The Dead Pixels Society Podcast

Hosted by Gary Pageau

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Episodes

270

Latest episode

Jun 2026

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EN-US

About the show

News, information and interviews about the photo/imaging business. This is a weekly audio podcast hosted by Gary Pageau, editor of the Dead Pixels Society news site and community. This podcast is for a business-to-business audience of entrepreneurs and companies in the photo/imaging retail, online, wholesale, mobile, and camera hardware/accessory industries. If you are interested in being a guest on the podcast, email host Gary Pageau at gary@thedeadpixelssociety.com. For more information and to sign up for the free weekly newsletter, visit www.thedeadpixelssociety.com.

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60 recent

June 10, 2026Episode 27031 min

The Work Behind Great Sports Photos, with Kirby Lee, USA Today

Have an idea or tip? Send us a text!The Dead Pixels Society host Gary Pageau interviews sports photographer Kirby Lee of USA Today Sports about his path from an electrical engineering student to covering major events including the NFL, Olympics, and upcoming FIFA World Cup matches in Los Angeles. Lee explains how a beginning photography class and constant shooting of high school sports led to newspaper work at the LA Times as a writer, then a shift toward photography, with his writing background improving his ability to anticipate storylines and caption images. He discusses transitioning from film to digital around 2003, joining WireImage, and the demanding preparation, gear, remotes, and selective shooting required for pro sports. Lee recounts an accidental iconic NFC Championship photo and describes Olympic pressure, including a 2008 100m final where his camera buffered due to memory card speed, emphasizing equipment reliability.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 gary@thedeadpixelssociety.comVisit 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

June 3, 2026Episode 26935 min

From 3D Cameras to the Digital Future, with Bryan Wetzel

Have an idea or tip? Send us a text!A four-lens 3D camera lab. A crash course in corporate chaos. A front-row seat to the switch from film and chemicals to digital video and modern production. Gary Pageau interviews Bryan Wetzel about his path from photography school into Nishika Corp.’s R&D lab, experimenting with lenticular 3D imaging, large-format printing, and early efforts toward computer-based 3D, plus shooting Nishika projects including an instructional video with Alan Thicke and a commercial with Little Richard. Wetzel takes us inside his time at Nishika, where lenticular 3D photography meant optical processes, experimental rigs, and constant problem-solving. From there, we dig into the realities of shooting and editing, why “fix it in post” can become an excuse for sloppy work, and how being early to digital created real opportunity when clients suddenly wanted faster workflows and better quality.Then the conversation widens to the business of media and entrepreneurship: why Georgia’s transferable film tax incentives helped studios and crews actually take root, how Wetzel helped build a teacher-led educational video platform before online learning was polished, and what happened when he accidentally became a gym owner and later took over a restaurant right before lockdown. Along the way, Wetzel shares the most useful small business advice he learned from a no-nonsense mentor: say no without explaining yourself, don’t fall in love with your business, and write the business plan before your heart lies to your head.Wetzel explains transitioning from still photography to video because corporate clients wouldn’t fund film, adopting early digital editing and cameras in Georgia ahead of the 1996 Olympics, and building a corporate client base. He discusses Georgia’s transferable film tax credits, then describes launching an educational-video company around 2008 that produced about 1,500–1,900 teacher-led videos and assessments for schools before being sold. He later acquired a gym (2017), briefly ran a restaurant through COVID-era challenges, sold it, and now writes books, sharing key business lessons on saying no, not overcommitting emotionally to a business, and writing realistic business plans.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 gary@thedeadpixelssociety.comVisit 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

May 27, 2026Episode 26825 min

From Surf Photography To Fine Art Prints, with James Katsipis

Have an idea or tip? Send us a text!Gary Pageau interviews Montauk-based photographer James Katsipis about his shift from self-taught surf photography—shooting New York winters and campaigns—to selling fine art through galleries and his own Montauk space. Katsipis describes learning to present work effectively, favoring large anti-glare acrylic prints for big installations and collaborating with interior designers and installers. He explains early print sales models, then the operational problems of manual order handling, shipping damage, and customer-service fallout. Katsipis details adopting WhiteWall’s Shopify app integration: syncing high-res files, one-tap order acceptance, drop-shipping, improved packaging, fewer damages, and reduced weekly stress, plus easier global sales due to European production and faster shipping. He notes a wishlist item for multiple crop ratios and credits streamlined checkout (including Apple Pay) for reducing abandoned carts.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 gary@thedeadpixelssociety.comVisit 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

May 20, 2026Episode 26727 min

How Small Businesses Escape The Price Trap, with Joel Miller

Have an idea or tip? Send us a text!Most businesses do not have a marketing problem. They have a clarity problem. If you cannot explain why customers choose you, what lever actually drives profit, and what you deliver that competitors cannot, no amount of digital marketing will save you for long. That is why The Dead PIxels Society sat down with Joel Miller, a business coach and marketing expert at The Sky Floor, to get practical about what makes growth repeatable.We talk about why Miller resists “niching down” in the usual way, and how curiosity and learning across industries can become a real advantage. From legacy businesses that assume online marketing should be cheap, to brands that chase change for change’s sake, we unpack the moment when a company loses the plot and starts confusing tactics with strategy. Miller shares concrete ways to define positioning, build a competitive advantage, and sell value instead of competing only on price, with specific examples that translate well to photo printing, local services, and creative businesses.You will also hear hard-earned lessons from the wedding photography world on pricing ladders, audience fit, and social proof, plus a sharp take on the “fail fast” culture: learn from setbacks, do not celebrate them. We finish with the human side of business, including humor as a trust builder, why marketing cannot cover for broken operations, and how to use AI for repetitive work without trapping customers in automated loops.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 gary@thedeadpixelssociety.comVisit 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

May 13, 2026Episode 26632 min

The Hidden Risk In School Photos, with Andy Edwards, GeoSnapShot

Have an idea or tip? Send us a text!The Dead Pixel Society host Gary Pageau interviews Andy Edwards, CEO and founder of GeoSnapshot, about the company’s origins and the overlooked privacy and governance risks in school photo workflows. Edwards explains GeoSnapshot began 12 years ago to centralize fragmented equestrian event photos and has since expanded to sports and education, now operating in 161 countries with 51 million photos and videos and about 1,000 events per month. He describes how schools often store images in scattered “shadow” systems (Google Drive, Dropbox, SharePoint, email, closed social groups), creating consent, security, retention, and reputational risks amplified by deepfakes and AI. GeoSnapshot for Education addresses the full media lifecycle with centralized storage, direct capture without saving to teachers’ devices, identity-aware multi-level consent integrated with student information systems, inappropriate-content filtering, and end-to-end auditing. Edwards explains how centralized media management, identity-aware permissions connected to student information systems, and end-to-end audit trails create a clear chain of custody when a parent asks, “How did that photo get there?”The conversation also get into the pressure cooker schools face right now: AI-driven misuse, deepfake concerns, and fast-changing regulations like retention and deletion requirements. Finally, we explore what video governance can look like, including optional facial recognition, finding a student inside long recordings, and generating short highlight snippets or show reels for events like graduations and performances.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 gary@thedeadpixelssociety.comVisit 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

May 6, 2026Episode 26532 min

Lumica Turns Your Trapped Phone Pictures Into Prints

Have an idea or tip? Send us a text!Host Gary Pageau interviews Patrick Collet, founder of Lumica, a direct-to-print photography app designed to mimic film by requiring users to buy a 24- or 36-shot “roll,” with no editing, cropping, or reviewing after a photo is taken. Once a roll is finished, users choose borders, matte or glossy, and prints are delivered in 5–10 days with shipping included; originals are deleted within 60 days, with a planned 60-day window for ordering doubles. Collet explains Lumica’s goal of turning phones from “graveyards for memories” into tangible keepsakes and encourages sharing physical prints and photo albums rather than social media. He discusses accessibility versus shooting real film, environmental considerations, where Lumica is available (Canada, Europe, UK, expanding to more regions), the influencer-led marketing plan, and upcoming V2 UI changes like opening directly to the camera and allowing film profiles per shot.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 gary@thedeadpixelssociety.comVisit 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

April 29, 2026Episode 26429 min

From Passion To Profit With Systems That Scale with Damon Flowers

Have an idea or tip? Send us a text!Host Gary Pageau interviews Damon Flowers, CEO and founder of Modern Operators, about how “modern operators” differ from old-school business approaches in a fast-changing world shaped by AI. Flowers shares his background as a contrarian problem-solver who left corporate life to build businesses, and explains how passion becomes a viable business only when customers will pay (product-market fit). He argues most companies aren’t ready to scale because they lack foundational systems, documentation, feedback rhythms, and alignment, and he distinguishes lifestyle businesses from owner-led growth businesses. Flowers outlines the mindset shift needed to delegate, accept imperfect handoffs, and build transferable processes buyers want: predictable marketing, sales, and fulfillment engines plus dashboards. He describes moving from disconnected tools to an integrated operating layer where AI agents can synthesize reports, support documentation, and maintain brand voice. He directs listeners to modernoperators.com for discovery calls, audits, or operations partnering.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 gary@thedeadpixelssociety.comVisit 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

April 22, 2026Episode 26329 min

How Jonathan Schuessler sells luxury wedding photography with video, SEO, and smart systems

Have an idea or tip? Send us a text!Gary Pageau of The Dead Pixels Society interviews Jonathan Schuessler, a Heidelberg-based marketing expert, photographer, and filmmaker, about building a hybrid wedding photo/video business and a separate B2B marketing offering. Schuessler traces his start from building a DIY photo booth for his father’s weddings to shooting weddings in London and Germany, then pivoting hard after COVID to learn videography and agency marketing. He explains choosing hybrid coverage to future-proof his work, focusing on storytelling and audio, and describes technical challenges of solo shooting—especially redundant speech recording, timecode syncing, and using a Sony XLR hot-shoe setup for four-channel audio. His marketing strategy centers on filming short venue feature videos, repurposing them across YouTube, TikTok, and SEO blogs, building newsletters and programmatic local landing pages, and automating inquiry-to-brochure funnels, supported by AI-assisted culling/editing and select video AI tools.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.International Photographic Council (IPC)IPC members are part of a worldwide network of businesses and industry professionals. 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 gary@thedeadpixelssociety.comVisit 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

April 15, 2026Episode 26226 min

The Right Mentor Can Change Your Life And Business, with Anthony Spark

Have an idea or tip? Send us a text!Anthony Spark of Spark a Change Coaching, Long Island, NY, talks about business growth through mentorship and leadership development. Spark describes an entrepreneurial childhood in a dysfunctional family, working full-time at 15, and choosing direct sales at 18 after meeting successful mentors, which helped him develop skills in finance, relationships, communication, sales, organization, and time management, and leave a full-time job at 25. He emphasizes that success came more from coaching, personal development, and low-risk entry than from products, and warns about the time and opportunity cost of equipping people and treating mentors transactionally. They discuss matching roles to personalities, managing outputs over preferences, paying for A players versus training younger staff, and building culture.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 gary@thedeadpixelssociety.comVisit 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

April 9, 2026Episode 26125 min

How Entourage Yearbooks uses AI to speed up workflow, with Elias Jo

Have an idea or tip? Send us a text!AI is moving fast, but the real advantage isn’t sounding smart, it’s getting work done faster without breaking your team. Gary Pageau of The Dead Pixels Society sits down with Elias Jo, CEO of Entourage Yearbooks, to talk about what’s actually changing inside the yearbook and volume photography workflow and what studios of every size can do right now to keep up.Joe digs into how Entourage built a technology layer around yearbook production, from a Canva-like yearbook builder to online sales and a redundant print network designed for today’s supply chain reality. Then he discusses practical uses for artificial intelligence in business: Why “AI as search” is a dead end, where the 20% to 30% efficiency gains are coming from, and how mid-size photography companies can push their SaaS tools, CRM systems, and automation platforms to work together instead of creating more spreadsheet pain.One of the most actionable moments is Jo’s simple model for “AI talking to AI” using ChatGPT plus app builders like Lovable to prototype a tool that cleans messy school data and turns it into a repeatable process. We also talk about AI for content creation and podcast production, why human review still matters, and what an AI-first world could look like when prompts start replacing traditional applications.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 gary@thedeadpixelssociety.comVisit 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