Couple of Art related things coming up, a chance to get some great artwork and help support local causes.

Jan 21 Starting Early - Arkansas Repertory Theatre This will be a party at the Governor’s Mansion and included will be a silent auction. I have donated a nice 16x24 version of the print above. The print is done on metallic paper on a nice gallery style display. Cost of admission is $50. All proceeds from the admission and silent auction go to benefit the Rep and all the great work they do

Feb 14 St Margaret’s Episcopal Art Show This one will be an art show featuring local artist at St Margaret’s in Chenal. There will also be a dinner and other activities during the event. I will be selling this collection of prints. 25% of sales go back to support St. Margaret’s and their ministries.

In addition to these two art sale opportunities I will donate 50% of the proceeds from any print sold this month to Haiti relief efforts. If you are interested in purchasing a print visit my Flickr Photostream and contact me about pricing.

Seems like there is always a point in doing anything that you have to ask yourself “How much do I really want to do this? How dedicated do I want to be?”.

I made a decision to get serious about photography starting in 2010. I already had to ask myself that question this morning when I couldn’t feel my fingers this morning in the 13 degree weather.

Still the end result is worth it, the shot was more than excellent when processing I found a flock of birds had flow into the view, check out the larger version when you click on the photo. Dedication pays off sometimes.

Morning in Little Rock

I am a huge fan of personal branding. In the world of social media and online it is difficult to present who you want to be without a conscious effort. Typically I have used this blog area as a mix of marketing, communications, and photography. However I feel like that is not what I want to put forward. As my life moves more toward photography so should my brand.

Thankfully I have been asked by Paul Strack to write for him on the CustomXM blog about marketing. On the flip side I get to talk plenty about communication through grad school papers. Because of that I am going to move toward using this to talk about the photography journey that I am going through right now. It is really just the beginning of a large journey and I think you will want to see where it takes me.

Remember to follow my marketing advice over on CustomXM, I feel like I have a lot to contribute to a community of knowledge that has helped me out so much.

customxm:

Welcome to 2010, I think this is going to be a very good year compared to the one we just made it through. Few have had a worse year however than the print industry. Which is why I am a little surprised to be here writing this for CustomXM. See I grew up in the digital age, marketing directors like myself have basically killed print. In developing my skill I embraced the computer monitor, and swore off paper. I met Paul Strack from CustomXM and found some of the neat things he was doing merging technology with printing. I quickly realized that I was wrong to abandon print all together. Print is not dead, print is in the process of being reborn. The print we knew 10 years ago is dead, in it’s place however is something much better. 

This blog will serve as a mix of things to help you understand this new reborn print industry. I will focus on some tips that I’ve been able to pick up, ways to enhance marketing through print, some case studies that Paul will share to show how other companies have utilized print, and some behind the scenes views of the print shop. With this my hope is that through a better understanding and some strong examples you will be able to enhance your marketing.

A first of the year post would not be complete without a list of New Years resolutions, so here are mine for marketing:

1 - Step outside of the box and do something completely radical to market my company.

2 - Give back as much marketing insight (both success and failures) as possible.

3 - Enhance the tie between my print marketing and online marketing.

4 - Find some way to incorporate dimensional printing.

5 - Find a better way to utilize social media as a communications tool.

So those are the areas I plan on focusing in this year. Why not drop a comment and share some of yours, I’ll even give the best few a very awesome 2010 CustomXM calendar featuring local photographers like myself.

-Greg Henderson