPS, Calumet and Victor Frey could never figure out how to get the rest of the order to me.

I expressed by dismay with the company (a little to loudly and in no uncertain terms) to both Vic and the store manager John (and I apologize to my readers, I could never understand him when he said his last name). Neither one really expressed any kind of apologetic attitude pushing the blame on UPS, and the store manager, John whats-his-name, promised to looked into the matter and call me back…. that call never took place.

As photographers are dropping like flys because of the downward economy, it is good to know that Calumet is be making a fortune on lousy service, enough so that they can lose a paying customer of more than 20 years.

Social Media "Gurus"

Whether speaking before an audience and advising clients, I caution them to wary of today’s proliferation of self-anointed social media gurus. Don’t be taken-in by big talk, big claims. A lot of followers on Twitter does not an expert make.

Most such self-appointed gurus have questionable-to-no credentials … even those who were among the first on Twitter (possibly because they were unemployed) or those who have had other people write books on their behalf and are now on the lecture circuit. There’s often little behind the smoke and mirrors.

I’ve found that many social media gurus lack experience in communications or marketing, quite a few don’t have blogs (even those extol the virtues of blogging), and a simple search of Google reveals nothing about them to support their grandiose claims. They are, in my opinion, phonies.

At the core of social media is the essential need for established credentials in communications.

The New York journalist and writer BL Ochman and I seem to be on the same page. She recently wrote on her WhatsNext blog, “Self-Proclaimed Social Media Gurus on Twitter Multiplying Like Rabbits,” and I could not agree more. She’s given permission for me to re-post her findings:

In May 09 when we first used Tweepsearch to count of the Twitter bios of self-proclaimed social media gurus, experts, superstars and ninjas there were 4,487. A mere seven months later, we were shocked to see that there are now nearly 16.000. They are multiplying like rabbits.

Here’s a breakout (according to Tweepsearch) of the 15,740 self-proclaimed social media gurus we discovered in our most recent search:

As your company or agency scrambles to get up to speed on social media, it is wise to remember that “guru” is something someone else calls you. The consultants others are likely to call gurus:

• bring experience to the table;
• sell solutions, not formulas;
• don’t promise that social media will provide a quick fix for your bottom line.

Check out BL Ochman’s blog because she knows what she is talking about.

Read more: http://www.davidhenderson.com/2010/01/26/self-proclaimed-gurus-multiplying-like-rabbits/#ixzz0djqPbrxb
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

Imperial Sugar online newsroom - ISCNewsroom.com - powered by Wordpress

Ever since the dawn of what’s called Web 2.0 around 2004, a wide spectrum of exciting online tools have fueled an explosion in blogs, online sharing, web-based communities, social networks, streaming video and greater user control over online content. It’s all designed for better communication and connecting online. The original and mostly static style of HTML Web sites has gone the way of the hula hoop. Today, blog technology rules, not only as the preferred “under the hood” software of an estimated 200 million blogs worldwide, but also to power countless online news outlets, social media sites and an exciting new generation of interactive online newsrooms, powered by the dynamic features of Wordpress (wordpress.org). A primary objective of these newsrooms is to help manage the online conversation by becoming an active and primary exchange for news, information, stories, comment and sharing:

• News stories are written by working journalists in a concise, balanced and legitimate news style, free of sales pitches and self-promotion.
• Profiles of employees, executives and experts alike, are drafted as appealing features, giving personal insight and showing a distinctive human side to an organization.
• Photos, shot by accomplished photojournalists, are used widely and add rich dimension to online newsroom stories. Online photo galleries provide easy access to high resolution images by the media.
• Contact links instantly alert specific people assigned to media inquiries or questions from customers.
• Social media tools are built-in to each story to provide easy posting to Twitter, rating on Digg, emailing to a colleague or any number of social networking sites.
• Search engine optimization or SEO runs invisibly and automatically to ping or alert every search engine to new activity and stories and to boost the all-important ranking on major search engine pages.

The online newsroom of the Imperial Sugar Company, launched in May 2009, has become the most popular site in the global sugar industry. It was developed and is managed by the corporate journalists at News Group Net LLC.

[Here's David Henderson's article in the January/February 2010 issue of IABC Communication World]

Strategic planning, storytelling and clear messages have always worked to point us forward.
They will do so in the digital era too.

Today’s digitally-driven information revolution is creating a new-world business matrix and model. Organizations large and small are finding they can simply bypass mainstream media to communicate their news, in their way, directly and effectively, to their publics. They can pick their media: Web sites, blogs, YouTube videos, and online sharing and social networking sites.

This communications tsunami is rolling our way and many of us are not sure what to do. We see the tide going out fast and far. But standing on the beach and waiting for it to roar back in is not an option.

So how do we get to high ground that’s well above the communications storm surge?

Let’s begin with the latest hot and sexy new trend in digital communications: social media. Today’s self-proclaimed disciples of social media preach about the need to get onboard the bandwagon, and wax rhapsodic about the features, functions and benefits of various technological bells and whistles.

But few possess the expertise to authentically exploit the medium by incorporating strategic planning or skillfully developed messages into this new communications juggernaut.

Even fewer extol the importance of telling an appealing story.

In communications, the tactical use of social media for social media’s sake can be terribly shallow and short-sighted.

This digital era is unquestionably the most exciting period of my career as a journalist and strategic communications advisor. But as an early adapter of online and blog technology, I believe it’s only going to work for us on a sustained basis when we stop long enough to embrace the core elements of effective strategic communications to drive any social media or online communications initiative.

Strategic planning, storytelling and clarity of messages have always worked like a beacon to point us forward. They will do so in the digital era, too.

Today’s online social media is just another in a long line of tactical communications delivery tools that stretches back to storytelling around the tribal fire, epic poems, parchment, books, postal mail, the fax machine and email. In fact, think back to when email first hit the big time. Pundits predicted world-shaking possibilities. Nobody predicted spam.

Brooke Gladstone of National Public Radio’s “On the Media” program says, “Journalists are taught to talk and write in human terms. Tell me a story.” We are all part of a storytelling culture in America. It’s been that way forever, and it’s no different in countries, cultures and communities around the world. We share infinite variety of stories about the human experience, and often the best stories are repeated over and over.

Even though an opportunity often missed by a PR industry seemingly obsessed with traditional press releases and predictable promotions, the use of storytelling cuts through competitive clutter far more effectively and with greater influence than anything else in an organization’s marketing or PR arsenal. It gets to the heart of what’s special about your organization and what you have to say.

My colleague Anne Bell at PBS NewsHour says it best: “A great story has legs that in today’s world can travel many miles per hour.” Consider how a great story can sprint the globe today in a nanosecond.

We are living in a communications world where new and not-so-new tools collide, merge and morph, all with the intent to better connect with audiences. To do that, we must use all these advanced technologies to do something ancient: tell stories that people want to hear and be motivated to share.

How do we make it work to break old habits, take advantage of new technologies, tell good stories and reach jaded audiences? How about relooking at the concept of an online newsroom?

Online Newsroom: No Longer Hiding in Plain Sight

In a demonstration of true counter-intuition, the typical online newsroom is usually the last place any self-respecting reporter or site visitor wants to go. Traffic numbers confirm it. It’s typically lifeless, dull, and more like the burial spot for press releases, speeches and legal-sounding statements than a relevant, active spot for timely, hot and meaningful news. Some newsrooms even require a journalist to fill out an online form and then wait for a response, which may take hours for approval … if ever. While it may be convenient for internal communications people, such a procedure can cause delay and frustration for a reporter on deadline.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

A lively online newsroom can be the perfect place for a smart company to strategically position its expertise and experience prominently online; to be clearly heard and stand out in all the right ways; and to manage the conversation around its image and reputation in timely and relevant ways.

The hard part is expressing a corporate voice above the noise of the marketplace, where often people much less qualified — but far more vocal — shout out their opinions into mainstream and online social media. The sheer speed, volume and rapid dissemination of information — right or wrong — can inundate communications and sway public opinion.

To have a meaningful conversation online, a company needs to do the following:

Articulate clear points of view on the things that it cares about the most.
Identify its own compelling voices of experts and champions — in and outside the organization — to tell compelling stories to advance its case and strengthen its market position.
Create ever-evolving public platforms and forums where it can consistently and frequently showcase its views, along with other respected industry experts and thought leaders.
Support and complement the organization’s overarching strategic initiatives.
Create a forum for openly sharing comments, generating a conversation and listening.
It’s a bold step for any organization to cast aside old tactics, like press releases, to get attention. That’s why it’s essential for a company to take charge of telling its own stories with appeal and credibility to its audiences. For starters, a company or organization must avoid the compulsion to sell or promote, because it no longer works in the online environment.

For example, the Los Angeles Kings hockey club didn’t believe it was getting enough coverage in the dwindling local mainstream newspapers. As a result, the team’s owner decided to launch an online news blog, LAKingsInsider.com, and hired a seasoned sports reporter, Rich Hammond, to write stories. The spotlight of attention quickly shifted to the Kings when both The New York Times and National Public Radio did stories about this new approach to making news in the digital era.

A company must also realize that its “Googleability,” and the news that appears about it on page one of any search engine, will help drive its perceived believability.

That’s one of the reasons why the team at The News Group Net LLC (of which I’m a founding partner), developed a groundbreaking online newsroom for the Imperial Sugar Company (ISC). The goal: focus on delivering legitimate and timely news about the company and the global sugar industry.

Case in point: When an explosion and resulting fires temporarily closed Imperial Sugar Company’s large sugar refinery at Port Wentworth, Georgia, in February 2008, many news stories and images of the incident appeared in mainstream and online media, including at Google and other search engines. Those reports about fire, death and tragedy continued to show up on the first pages of search engines for months, even though much of the information was sorely outdated.

The online newsroom went online in June 2009, and delivered the latest news about Imperial Sugar Company rebuilding its refinery, resumption of sugar production, business expansion and other relevant stories about business and community involvement. By positioning Imperial Sugar Company as an authoritative voice in the sugar industry, the Google headlines gradually moved from disaster-related stories to more positive news about employees, products, customers, business partners and industry analysts.

It took a few months, but the result is the most popular online site in the sugar industry and has dramatically improved the company’s image and reputation with employees, investors and the marketplace.

It worked … and continues to works today … because the stories are what people want to read and to share.

Incidentally, both LAKingsInsider.com and ISCNewsroom.com are online newsrooms built on blog-turned-news-delivery technology … just like the news sites of NYTimes.com, WSJ.com and PEOPLE.com.

It’s About the Bedrock of Strategic Communications

So, let me pull this together … Storytelling conveys personality that everyone can identify with, and it can lead to transformational leadership that energizes all levels and corners of an organization. Used in the online environment, storytelling can reflect passion, uniqueness and immediateness.

The discipline of storytelling used with a dynamic, interactive online newsroom can energize (or reenergize) any business or organization. It becomes woven into the fabric, stimulates excitement and understanding of vision, builds consensus of purpose, and triggers sharing far and wide.

In today’s online world, the influence and payoff of good corporate storytelling can be staggeringly powerful.

One great, timely story on an active and credible corporate newsroom smoothly cuts across all boundaries to achieve a common purpose in an organization’s daily conversations:

Shareholder/financial communications
Internal communications
Web sites, blogs, social media
Media relations and external relations
Government and regulator relations
New business development
People like to share good news, so give them a story that they will get excited about and tell someone else. Increased media coverage, enhanced word of mouth and greater awareness all build exponentially from a great story that is carried by many legs.

Stories are the bedrock of interaction, building blocks of knowledge, the foundation of memory and learning. Stories connect us with our humanness and link past, present and future by teaching us to anticipate the possible consequences of our actions. Stories help define what is authentically special about something or someone.

Propelled by today’s engaging digital communications tools, a good story will be carried — credibly and influentially — by many voices and travel many, many miles.

The depressed economy of 2009 brought numerous challenges for those of us in the field of corporate communications; from budget constraints to seeing friends laid off, from the death of publications to the rise of social media. The year 2010 looks to be no less challenging, but hopefully more upbeat and progressive.

Thank you to all my clients for a wonderful 2009, I look forward to working with all of you again this year.

January Travel Schedule:

Jan 7-12 - New York City

Jan 14-19 - Savannah, Ga

Jan 25-31 - Monterrey and Mexico City, Mexico

Feb 1-5 - New Orleans, La

Please let me know if you might have any needs in these area.

Again, best wishes for the upcoming new year.

Ed Lallo

Benini and his wife Lorraine.

In 1999, artist and sculpture Benini and his wife Lorraine moved to  a hiltop ranch outside of Johnson City because the areas reminded him of his native northern Italian town of Imola.  Although he had not lived there for years, the established artist who goes by his last name found the area to bring out  ”a playful mood I never had before. Texas has given me the freedom to let go.”

The couple started to grow sculptures on their ranch when they installed a few of Benini’s  large pieces.   By 2004, visitors were lining up at the Benini Sculpture Ranch gate and hopeful artists were calling to see if their work could be included in the unorthodox venue. Lorraine, who manages the ranch’s affairs, now receives portfolios from artists as close as Austin and as far away as Europe and South America.

I met Benini and his wife Lorraine while photographing a story on the ranch for Texas Profiles magazine.   The couple are magnanimous both in personality and generousity.   Within a few short years they have become true Texans.

Recently I approached Texas Highways Magazine about a story on the ranch. Unfortunately due to my wife’s bout with cancer, I could not update the story shot earlier, but I am glad to see it featured in the December issue of the magazine and online at Texas Highways.com.

If traveling past Johnson City, be sure to allow an extra hour to drive through the amazing ranch.   The view and the artwork is an amazing site.

Adrienne waiting at Hotel Monaco for taxi to Equinox.

A chilly November evening in Washington, DC provided the opportunity for a very haute culinary experience at one of DC’s premier restaurants.   Located a few blocks from the White House at 818 Connecticut Ave, NW, Todd Gray’s Equinox restaurant (http://www.equinoxrestaurant.com) provided the perfect fireside dining opportunity to meet old Topeka, Ks family friends Stuart and Paula Haney.

Todd Gray is a top culinary talent in the nation’s capital and an avid promoter of local, seasonal mid-Atlantic foods. Known for breathing new life into historical recipes, Gray developed Equinox’s distinct cuisine, enhancing Virginia-Piedmont ingredients and recipes with his classical Italian training.

Stuart and Paula Haney of Washington, DC.

A personal friend of the Haney’s, Gray is culinary director at Salamander Hospitality (http://www.salamanderhospitality.com) where Stuart is the Chief Operating Officer. He is overseeing development and implementation of an elegant menu of provincial Virginia specialty dishes for the 340-acre Salamander Resort & Spa, slated to open in Middleburg, Virginia in 2010.

Todd personally selected and prepared a five course dining experience fit for a king that included: pan seared cape cod diver scallops, fried rappahannock oysters with caper butter, truffled white bean gratin, pumpkin bisque with sesame oil along numerous other culinary delights.  Each course was expertly paired with wine selected by the chef, that enhanced the flavor of each course.

Todd Gray of Equinox.

Year after year, the Todd has been recognized with industry awards, garnered applause from The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, CNN, Southern Living, Town & Country, Gourmet Magazine, Newsweek, Time, Travel & Leisure and many others, and been featured guests on television cooking, news and magazine shows.

Despite the demands of running a successful restaurant, Todd and his wife Ellen make time in their personal lives to spread the word and promote the benefits and fundamentals of seasonality, sustainability and healthy eating. Among their recent ventures is a program they initiated at DC’s Murch Elementary School where they teach students where food comes from, how to cultivate their own crops, and most significantly how to cook and enjoy what they grow. The other is the new community market, at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, which they opened in October 2009.

When in Washington, if one does not dine at Equinox, one does not dine at all.

Diane Hoff of Houston, Texas was the winner of Lemonade Day trip to DC.

Back in the early summer of 2009, when 9-year-old Diane Hoff was learning to be a young entrepreneur during Lemonade Day in her hometown of Houston, Texas, little did she know that she and her family would win an all-expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C. Well, nice dreams can come true for nice people.

Diane’s name was entered in the “Win a free trip to Washington DC” sweepstakes, part of Imperial Sugar’s title sponsorship of Lemonade Day, and she won … not just a trip for herself but her sister Elizabeth and her parents, Edita and Jeff Hoff.

During their recent visit to the nation’s capital, Diane and her family toured famous monuments and the Capitol building, walked Washington’s Mall and visited the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, twice.

Kyle Hicks and Adrienne Lallo at the DC home of Tiba and John Sheptor.

eA highlight of their trip was dinner at the home of Imperial Sugar President and CEO, John Sheptor, and his wife.

Tiba personally cooked a tasty array of her family’s favorite Persian dishes that have been prepared by her family for centuries. Passed from generation to generation by word of mouth and hands on experience, the prepared dishes included; two kinds of rice, lamb and herb rice, beef and eggplant and chicken with pomegranate sauce. The meal provided a culinary experience second to none.

Joining the Sheptor and Hoff families for dinner were Chef Eddy Van Damme and Kyle Hicks of Houston, and Ed and Adrienne Lallo of Austin, Texas.

Chef Eddy prepared dessert with Lemonade Day Trip winner Diane Hoff.

Chef Eddy and Diane worked side-by-side to prepare dessert for the meal. A flan with baked chocolate, gold leafed pear and berries. Tiba turned her kitchen over to the two chefs as the guests watched.
Lemonade Day is a very special event for Imperial Sugar. The company sweetens the Lemonade Day
 experience by supplying sample packets of pre-measured Imperial Sugar, a
lemonade recipe booklet and coupons for Imperial Sugar products. The 
sugar company also developed a set of marketing tips which are 
included in the backpacks on how the young
entrepreneurs can effectively promote their lemonade stands.

Wholesome Sweeteners, partially owned by 
Imperial Sugar, also provides organic sugar products, as well as cost-saving coupons for many of its products.

What did Diane think about all the things she experienced while in Washington? “It was cool,” she said, “seeing the Lincoln Memorial, the monuments, the Library of Congress, the White House, and visiting the home of Mr. Sheptor of Imperial Sugar.”

Back home in Houston, Diane wrote a paper for her fourth grade class and shared her adventures in the nation’s capital with classmates.

Edita Hoff, Diane’s mother, said the experience has opened up her daughter’s eyes to how big the world really is and praised the Lemonade Day program and Imperial Sugar Company’s support “to encourage young entrepreneurs to discover their talents and broaden their horizons.”

She said her daughter’s new motto is, “You can be what you want to be with hard work and determination.”

Is Corporate Photography Dead?

Ed Lallo

Corporate photography may not be dead, but it’s on the critical list. If the patient is to survive, photographers must reinvent themselves, along with their profession. A new and healthy photography industry must be willing to accept some hard-to-swallow changes.

I’ve seen many changes in corporate communications over the last 15 years. The value of photography to companies whipsaws from one extreme to another. In high times, more photography is better. As budgets tighten, its importance falls to the bottom of the must-do list.

Editorial Assignment for Plus Publishing – Lallo Photography

For the past 12 months, we’ve been at bottom, struggling to get back up. For many corporate photographers, the ride already has taken far too long. They’ve either closed their doors or altered their business plans to include weddings, school portraits or local sports teams.

Photographers are struggling with a mix of old standby marketing tools while experimenting with the new social media; neither of which have brought the desired results.

Standards, including the Black Book, are having a hard time finding photographers to advertise at the over-inflated rates. The online photography search market is oversaturated with sites such aswww.creativeshake.com. Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter are not reliable alternative sources to find the limited amount of corporate work available.

For years, photographers partnered with designers as a way to find work. This model also is severely shaken as design firms and ad agencies continue to downsize. Cheap online stock has become the answer for many of these firms to stay in business. Gone are the four-color magazines, and the days of annual reports with 30 to 40 days of location shooting. Now, a simple online 10k will fill all SEC mandates.

The standard “day rate” and “photo usage rights” are two main reasons for the industry recession. With corporate budgets cut to the bone, costly photography is given a pass in lieu of royalty-free stock, or having a staff member with a digital camera shoot the assignment.

Management can see little benefit to pay what they consider excessive fees for a professional photograph they will use only once. Communication staffs are being challenged on every budgetary decision, and few are willing to risk their jobs to fight for this expense.

Corporate photography is first of all a business, and secondly, an art form.

Michael Dell, for Bloomberg News – Ed Lallo Photography

Photographers who shoot corporate assignments must take heed about how their clients are coping during this economic downturn. It’s time to position photography in terms of strategic communication—something that adds a definite value to a company.

For the most part, photographers are a reactive group. A client calls with an assignment and the photographer reacts, shooting what the client wants. Photos are sent to the client, and the interaction ends when the check clears the bank. The cycle continues only as long as the client keeps calling. When the client fails to call, the photographer then calls the client and asks why there is no work.

The corporate photographer has failed to engage beyond the lens with clients. To be worth more than a one-time photo, a photographer has to become a strategic partner to corporate communications: to help build a brand, save time, expense and, most importantly, portray the company in ways an insider cannot see. The photographer is the one behind the camera, and should use this unique business vantage point wisely.

For too long, we have relied on art directors as a constant source of assignments. It’s now time to seek new partnerships, take risks and to expend time and effort that is sometimes not always compensated.

One new possible partner in moving corporate photography into the strategic communications realm is another communication entity facing turmoil in this downturn—public relations and communication firms.

Ed Lallo on location in Nevada for MidAmerican Energy Holdings/Bershire Hathaway.

Traditional public relations and communication firms never appreciated—or had much success with—using great photography. Based on the premise of billable hours, they are more entrenched in using a host of staff time to place as many press releases as possible.

What escapes most agencies is the knowledge of how to successfully use photographers to enhance their businesses. Instead, photography comes as an afterthought, a one-time line item to expense.

Now that some PR agencies are finally realizing that companies have strategic communications plans that employ a wide variety of visual media, corporate photography suddenly becomes a marketable tool.Corporate Journalism, as media-guru David Henderson has deemed it, is the future of communications for the digital era.

A growing number of organizations and companies are finding that as news coverage wanes, they are hiring accomplished reporters and photographers, Corporate Journalists, to post stories and photos on their online newsrooms.  The LA Kings hockey team, for example, hired Rich Hammond who writes for the Los Angeles Daily News to cover their team online (http://lakingsinsider.com) because they were getting no space in the traditional local press.

In the corporate world, Sugar Land, Texas-based Imperial Sugar Company, hired The News Group Net (http://www.thenewsgroup.net), of which I am a partner, to develop an online news site for the company to provide a steady flow of timely stories and photos.  Since it first launched in June of 2009, the Imperial Sugar Newsroom (http://ISCNewsroom.com) has become the most popular online news site in the global sugar industry.

Corporate Journalism has spurred the growth of company online newsrooms, which constantly need to be fed updated stories and photos. It is creating a market with great opportunities for the corporate photographer, especially when partnered with a knowledgeable, professional communications company.

Online newsrooms, Facebook, Twitter and other digital tools tell the company story to a wide variety of audiences: media, employees, shareholders, analysts and even the competition using Corporate Journalism. Management is much more willing to invest when the audience it reaches is greater and sustainable. Great photos drive traffic to these digital tools and are one of the main reasons for repeat traffic.

Since the conception of online websites that use quality photography, the industry has struggled with how to be compensated. Much like the music and movie industries, that struggle still continues today.

At most, online photos are a mere 900k in resolution. The photos are available virtually forever on the Internet and can easily be downloaded to a computer, or used on other sites. Traditional print use of an Internet photo, however, is not a factor, and there within lies the problem. Most assignments now being shot for the Internet still are being invoiced as if for traditional publication.

If photographers strategically place their talents with a company, they can increase the day rate to a “monthly rate” by relinquishing Web usage fees and offering set prices for their services over the course of the month. By highlighting the overall corporate savings, plus the ability of the company to more effectively build brand by adding effective visuals, the photographer can eventually grow the business from within and add a proof of concept for new business.

By adding great photos as a visual communication tool, especially on the Web, an often unheard voice—the shooter—becomes part of the corporate strategic communications function.

Organizations like IABC (International Association of Business Communicators) and PRSA (Public Relations Society of America) are excellent conduits to meet potential strategic communication partners.

To reach senior executives, organizations such as NIRI (National Investor Relations Institute) and local executive strategic forum organizations like the Houston Strategic Forum, should also be included as places to form new relationships.

Opportunities for strategic alliances abound daily for photographers with the right business mindset. Being ready to seize those opportunities requires presenting a clear, concise approach to tying what you do so well with what corporate communications shops need so badly.

Always remember, corporate photography—when focused on the right ROI (Return On Investment)—has its rightful place today among both old and new media and technologies. As professionals, we just need to get the business aperture right to earn a seat at the table.

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