Throwback Thursday - Hasselblad 1994?

For me personally, Throwback Thursday is a classic way to catch a few memories about the photographic industry. However, for you, as a professional photographer, Throwback Thursday is the perfect marketing tool. Use old images to help your clients understand the importance of savoring special memories.

For example, a wedding photographer might pull out a few images from a wedding ten years ago showing changes in style or better yet, share an engagement shot together with a more recent image if you've stayed in touch with the client. A children's photographer has the easiest job of all - sharing images of kids growing up. Plus, all of these images give you some great content for your blog one day a week.

While the variety of images you can share is endless, remember who your target audience is. For most of you it's MOM! Women make 98% of the purchase decisions to hire a professional photographer in the portrait/social categories. That means you've got to remind Mom how quickly the kids are growing up and the importance of updated family portraiture.

In regards to this image today, I'm guessing on the year, but it's mid-nineties and it's the senior management team from Hasselblad in Sweden together with all of the presidents of the subsidiaries. While most of you will know very few people in the picture, there are still some great stories this image brings back.

Every year we did one meeting of all the subsidiaries and every now and then outside Sweden. This particular year was at Cheeca Lodge in the Florida Keys. The fun of this is thinking about the personalities in the image.

Lennart S. is standing next to me in the blue and white stripe shirt. Chuck Gutierrez, who was then National Sales Manager, was always at odds with Lennart. So, he never put him into spell check, just so he could hit "ignore" whenever Lennart's name came up in a document he was writing.

Staffan J. then worldwide president of Hasselblad is in the hammock. To this day he's the only person I've ever met who loved Big Mac's so much that he'd buy them and freeze them! Now, I like a good burger as much as the next guy, but freezing a Big Mac, lettuce and all, is just not right!

Eva, the one woman at the meeting spent three months with us getting to know the US operation. We were flying back from WPPI one year and it was Eva, Tony Corbell and me. Well, Tony lucked out, got the comp airline upgrade and was in first class, while Eva and I were in coach. About ten minutes into the flight something was bothering Eva. She leaned across the aisle and asked, "Isn't Tony and underling? Why is he in first class?"

I never thought about Tony as an underling, but technically he did work for me. I answered back, "Eva, there's an unwritten policy on upgrades with the airlines - whoever gets here first keeps the upgrade. Tony got up earlier than the rest of us!"  She was quiet the rest of the trip.

Last on the list is Bengt - the last guy on the right. Bengt was Vice President of Marketing for Hasselblad and the fights we had at Board meetings became legendary. But here's something wonderful over all those years of fighting, we became the very best of friends. It's probably around 16 years since Bengt passed away fighting Cancer. I still miss the guy, but thanks to the Internet, every now and then I've caught up to his daughter. Nothing tops old friendships.
 
Happy Throwback Thursday! Take the time, even if you don't do a blog post, and just find a few old images for a trip down Memory Lane!