August  2015
Picture
DR. HENRY OLES PRESENTED
 PPA NATIONAL AWARD

TPPA Article
by
Bill Hedrick 
To read the article in it's entirety, as it appeared in the Aug/Sept 2015
TPPA magazine.
tppa_article.pdf
File Size: 567 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

JULY
VIRTUAL BACKGROUNDS WORKSHOP

Nine photographers from around the country gathered in
San Marcos Texas
to attend a
3 day workshop on using
virtual backgrounds, taught by Master Photographer
 Mark Barnett.

 The workshop covered all the technical aspects of the virtual backgrounds process, marketing ideas, and plenty of time for photographing each other and models. 
Picture
Sample image captured at VB Workshop

CINDY BARCLAY OPENS HER NEW LOUISVILLE KENTUCKY STUDIO, AND BECOMES A VB DEMONSTRATION STUDIO

Cindy Barclay (formerly Cindy Cofer) has opened her new studio in Louisville Kentucky.  The studio not only offers still and video production services but is also a high level sound studio operated by her
husband Clay.

A key part of her new operation is serving as a demonstration center for Virtual Backgrounds.  Cindy has already made a number of videos for VB and has presented programs for photography conventions.

CLICK ON THE ARROW TO SEE CINDY'S NEW STUDIO AND HER INVITATION TO VISIT!

WANT TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE...
DISCOVER HOW

Step into a new world of ultimate creativity and adventure.  Discover what having projected virtual backgrounds can do for you.  Discover the Scene Machine. 

CLICK THE ARROW FOR A FAST PACED TWO MINUTE VIDEO THAT REALLY CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE. 
TAKE A CHANCE.  INVEST JUST 2 MINUTES

 CAROLINA
 PHOTO
 EXPO TRADE SHOW

MEET
Master Photographer
Mark Barnett
August 15-16
In Booth # 8

See how Virtual Backgrounds works and what it can do for you. 

Imagine The Possibilities!

  No other product has so much potential to change your life in professional photography.

Hope to see you there!

  TOP SECRET WEAPON 

Picture
If you discovered a special tool that turned out to be an important key to your success over others, would you want to share your secret with your competitors?  Most likely not.  This is exactly what happens with many of our customers who effectively and profitably use virtual backgrounds to secure jobs and increase sales but they prefer to not let their friends and competitors in the business know their secret.  Even worse is that some highly successful VB users tell others that using virtual backgrounds hasn't worked out very well for them when in fact it is a key element in their success. 

Is virtual background a good investment or not?   Look at a wide variety of sample images created with virtual backgrounds.  Ask yourself what would happen if you promoted your specialty tool that enabled you to do what no one else in the area could do?  Then imagine the possibilities.  Being really special is more important than ever because today everyone can take good enough pictures, so why hire a professional.  Today, anyone can take hundreds of shots here and there around town with their cell phone camera but very few people have a professional studio where they can be ultimately creative.  Today you have to wrestle the business away from the do it yourselfers as well as from the tons of new professionals who often work almost for free.  The only real solution is to offer highly desirable products and services no one else can do.

KARAH SAMBUCO EARNS A MERIT
AT IPC WITH VB PHOTOGRAPH

We have been following the progress of Up and Coming Virtual Background user, Karah Sambuco of Foster Fotography in Moundsville, WV.  Karah now notified us that her underwater volleyball print earned her a merit at the PPA International Print Competition.  Congratulations Karah.  We featured how Karah created that print in the July Backgrounder. 

To see the first Backgrounder article on Karah's jump into virtual projected backgrounds CLICK HERE.   To see the second Backgrounder article on Karah, CLICK HERE. 
Picture
Foster Fotography

  VIRTUAL BACKGROUND
AS MUCH A MARKETING TOOL AS
IT IS A PHOTOGRAPHIC TOOL

Ask any virtual background system owner what they like about their system and they will give you a variety of benefits but one of the most important benefits is that VB is a very powerful marketing tool.  VB can play a major role in helping to secure jobs whether it helps to bring in a single client or brings in a major contract for dozens or hundreds of subjects.  Every photographer at every level competes for business and most every photographer brags about how good they are or how cheap they are.  But the best bragging tool is when you can excite a potential client by telling them about things you can do that no one else can do for them.  You have to get their attention and the opportunity to show sample images that seals the deal. 

People don't want to hire just anybody.  When they have a choice, they will opt for the one that has something really special to offer.

Virtual backgrounds enable the photographer to provide a client with so much more variety…with a Hollywood type experience.  Today, most every photographer just takes a client around the area to do location shots which are often no more than glorified snapshots not terribly different from what everyone else gets today.  But with virtual backgrounds, the photographer can introduce a whole world of variety without leaving the studio.  The VB photographer can offer infinite variety unlike anything anyone else may offer.  That's what makes a VB photographer really special…and successful.

LOCATION OR STUDIO BASED PHOTOGRAPHY...WHICH IS BEST?

Today almost every photographer does only location photography…taking a client all around town to capture candid shots. Few photographers have an area they can call a studio…a room where they have a special set up of camera, lighting, props, and a background system.  Because so few have a studio, having a studio area is a real desirable feature to offer.  But which is better…studio or location?

We suggest that you offer BOTH services…studio and location…and brag about the fact that you have both and are not limited to just one style.  Make this a known feature of your services. Let your clients choose.

You can have a price for location shoots and you can have a price for studio work.  Then you should offer a special combined price that includes both studio and location photography at a reduce price when you schedule both.  This is your special VALUE proposition.

Everyone knows that the more variety you provide, the more popular you will be and the higher your sales average.  So why not offer both location and studio?  It’s the ultimate solution.  

THE MOST POWERFUL TOOL A PRO PHOTOGRAPHER CAN OWN?

Excluding camera and lights, the most powerful product a professional can own is a virtual background system!  A virtual background system puts a professional in a class by themselves. Amateurs don't have it, many professionals don't have it but those who do have it can provide infinite creative variety in their photography.  Virtual backgrounds are a tool that really impresses the public.  It is a marketing tool as well as a photography tool.  It's a tool you can brag about having when others do not.
 
Think we are exaggerating?  Well, then come up with some other tool that has so much potential to help you market your business to the public and enables you to be so much more creative.  So far, no one has. 

Lora Yeater
 Sunday, August 16th
8:00 am - 10:30 am
Subscribe to Backgrounder