The Dead Pixels Society Podcast

Have an idea or tip? Send us a text!A lot of people can take a great photo once. The hard part is building a photography business that can deliver great photos all day, on schedule, under pressure, and with customers who expect a flawless experience. That’s why our conversation with Dallas photographer Jerry Hughes hits so hard, because he’s lived the leap from beginner to high-volume pro and he’s honest about what it really takes.Hughes walks Gary Pageau of The Dead Pixels Society through his second-career pivot, starting with a single digital photography elective and a bargain camera, then learning at warp speed through CreativeLive, conferences, and nonstop practice. He unpacks how he found his edge by specializing in competitive cheer photography, a niche that demands both technical skill and sport knowledge. From team and individual photos inside gyms to action photography at competitions and print-on-site products, Hughes explains the systems that turn event photography into a scalable operation with crews, process, and consistent delivery.Hughes also discusses the uncomfortable modern reality of AI in photography, including watermark removal and copyright infringement. He shares a practical fix that boosted sales while keeping picture day inclusive: A refundable deposit to unlock galleries, powered by PhotoDay automation. He also shares his views on AI tools (retouching, glare removal, cleanup over gimmicks), why adaptability is the real competitive advantage, and what he’s building next with Photo Mafia video education platform to teach the “real stuff” without gatekeeping.The Dead Pixels Society Podcast is powered by ScanMyPhotos, serving the photo industry for more than 30 years.ScanMyPhotosScanMyPhotos provides professional digitization services for photos, negatives, slides, and more Energize your sales with Shareme.chat, the proven texting platform. ShareMe.Chat ShareMe.Chat platform uses chat-to-text on your website to keep your customers connected and buying!MediaclipMediaclip strives to continuously enhance the user experience while dramatically increasing revenue.Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!Start for FREEIndependent Photo ImagersIPI is a member + trade association and a cooperative buying group in the photo + print industry.Photo Imaging CONNECTThe Photo Imaging CONNECT conference, March 2027, at the RIO Hotel and Resort in Las Vegas, NDisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showSign up for the Dead Pixels Society newsletter at http://bit.ly/DeadPixelsSignUp.Contact us at [email protected] our LinkedIn group, Photo/Digital Imaging Network, and Facebook group,  The Dead Pixels Society. Leave a review on Apple and Podchaser. Are you interested in being a guest? Click here for details.Hosted and produced by Gary PageauAnnouncer: Erin Manning

Have an idea or tip? Send us a text!Chaos is expensive, and most business owners don’t see the bill until it’s too late. We sit down with Todd Krause of Silversun Consulting, a longtime operator who’s built and fixed businesses across finance and services, to talk about the unglamorous moves that quietly create real growth: standard operating procedures, clean customer intake, and consistent delivery.We get specific about what “standardize everything you can” actually means. Krause shares how templates for filing, CRM setup, communication, and billing terms reduce mistakes, speed up training, and protect the customer experience. If you run a photography business, photo lab, camera store, print studio, or any creative shop, this is the balance you’re looking for: Keep the creative work flexible while making the administrative and production workflow repeatable. The payoff is less stress, fewer dropped balls, and more time spent on high-value work.We also dig into the people side: why “nobody wants to work” is often a symptom of toxic communication and unclear expectations. Krause explains how culture, trust, and training directly impact employee retention, customer retention, and profitability. From “profit leaks” caused by turnover to being frugal the smart way instead of buying the cheapest tools, we connect daily habits to long-term margin and a business that can run without the owner.The Dead Pixels Society Podcast is powered by ScanMyPhotos, serving the photo industry for more than 30 years.ScanMyPhotosScanMyPhotos provides professional digitization services for photos, negatives, slides, and more Energize your sales with Shareme.chat, the proven texting platform. ShareMe.Chat ShareMe.Chat platform uses chat-to-text on your website to keep your customers connected and buying!MediaclipMediaclip strives to continuously enhance the user experience while dramatically increasing revenue.Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!Start for FREEIndependent Photo ImagersIPI is a member + trade association and a cooperative buying group in the photo + print industry.Photo Imaging CONNECTThe Photo Imaging CONNECT conference, March 2027, at the RIO Hotel and Resort in Las Vegas, NDisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showSign up for the Dead Pixels Society newsletter at http://bit.ly/DeadPixelsSignUp.Contact us at [email protected] our LinkedIn group, Photo/Digital Imaging Network, and Facebook group,  The Dead Pixels Society. Leave a review on Apple and Podchaser. Are you interested in being a guest? Click here for details.Hosted and produced by Gary PageauAnnouncer: Erin Manning

Have an idea or tip? Send us a text!Your photos are better than a quick drugstore print, but what actually makes a premium print feel like art? We sit down with Petra Felgen, CEO of WhiteWall, to unpack how a high-end photo lab delivers gallery-grade wall art at scale without giving up the craftsmanship that photographers and design lovers care about.Felgen gets specific about what “premium” really means: Producing in-house near Cologne, offering a huge range of materials from fine art paper to acrylic prints and aluminum dibond, and pairing it all with handmade custom framing. Felgen explains why frames and finishing have become just as important as the print itself, especially when wall decor needs to match interior design and hold up as a true keepsake.We also dig into who WhiteWall serves and how they reach them, from ambitious hobbyists to professional photographers to B2B buyers outfitting offices, hospitality spaces, and large projects. Felgen discusses why why in-person stores, gallery partnerships, and online consultations still matter, how Whitewall supports pros with fulfillment and Shopify integration, and why disciplined marketing beats chasing every new channel. She also shares how new products like linen-cover photo books and calendars make the roadmap only when they meet the brand’s quality bar.The Dead Pixels Society Podcast is powered by ScanMyPhotos, serving the photo industry for more than 30 years.ScanMyPhotosScanMyPhotos provides professional digitization services for photos, negatives, slides, and more Energize your sales with Shareme.chat, the proven texting platform. ShareMe.Chat ShareMe.Chat platform uses chat-to-text on your website to keep your customers connected and buying!MediaclipMediaclip strives to continuously enhance the user experience while dramatically increasing revenue.Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!Start for FREEVisual 1stVisual 1st is the premier global conference focused on the photo and video ecosystem. Photo Imaging CONNECTThe Photo Imaging CONNECT conference, March 2027, at the RIO Hotel and Resort in Las Vegas, NDisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showSign up for the Dead Pixels Society newsletter at http://bit.ly/DeadPixelsSignUp.Contact us at [email protected] our LinkedIn group, Photo/Digital Imaging Network, and Facebook group,  The Dead Pixels Society. Leave a review on Apple and Podchaser. Are you interested in being a guest? Click here for details.Hosted and produced by Gary PageauAnnouncer: Erin Manning

Have an idea or tip? Send us a text!Buying new equipment feels like progress, but it can also be the fastest way to trap your business. Gary Pageau of The Dead Pixels Society talks with Adam Ward, a consultant and lean process expert, to unpack how photo labs, print shops, and photography retailers can make smarter moves when demand is uncertain and trends change direction fast, from EV hype to the very real resurgence of film photography. He shares why legacy costs make pivots painful and how keeping flexibility in your operations can matter more than guessing the “perfect” forecast. Ward brings a practical lean manufacturing lens to the photo imaging industry: scale only helps if you aren’t scaling waste. He talks about the hidden ways teams build friction into workflows, why “economies of scale” often fail in the real world, and the blunt truth about AI and automation: If you automate a messy process, you just get messy outcomes faster. The goal is to remove the trash first, then use tools and technology to amplify what works. He also digs into the customer experience side of photo printing and personalized photo products. Customers can’t always describe what they truly want, so we focus on listening for pain points, reducing choice overload, and delivering delight rather than competing on price. Ward explores what in-store retail must offer in 2026: Speed and expertise that beat online customer service, plus clear recommendations that help people turn a great photo into something tangible.The Dead Pixels Society Podcast is powered by ScanMyPhotos, serving the photo industry for more than 30 years.ScanMyPhotosScanMyPhotos provides professional digitization services for photos, negatives, slides, and more Energize your sales with Shareme.chat, the proven texting platform. ShareMe.Chat ShareMe.Chat platform uses chat-to-text on your website to keep your customers connected and buying!MediaclipMediaclip strives to continuously enhance the user experience while dramatically increasing revenue.Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!Start for FREEIndependent Photo ImagersIPI is a member + trade association and a cooperative buying group in the photo + print industry.Photo Imaging CONNECTThe Photo Imaging CONNECT conference, March 2027, at the RIO Hotel and Resort in Las Vegas, NDisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showSign up for the Dead Pixels Society newsletter at http://bit.ly/DeadPixelsSignUp.Contact us at [email protected] our LinkedIn group, Photo/Digital Imaging Network, and Facebook group,  The Dead Pixels Society. Leave a review on Apple and Podchaser. Are you interested in being a guest? Click here for details.Hosted and produced by Gary PageauAnnouncer: Erin Manning

Have an idea or tip? Send us a text!Your computer is packed with stories you cannot find. Video clips named DJI003, endless B-roll, meeting recordings, marketing footage, client projects, school photography archives, and personal travel memories all pile up until searching feels impossible. Gary Pageau of The Dead Pixels Society sits down with Henry Kang, founder and CEO of Clipto.AI, to talk about a different approach: Local-first AI that indexes and understands your media on your own machine, so you can search your library in plain English without uploading terabytes to the cloud.He digs into the real advantages of on-device AI for content creators and businesses, including faster workflows, no upload waiting, fewer cloud token costs, and a much cleaner privacy posture for sensitive work under NDA. Dr. Kang explains why video search is still one of the hardest problems in media asset management, and how Clipto bridges the gap between how humans remember visuals and how file systems store them. Instead of hunting through folders, you describe what you want and refine as you go.Then learned what surprised Dr. Kang and his team: Users far beyond filmmakers and photographers, plus a new MCP connection that lets AI agents interact with your local “memory” while keeping data local. That unlocks a creative twist, asking not only “where is the clip I need?” but also “what can I make with what I already have?”The Dead Pixels Society Podcast is powered by ScanMyPhotos, serving the photo industry for more than 30 years.ScanMyPhotosScanMyPhotos provides professional digitization services for photos, negatives, slides, and more Energize your sales with Shareme.chat, the proven texting platform. ShareMe.Chat ShareMe.Chat platform uses chat-to-text on your website to keep your customers connected and buying!MediaclipMediaclip strives to continuously enhance the user experience while dramatically increasing revenue.Independent Photo ImagersIPI is a member + trade association and a cooperative buying group in the photo + print industry.Photo Imaging CONNECTThe Photo Imaging CONNECT conference, March 2027, at the RIO Hotel and Resort in Las Vegas, NBuzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!Start for FREEDisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showSign up for the Dead Pixels Society newsletter at http://bit.ly/DeadPixelsSignUp.Contact us at [email protected] our LinkedIn group, Photo/Digital Imaging Network, and Facebook group,  The Dead Pixels Society. Leave a review on Apple and Podchaser. Are you interested in being a guest? Click here for details.Hosted and produced by Gary PageauAnnouncer: Erin Manning

Have an idea or tip? Send us a text!Most businesses fail to grow for a simple reason: The owner is stuck selling the obvious thing, while the customer is buying something deeper. When Kenneth Kollasch tells us what it’s like to grow up inside a multi-generational ballroom and Latin dance studio, the lesson lands fast. Dance lessons were never just about steps. They were about confidence, relationships, identity, and feeling at home in a room full of people. That “hidden product” idea maps directly to the photo imaging world too, where prints and gear are really about memories and self expression.From there, we get practical about small business systems and exit planning. Kollasch works with franchise owners and stressed “mom and pop” operators who feel trapped in a daily cycle of fires. Kollasch and Gary Pageau of The Dead Pixels Society talk through how to move from swamp mode to a predictable operating system: start with a deep diagnostic of real numbers, then document the know how that’s been living in your head for years. A clear playbook and solid SOPs don’t just help you hire and train, they make your business less owner dependent and more valuable when you want to sell.Kollasch also reveals what buyers should look for during due diligence and business acquisition, including the team you’re actually buying, how automated and repeatable the operations are, what the financial output really means, and why the seller is exiting.The Dead Pixels Society Podcast is powered by ScanMyPhotos, serving the photo industry for more than 30 years.ScanMyPhotosScanMyPhotos provides professional digitization services for photos, negatives, slides, and more Energize your sales with Shareme.chat, the proven texting platform. ShareMe.Chat ShareMe.Chat platform uses chat-to-text on your website to keep your customers connected and buying!MediaclipMediaclip strives to continuously enhance the user experience while dramatically increasing revenue.Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!Start for FREEIndependent Photo ImagersIPI is a member + trade association and a cooperative buying group in the photo + print industry.Photo Imaging CONNECTThe Photo Imaging CONNECT conference, March 2027, at the RIO Hotel and Resort in Las Vegas, NDisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showSign up for the Dead Pixels Society newsletter at http://bit.ly/DeadPixelsSignUp.Contact us at [email protected] our LinkedIn group, Photo/Digital Imaging Network, and Facebook group,  The Dead Pixels Society. Leave a review on Apple and Podchaser. Are you interested in being a guest? Click here for details.Hosted and produced by Gary PageauAnnouncer: Erin Manning

Have an idea or tip? Send us a text!Your customer doesn’t order a “file” they order a memory, and nothing kills that moment faster than a print that looks worse than the phone screen. We sit down with Servi Pieters, CEO of Viesus, to unpack why modern photo printing faces new traps: HDR smartphone displays, print workflows, heavy social media compression, and low-light computational photography that looks fine on glass but falls apart on paper.Pieters gets specific about what an automatic image enhancement layer actually does inside high-volume labs and print providers. Pieters shares a real-world KPI wake-up call: One company saw complaint rates jump when Viesus was inadvertently disabled, then drop by 58% when it was turned back on. He also talks about the hidden conversion problem with resolution and DPI warnings, and how reliable upscaling and artifact removal can keep shoppers from abandoning an order while still keeping the photo authentic.From skin tone handling and scene-aware correction to tuning for different substrates like paper, metal, canvas, and textiles, this is a practical conversation for anyone building a photo lab workflow, a personalization program, or a print-on-demand business. Pieters also discusses new PDF features, including how Viesus can extract images, enhance them, and place them back without disturbing the rest of the file.The Dead Pixels Society Podcast is powered by ScanMyPhotos, serving the photo industry for more than 30 years.ScanMyPhotosScanMyPhotos provides professional digitization services for photos, negatives, slides, and more Energize your sales with Shareme.chat, the proven texting platform. ShareMe.Chat ShareMe.Chat platform uses chat-to-text on your website to keep your customers connected and buying!MediaclipMediaclip strives to continuously enhance the user experience while dramatically increasing revenue.Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!Start for FREEPhoto Imaging CONNECTThe Photo Imaging CONNECT conference, March 2027, at the RIO Hotel and Resort in Las Vegas, NIndependent Photo ImagersIPI is a member + trade association and a cooperative buying group in the photo + print industry.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showSign up for the Dead Pixels Society newsletter at http://bit.ly/DeadPixelsSignUp.Contact us at [email protected] our LinkedIn group, Photo/Digital Imaging Network, and Facebook group,  The Dead Pixels Society. Leave a review on Apple and Podchaser. Are you interested in being a guest? Click here for details.Hosted and produced by Gary PageauAnnouncer: Erin Manning

Have an idea or tip? Send us a text!Kodak didn’t “miss digital.” What really happened is more interesting and a lot more useful if you work in photo printing, photo labs, or photo software. Gary Pageau of The Dead Pixels Society sits down with longtime marketing leader Rocky Bowles to trace the real arc from the film era to early online ordering, and then into the current moment where AI content, social commerce, and collapsing attention spans are rewriting how people buy photo products.Bowles shares what it took to earn consumer trust when the idea of mailing your film to a lab felt risky, and how ProShots tried to connect photographers, labs, and customers online before Facebook normalized sharing. From there, we unpack why startup innovation can die inside corporate structures, even when the technology is strong, and why the “legacy business” problem is different from having no vision at all.Then Bowles gets practical: what marketing actually means in 2026 for the photo imaging industry. She talks audience segmentation, content budgets, and the uncomfortable truth that real campaigns need time, often 90 days, before you can judge results. She also digs into direct-to-consumer strategy, “orphan brides,” and why reducing friction matters more than perfect product pages, especially on mobile and platforms like TikTok and Instagram.The Dead Pixels Society Podcast is powered by ScanMyPhotos, serving the photo industry for more than 30 years.ScanMyPhotosScanMyPhotos provides professional digitization services for photos, negatives, slides, and more Energize your sales with Shareme.chat, the proven texting platform. ShareMe.Chat ShareMe.Chat platform uses chat-to-text on your website to keep your customers connected and buying!MediaclipMediaclip strives to continuously enhance the user experience while dramatically increasing revenue.Independent Photo ImagersIPI is a member + trade association and a cooperative buying group in the photo + print industry.Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!Start for FREEDisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showSign up for the Dead Pixels Society newsletter at http://bit.ly/DeadPixelsSignUp.Contact us at [email protected] our LinkedIn group, Photo/Digital Imaging Network, and Facebook group,  The Dead Pixels Society. Leave a review on Apple and Podchaser. Are you interested in being a guest? Click here for details.Hosted and produced by Gary PageauAnnouncer: Erin Manning

Have an idea or tip? Send us a text!You can ask a frontier model for marketing copy and get something polished, fast, and strangely not you. That gap between “correct” and “authentic” is where this conversation with Dr. Arshavir Blackwell gets practical. Dr. Blackwell tells The Dead Pixels Society why large language models (LLMs) still behave like black boxes, why hallucinations happen, and what mechanistic interpretability is doing to help us understand what is actually happening inside billions of learned parameters.We also break down the core mechanics of modern AI in plain language: words become numbers, those numbers move through stacked layers, and the model predicts the next word again and again until you see a full response. Dr. Blackwell explains why the transformer architecture, popularized by the 2017 paper “Attention Is All You Need,” became the watershed moment that made today’s AI assistants and generative AI feel suddenly powerful and broadly useful.Then the discussion shifts to “roll your own AI” with local large language models that run on your own computer. Local, on-device AI can improve privacy and data security, reduce token-based costs, and open the door to tuning a model on your writing so the output matches your true brand voice. For small business marketing, that means faster iteration across channels, more A-B style variations, and better ideas without spending hours rewriting generic text. If you care about authenticity, compliance, or simply keeping control of your workflow, this one will give you a clear starting point.The Dead Pixels Society Podcast is powered by ScanMyPhotos, serving the photo industry for more than 30 years.ScanMyPhotosScanMyPhotos provides professional digitization services for photos, negatives, slides, and more Energize your sales with Shareme.chat, the proven texting platform. ShareMe.Chat ShareMe.Chat platform uses chat-to-text on your website to keep your customers connected and buying!MediaclipMediaclip strives to continuously enhance the user experience while dramatically increasing revenue.Photo Imaging CONNECTThe Photo Imaging CONNECT conference, March 2027, at the RIO Hotel and Resort in Las Vegas, NIndependent Photo ImagersIPI is a member + trade association and a cooperative buying group in the photo + print industry.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showSign up for the Dead Pixels Society newsletter at http://bit.ly/DeadPixelsSignUp.Contact us at [email protected] our LinkedIn group, Photo/Digital Imaging Network, and Facebook group,  The Dead Pixels Society. Leave a review on Apple and Podchaser. Are you interested in being a guest? Click here for details.Hosted and produced by Gary PageauAnnouncer: Erin Manning

Have an idea or tip? Send us a text!AI can generate a believable image in seconds, so why does real photography still matter, and how do working photographers protect what they create? We’re joined by Angela Kurkian, CEO of Professional Photographers of America (PPA), to talk about the parts of the job that don’t show up in a highlight reel: Building a sustainable photography business, finding community, and defending your rights as a creator.Kurkian and Gary Pageau of The Dead Pixels Society dig into what makes PPA different as one of the oldest nonprofit photography associations, including the mission to support photographers as small business owners and the idea of serving both the creative artist and the business warrior. She shares her own path through the industry, what she learned in a high-volume studio, and why so many photographers struggle when pricing becomes a guessing game. Kurkian also get practical about tools and benchmarks that help you plan revenue, cost of sales, expenses, and owner pay so a photographer's rates match the life they desire.Kurkian also talks about industry pressure points, like AI in photography and copyright. She explains why PPA’s advocacy in Washington, DC focuses on intellectual property, what photographers misunderstand about copyright registration, and why AI-generated headshots and images raise real ownership and enforcement questions. We also cover where to get vetted education and community support through PPA, including Photovision and local networks.The Dead Pixels Society Podcast is powered by ScanMyPhotos, serving the photo industry for more than 30 years.ScanMyPhotosScanMyPhotos provides professional digitization services for photos, negatives, slides, and more Energize your sales with Shareme.chat, the proven texting platform. ShareMe.Chat ShareMe.Chat platform uses chat-to-text on your website to keep your customers connected and buying!MediaclipMediaclip strives to continuously enhance the user experience while dramatically increasing revenue.Independent Photo ImagersIPI is a member + trade association and a cooperative buying group in the photo + print industry.Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!Start for FREEPhoto Imaging CONNECTThe Photo Imaging CONNECT conference, March 2027, at the RIO Hotel and Resort in Las Vegas, NScanMyPhotosScanMyPhotos provides professional digitization services for photos, negatives, slides, and moreDisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showSign up for the Dead Pixels Society newsletter at http://bit.ly/DeadPixelsSignUp.Contact us at [email protected] our LinkedIn group, Photo/Digital Imaging Network, and Facebook group,  The Dead Pixels Society. Leave a review on Apple and Podchaser. Are you interested in being a guest? Click here for details.Hosted and produced by Gary PageauAnnouncer: Erin Manning