Consider
the Statuette!
by Brian
Speers
Long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away…,
actually it was 1987 and the place was New York
City on the occasion of the CCS Summer Seminar.
It happened to be the very first seminar I had
ever attended as a customer of Candid Color Systems
and there were several new products introduced
at this meeting.
One of those new products was a “cut-out”.
Though similar in appearance to today’s
statuettes, the cut-out was fashioned out of plywood
that had been tenderly cut with a high-speed band
saw that was housed on the floor of the lab.
As if the precision of the cut wasn’t difficult
enough (remember the print had previously been
attached to the plywood surface with an adhesive),
the band saw created a mini-blizzard of fine,
wood dust particles which made their way to the
far reaches of the lab creating spotting problems
on prints that we hadn’t anticipated.
The life of the wooden cut-out was short lived!
But that was 1987 and this is practically 2006.
Today’s cut-outs, or statuettes as they
are now known, have come a long way; not only
in production methods but also in their general
appearance. The production process has given
way to a combination manual and computer-operated
machine equipped with a fine LASER “knife”
that makes critical and meticulous incisions into,
around, and through the print that has been mounted
onto a hard 1/8” opaque Plexiglas.
After being re-introduced as a new product during
the summer of 2004 their popularity surged and
we
were forced to purchase a second machine during
2005 just to keep up with the demand. Since
re-introducing the cut-out as a statuette a little
over 18 months ago, CCS has sold 7,746 of these
custom cut premium products!
Though used primarily in the sports market the
statuette makes an excellent product supplement
for proms, dance schools, weddings, some portraiture
applications, and in most cases, team group shots.
Generally speaking, full-length or full body prints
generate the best contenders for the statuette,
and that's why sports poses rule when it comes
to this product.
If you are currently shooting sports and are not
offering statuettes as a staple of your product
mix, you may be missing out on some great profit
dollars as well as creating a competitive barrier
for other local photographers. Remember,
you can’t sell what you don’t offer.
At
$9.75 for a 5x7 and
$13.50
for an 8x10 statuette these prices are
considerably less than you will find ANYWHERE
in the country. Having done some research
on pricing from other wholesale vendors for the
same product, I have found the minimum price to
be in the range of $12-$15 for a 5x7 and $19-$29
for an 8 x 10 with a 4-6 week turnaround!
CCS also offers 2-3x5 magnet statuettes for $9.75.
If you’ve never seen the fine quality of
our statuettes then I encourage you to submit
your own jpegs to make samples. It is a
“must have” product for Dads and Moms
which you frequently are prominently displayed
on their office desks at their workplace.
Select Images Carefully
for Lightbulb Greeting Cards
by Steve
Foisy
If ordering the Lightbulbs Holiday Card, be careful
to use images that have the subject matter closer
to the center of the frame. Anything close
to the edges will be obscured by the lightbulbs.
Linking You to a
Great Holiday Buying Season
A full year has gone by since my
last buying guide article. I still get weekly
calls from many of you looking for the skinny
on what is next in cameras. Here are my
updated picks for this year and a few predictions
on the camera market.
The trend this year has been towards cameras with
higher and higher megapixel ratings. This
does not mean that you need to sell all of your
current equipment. Many of these newer cameras
though can make it easier for you to venture into
group markets using a digital workflow, offer
more enhanced products and finally get rid of
the last of those group cameras that use film.
With mid-range point and shoot cameras, primarily
used for Party Pics, the trend is towards conversion
to the smaller SD memory cards. Use of these
cards allows manufacturers to create more compact
cameras. We may see the last of the Compact
Flash point-and-shoots this coming year.
Your options are to buy up new and used point
-and -shoots such as the Canon G3, G5, and G6
which are still highly recommended, or see what
is released early in the new year. There
are higher end non-SLR cameras available, but
at the price of these, you could just buy a digital
SLR instead. Many of the new cameras utilizing
SD cards are capable cameras, but you will have
to handle multiple media types.
Here are links to many of the sites that I visit
each week researching the latest and greatest
digital cameras, batteries, memory cards, strobes,
etc. and where to purchase these items.
In addition to the links, I have listed some of
my top picks.
Camera/Equipment Reviews & Education
www.dpreview.com
www.robgalbraith.com
www.cnet.com
www.shootsmarter.com
Camera Purchases
www.cnet.com
Best All Purpose High End Camera-Nikon D2X
www.bhphoto.com
Best All Purpose Digital SLR’s-Nikon D70,
D70s, Canon 20D
www.beachcamera.com
Best upcoming Digital SLR-Nikon D200 (8MP)
www.ritzcamera.com
Best Party Pics Cameras-Canon G6
Best Personal Point & Shoot-Canon A620, Casio
Ex95 (Personal use only)
Used Equipment
www.keh.com
www.bhphoto.com
Flash Memory
Best High Speed Cards-Lexar 40X, 80X
www.ecost.com
Most Convenient Vendor for low priced 1GB &
512MB 4X/8X cards
www.kingston.com
Sam’s Club
www.buy.com
www.samsclub.com
Strobes & Strobe Accessories
www.bhphoto.com
Best Handle Mount Strobes-SunPak 555
www.tocad.com
Best Shoe Mount Strobes-Nikon SB800, Canon 580EX
www.bogenphoto.com
Best Sync Cords-Paramount
www.paramountcords.com
Studio Lighting
www.white-lightning.com
Best Compact Studio Light-Alien Bee B800
www.alienbees.com
Best Reliable & Easy to Use Light Meter-Polaris
Digital Light Meter
www.bhphoto.com
Camera Cases
www.cases4less.com
Best Hard Sided Cases-Storm Cases
Light Stands/Tripods
www.bogenphoto.com
Best Tripod – Bogen Carbon Fiber Tripod
with Grip Action Ball Head
www.bhphoto.com
Best Light Stands-Bogen Stacker Stands
Backgrounds
www.backdropoutlet.com
www.backgroundsbymaheu.com
www.lesbrandtbackgrounds.com
Batteries/Chargers
www.all-battery.com
www.radioshack.com
www.bhphoto.com
Recovery Software
www.datarescue.com
Card
Wiping/Maintenance Software-FREE!
Christmas Cut –Off
Dates
Saturday, December 10th, is the cut off
date for all international orders and Christmas
Cards. This means we need the orders here at the
lab no later than 10:00 A.M. CST. We only
guarantee the order to be at customs by Dec. 24th
.If your prints typically take more than two weeks
to be received, please adjust your deadline accordingly.
Friday, December 16th, is the cut off
date for all 30x40 orders. This means we
need the order here at the lab no later than 10:00
A.M. CST.
Monday, December 19th 3P.M. CST,
is the cut off date for all units, 16x20 and 20x24
orders with retouching and digital products.
We are extending the cut off time an additional
day so that you can take advantage of the weekend
and partial day Monday. This means we need
the orders here at the lab no later than 3:00
P.M. CST. We recommend that you transmit
orders as you create them rather than waiting
until 2:50 P.M. to transmit entire day worth of
orders.
• Order must be keyed correctly with proper
retouching instructions. If your order is not
clear and requires a customer service rep to contact
you then you risk voiding your guarantee.
• For the Monday 19th cut-off, we suggest
that you verify with Support that your order was
received.
• If mailing via USPS directly to the end
customer, orders should be received no later than
December 10 to account for the elongated mail
delivery times through the USPS.
Holiday Email Marketing
by Brad
Hurley
Developments
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