• 19
    Apr

    Selecting a Style: Part 2 Be the Specialist.

    Please note, for those of you who did not bother to read part 1 of this series, but for whatever reason, you are reading part 2.  Guilt?  By way of explanation, this series is written in two voices.  The first, my corporate brand voice.  The second, designated in parenthesis and italics, is my Tourettes kicking […]

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  • 18
    Apr

    Selecting a Style: Part 1 Defining your brand.

    For the last couple of blog series, I’ve ranted about trends affecting the photography industry, shooting portraits, and selecting equipment.  All of which are great topics, and topics I am passionate about.  That’s why the rant. But they are also topics which speak to an overall style.  Style is an odd concept, isn’t it?  Style […]

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  • 07
    Apr

    Creative People 2: Corporate Love / Hate

    This has been a busy couple of weeks, with events in Nashville — one to pimp my business — and the other for the city of Saint Louis, promoting the world’s friendliest city to the American Bus Association — a group that loves green screen photos more than any other I’ve ever seen.  Ever.  We […]

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  • 05
    Apr

    Pat tapped her head, "they can't steal this."

    See, I have a friend.  Don’t laugh, we all need a friend.  This one isn’t even imaginary. In fact, this friend is a leading artist, a painter, whose work has been picked up by major stores like Saks 5th Avenue, shown in New York at the famous Gift Show, and is well known among the […]

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  • 02
    Apr

    Conclusion: Building Customer Loyalty with The Rock Star Approach.

    In this series, I’ve ranted on about building customer loyalty by treating clients like rock stars.  First, become the expert — and indispensable.   Second, identify situations when you can go so far beyond expectations the client is left mouth gaping.  Third, weed out clients that aren’t a good fit — those who take up […]

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  • 31
    Mar

    Customer Loyalty: The Rock Star Approach (part 1 with Tourette's Notes!)

    I said in a blog post recently that I was fiercely brand loyal until I wasn’t, and I used the example of Starwood Hotels vs. Hilton to illustrate the point, as well as Outback Steakhouse vs. Saketumi, my local sushi joint. At least Starwood didn’t call me on the phone like Scottrade did after a […]

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  • 23
    Mar

    A Vampire, Britney, and Me

    It was a bitter cold day in the no mans time between Christmas and New Year, and I did what all self-respecting, self employed people do — watch television.  Lots of television. After catching up on all episodes of Banshee, re-watching The Borgias, and wondering where Homeland is going after this season’s killing (is he […]

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  • 22
    Mar

    Technology, Photography and I just Shipped my Pants

    I spend a lot of money on technology.  At any given time, I carry two laptops.  Five iPads.  Three Internet hotspot cards (two Verizon and one Sprint).  My iPhone.  And then we get to all my camera equipment. You know you have a lot of gear when TSA looks at you and says, “Holy crap! […]

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  • 20
    Mar

    Photography Equipment I Pack: Part 4

    In the last few posts, I’ve given you my take on cameras, flashes, lenses, wireless transmitter — even a bracket I use to fire two flashes at once.  All that’s left from my original list are the little things. One of those items is barely worth mentioning:  power adapters.  I use these in static photography […]

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  • 18
    Mar

    Photography Equipment: What I Pack, part 3

    In the last post, I talked a lot about cameras, and why I use the Nikon D700 instead of some other (fancier) models.  I think my reasoning makes sense. But the actual camera doesn’t really matter, does it?  What’s important is you pick a camera that fits your needs — your workflow — your other […]

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