I was interested in a new “widget” software. After doing some search online for widgets — I found a website offering free webinars on widgets, and how to use them effectively.

When I finally returned to the link to register for the widget webinar, the webinar time I had seen before was filled. Instead, I was offered another time, a few days later.

Great! I signed up.

The day of the webinar, things were going well. I was impressed with the widget company because they had a staff member call to remind me about the webinar, and I also received a reminder email a half hour before the webinar was to begin.

When I logged onto the webinar, though, that’s where the problems began. I was greeted by name upon logging in, and though I had already selected my audio preference (computer speakers, rather than phone dial-in)… the person told me that I should consider calling in because the webinar would be interactive.

“Nope, I’d prefer to interact via the chat window.”

“Ok, but it won’t be as beneficial for you.”

Um…. ok? I’ve been to many webinars where relying on computer audio has been just as beneficial as calling in.

I was then told that the presenter would be on in a few minutes. Twelve minutes went by, and I began to have second thoughts. What kind of company hosts a webinar that starts more than ten minutes late? Why are they wasting my time?

The webinar presenter finally logged in, and to my surprise, instead of discussing widgets, I was again welcomed ….by name.

I have to say, I was nonplussed.

My participation in the webinar ended right then and there. I closed out, frustrated that I had wasted 20 minutes of my time in the “webinar” — and what was worse, had used up a valuable block of my schedule on this instead of the three other things I could have been doing.

In retrospect, the widget webinar was merely a bait-and-switch: get people to sign up to learn about widgets, and then instead of holding a real webinar about widgets, put people in a 1:1 sales conference to try and push a specific brand of widget.

If I decide to purchase widgets, would I be likely to purchase through this widget company given the circumstances?

Definitely not. I don’t like being tricked.

Now, if the widget company had been truthful about the purpose of their webinar, I simply would not have signed up. No harm, no foul. I would be where I am now, minus the frustration of being duped. I would still have to do research about widgets on my own…. but maybe I would have been willing to go with this widget company come purchasing time.

Designing albums from scratch can be a hassle. First you have to come up with a creative look, and then you have to manually lay out the pages. For the studio owner, the time it takes to produce an album would be better spent on marketing and growing the business. If you’re looking to lighten your album workload without hiring another employee [...]

There are 14 album design solutions featured in the piece, including Album DS (which, as you might recall, I’ve been using lately).

Grace Clark is the daughter of Erin Clark (one of my photographer friends I’ve met through PPA). She’s in the running for the scholarship, but needs lots of votes to be considered as a finalist for Sigma’s $5,000 scholarship. You can either vote for Grace now, or keep reading, I’ll post another link at the end.

I would like to win this scholarship because it would fund my photography internship in Africa that I would really like to attend. The internship would be a great experience to help with my photography skills and would also look great on a college application. My main goal is to become a photographer for National Geographic, but I need tons of experience and have a lot to learn still. The internship would help me succeed in reaching my goals to become a professional photographer. — Grace Clark

Here’s one of Grace’s images. It was taken in Acireale, Italy. Technical specs: 1/80 sec, f/4.0, ISO 3200, 60mm focal length.

Grace’s comments about this image:

As the night got darker I used a longer shutter speed to let in as much light as possible to capture the natural beauty that the lights from the passing floats gave off. As we were walking, I noticed that the back of this float hit just right to cover the blankness of the street and to fill the photo to create an evenly balanced frame with the building and the Carnevale sign. I made a duplicate of this photo in a darker form and merged the two to create silhouettes of the people standing around and to highlight the sign, building, and float to bring your attention there instead of to the crowd.

To see more of Grace’s photographs, visit her page on the Sigma Scholarship site; remember to vote for her while you’re there!

The details from Sigma: Public voting will be open from Feb. 15, 2010 to April 15, 2010, and will determine the top three finalists for the Sigma Corporation of America Scholarship. A judging panel comprised of Sigma executives will then determine the final scholarship winner. The winner’s name will be announced on May 3, 2010.

Most of the instructions I found were for iPhone… but I did manage to find a blog post on iTouch screenshots.

In short, all you have to do is simultaneously push the two buttons (the one on the face, and the power button). The screen will flash white, indicating that a screenshot has been captured. You’ll find it in your pictures on the device.

That’s it.

Yup, super easy.

And sadly, yes, I did resort to looking up that tidbit of information rather than discovering it on my own. But, at least I saved myself some valuable time!

(and yes, I know that technically it’s called an iPod Touch, not an iTouch, but I don’t care!)

Album DS works within Photoshop, and allows you to get the best of both worlds — full use of Photoshop functions, yet automation of an external album design software. Album DS won a 2010 Hot One Award from PPA in the album design category.

Get an idea of how the software works, and see what I thought after using it, read my Album DS review at PPmag.com.

Step 1: You need to find the “create a page for my business” link. This link can be found on ANY fan page, on the bottom of the left sidebar (see image to right). Here’s a link to my fan page, though I’d recommend you finish reading all five steps before getting started.

Step 2: Fill out the Create Fan Page form. Now, you need to pay attention, because these are the ONLY fields on your Fan Page that you will NOT be able to change later. For category type, photographers typically select one of the following (it doesn’t really matter, so go with what “feels” right to you):

• other business
• professional service
• visual artist

Now, the name of your page — it’s of utmost importance you pick a name that represents your business and you won’t need to change later. For example — on my photography page, I initially titled mine “Betsy’s Photography | Betsy Finn, CPP.” In concept, sounds fine… but now that I have my Photographic Craftsman degree, the credentials are outdated. Facebook won’t let me change the page name — if I wanted to start over, I’d have to start a new fan page (and rebuilt my fan base all over again). So pick something that will last the test of time.

Underneath the page name field is a checkbox — this allows you to decide whether you want your fan page to be published immediately, or just stay as a draft for now. If you’re in the process of filling out this form, I’m going to hazard a guess that you have time to get the “basics” of your page set up — feel free to publish it now (but whatever makes you comfortable).

The legal mumbo jumbo at the bottom of the form basically says that you have the authorization to create a page for the business. Example — a fan of Miley Cyrus is not authorized to create a Fan Page (she would have to make a group)…. Miley Cyrus or her agent, on the other hand, has authorization to create a Miley Cyrus fan page.

Once you click “create page” …Facebook with create your page, either as a draft version, or as a published (a.k.a. publicly visible) page. It will be pretty boring.

Step 3: This is the fun part! You get to customize your page, and add in all the details you want your fans to be able to see. Remember, EVERYONE will be able to see the content, people don’t have to be your friends to view the Fan Page or Become a fan.

Make sure to upload a “profile picture” for your business. I prefer to displaying a consistent image (i.e., your logo), as it will help identify the Fan Page as belonging to your studio. To edit this picture, hover over the question mark image… and then click on the link that appears: “change picture.”

You’ll probably want to click on the “info” tab to edit the basic and detailed information for your business. you can enter multiple web URLs in the website field, just separate them by hitting return, and Facebook will create active links to your site.

Feel free to add photos, links, or whatever content you want to share with future fans of your studio! (this will be an ongoing process, so just get a few things up there for now).

Step 4: Now, if you haven’t already published your fan page, here’s how to publish it so that everyone can see it. If you don’t see a “noticebar” along the top of your page, you can navigate to the admin interface of your Fan Page. To get there, click “Edit Page”, just under the picture on the sidebar of your fan

Once the admin page loads, at the top of the right sidebar, you’ll see a little notice about your page being a draft still. To publish it… simply click “publish this Page.”

Step 5: Now that your page is live for all to see, it’s time to share it with your friends + clients! Go to your fan page’s sidebar (where we found the “create a page” link), and you’ll see a “share” button. Use that to post a link to your fan page to your personal profile, or to send a message to all your friends!

And that’s all it takes! Hopfeully you’ve found these five simple steps to creating your Facebook Fan Page helpful. Remember, the easiest way to get to the page creation area is by visiting an existing fan page and finding the “create a page for my business” link at the bottom of the left sidebar.

Remember, building a fan base takes time… but once you get those first few fans, you’ll be well on your way to having a good Facebook presence for your business.

A quote from today’s class:

“the failure rate of photographers has gone up dramatically since Photoshop came into play…get out there and start booking business and shooting business so you can pay people to do the work”

Chris has over 30 years of industry experience, has written many articles, and serves as a consultant to well-known volume companies at the Regional, National and International level. In 2006, Chris founded PortraitEFX, a Dallas-based photography franchise company with over 50 locations worldwide. His School Photography Bootcamp is probably a great way to get some hands-on training experience when it comes to volume photography.

If you’ve been looking for an excuse to subscribe to Professional Photographer magazine, this is the best one I’ve heard yet (view a sample issue).

If you’re already a PPA member or subscriber, you can still enter to win. The contest ends March 31, 2010; winners will be announced the week of April 18, 2010.

What are you waiting for?

Go put your name in the hat!

If you’re wondering why I’m blogging about this… it’s because I know a lot of photographers struggle (or have struggled) with not only calibration, but the getting the end print to match the display. So I wanted to share the info I received from X-Rite.

Two webinar sessions will be held on Tuesday, February 23rd:

February 23rd @ 1PM Eastern Time

(12PM Central, 11AM Mountain, 10AM Pacific)
Register for the 1PM session

February 23rd @ 3PM Eastern Time

(2PM Central, 1PM Mountain, 12PM Pacific)
Register for the 3PM session

Any trained diver will tell you that it’s a no-no to wear your diving mask on the top of your head when not covering your eyes and nose (the proper way is to pull the mask down so it hangs around your neck — it can’t fall off or be washed away). Yet, the advertisements + product shots continue to show the masks worn improperly, perpetuating the existence of an improper technique.

The diving magazine aspires to instill good techniques, but the inclusion of those images sends conflicting messages to newer scuba divers.

But, wait, Betsy… how does this relate to photography?

It has to do with sending a consistent message to your clients. If your marketing pieces don’t convey the message you intend… then you could be causing confusion for your clients.

The diving magazine’s goal is to instill good diving technique, but the advertisements within the magazine send a conflicting message. As a result, the dive magazine has to spend time and energy replying to the complaints from knowledgeable divers (and dive teachers) about this problem.

Lucky for us, our studios do not depend on advertisements from outside companies for revenue. Therefore, we are free to bring our marketing pieces into alignment with the message we are trying to convey.

So, when you sit down do design your next flyer, or if you’re redoing your entire brand, take the time to make sure that your materials convey the message you want them to send.