Todays Guest: Darren Murphy of Snappy Photo Inc. in Fort Walton Beach, Florida
Today's Host: John Bentley
November 2007
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Darren Murphy Transcript Page
Darren Murphy Expert PageANNOUNCER: Welcome to the VTalk Radio's Photographer Spotlight with your host, John Bentley.
ANNOUNCER: This program is sponsored by morephotos.com the online photo sales solution to professional photographers worldwide.
JOHN: Today we are in the Studio with Darren Murphy of Snappy Photo Inc Today's of Fort Walton Beach, FL. Welcome to VTalk Radio's Photographer Spotlight, Darren.
DARREN: Thank you.
JOHN: Now you have a service down there for professional photographers. Tell us a little bit about that.
DARREN: With the help of Lab Images, More Photos, we're posting shopping carts for photographers, and we run it as a full service operation so the photographer basically can concentrate on taking pictures and setting up new shoots while we fulfill all their orders, ship to their customers, and make their life a little bit easier.
JOHN: Sure, sounds like you're a full service lab down there.
DARREN: Yeah, we've been adding quite a few services over the last three or four years particularly. Really getting into the digital world and probably more photographers transition into that as well.
JOHN: What other kinds of services are you offering, Darren?
DARREN: Well, we do pretty much everything in house here and all of our printing is done on Kodak professional paper. We're also offering canvases, stretching and mounting, and hoping to get into the bound photo albums in the near future.
JOHN: Now tell me a little bit about the digital bound photo albums. How does that work?
DARREN: With the change in the digital world now it's new and is becoming a new interest where as opposed to the traditional photos put into pages in an album, they're actually created digitally, printed out and then the book is bound just as though it were a regular book off a shelf.
JOHN: Interesting. So customers can purchase that through you then.
DARREN: We're looking at the equipment right now and how to get into it. There's a lot of online companies doing it, and it there seems to be a great deal of interest.
JOHN: Now you also print on canvas too, correct?
DARREN: Yes we do.
JOHN: Is it just to give kind of a more artistic look to the photos or what's the idea behind that?
DARREN: Lots of people like that as it gives more of a painting as opposed to a photo look and then digitally you can also have brush stroke effects done to make it look even more like a painting.
JOHN: Now you also host the photographer's work don't you?
DARREN: Yes, we set them up with their own sub-domain name on our site. They have their own branded website and when the orders come in, we get notified and they get notified via email, and then we provide the printing and shipping for their customers so it frees up the traditional way of the photographer taking the orders from the customers and then the customers and them submitting them to the photo labs and picking them up and shipping them. We take care of all of that for them, and basically give them a net profit check at the end of the each month.
JOHN: Now do the photographers email their photo files to you? How do they get them to you?
DARREN: We have various FTP programs that they can send up high res files and they have the option to upload their own files into a shopping cart or they have us do that for them.
JOHN: Now, do you drop ship directly to the photographer's customers?
DARREN: All the orders go straight to the photographers' customers themselves.
JOHN: Boy, that makes it easy for the professional photographer then doesn't it?
DARREN: It apparently frees a lot of their time up. Most of them really appreciate that part of this business.
JOHN: I bet they do. Now do you offer online proofing also?
DARREN: Yes, that's part of their shopping cart where their customers and all the family members can view their wedding or beach portrait events whatever that may be, and it gives the photographers a great deal more people that get to look and order the photos.
JOHN: Now do you do custom design services also?
DARREN: We don't actually do the website design. We assist some of them to some degree; however, most of them we have them take care of that or set them up with somebody that can do that for them. However, the website design on the lab images is very user friendly and most people can do their own.
JOHN: Darren, could you please our listening audience your website and contact information?
DARREN: Sure the website is www.eventphotoline.com and it has the link for the eccommerce for photographers to tell them all about this business.
JOHN: What about a phone number people can reach you by?
DARREN: We can be reached at (850) 243-1136.
JOHN: Ok, we are in the studio with Darren Murphy of Snappy Photo, Inc. of Fort Walton Beach, Florida. You're listening to VTalk Radio's Photographer Spotlight. I am your host, John Bentley. We're going to take a break, we'll be right back after these important messages.
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ANNOUNCER: This VTalk Radio's Photographer Spotlight is sponsored by morephotos.com, the online photo sales solution to professional photographers worldwide.
ANNOUNCER: We now return you to VTalk Radio's Photographer Spotlight with your host, John Bentley.
JOHN: Welcome back to VTalk Radio's Photographer Spotlight. Today we are in the studio with Darren Murphy of Snappy Photo, Inc. of Fort Walton Beach, Florida. Welcome back, Darren.
DARREN: Thank you.
JOHN: Now we've been talking about your lab services down there in Florida. Tell our listening audience how long you've been in business.
DARREN: We got into business in 1987; twenty years ago.
JOHN: And why did you decide to get into this line of work?
DARREN: Basically it was more of a hobby and we were spending so much in printing our film and such, we decided it might be a good idea to try to get into it and possibly make a living off it.
JOHN: You have a partner down there too don't you?
DARREN: This is all family. It's my brother and my sister and mother and father.
JOHN: That makes it nice. So your father started the business perhaps?
DARREN: Father started the business.
JOHN: Now what kind of print products do you offer?
DARREN: We offer prints from wallets all the way up to 30 x 40 and we can do ink jet prints up to 44 inch width and 100 feet long.
JOHN: 100 feet long!
DARREN: That's the length of the roll.
JOHN: What am I going to do with a 100 foot long picture? Make a banner, huh?
DARREN: Yes.
JOHN: One that could be seen at the superbowl or something?
DARREN: That would draw some attention.
JOHN: It sure would. Now do you offer any special services that most labs don't?
DARREN: We do here locally we also mount prints. We can mount up to 8 feet long. We can laminate those photos which we deal with some personal accounts that require that.
JOHN: Now do you have any new specialty products that you're offering or some product other than what we spoke about that will be coming out in the future through Snappy Photos?
DARREN: We're planning on attending the trade show in either January or February and aside from the bound photo albums we talked about, we're also looking to add the mugs, t-shirts, and mouse pads...gift items like that.
JOHN: Sure. Where's the trade show going to be at so people know and can expect to see you?
DARREN: Las Vegas.
JOHN: Las Vegas, alright. That will be a good time.
DARREN: That will be fun.
JOHN: Would you kindly give your website and contact information once again before I let you go today, Darren.
DARREN: Certainly. It's eventphotoline.com and you can reach us at (850) 243-1136 or image@snappy.tccoxmail.com.
JOHN: Well we've been in the studio with Darren Murphy of Snappy Photo, Inc. of Fort Walton Beach, Florida. You have been listening to VTalk Radio's Photographer Spotlight. I want to thank you for joining us today, Darren.
DARREN: Thank you for having me.
JOHN: And good luck in the future with your business. It sounds like it's been thriving for a number of years.
DARREN: It's constantly changing.
JOHN: Alright. Well thank you for joining us. I am your host, John Bentley, and this is VTalk Radio's Photographer Spotlight. Good afternoon.
ANNOUNCER: You have been listening to the VTalk Radio's Photographer Spotlight; only on www.vtalkradio.com. Radio for the 21st Century.
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