TV Interview of ThePictureShop for ABS-CBN

We were interviewed this past Feb 10 by the Bayan Productions team for their weekend show Kabuhayang Swak na Swak. The show focuses on entrepreneurs (generally small-scale) and unique business ideas. For this Valentine's Day, their team went out looking for couples (married or not) who have ventured into business together. Their researcher bumped into the 2006 article at Inquirer which featured ThePictureShop. They contacted us through Cols' cellphone which is listed at site, and in a matter of 2 days, they were here at our house for a live shoot!

The crew arrived around 10am. The 'director' started off with some basic Q&A's while the cameraman proceeded with setting up the location for the shoot. The shoot was done at our main garden. They positioned 2 seats with the pond as the background. The 'director', hidden from the camera's view, fielded the questions which Cols and I answered alternately.

From the garden, we proceeded to the den where we were asked to do mock photobook editing. Cols was seated while I was asked to stand beside her and comment on her work as if we were working. Of course, all the audio were edited out so we just mouthed whatever we wanted to say to make it appear like we're discussing something about the project on the screen.

We were wrapping up around 11am and Caitlin had to go to school. But since Ethan was around, we included him in some more shots to be used as background material. Here's the finished product which aired Feb 14, 2010 at 7:00am (our 3 minutes of fame!):

Yet Another PictureShop Client Sighting

I had my third PictureBook customer sighting today! After church, we had lunch at a restaurant that we frequent along Wilson St. in Greenhills -- Hai Kang (formerly Hong Kong Harbour Restaurant). Mom saw a little girl and as commenting about her hair accessories. When I looked at the girl, she was being carried by her dad who looked very familiar to me. Took just about a second for me to recognize that I've seen him several times from the photo books and photo puzzles that his wife has order from us. And sure enough, I recognized the woman beside him immediately also!

I dragged Cols to go over their table and introduce ourselves. This customer has been one of our very first customer and she has been a loyal "suki" of ours already. Even more coincidentally, her daughter has the same name as ours.

I also blogged about my previous two sightings:

• http://dickchiang.blogspot.com/2008/08/yet-another-picturebook-customer.html
• http://dickchiang.blogspot.com/2008/07/fortuitous-meeting-with-picture-book.html

Another Coincidental PictureBook Customer Sighting

I was processing a photobook order from one of our photographer-clients. She did the photo/video coverage of a child's baby party. While going through her layouts, I realized that the mother/baby is also a PictureShop customer for our full-spread picturebooks! The mom ordered their photo guest signbook for the party from us.

In fact, our 6x6 photo guest signbook was in the picturebook that the photographer-client layed out for this client. Very amazing coincidence. With so many potential customers in the Philippines, what's the likelihood of us bumping into the same client.

Yet Another PictureBook Customer Sighting

I was just commenting last week on what's the likelihood of bumping into someone in a public gathering whom I would recognize because of our picture book service. I thought that it was extremely remote given that we don't really have a lot of clients and that our products are shipped all over the Philippines. Add to that the probability that even if you meet the person by chance, you will actually recognize the face just based on recall. Well, not only did I meet such a person last week, but even more amazingly -- I met another one today!

We had our residential condominium association annual meeting today at Luna Gardens. There were the usual rants from the usual disgruntled residents. The meeting ended earlier than usual (before 6pm). As is customary, there's finger foods served afterwards.

When the meeting was adjourned, everybody stood up and headed to the food area. There was this guy sitting in front who was, of course, walking towards the back exit. I looked at him and thought that he looked familiar somehow. Since everyone at the meeting had ID lace/tags, my eyes gravitated towards his.

The name sounded a bit familiar although I couldn't place where I saw it before. Then after about 3 seconds of pause, once again, it just clicked in my head -- I did the layout for this guy's picturebook! He was not our direct client. The one who contracted for the order was his staff who gave him the picturebook as a retirement memorabilia.

I was contemplating approaching him, but he looked a bit too serious. And he was talking to a couple of other admin staff so I didn't want to intrude.

A Fortuitous Meeting with a Picture Book Client

I gave a presentation this afternoon to a local bank who is looking at expanding their service for their corporate clients with PayEasy online payments. We were greeted by our contact from their product development group and he introduced us to a lady from their Sales group who looked really familiar to me. I kept thinking where I saw her before -- she kinda looked like the Korean girl who lives in our condo. I thought maybe she just reminded me for her.

Anyway, when we sat down around the meeting table, we exchanged business cards. I read her name on the card and nothing still clicked. But after a few seconds while setting up our laptop, it just snapped to me -- I've seen her photos several times already before while laying out the full-spread photo book ordered by her husband through ThePictureShop!

Her husband has previously ordered 3 x full-spread picturebooks from us with photos from their various family vacation trips (the 2 prior orders were still our old DIY full-spread picturebook, while the 3rd one was the new format already). The photos were mainly of her and the kids, and since I did the layouts of about 2 of the picturebooks, I had a good recollection of their faces. Strangely, if her husband were to stand in front of me, I probably would not recognize him as he seldom appears on the photo books (since he's the guy behind the lens).

I thought the whole experience was really strange and surreal (but a pleasant one nonetheless). I've always wondered if one of these days, I'll be walking down the street or around the mall and I would actually bump into someone whom I would recognize through their picture book. And it has finally happened today! With 80+ million people in the Philippines, the likelihood of meeting someone whom I have previously seen through their photo book order alone -- and would actually recognize them -- must be very, very slim indeed.

Ordering PictureBooks or Photo Books in the Philippines

We completed a "rush" Picture Book project for Johnson & Johnson Medical Philippines. J&J was looking for a unique and personalized gift for their 10 retirees, and when they came across ThePictureShop.com, they knew they found their perfect gift.

Picture Books (or Photo Books) present a new way of looking at your photos. Instead of having one pose per print, Picture Books can collage or layout multiple photos onto a single print. The prints are then compiled and bound into a book format. Captions can also be added to the photos, and backgrounds can be embellished. In the case of J&J, they wanted a scrapbook-like feel. So we used textured background templates to give them a scrapbook look-and-feel.



Our PictureBook business has been featured in Philippine Daily Inquirer before. We are also a partner of Picatoo, a joint project between Mozcom and Fuji YKL Color Lab. Picatoo provides everything from standard prints, to poster-sized prints and specialized items like mugs, buttons, mousepads, tumblers, pillowcases and more. Of course, they also offer picturebooks care of ThePictureShop.com.