The Dead Pixels Society Podcast
by Gary Pageau
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 [email protected]. For more information and to sign up for the free weekly newsletter, visit www.thedeadpixelssociety.com.
Episodes
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How Jerry Hughes built a volume cheer photography business
Have an idea or tip? Send us a text! A lot of people can take a great photo once. The hard part is building a photography business that can deliver great photos all day, on schedule, under pressure, and with customers who expect a flawless experience. That’s why our conversation with Dallas...
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How Simple Systems Create Consistent Service, with Todd Krause
Have an idea or tip? Send us a text! Chaos is expensive, and most business owners don’t see the bill until it’s too late. We sit down with Todd Krause of Silversun Consulting, a longtime operator who’s built and fixed businesses across finance and services, to talk about the unglamorous moves…
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How WhiteWall wins with craft and care, with Petra Felgen
Have an idea or tip? Send us a text! Your photos are better than a quick drugstore print, but what actually makes a premium print feel like art? We sit down with Petra Felgen, CEO of WhiteWall, to unpack how a high-end photo lab delivers gallery-grade wall art at scale without giving up the...
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Lean Fixes For Creative Businesses, with Adam Ward
Have an idea or tip? Send us a text! Buying new equipment feels like progress, but it can also be the fastest way to trap your business. Gary Pageau of The Dead Pixels Society talks with Adam Ward, a consultant and lean process expert, to unpack how photo labs, print shops, and photography...
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Local-First AI For Video Libraries, with Dr. Henry Kang
Have an idea or tip? Send us a text! Your computer is packed with stories you cannot find. Video clips named DJI003, endless B-roll, meeting recordings, marketing footage, client projects, school photography archives, and personal travel memories all pile up until searching feels impossible. Gary...
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From Swamp Mode To Systems That Sell, with Kenneth Kollasch
Have an idea or tip? Send us a text! Most businesses fail to grow for a simple reason: The owner is stuck selling the obvious thing, while the customer is buying something deeper. When Kenneth Kollasch tells us what it’s like to grow up inside a multi-generational ballroom and Latin dance studio,...
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How Viesus Fixes Photos Before They Print, with Servi Pieters
Have an idea or tip? Send us a text! Your customer doesn’t order a “file” they order a memory, and nothing kills that moment faster than a print that looks worse than the phone screen. We sit down with Servi Pieters, CEO of Viesus, to unpack why modern photo printing faces new traps: HDR…
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How Photo Labs Can Win With Direct-To-Consumer Marketing, with Rocky Bowles
Have an idea or tip? Send us a text! Kodak didn’t “miss digital.” What really happened is more interesting and a lot more useful if you work in photo printing, photo labs, or photo software. Gary Pageau of The Dead Pixels Society sits down with longtime marketing leader Rocky Bowles to trace the...
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How Local Language Models Protect Privacy, with Dr. Arshavir Blackwell
Have an idea or tip? Send us a text! You can ask a frontier model for marketing copy and get something polished, fast, and strangely not you. That gap between “correct” and “authentic” is where this conversation with Dr. Arshavir Blackwell gets practical. Dr. Blackwell tells The Dead Pixels…
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Building A Photography Business With PPA Tools, with Angela Kurkian
Have an idea or tip? Send us a text! AI can generate a believable image in seconds, so why does real photography still matter, and how do working photographers protect what they create? We’re joined by Angela Kurkian, CEO of Professional Photographers of America (PPA), to talk about the parts of...
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Failure Is The Price Of Innovation, with Mike Grossman
Have an idea or tip? Send us a text! Your business can be brilliant and still get wiped out by timing, regulation, or a technology shift you saw coming but didn’t act on. Gary Pageau of The Dead Pixels Society sits down with six-time Silicon Valley CEO and author Mike Grossman to talk about the...
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How SnapShield protects school photos, with Carl Bott
Have an idea or tip? Send us a text! One screenshot can feel harmless, until you realize it might be happening at scale and quietly rewriting your sales numbers. Gary Pageau of The Dead Pixels Society sits down with Carl Bott, founder of SnapShield, to get practical about a problem volume...
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How Mixbook uses AI to tell real stories, with Andrew Laffoon
Have an idea or tip? Send us a text! Your camera roll isn’t a memory system, it’s a backlog, and the bigger it gets, the harder it is to turn real moments into something you can actually revisit. Gary Pageau of The Dead Pixels Society sits down with Mixbook CEO and co-founder Andrew Laffoon as...
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A privacy first photo network can still feel social, with Darin Myman, Myseum.ai
Have an idea or tip? Send us a text! Your camera roll is overflowing, your group chats are chaos, and the biggest platforms keep getting weirder about data, ads, and AI. So what would a modern photo sharing app look like if it started with privacy and still felt genuinely social? Gary Pageau from...
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From skill to system: Turning services into scalable companies with Brad Sugars
Have an idea or tip? Send us a text! Most businesses don’t fail because the owner lacks talent. They stall because the owner becomes the product, the manager, the decision desk, and the emergency contact all at once. That’s when growth turns into stress, customers feel delays, and the company...
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How a travel photographer built an audience without algorithms, with Gary Arndt
Have an idea or tip? Send us a text! Travel photography looks glamorous from the outside, but the business behind it has been quietly collapsing for years and the pandemic only sped it up. We sit down with award-winning travel photographer Gary Arndt, creator of Everything Everywhere Daily, to...
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How FilterPixel uses AI to cull and deliver event photos faster, with Aayush Arora
Have an idea or tip? Send us a text! Your camera can shoot 3,000 sharp photos in a day. So why does delivery still take a week? We sit down with Aayush Arora, CEO and founder of FilterPixel, to unpack the real “last mile” problem in professional photography: what happens after the shutter click....
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How Dakis connects POS, online orders, and lab workflows, with Pat Hugron
Have an idea or tip? Send us a text! Your customer starts a photo order on their phone, asks a question in store, pays at the counter, and expects everything to “just work.” Most retailers cannot deliver that simple experience because their POS, e-commerce site, kiosk, and lab workflow are…
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ScheduLink replaces your whiteboard and Post It Notes, with Seenu Yellapu and Michael Rak
Have an idea or tip? Send us a text! Spreadsheets, whiteboards, and “the one person who knows everything” can keep a volume photography studio running, right up until the moment they stop scaling. Gary Pageau of The Dead Pixels Society is joined by Seenu Yellapu (ScheduLink) and Michael Rak…
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Build a brand story people actually remember, with Katherine Touminen
Have an idea or tip? Send us a text! You can put a famous face next to a brand and still end up with marketing that goes nowhere. What actually moves people is trust, specificity, and a story that feels human, especially in the photo imaging industry where the product is memory, emotion, and...
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Pinterest Marketing For Photo Businesses, with Julia Bocchese
Have an idea or tip? Send us a text! The Dead Pixels Society Podcast host Gary Pageau interviews Julia Bocchese of Julia Renee Consulting, an SEO, AI search, and Pinterest consultant in Philadelphia, about how she shifted from corporate publishing and a travel photography site (plus a Viking Age...
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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…
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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…
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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...
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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…
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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…
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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,...
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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...
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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…
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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…
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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...
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Candid Copyright Conversation with Sheryl Bashore and Bob Kenward
Have an idea or tip? Send us a text! Parents can erase a watermark for five bucks, AI keeps getting better, and “just screenshot it” has become a reflex. So what do you do if you make your living in volume sports photography? Gary Pageau of The Dead Pixels Society sits down with Bob Kenward of...
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How To Exit A Small Business With A Real Plan, with David Hori
Have an idea or tip? Send us a text! If your business disappeared for two weeks, would it keep running, or would everything grind to a halt because the “manual” is in your head? The Dead Pixels Society sits down with David Hori, principal at Topline Operators, to get practical about small…
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How Dale Farkas Built a Photo Lab that Endured for 50 Years
Have an idea or tip? Send us a text! A photo lab is a lot more than chemistry, scanners, and printers. It’s a discipline. In this episode of the Dead Pixels Society podcast, we are joined by Dale Farkas of Dale Laboratories in Hollywood, Florida. He lays out the principle that quietly separates...
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Inside Evoto: Speed, Trust, And Authenticity In Photo Editing
Have an idea or tip? Send us a text! Ever wish your edits moved fast? We sat down with Jay Peterson of Evoto to unpack how AI can make portrait workflows radically quicker without removing the realism that clients recognize and trust. Peterson explains Evoto’s slider-first, standalone desktop...
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PIC Preview: LEAN Principles Turn A Magic Act Into A Global Breakthrough
Have an idea or tip? Send us a text! In the preview of his Photo Imaging CONNECT keynote, Stuart MacDonald — magician, filmmaker, entrepreneur — explores how LEAN principles, continuous improvement, and ruthless clarity transformed a faceplant into standing ovations, a win on Penn & Teller: Fool...
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Inside Dscoop: Trust, Growth, And Smart Print, with Peter Van Teeseling and Chris Hyde
Have an idea or tip? Send us a text! If you think great industry breakthroughs happen on a show floor, think again. We sat down with Dscoop’s Peter Van Teeseling and Chris Hyde to unpack how a trust-first, member-led community is helping HP print businesses grow faster through intentional...
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When Nostalgia Meets AI: The Future Of Photo Commerce with Mediaclip
Have an idea or tip? Send us a text! What if the best product designer is the one you barely notice? We sit down with Mediaclip CEO Marion Duchesne to explore how photo and product personalization is moving from heavy, time-consuming builders to fast, elegant flows that deliver a finished result…
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From Film To Volume: How Alkit Lab Reinvented Itself
Have an idea or tip? Send us a text! What does it take for a family photo lab to thrive across three generations and multiple technology upheavals? We sit down with David Buchbinder of Alkit to trace an unvarnished journey from New York City retail counters to a lean, volume-first lab that ships…
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Richmond Pro Lab Shares the Journey From Film To Fast, High-Quality Digital
Have an idea or tip? Send us a text! A 1938 basement lab that processed black-and-white alongside amateur rolls now runs a high-speed digital operation that can ship school orders in about two days. The Dead Pixels Society sits down with Richmond Professional Lab’s Ted Bullard and Josh Lewis to…
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From Spreadsheets To Streamlined: How Airstudio Connects Scheduling, Payroll, Equipment, And Analytics
Have an idea or tip? Send us a text! If your studio juggles spreadsheets, calendars, and three different apps just to run picture day, this conversation will feel like oxygen. The Dead Pixels Society sits down with Scott Rodgers and Peter Koop from Airstudio to unpack how a platform built by…
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Top Five Dead Pixels Society episodes of 2025
Have an idea or tip? Send us a text! A milestone worth pressing pause for: The Dead Pixels Society is marking our 250th episode with the most popular episodes of the year, from AI that actually helps you create less chaos to sales that feel like service instead of pressure. Ever found yourself...
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A Camera, A Hustle, And Forty Years Of Reinvention with Kirk Voclain
Have an idea or tip? Send us a text! Ever wonder how a “boring” photo of a metal part could move a seven-figure sale? Gary Pageau of the Dead Pixels Society sits down with veteran photographer Kirk Voclain to unpack four decades of pivots, from a cereal‑box Instamatic to seniors that paid the...
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How 36Pix Uses Data To Elevate School Photography Quality At Scale
Have an idea or tip? Send us a text! Ever wonder how a school photo lab with 600,000 students a year keeps quality high when half the photographers are new each season? We sat down with Robert Ste-Marie, CEO of 36Pix, to explore Eva. This data-driven evaluation platform scores every image so...
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The IRS Has No Chill, But Your Receipts Should, with Tanya Lawrence
Have an idea or tip? Send us a text! Taxes drain more profit than most owners realize, and that single fact changes how we build, run, and sell a creative business. The Dead Pixels Society sits down with accounting expert Tanya Lawrence to map out the moves that protect cash today and increase...
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Why Knowing Your Audience Beats Trend-Chasing Every Time
Have an idea or tip? Send us a text! What if the problem isn’t your logo, but the foundation under it? We sit down with brand strategist Jessica Adanich to explore how real positioning, consistent visuals, and honest storytelling turn a business from forgettable to first choice. Adanich’s journey...
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How A Nightlife Photographer Invented A Proposal Planning Business In New York
Have an idea or tip? Send us a text! A musician’s tour, a borrowed camera, and a rowboat on Central Park’s lake: that’s the unlikely path that led Ash Fox from nightlife photography to building a full-service proposal planning studio in New York. This interview digs into how a niche chose her…
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Inside SPAC: The Largest Conference Shaping School, Sports, And Volume Photography
Have an idea or tip? Send us a text! The Dead Pixels Society sits down with SPAC’s leadership, Coree Cooper and Calvin Harrell Jr., to unpack how a volunteer-driven nonprofit became the world’s largest gathering for school, sports, and volume studios—and why its focus on workflows, profitability,...
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How Stewart Cohen Built A Photography Career Beyond The Shutter
Have an idea or tip? Send us a text! What does it really take to build a creative career that lasts—from film backs and FedExed portfolios to AI search and virtual production walls? The Dead Pixels Society sits down with commercial photographer and stock photo library owner Stewart Cohen to trace…
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Pricing Confidence For Creative Businesses, with Miriam Schulman
Have an idea or tip? Send us a text! Pricing isn’t the problem—meaning is. We sit down with author and podcaster Miriam Schulman to unpack the mindset and mechanics behind selling creative work without racing to the bottom. From her journey off Wall Street into a thriving art career, Schulman...
About this 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 [email protected]. For more information and to sign up for the free weekly newsletter, visit www.thedeadpixelssociety.com.
Hosted by
Gary Pageau
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