PPA Today

Acclaimed Photographer Sandy Puc’ to Conduct National Seminar Tour

Colorado Photographer Sandy Puc’ of Expressions Photography by Sandy Puc’ has announced her 2008 Bellies & Babies Seminar Tour. Bellies & Babies is a comprehensive program that covers all aspects of creating a successful pregnancy and baby’s first year portrait series. The program will present information on marketing, customer service, posing and product templates.

Beginning in February 2008, Sandy will travel to approximately 30 cities throughout the US teaching photographers how to successfully conduct and market a fail-safe program that will increase their business and their bottom line.

The Bellies & Babies Seminar Tour is the first of its kind to train photographers on the finer points of pregnancy and baby portraits. The Bellies & Babies program will demonstrate the five perfect baby poses and provide ready-made marketing materials to give photographers the tools they need to become baby-portrait experts. 

Two PPA Pricing Webinars in January

PPA's Studio Management Services (SMS) presents two vital pricing webinars in January 2008. Join PPA pricing & business experts Ann Monteith and Sarah Petty for these hour-long, online classes:

Pricing for Profit

Join Ann Monteith
Approved SMS Mentor, M.Photog.Cr., ABI
Monday, January 14, 2008
12:00pm-1:00pm EST

Want to know what methods are most effective for pricing photography? Need help assuring that your prices are profitable? Register for the SMS webinar “Pricing for Profit" with Ann Monteith to answer these questions and more.

You'll learn how competition factors into pricing your photography as well as the viability of charging as much as the market will bear.  Most importantly, you’ll discover how to price for profit.

Register online now or call 800-786-6277.

Cost:
  $49*     PPA Members
$249     Nonmembers

*SEP, CPI, SPS, and EPIC members can register at the $49 rate, but must register via phone by calling 800-786-6277.

The Art of Price Lists

Join Sarah Petty
Approved SMS Mentor, CPP
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
12:00pm-1:00pm EST

Does your price list effectively communicate what you are selling? Is your price list consistent with your brand? Register for the SMS webinar “The Art of Price Lists" with Sarah Petty and get your price lists ready to sell in 2008.

Sarah Petty will demonstrate how to develop a price list that works. She will also deconstruct three chosen price lists submitted in advance by participants to show where they hit the mark and where they missed it. Submitted price lists will be included in the live presentation and in the online archive.

Register online now or call 800-786-6277.

Cost:
  $49*     PPA Members
$249     Nonmembers

*SEP, CPI, SPS, and EPIC members can register at the $49 rate, but must register via phone by calling 800-786-6277.

PPA Print Competition Mentor Program

Consultation times still available. Please reserve yours now.

PPA’s Photographic Exhibition Committee is offering FREE consultations with PPA Juror/Mentors at Imaging USA. Take this opportunity to get personal evaluations of your images. You will have the opportunity to ask questions, receive information and tips on how to create exhibition-quality images, and get the inside track on attaining merits towards the PPA Master of Photography degree.

Contact PEC administrator, Jim Dingwell at [email protected] to reserve a time for your review. For times, locations and all the details, click here.

United Nations Volunteers seeks Photographer

United Nations Volunteers (UNV) is currently looking to contract a professional photographer for some upcoming work around the world for the UNV Annual Report and other projects. The successful candidate could be offered a contract of up to three years, upon satisfactory completion of the initial contract. Please follow the link on how to submit an offer. Deadline for submissions is 14 January 08.

www.unv.org/en/who-we-are/procurement/doc/request-for-quotation-photographer.htm

National Juried Photography Exhibition

The Smithtown Township Arts Council is now accepting entries for a national juried photography exhibition to be held May 3- May 30, 2008 at the Mill Pond House Gallery with cash prizes. Juror Christopher James is chair of the photography program at The Arts Institute of Boston at Lesley University and is an internationally recognized artist and photographer. Work may not exceed 54" in width. Deadline for entries is March 7, 2008, and must be submitted as 300 ppi jpeg files on CD only (1800x1800). Send SASE to STAC, 660 Rte 25A, St. James, NY 11780 or visit stacarts.org for further guidelines

Survey: When Your Hobby Becomes Your Job

If photography was once your hobby that you did for no pay, but now (or in the recent past) you are paid in some way for your work in photography, you are invited to take this anonymous, online survey at the following link:

surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=x74gbHw5K_2fuiCbl3yWHnUA_3d_3d

This survey will take no more than 10 to 15 minutes of your time. Your responses will completely anonymous. The survey will remain online for 2 weeks, and may be completed at any time during that period.

If you have any questions or concerns about this survey invitation, please Sara Jansen Perry, the principle investigator on the study, at [email protected], or Dr. Alan Witt at [email protected].

This project has been reviewed by the

University

of

Houston Committee

for the Protection of Human Subjects (713-743-9204).

It can happen to you!

Dear PPA Member,

If it hasn’t happened already, you will suffer a data loss sometime in the near future. Images you have created for a client will not be accessible because of a hard drive crash, bad media card or some other “techy” problem. No, I’m not wishing you ill…but are you prepared to deal with it?

Having a crisis plan in place for data loss is almost as important as backing up your data. So if it happens to you, what will you do next? If you’re a PPA member and part of the Indemnification Trust, PPA’s unique malpractice-type protection program, you have a plan. We’ll show you where to go, what to do…and help save your money and reputation.

During 2007 the Indemnification Trust has helped photographers deal with 597 claims through the end of November; over half were data loss problems.  This is a 20% increase in claims from last year, with a month still to go!

Hard drives wear out, media cards become corrupt, and stuff happens.  Even if you have a multi-drive system, you need to be on alert—several times this year we have helped members who thought they were protected.

Fortunately for you and other PPA members, the Trust—through careful management—remains financially strong and stands ready to help members who have this problem.   

You can minimize your risk: always back up image files on removable media as soon as possible.  Telling a bride, a grandmother, or an art director that you had a little computer problem and lost their beautiful images is not an enjoyable activity. So, don’t forget to back up as soon as possible. And even if that data can’t be recovered (rare, but it happens) we will stand behind you. 

Helping photographers resolve and withstand problems is why PPA is here.

Sincerely,

Al Hopper
Director of Membership, Copyright & Government Affairs

PS:  Did I mention how important it is to back up data on removable media as soon as possible?

PPA Regional Print Competition

Because the Rocky Mountain Region no longer exists, the Photographic Exhibitions Committee of PPA (PEC) has appointed the Southwest PPA (SWPPA) to be the official 2008 Regional Competition host for the states in the former Rocky Mountain Region.

SWPPA has graciously agreed to accept entries from the former Rocky Mountain states, and until further notice, SWPPA will be your official Regional where your entries will be judged for the PPA Regional Seal of Approval.

The submission deadline for the SWPPA Regional is February 13, 2008, and the judging will be February 16-17, 2008. Please watch for further communications directly from SWPPA or go to www.swppa.com.

As always, if you have any questions, please contact PEC Administrator Jim Dingwell at 866.591.9190 or jdingwell (at) ppa (dot) com.