INSPIRED by napcp Featuring Becca Wohlwinder

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by napcp

FEATURING Becca Wohlwinder Photography

THE LATEST

Industry News & Announcements, Workshops, Updates and much more!

N AT I O N A L A S S O C I AT I O N O F P R O F E S S I O N A L C H I L D P H O T O G R A P H E R S

Hello friends! in·spire (verb): to affect, guide or arouse by divine influence; to fill with enlivening or exalting emotion.

Not a day goes by that we aren’t inspired by one of you. The NAPCP community is filled

with artists who are talented, passionate, creative and -- inspirational. It is for this reason that we have decided to dub our monthly newsletter “INSPIRED.” Of course, we’ll continue to bring you monthly spotlights on our members who share insight on how they run their business, how they balance family life with their passion for photography, how they maintain meaningful involvement in their community… and how they produce such stunning work!

Our member spotlight for this month is Becca Wohlwinder, a natural-light children

and family photographer who has vowed to never grow up. A few things to know about Becca: she loves working with children, she’s obsessed with all things Harry Potter and The Walking Dead and she can’t get enough of Dr. Pepper. She’s not afraid to get dirty with children during her sessions – she’s been known to crawl in the dirt and have stick sword fights!

We admire her for her passion, her drive and her imagination. She’s been recognized lately as the winner of many of our Image Competitions, and her work has been published in Props for Portrait Photography by Tracy Dorr.

The NAPCP 2014 International Image Competition closed this week. Our judges will be

diving into the scoring process over the next few months – results will be announced in early April. Thanks to everyone who participated!

From our hearts to yours, Happy Valentine’s Day! We hope you take today and spend it

with your loved ones. Live, laugh and love.

Sincerely

The NAPCP Team

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TA BLE O F CON TE N TS Pg. 3 .......................................Image Competition Pg. 4 ................................News & Announcements

Pg. 5......Featured Photographer: Becca Wohlwinder Pg. 21....................................Camera Bag Essentials

Pg. 23 ........................................Behind The Scenes Pg. 25 ............................................Video Resources Pg. 26 ................................. Apply For Membership

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COMPETITION UPDATE

The February 2014 NAPCP International Image Competition closed yesterday at midnight and we could not be more excited to peak through your submissions. The purpose of NAPCP’s Image Competitions is to recognize the accomplishments and creative excellence of our members, rewarding their talent with medallions, priority listing on our directory, vendor endorsements, member points, titles and professional recognition.

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Newsletter October 2013

N E W S & ANN OU N CE ME N TS Facebook Community We hope that everyone will continue to partake in our NAPCP Facebook Community page! Join now and get involved with the latest discussions, trending topics, news and updates, and much more! Click here to request to join today!

Upcoming Workshops Join Tamara Lackey in her studio in Durham, North Carolina May 20 - 22 for an intense, 3-day shooting-focused workshop, which includes an in-depth shooting clinic, lighting configuration instruction, post-processing and business training. This highly interactive and hands-on shooting clinic will help you to master your technical skills behind the camera, as well as teach you how to set up and work with existing and additional light sources and better utilize natural light in a more controlled fashion.

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Images by Becca Wohlwinder of Becca Wohlwinder Photography

FEATURED PHOTOGRAPHER B E C CA WO H LW I N D E R

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P

lease meet Becca. A natural light children and

amily photographer based out of Clovis, New Mexico. Becca has been photographing children and familys since 2008 and has developed a stunning and unique look and style all her own. We were so pleased to be able to spotlight her this month as our February feature!

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Tell us your story. How you started and how your photography, brand, and business transformed over the last few years? Like a lot of photographers I developed a interest in photography when my babies were born. Im originally from England and met my husband while he was Stationed in England, my oldest was born there and I was always mailing photographs to my husbands family in America, with the birth of my second baby myspace was popular and I had switched from film to digital. I was still just using a point and shoot camera and didnt really even know there was such a thing as a professional photographer. I had his baby portraits done at walmart and jc pennys! (gasp) During my pregnacy with my 3rd and final baby I was stuck in the hospital for a

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month with gallbladder issues. During this time I discovered Flickr and that there was a whole world out there of amazing professional photographers.

When my daughter was a few months old I purchased a Nikon d90 with the intention of just photographing my kids and wanting to take pictures like the ones I was seeing online. Needless to say I loved it and wanted to know more, learn more and practice more. I kinda knew from the start I wanted to photograph kids! Probably because I am still a kid and never really grew up! I spent the next year and a half photographing anything and anyone I could just to get that practice in. I joined clickin moms and I can honestly say pretty much everything I learnt those first couple of years was from reading and practicing what I had read on that forum. I was lucky enough to meet NAPCP

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a couple of amazing photographers during those first couple of years who talked sense into me about pricing, what to charge and who to market to. We moved to New Mexico in 2011 and I had to start over in a new place where there was already established photographers and since it was a military town a place where there was always new photographers coming in! This was when I decided that I really REALLY loved just photographing children and decided to focus my business on them and their familys.

Who or what inspires you and your work? How? Aside from my favorite photographers in the world jinky art, chubby cheek photography and Audrey woulard I am just inspired by all the little things around me.

The client, my kids, the light all the usual things. I try to make each session somewhat unique to that family/child by having pre session consultations and finding out all about that particular child/family and their favorite things at this time in their lives. By asking the client questions about themselves we can come up with a fun session for them that really means something to them when in a few years their kids are into something else. Im currently taking a online tween workshop 11 | NAPCP

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with Audrey woulard and I cant wait to put in practice what I am learning!

How has winning in past image competitions helped in elevating your brand as a photographer? I think it has definitely given me some credibility. Especially living in a small town where there a hundred different photographers and more coming onto the scene each month I think that little bit of recognition by a professional affiliation gives the client a little piece of comfort that this photographer is serious about what she does and isnt just like all the others out there.

We love how your images take on another life with its joyfulness and color.

Can you share with us a little bit about your post production work and how you take your images to the next level? In most of my images i dont do that much processing. I think we all start out trying to find our style but most of the time we always end up coming back to a clean simple look. I do use the dodge/ burn and saturation tool and textures a lot to bring out the color thats there already. Of course there's always the sessions I do for fun where its fun to experiment with composites and different images. The amazing thing about photoshop is that there is always something new to try. Always something new to learn. We have the most amazing sunsets here when there are clouds in the sky so I i will often use my own cloud overlays when the sky's are just blue and cloudless! We have wide open flat lands here with never ending fields and skies!

Who are your favorite vendors?

I teamed up with my friend Stephanie who owns Livis Sweets and Treats for my cake smash sessions. She is a all round talented person who can make just about anything. My favorite vendor for newborn accessories would have to be Bit O whimsy! I just love her work and how simple it is but also so stinking adorably cute at the same time!

How do you balance photography, your beautiful family, and your teaching?

I dont think I do!! My poor family has often had to eat chicken nuggets or pizza for dinner (not that they mind, they'd rather eat that!) Its definitly become a lot easier now my kids are older. My two oldest children are in school and I have terrible mommy guilt about having my daughter sit on the couch watching netflix while im editing on the computer. I try to set aside only a couple of hours in the morning to work and then do the rest once they are all in bed! My youngest NAPCP

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starts kindergarten in the fall so my plan is to hopefully kick off full time once all my children are in school all day.

What advice can you give to those starting out?

It takes time. You dont need to know or do everything this week. take the time to learn your camera before you even think about reaching out to clients. Photograph your kids, pets, toys anything to get your fingers comfortable with all the buttons! Once you know your camera and you know you can provide consistent work start building your portfolio. Figure out your pricing and discount it

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for portfolio building sessions, that way your pricing is out there and there is no sticker shock when you raise your prices when your ready to do this for real. keep at it and dont give up! If you really want to do this you can but it will be hard work! And the other photographers out there are not your enemy or your competition if you go about things the correct way they can end up being your bestest friends! Im lucky enough to be great friends with a lot of local photographers and we all happily refer clients to each other when were booked up or its a inquiry for something we dont photograph! Consider them colleagues rather than competition! Join local photography groups and just shoot all you can!

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How has your business changed over the last few years? Tell us your daily schedule and how you manage to make it all work! I think when I decided to specialize was a turning point for me. Being in a military family my life is always changing! moving and re establishing yourself every few years is extremely hard but it also gives you that chance to step back and re evaluate your pricing, branding etc and if you are marketing to the right people.

Tell us your daily schedule and how you manage to make it all work!

5-7am get up and ready for the day, check facebook (!) make lunches, sign homework folders give hugs and kisses and send my two oldest kids off to school or drive to school and volunteer for a few hours. 7-10 feed my youngest breakfast while replying to emails and facebook messages. Work on images in photoshop, design marketing products etc. 10-1 run errands, clean house, lunch etc etc. 1-3 work on images and business stuff whilst entertaining my now bored 5 yr old! 3-7pm make dinner, help kids with homework, be

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crazy with them for a bit. then get them ready for bed! 8-10ish reply to email and facebook messages, chill out with my oldest and watch Csi or the walking dead or something! 10:30ish BED! Where do you see your life 5 years from now? This summer my husband is retiring from the military so we will be moving (again) once we know where we are going and once my daughter is in school is when im really going to knuckle down and do this for real! I want land! I want land as my studio within the next 5 years. With different areas for different seasons/sessions. I will have a christmas trees, wildflowers, barns, ponds, a green house all the locations you dream about but on my own property and I cant wait!

To see more of Becca's work, please visit her site here!

Thank you so much Becca!

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N e w s l e t t e r Fe b r u a r y

TH

A ME R A B E C AG

ESSENTIALS TH

AG E C AME RA B

W I T H B E C C A W O H LW I N D E R

IN M Y B AG Nikon D700 50mm 1.4 135mm F2 Sigma 15mm Fisheye Reflector NAPCP

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BEHIND

We asked Becca to give us a peak into her busy day to day life with a few of her favorite

SCENES

WITH BECCA WOHLWINDER

Instagram captures. Enjoy a behind the scenes look at some of her favorite moments!

WORK SH O PS Start Submitting Now! NAPCP’s July 2012 International Image Competition opened on Monday! The purpose of NAPCP’s Image Competitions is to recognize the accomplishments and creative excellence of our members, rewarding their talent with medallions, priority listing on our directory, vendor endorsements, member points, titles and professional recognition. Members each receive a total of 2 Competition Credits per Competition with their Membership. Details are online!

They say a picture is worth a thousand words … and yours may be featured in our next press release. For the past two International Image Competitions, the winners announcement highlighted the names of the competition winners and received great exposure – collecting thousands of views, postings to other websites, and search index hits. Wouldn’t you like to see your name and photo sent over the wire too?

Members, you can start submitting your best images here!

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Newsletter November

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