A few shots from a recent trip to NYC. The lighting at the #Flatiron Building was spectacular because of a passing thunderstorm.
NYC Tripping
Tag: Amy Doherty
Adjusting the Focus on Business use of Video in a 24/7 World–Videotaping Conferences, Presentations, and Instruction.
If your vision is a little blurry on how video and multimedia applies to your business or Web site and social media strategy, let me bring things into focus. First and foremost, research now consistently shows that over 50% of consumers begin their search for products or services online. In this new consumer world any individual business is just a few clicks away from a new client, or nothing at all. The first few seconds and the first impressions of a browsing consumer will either engage and provide the needed information, or it will send him away frustrated and looking for the answers elsewhere.
Company Web sites have also become a convenient and economical way for companies to engage and inform their own employees. It’s an easy oversight, but don’t forget, employees are no different from clients in that they all appreciate convenience.
Videotaping business conferences and presentations is nothing new. However, making these recordings accessible on company Web sites or other public video sharing sites such as YouTube, Vimeo, and Go Daddy is now less of a trend, and more a necessity. Plus, these days it’s easy to manage who can and can’t see this content.
Information sharing and the growing demand for accessible, intra-company content of all kinds has become an expectation rather than a high-end luxury. As employees and companies, small and large, manage the 24/7 world, online video content feeds the need for employers and employees alike. It’s also a cost-effective option as it reduces or removes the need to hold the same meeting in multiple locations or regions. Hold the meeting once, share the information and its content as many times as necessary.
Video also allows the message to be crafted and controlled so it’s uniformly sent and received, which is equally important whether the target is an employee or a client. It’s never been easier to incorporate PowerPoint presentations, Web site and computer screen navigation into a clean video format as the market of creative applications allowing their inclusion grows.
Here are two examples of the application of video in business.
Pawpro Media’s Bi-Coastal Shoot Tonight–Anything Is Possible 5K
Tonight, Pawpro Media will have crews working in Seattle, Atlanta and just outside Washington, DC covering the multi-city race, Anything Is Possible 5K, which starts and coincides with Daylight Savings and the clocks turning back. At, 1:50 AM runners will hit the pavement in Atlanta, Reno, Seattle, Washington, DC, and Virginia Beach trying to beat the clock and finish with a negative time–theoretically.
Videographers Stacey Jenkins (http://staceyjjenkins.com/) and Jim Baxter will be covering the races in Seattle and Atlanta, respectively. Pawpro Media owner, Amy Doherty, will cover the race in Washington, DC, which is technically in Bethesda, MD.
This race, for fun and a good cause, will benefit a handful of military charities which strive to provide support for wounded soldiers and their families upon their return from duty. Hope For The Warriors and Team Red, White and Blue are the main beneficiaries. The race has a number of national and local sponsors including Anytime Fitness, Puma, Subway, 5 Hour Energy, Hamburger Hamlet, Flippin’ Pizza, and Charm City.
On your mark, get set, go! You can still sign up.
Pawpro Chats-up OccupyDC
On Wednesday, before the rain and cold hit, I drove down to McPherson Square to talk to the residents of OccupyDC. I met Anthony and Annika.
Anthony is from Maryland, and Annika made her way to DC from Denver, Colorado hoping to be a part of the Occupy Wall Street movement, but she’s now pleased to have landed at DC’s Occupy.
Similar to most participants of the Occupy Movement, they are here because of their mutual dissatisfaction with the political, federal, and financial systems in the U.S. Corporate greed and its subsequent influence over the political system is a common theme voiced. Occupy participants, the so-called 99%, who have seen their incomes, jobs, and wealth diminish over the last decade, have been called together by various online rally cries, fueled by common frustrations. They are protesting against representatives, corporations, and economic inequalities with the wealthiest 1% of Americans who have seen their incomes, in some cases, grow at triple the rate of the 99-percenters.
There is an Occupy presence in Atlanta, Oakland, LA, West Virginia, Tennessee, Rhode Island and Boston just to highlight a few. In some areas the squatters are clashing with local police or politicians. Notably in Tennessee a magistrate would not enforce a curfew against the Occupiers imposed by the state’s Republican governor saying there was no authority to establish a curfew at the location.
Some have characterized these groups as ex-hippies looking for a reason to commune, and, or conspiracy theorists hungry for a controversy. While I’ll admit many do have a hippie-like appearance, I wonder how it would be possible to look like anything else when living in the elements 24/7; and does that characterization somehow detract from their complaints? If you look like a hippie your opinion doesn’t count? The criticism does seem to have that intent. Anthony and Annika certainly appeared genuine in their resolve to affect change, and withstand the environmental elements headed their way. I heard many vow to fight against any Republican efforts to marginalize the protests and protesters, and any Democratic efforts to hijack the movement for their own political gain.
Athletic Recruitment Videos/Highlight/Scouting Reels: Not All Are Created Equal
Not all highlight footage is equally created. Pawpro produces high quality video footage of athletic teams or individual athletes which may be used as a coaching tool, or to highlight team and personal skills/strengths. Be aware, this is more than just generic game footage which most highlight and recruiting reel companies are mass peddling to schools and parents. Many companies produce footage that is grainy and out of focus. Pawpro videotapes a game with HD cameras, so the footage is crystal clear. See the difference between HD footage and standard definition (SD) footage in the two stills below. These stills are both captured from one frame of video footage. Notice that the field of view is larger with the HD footage, but also the details are sharper. The difference is even more dramatic when the camera focuses on an individual player.
The great advantage to parents, players and recruiters in today’s multimedia revolution is that your footage can be viewed readily and instantly via a link. No need to snail mail endless DVDs and hope that they play for coaches and recruiters. A highlight reel is an essential tool for serious athletes looking to maximize their college placement potential.
For teams and coaches, we do offer full season or multi-game, team video coverage. Call or e-mail for pricing.
Pawpro Media will graphically and visually highlight your player by editing-down game footage to the best moments. Videos may also include any stats or contact information. ( We will compile footage shot by others.)
Highlight reel pricing depends on the amount of footage to be screened, editing extras such as special effects, animated graphics, music, voiceover, and the number of finished minutes in the completed video. Game footage pricing may vary depending on the number of games to be videotaped and the distance of travel to the game location.
Don’t expect to get a highlight reel out of one game’s footage. That’s too much pressure on the athlete and the videographer. We shoot what happens, we don’t make it happen. Our best advice for producing the best highlight reel is to pay for a professional sports media outlet to shoot as many games as possible so that the athlete is given multiple chances to showcase her talent in front of the camera. One game’s footage isn’t enough even for the best athlete. A professional should ensure that the quality of the footage is high.
The Roots of My Photography
For many years I have been exploring my ancestry, and I recently made an interesting discovery. It appears my love for almost all things related to photography may run in the family. My grandfather’s cousin, my first cousin twice removed, was, and is, a relatively well-known photographer in New York whose work is still sought by collectors and galleries. His name was Kenneth A. Linn and he studied and taught at The Clarence H. White School of Photography in New York City which was the first school to teach photography as an art form.
Photographic collections from this prestigious school, which operated from 1914 to 1942, are held in the Library of Congress and in private collections such as the Coville Collection. This small school is credited with producing some of the most celebrated photographers of the 20th Century who were innovative in their approach to this evolving and emerging medium, which incorporated design, aesthetics and illustration. I wonder what their reaction would be to today’s imagery, and the viral, visual bombardment from the television and the Internet?
Kenneth A. Linn was the son of Allen and Sadie Linn. Allen was a silk salesman in New York and Sadie, formerly Sadie Neafie McCollough, came from a well-to-do family, I’m told. My side of the family through Robert A. Linn, Allen’s brother, stayed in Ohio and West Virginia selling life insurance–need I say more!
Since being given my first old camera I’ve loved the sound of the shutter. I would walk around taking pretend photos, no film in the camera, just to hear the shutter movement. Somehow even though the direct lineage should have made me a salesman, I got the photo gene.
Heros on the Hill for Horton’s Kids
Online video appeals via e-mails and social media sources by charitable and non-profit organizations have a proven success rate. Nearly all online searches involve a searcher watching videos. There is also a proven success rate for harnessing the power of inbound marketing, that is being at the right place, online, at the right time–when a person interested in your charity goes Google. Make the best use of that searcher’s time by providing an appealing and clear video message. This is what Pawpro Media does best.
Pawpro to Cover American Odyssey Relay III
Pawpro received the call of running relay organizer Bob Fleshner to shoot the third annual running of The American Odyssey Relay, a 200 plus mile foot race from Gettysburg, PA to Washington, DC. This will be 36 non-stop, exhausting hours of movement for the runners and teams, as well as Pawpro’s video crews. The race begins April 29 and ends on April 30. americanodysseyrelay.com
This race traverses some of the region’s most beautiful and historic landscapes including the battlefields of Gettysburg and Antietam, two covered bridges, Harpers Ferry National Park, the spring foliage emerging along the C&O Canal, Georgetown, and culminates in the Nation’s Capital alongside the monuments and the Potomac River.
Runners will face many challenges including one ear-popping leg called Andrea’s Ascent with a six-mile, 1171 ft. ascent. Former DC Mayor Adrian Fenty participated in 2009 and 2010. So far, there are 126 teams registered, and there’s still time to sign-up.
Pawpro will produce a series of marketing and informational videos with inspirational stories and images from the race. Good luck racers, and bottoms-up energy drinks for the videographers!
Business Benefits of an Inbound Marketing Strategy Via Video, Blogging and Social Media.
The benefits of inbound marketing via blogs, social media, content publishing, and search engine optimization grows stronger with each passing year, and statistics now show it surpassing outbound marketing both in effectiveness and cost per lead. A recent survey of 644 companies entitled, The State of Inbound Marketing, shows a shift in marketing budgets away from the conventional outbound tactics of direct mailings, phone solicitations, and print marketing.
Instead, companies are opting for marketing sources that bring in customers who are actively looking for information about their products online. The Internet has become the vehicle of choice and convenience driven by consumers searching for products and services through blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. And, all of these approaches utilize multimedia to increase organic search results and pull-in active consumers.
This survey distributed by HubSpot showed that the more companies directed their efforts towards inbound marketing, the greater the reward in the form of more leads at a lower cost per lead. Specifically the data showed that outbound marketing efforts cost $373 per lead, while inbound marketing efforts cost $143 per lead. In a struggling economy this is a price differential which has not gone unnoticed by businesses. In the survey, most companies said they plan to expand their use of inbound marketing in 2011 because of past successes in this arena. In fact, 27% of these companies consider blogging, social media usage critical to their businesses, and 85% dubbed these mediums either “useful”, “important”, or “critical”.
Pawpro Media produces high quality, creative videos that motivate and cause consumers to respond. Video is a critical and cost-effective element in an inbound marketing strategy.
Pawpro Hears and Sees the Whos of Horton’s Kids
What’s that sound? It’s not coming from a dust speck, people! It’s coming from the great efforts of Horton’s Kids, a Capitol Hill based organization which provides tutoring and support to students and families of the lowest-performing schools of Ward 8 in Washington, DC. Pawpro Media will be producing a series of videos for this great organization led by Brenda Chamberlain, and founded by Karin Walser. It’s only fitting that we make this announcement on Dr. Seuss’ birthday.
While filling her car with gas in 1989, Karin had a chance encounter with a group of children from this troubled area of our nation’s capital, and it inspired her to recognize their need as well as their presence in the shadow of her everyday life working on Capitol Hill. It was as if they were calling out, We are here! We are here! We are here! just as the tiny Who’s in Who-ville did in the infamous Dr. Suess book, Horton Hears a Who.
For 20 years Horton’s Kids has advocated, transported, and enriched the lives of these neediest of children with educational tutoring, mentoring as well as the basic necessities of food and clothing when necessary. Horton’s Kids’ work is funded entirely by donations. Please visit hortonskids.org/donate.html if you would like to make a donation.
Amy Linn Doherty 
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