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ScanDigital Takes Manhattan

Wednesday, December 10th, 2008

I’ve been meaning to write this post for some time, but I wanted to share with everyone our experience from NYC at the end of October.  I spent a week in New York with Pamela Weiss our head of marketing/PR and Matt Stone our VP, Operations.  The original impetus for the trip was the PhotoPlus Expo trade show and then we extended the trip a bit to accomplish other meetings as well.

It was an exciting and fast paced trip, but we returned with new ideas, new customers and new connections.  We also had a ton of fun and enjoyed being in the city along the way.  Just an all around successful week.

We decided to take a red-eye in order to not lose a day with the West to East coast.  We had enjoyed a comfortable flight on the new VirginAmerica airline (I’d recommend giving them a try) and arrived in NYC’s JFK airport at 5:30 AM, grabbed our bags and headed off to our hotel.  After dropping off our bags, we went to the Javits Center to set up our booth for the show.  We completed set up by 8:30 AM and had about 3 hours to kill before we could access our hotel rooms.

Quick thinking, I decided we’d all go to my favorite breakfast spot from my NYC days, the Crooked Tree Creperie on St. Marks between 1st Avenue and Avenue A.  We arrived to learn they were closed which became a theme of the trip – three attempts, three strikes.

So we grabbed breakfast and a diner close by and headed back to the hotel.  Then we waited…and waited…and waited some more for our rooms to open up.

We were all pretty worn out, Matt and I decided to hang out in the lobby and Pamela decided to fight the drowsiness with caffeine.  Which resulted in a highly caffeinated Pamela snapping photos of an exhausted Matt and I in the lobby.  Here is some of her finer work:

Finally we checked in and settled in.  A great businessman once told me success is all about shoe leather, meaning you just have to get out and work those leather soles for revenues.  Matt and I agree, but only wanted to work the bottom leather if the top leather was looking great.  So we hit Grand Central Station for a shine:

With newly shined shoes, during the first evening in NYC, I had the pleasure of attending the Inc. Magazine reception for their 30 under 30 list, due to our July feature in their Start Up issue.  It was great to meet the Inc. team in person and I met so many great young entrepreneurs.

The next day we began the PhotoPlus Expo show.  Our booth turned out great and we had an opportunity to speak with a meet many existing customers and reach so many potential customers.  We always gain so much be being on the tradeshow floor speaking directly with our customers.  Running an online business, it is so easy to be trapped behind the computer, but so important to be out greeting customers and talking about our business.  The show lasted three days and was well attended.

Here is a great shot of our booth:

After our first day at the show, I wanted Matt and Pamela to experience Duke’s – a terrific BBQ restaurant on the east side.  It was a staple of my diet for more than two years in NYC and I was thrilled to return.  Matt didn’t hold back ordering their Sampler Platter, which basically was five kinds of meat on one plate.  Sides were served on a second plate and everything is washed down with the house beer – Pabst Blue Ribbon (which is elegantly served in a bucket).  This photo says it all:

After three days on our feet, we celebrated another successful ScanDigital tradeshow at my favorite restaurant – Blue Water Grill:

Pamela and I stayed in NYC for two more days after the show to meet with members of the press and tell the ScanDigital story.  The highlight for me was the afternoon we spent at the Hearst Tower.  The Tower was completed in 2005 after I had moved to Los Angeles, so I had never seen the building.  I must say it is now in my top 5 buildings in the world.  I was amazed and Pamela quickly was tired of hearing me rave about the buildings outstanding architecture.  The building was designed by Sir Norman Foster, was the first Gold LEED certified skyscraper in NYC.  I’ll let you read about it here if you’re interested, but one quick fact – using an exoskeloton design they saved the use of over 2,000 tons of steel…Amazing!

Overall it was a fun, exciting and successful NYC trip for the ScanDigital team!

Check out a 30 second slideshow here:

Posted in ScanDigital, business, digital photography, negative scanning, photos | No Comments »

Where We’re Coming From…

Monday, November 24th, 2008

I found my old 35mm camera again this morning. I haven’t used it since college—but it’s been lovingly packed up and carried with my wherever I move, even if it’s to just sit on a shelf or in the back of my closet.

I have two digital cameras which see far more use, but nothing will ever make me give up that old camera.

Two reasons: it was my first real, grown-up, utterly manual camera—everything this camera did was my choice, good or bad—and my grandfather gave me this camera as a gift before I left for college. It was a requirement that all incoming photo students own a 35mm camera with an internal light meter. The camera was given to him several years before, but he had another which he preferred.

The camera itself is a Rolleiflex and is a workhorse of German engineering that will quite likely outlive the 35mm film format. I keep it in a mismatched leather case that doesn’t quite close because the front of the original fell off during a trip to the zoo and dropped into the wolf enclosure. I remember there being a moment where I was watching the case fall and thought, “I could still grab it…but then I might drop the camera…” The wolves could have the case. I spent a majority of my time in college with this camera to my eye—even without it I saw the world through a frame: how would I photograph this? What aperture? What speed? Each and every moment could be a perfect image just waiting to be caught.

Time seems different when you can press it into film. There is something frozen about a photograph, something still and quiet. You have to slow down if you want to look at old albums or slides—you have to specifically seek them out. It’s the same to taking pictures on film—you have to move deliberately to some extent. If there’s anything to call our lives in 2008, slow is far from it, and stopping everything to try a find your family’s old pictures isn’t as appealing. Especially not when digital cameras enable us to have years of images and memories just a few mouse clicks away.

Does that mean that we have any desire to get rid of these old photographs, negatives, or slides? Not at all, just like I would never even dream of getting rid of my grandfather’s camera. These are history—more than that, these are our histories. One of a kind and utterly priceless.

When was the last time you looked through your stacks of old photographs? Many of us even have inherited drawers or boxes filled from our parents, and their parents as well. All filled with small windows into the past that we might not have ever seen. Wouldn’t you like to?

This is where ScanDigital is ready to help you.

Posted in Photo Scanning, Photo Tips, Photography History, ScanDigital, negative scanning, photos | No Comments »

ScanDigital Updates

Friday, July 18th, 2008

There are a few new things that we are happy to introduce this month to our customers. We are always in the process of developing new ways to improve our service on all ends to offer the best digitization services on the market.

Large Flatbed Scans – ScanDigital is now offering scans up to 12.2”x17.2” in either 300dpi or 600dpi. By adding this service ScanDigital will be able to offer high quality full scans of large photos, newspaper clippings, artwork, album pages and scrapbooks. By capturing the entire image in one scan the quality is far superior to having to “stitch” different images together in an editing program. The pricing at 300dpi and 600dpi is $1.88 and $2.88 respectively and is relatively inexpensive when considering that elsewhere the price is upwards of $6.00 a scan. For those of you who scrapbook this option is a great way to protect and share your cherished hard work.

Capzles Partnership – ScanDigital is proud to announce that we have partnered with Capzles.com, an innovative new photo and video sharing site that lets users design their own timelines. Capzles’ amazing new flash technology allows for users to fully customize their timelines and seamlessly integrate photos, videos and blog entries. Check them out at www.capzles.com.

ScanDigital Growth – Over the past year ScanDigital has added more than 15 new employees to our skilled and dedicated team. Our experienced and highly trained team has been integral in helping ScanDigital become the industry leader in both quality and turnaround time. Each new member brings with them ideas and experience that have helped us improve all aspects of our business. By adding our great team members we are able to meet the ever increasing demand for our services while maintaining the quickest turnaround time. Also, you can rest assured that all their materials are being handled with the upmost care by trained professionals who are dedicated to providing you with the best possible images.

Posted in Organizational, Photo Scanning, Photo Tips, ScanDigital, ScanDigital Affiliates, business, film transfer, negative scanning, photos, technology | No Comments »

ScanDigital Helps Organize the Clutterbugs!

Wednesday, May 21st, 2008

ScanDigital has recently been working with many home organizers in the effort to help simplify the lives of their clients. Most of us have a system of storing our photos, slides and negatives that is somewhat similar; partially labeled and piled up in a closet somewhere. You may be the only one who is even able to decipher what is where. Now, with the help of ScanDigital you can store those images away neatly and have full access to your images on disc and online anywhere in the world (even organized into folders no less!).

When sending their collection of images and movies into ScanDigital, customers can label there rolls of film, carousels of slides and photo albums so that those same names and groupings appear when viewing them on your computer. ScanDigital’s scanning service means no more searching for twenty minutes to find those photographs from that great vacation 10 years ago. After sending them to ScanDigital they will be right at your fingertips, in high quality and digitally enhanced.

Along with the digitally organized images ScanDigital offers a digital photo frame that we will preload for the customer with their newly scanned images. These photo frames look great and are good space savers as you can rotate through many images on the same frame. The photo frames also make perfect gifts for loved ones.

I recently took a large bin of images out of my parent’s house and had them processed at our El Segundo facility. Because of our great turnaround time I was able to put the bin back before my mom even noticed it was missing. When I gave her the DVD loaded with all the images in labeled folders she was thrilled. It was great to see her reaction as she was amazed that our slide scanning and editing restored old slides that she was sure were faded beyond repair.  She had forgotten what was even in the bin in the first place and now she is enjoying her images and the bin has been put into storage!

Posted in Organizational, ScanDigital, ScanDigital Affiliates, film transfer, negative scanning, photos, slide scanning | No Comments »

Slide Scanning and Negative Scanning – Why not just scan my photos?

Monday, May 12th, 2008

If you were to start exploring the process of getting your images scanned into a digital format you would quickly see that most often the price to scan your photos is lower than the price to scan your slides and negatives. You are probably thinking, “Great! I will just send in my photos to be scanned and hold onto my negatives for safe-keeping.” Unfortunately for a small savings you would be keeping yourself from receiving the highest possible quality.

When scanning a print you are not working from the original material (negative) so essentially it is similar to making a copy of a copy. No matter how much we can do to adjust an image and while the results are often great, the results from scanning negatives or scanning slides almost always allows for a higher quality digital image. Because of how the slides and negatives are chemically processed it allows for a color quality that cannot be met on a standard photographic print.

Many consumers assume that because of the larger size of the prints they would create better digital images but with the high quality slide and negative scanners available that is just not the case. At ScanDigital we use Nikon scanners specifically designed for 35mm negative scanning and 35mm slide scanning. They are designed to scan at a very high dpi (we offer both 2000 dpi and 4000 dpi) with Digital Ice technology that automatically fixes very small scratches and any small dust particles that didn’t get completely removed during the slide and negative cleaning.

Slide scanning is a particularly important thing to do as the life of these slides is short-lived. Ektachrome slides for example can start deteriorating rapidly after just thirty years. Many customers express concern over shipping their irreplaceable slides across the country, believing that they are safer tucked away in the closet. Unfortunately by not preserving them digitally they are suffering irreparable damage as time goes on. ScanDigital is integrated with UPS for safe, secure and trackable shipping so don’t wait, save your precious memories by sending in your slides today!

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Posted in Photo Tips, ScanDigital, film transfer, negative scanning, photos, slide scanning, technology | No Comments »

Doing More with Your Home Movies

Friday, May 2nd, 2008

At ScanDigital we have been very pleased with the great response we have had to our new film and video digitization services. We are proud to match our unrivaled quality in photo, slide and negative scanning with great video and film transfer. All video and film is transferred onto DVD which is easy to play in any standard player. The quality is excellent and it brings to life old memories that have been sitting in the back of your closet for years.

But what if you are looking for something more than just a DVD copy of your film or video? ScanDigital is happy to place your film and video avi files onto a hard drive. Once you have the full avi files you have the ability to do so much with your old film. There are a number of programs available to edit your home movies ranging from very basic programs like iMovie to professional level programs such as Final Cut Pro. From transitions and effects to adding music and chapter points, you are given the ability to personally customize your precious memories.

Special Events can be a great way to use your newly digitized film. Seamlessly integrate stills and video together for that big slide show, everyone will love what you have created for the big anniversary, rehearsal dinner, birthday etc. Also, you can now post your videos on the web. This will allow you to share your video with friends and family members all over the country, even all over the world. We have already heard stories of our customers sharing great moments with family members as they watch their old films and videos. And that is really what our process is all about, restoring precious memories so that it can bring family and friends together, no matter how far apart they are.

Posted in ScanDigital, business, film transfer, photos, slide scanning, video transfer | No Comments »

The Future of History – A Slide Scanning Project

Thursday, April 3rd, 2008

As some of you may know based on my bio at ScanDigital, I was a history major at Dartmouth and spent a number of years working in commercial real estate investment banking. So when the City of Pasadena called us to bid on a large historical architecture preservation project, I was particularly excited and honored. From a business perspective, this was obviously the type of call we love to receive. From a personal perspective, this type of project is particularly interesting to me. In my free time, I enjoy reading about architecture, both old and new.

For those of you who may not live in Southern California, Pasadena has one of the most active historic preservation societies in the country and the City is home to numerous famous residential and commercial properties. The bid process involved scanning a small group of slides and about a month ago ScanDigital was pleased to learn that we were awarded the project.

Our team recently begun scanning slides that document many of the historic properties in Pasadena. In addition to the slide scanning work we are performing, we will optimize the images digitally and, perhaps most importantly, we will be tagging the images with metadata in order to create a searchable database of images. The conversion of these slides to digital, to me, represents a new trend in historical preservation and archiving. Prior to our work scanning the slides they sat relatively useless in the basement of Pasadena’s permit office. Once the project is complete, residents of the city will be able to enjoy an easily search-able and usable version of these historic slides. It will be a great way for residents, old and new, to gain better access to their City’s history.

We look forward to working on projects like this as more and more cities across the country seek to move into the digital age, clear their offices of old materials and preserve this historic material for future generations. In times past, discovering historical information involved a lot of digging and searching, with new digital capabilities the future of history will be far more manageable and accessible. I am truly proud to be working on the Pasadena project and excited to see the end result of photographic database we will help them create.

Posted in Photo Scanning, Photography History, ScanDigital, photos, slide scanning | No Comments »

Fear of the Unknown

Wednesday, October 31st, 2007

Right off the bat here, I must admit that I have never been involved in any kind of evacuation. A few earthquakes and some school drills are about all I’ve attended. When it comes to fires, tornadoes, hurricanes or even an alien invasion I couldn’t even imagine the thoughts that run through a wildfires.jpghomeowners head. Having just a few minutes to get yourself, your family, and anything else you may find important out and on the move has got to be tough. What items do you take? What do you leave behind? What types of questions do you ask yourself? Do you really get the time to ask these questions?

Recently we here at ScanDigital have been receiving materials from those who have gone through just that. As I’m sure you know by now, Southern California has been fighting wildfires from Santa Barbara all the way down to the Mexican border. Thousands of homes have been destroyed and hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by the devastation. The story we are hearing first hand here every day is that of families gathering up whatever they can, clothes, heirlooms, and pictures and seeking shelter. The luckier ones have been able return to their homes and are working to return everything with minimal effort.

Having started as part of the ScanDigital team only weeks before this tragedy, I’ve realized in these dangerous evacuation situations it simply makes sense eliminate the burden of trying to rescue your photos by having them preserved and digitized in advanced. One of my favorite parts of our service is that the images are backed up to our offsite, secure servers, meaning our customers do not even need to worry about grabbing their CD/DVD in an unforeseen tragedy. If leaving pictures behind allows for more time to gather other items that can’t be replaced, I say save those. Printing out photos later just makes sense. It’s a problem one could worry about after all the other hassles are squared away. I like to think that the work I am doing provides a bit of the safety and piece of mind to our customers who know their photographs are safe offsite and online, hopefully this helps people during times like these.

Posted in California Wildfires, ScanDigital, business, digital photography, photos | 3 Comments »

Mr. Gadget vs. Mr. Minimal

Tuesday, October 30th, 2007

Going to photography school with passion, enthusiasm and a longing for photographic knowledge can sometimes make the most open-minded student hang on every word a professor utters in his/her lectures. This can create a nightmare for by-the-book photo students that go out in the field thinking that the way they were taught was the best, most efficient and in some cases the only way to do something. Having worked as an assistant while completing the last semester of the photography program at Santa Monica College I quickly learned that there are several ways to skin a cat…if you take this literally, well, I really don’t like cats.

Now, whatever you learn in photography school it’s just a primer. First, there are several photographers out there that have no formal training.  Second, 99% of the potential clients out there could care less. And lastly, the bottom line is can you do the job.  No one cares if you went to Pasadena Art Center, Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara or Santa Monica Community College. Hell, technically speaking, they all give you the same education. In seven years, I have only encountered one situation where an editor actually said to me that she preferred people from a certain school. I wasn’t from that school but was hired and paid my day rate just the same. I delivered the goods and that’s all that mattered.

You are probably wondering what the hell this all has to do with the above title. Well, for the first few years out of photography school my bread and butter income was assisting two architectural photographers. One guy had several cameras, a studio full of strobe and hot lights and every gadget imaginable not to mention that he was on eBay every single day looking for more gadgets. There were glass filters with specific holders, center filters for every lens, a shutter release with a wind up timer on it; you name it he had it. And it wasn’t out of character to use 12 or more lights on one shot as a matter of fact it was common.

The other guy was a total minimalist. We would go out with a field camera, a basic Lowell light-kit (1 – 750 watt and 3 – 1000 watt lights) and one HMI. He even used his son’s old white bed sheet as bounce and he would put filters on the camera lens with blue tack and cheap plastic Lee filters.

The bottom line is that they are two of the top five and most sought after architectural photographers in southern California.

I learned a lot from working with each guy. Hence, when I was working on my own as a still photographer or doing work on low-budget independent films as a cinematographer, I employed everything I learned from both guys. If there was a budget for some gadgets I knew the most effective way to use them and if there was no budget, which was generally the case, I knew how to do the best with what I had.

So, work with anyone and everyone you can, absorb as much information as you can then go forth and do what you do.

Posted in Photo Tips, digital photography, photos | 4 Comments »

Daily Breeze Feature

Thursday, October 25th, 2007

daily_breeze_logo.gifA couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to sit down with Muhammed El-Hasen from the Daily Breeze. We had a great discussion and covered topics from how we founded the Company to our plans for the future. The article was great and I have been meaning to post it for everyone to see. Have a read when you have a chance. The article can be found online at the following address:

http://www.dailybreeze.com/business/articles/10663116.html

Alternatively, the print version (including photos) can be found here:

http://www.scandigital.com/newspress.php

Posted in ScanDigital, business, digital photography, photos | No Comments »

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