Millers Blog

Miller's NEW Design Market is the place to shop for all your holiday card designs this season.  Our new online template store offers more than fifty templates made exclusively by professional designers for Miller's Press Cards.  You can browse our templates by designer or specific product type.  Purchase one template for $20, or buy a bundle of six templates for $100.  After you've purchased the templates, a link to the Photoshop files will be provided.  Use the link to download your templates, and then add your own text and images, creating fully-customized holiday cards your clients will love!  To learn more, visit Miller's Design Market now.

Industry research shows that clients are interested in displaying professional content in a number of different ways - on social networking sites, media players, cell phones, and digital picture frames.  We've recently added Digital Pictures Frames and Media to our product line, which allows you to creatively share your soft-copy images with clients, as well as give them the ability to display an assortment of their favorite photographs on the frame, whether they're portraits from a recent professional sitting or images they've captured personally.

We currently offer two Kodak Digital Frames and two Digital Media options, including a 1 GB USB thumb drive and a 1 GB SD card. Medium resolution images will be color-corrected and saved to the media option you have selected. If your studio logo is on file, you can apply it at no additional charge.

Our Frames and Media are only available when ordered as an add-on to Albums, Press Books, and Proofing orders in both Miller's Remote Studio and Album Quick Order.  To check out more information about our Digital Picture Frames and Media, click here!

So far this year over 4,500 attendees have taken advantage of our online classes.  These sessions vary in length from 30 minutes to 1.5 hours and cover details such as Monitor Calibartion, Ordering Gallery Wraps, Using Adobe Lightroom, Web Hosting, Getting Started with Miller's, and all of our Remote Studio Offerings.

The live sessions are scheduled throughout the day and early evening and offer an interactive experience -- simply ask a question if a detail is unclear.  We also offer many of these as recorded sessions, which you can view at your leisure.

Any of these are availalbe free of charge to all Miller's customers.  Check it out here!

With just a few donations left to give away through the 2008 Miller’s $100K Charity Program, we traveled to both the Southwest Fall Convention and Fall Ozark Convention.  Not only did we display many of our latest product offerings in the Miller's booth, we also handed out another $4,000 in charity giveaways to attendees.  Winners included:

Southwest
Peggy Todd of Peggy Todd Photography: Donating $1,000 to Susan G. Komen For the Cure
Paula Walsh of Paula Walsh Photography:  Donating $1,000 to The Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation
Ann Duff of Priceless Pictures:  Donating $1,000 to Arthritis Foundation Texas Chapter

Fall Ozark
Linda Runyon of Treasured Images by Don Runyon

The Miller's Convention Team truly enjoyed seeing all who were able to visit us in the Miller's booth this year.  We look forward to seeing you again in 2009!

We just released Miller’s PC and Mac compatible Album Quick Order! This new web application gives all users the ability to order from our wide selection of Albums and LayFlats.  It’s a fast and easy ordering method because it’s intended for those that do their creative design in Photoshop before placing their orders. Once designs are complete, it’s as simple as selecting the product and options you want, uploading your images, and transmitting your order.

With the release of Album Quick Order, we’re also releasing several new product options!  These are not only available in Album Quick Order, but also in Miller’s Remote Studio.  New additions include:

Digital Picture Frames and Media:
Now available as an add-on when ordering Miller’s Albums, Press Books, or Proofing orders, our new Digital Picture Frames and Media are perfect if you’re currently selling images to your clients.  Choose from two frame sizes and two media options.

New to Flush Mount Albums:
We’ve added a couple of new options to our Flush Mount Albums.  While rounded corners for our Album pages used to be the standard, you can now select between round or square corners.  When selecting square corners, finish it off with our high-end gold or silver gilding.

Pearl Paper – Miller’s LayFlat Press Books:
We’ve received rave reviews about our LayFlat Press Books, and they just got even better!  We’re now offering Pearl paper as a selection for our LayFlat Books, in addition to our Smooth Cover Stock and Smooth with Gloss options.

Visit What’s New to learn more about these latest product additions!

Our convention team was on the road again this month, dropping in at the Oklahoma and PPANE Annual Conventions.  New winners of the Miller’s $100K Charity Program include:

OKLAHOMA

Carol VanDeventer of Vanguard Photography:  Donating $1,000 to E.S.C.A.P.E. Ministries of Prue, Oklahoma 
Kent Helt of Helt Photography:  Donating $1,000 to Mobile Meals of Stillwater

PPANE

Dores Bradshaw of Bradshaw Photography
Jeri Moffie of Focal Image
Sean Sullivan:  Donating $1,000 to Boston Rescue Mission
Tom Golata of Photography by Golata:  Donating $1,000 to Norton Embracing Educational Development
Terry Tatro of Photography by Gloria & Terry

We have just two conventions left this season.  Find us at Southwest and Fall Ozark for a chance to win one of the remaining donations of the 2008 Miller’s $100K Charity Program!

We’re still in the midst of testing Album Quick Order, but wanted to share one new option that will be available for our LayFlat Press Books. With the upcoming release, we’ll begin offering Pearl paper, in addition to our current Smooth and Smooth with Gloss paper types.  Check out a couple of pictures of the new Pearl paper below:

This is just one of many options available for Miller's LayFlat Books.  To learn more, click here!

We’re nearing the release of the new PC-and-Mac-compatible Album Quick Order.  We're currently testing it internally and based on feedback, are confident that you’ll find it to be one of the easiest ordering applications available.  Designed for users that do all their creative work ahead of time in Photoshop, it has been set up to place orders for Miller’s Albums and LayFlats quickly.  Check out what the new application looks like and how simple it is to place an order:

Step 1:  After naming your order, the first step is selecting your product.  As you can see, AQO gives you the ability to order all Album and LayFlat offerings currently available through Miller’s.

Step 2:  Once you’ve selected your product, your next step is choosing from our wide variety of cover selections.

Step 3:  Add all desired options for your Album or Book by quickly scrolling down the list.

Step 4:  Now you’re ready to upload your images.  Once designs are uploaded, simply drag and drop each of them in to build the Album.  If placing a pano image in your Album, click “pano” and it’ll automatically reconfigure to a panoramic layout.  After all images are inserted, click the “Next” button.  This’ll take you to the last step within the ordering process, where you’ll transmit the order.

Check back with us next week to hear how we're progressing with our testing, as well as to learn more about what other new products features will be included with the AQO roll-out!

Welcome to the new and improved Miller’s Community! We’ve redesigned our Blog layout, making it simple for you to scroll through and check out posts that interest you. We’ll continue to fill you in on what’s going on here at Miller’s, but are also hoping to broaden our Blog with topics that are helpful to you. If you have any suggestions, we’d love to hear from you. 

In checking out our new Community area, you may have noticed that the Miller’s Forum is no longer available. We’re currently brainstorming different ways to restructure the Miller’s Community and felt that we needed to start from scratch. While our Forum was used, the majority of posts were either technical questions about Miller’s software or product suggestions/concerns. We feel that we’re able to provide you with a much higher level of service when we can handle these type of questions over the phone or by email.

We still want to hear from you! Earlier this year, we created a database which allows our Customer Service team to log any requests that you may have. We’re able to use this database to determine what is working for you and what isn’t, as well as what new products or services we need to offer based on your feedback. While the Forum was a simple way to offer suggestions, we’re better equipped to act quickly on them when logged by CS through this database. 

Our long-term goal for the Miller’s Community is to provide a place for you to not only stay up-to-date with what’s happening at Miller’s, but the entire photographic industry. As we begin to restructure this area, we’re open to any ideas that you may have. Please feel free to share those by either leaving a comment on the Blog or emailing our Customer Service team at custserv@millerslab.com.  In the meantime, please enjoy!

LOUISIANA

• Thomas Wintz of Wintz Photography:  Donating $1,000 to WRKF FM Public Radio
• Belinda Reedy of Belinda Reedy Photographics:  Donating $1,000 to Crosswalk Youth Ministries

TENNESSEE

• Richard Ramsey of Ramsey Photography:  Donating $1,000 to the Memphis Oral School for the Deaf
• Thomas Gillingham of Thomas Gillingham Photography:  Donating $1,000 to the Nashville Alliance for Public Education, Gateway Elementary School Public Library

FLORIDA

• Portia Brown of Cherished Photo Creations:  Donating $1,000 to Rejoice in the Lord Ministries
• Gladys Schefrompf of Gladys Schefrompf Photography:  Donating $1,000 to the Florida Sheriffs Youth Villa
• Adrialyn Larson of Adrialyn Photography:  Donating $1,000 to Dreams Come True
• Brian Beechner of See Photography:  Donating $1,000 to Gifts from God Ministries
• Paul Foreman of Captivating Images: Donating $1,000 to Gateway Baptist Church

I had the recent good fortune of helping the University of Missouri's College of Journalism order some prints from their Pictures of the Year International archives.

One order is now in Beijing for display as part of the Olympics, naturally featuring many Olympic highlights from over the years.  The order I looked at yesterday is for display as part of the J-school's 100-year anniversary and is more on the news side.  Shots of Babe Ruth, Iowa Jima, the "Dewey Defeats Truman" picture, Mother Theresa, and 46 more.

While looking through them all, I was simply awestruck.  We see great photos every day, so sometimes can become a bit immune to the 'standard wedding shot'.  It was a great reminder to me of the ability of great photographers to capture great memories and invoke great emotion in a manner that isn't possible with any other medium.

While they don't have an online gallery of the sets of images I was viewing, you can view their 2008 winners here and some of their archive of winners here.

We did out best to identify all the Miller’s customers. If you notice that you have been omitted please notify us, we would like to honor you! Please contact me; tedu@millerslab.com

With thousands upon thousands of beautiful images entered into the Miller’s 2008 Baby & Child Contest, we wondered if we’d ever be able to narrow the entries down and crown just one Grand Prize winner. Well, thanks to you, plus our panel of esteemed judges, the 2008 Baby & Child Contest winners have been named! Each winner has received a studio sample of their image, and we’ll now be giving cash prizes to the families of the winning portraits. Congratulations to this year's winners and thanks to all who participated! 

Grand Prize:  $5,000 Winner

"Photo Challenges" seem to be one of the more popular types of things on various photo forums that I read sporadically.

With that in mind, I post my own challenge to each of you here.  I'm betting that most of you haven't had a family portrait taken in years.  You spend your time taking the pictures.  Who would you trust to take yours?  When would you have time to do that?  Plus it's probably uncomfortable for you to be on the other side of the camera.

Even worse, when you have family and friends together for the holidays or just for fun, you're probably the one behind the camera then too.  You have plenty of pictures of everyone else, probably plenty of pictures of you holding a camera, but not very many (if any) recent photos of yourself simply enjoying life.

My challenge, then, is to make an appointment with a competitor in your area and go have a family portrait or other session done.  Will result in memories for you and be a reminder as to how your customers feel going through that process.

If not that, give the camera to someone else at the next birthday or holiday and sit there and smile and laugh while they take your picture a few times.

Looking back, you'll be glad you did and so will your loved ones.
 

We’ve had an eventful last couple of weekends at Miller’s, attending the Arkansas and Mississippi/Alabama state conventions.  We not only displayed many of our new products, like our new Album covers and LayFlat Albums/Press Books, but also handed out $1,000 donations through the Miller’s $100K Charity Program.  Winners included:

Arkansas -
Sommer Holden from SoHo Photography: Donating $1,000 to Bethlehem House, Inc.
Kelly Bittle from kellysphotography:  Donating $1,000 to the Ronald McDonald House

Mississippi & Alabama -
Goode Dethero of Goode Dethero Fine Art Photography:  Donating $1,000 to Core 104 FM's T.W.L.O.H.A. Benefit Concert

Catch up with us in Louisiana on August 3 & 4.  Stacy Butcher and Marsha Thomas will be in booth #17, registering more winners for the Miller’s $100K!  We look forward to seeing you there.