NAPCP Januray Newsletter: 2013 by Alice Park

napcp

NEWSLETTER J A N UA RY 2 0 1 3

featuring

the wonderful Sarah Hebenstreit of Modern Kids Photography

Plus

The Latest News & Announcements, Workshops, Updates and much more!

Inside

a special giveaway from one of our favorite vendors, Fotostrap

Hello friends!

With the madness and excitement of the holidays just a fond memory, we’re ready to hit

the ground running in 2013! We’ve made our New Year’s resolutions (and so far, we’ve actually stuck to them!), started planning some fun promotions and set aside time in our planners for educational opportunities, workshops and tradeshows. We’re looking forward to shining even brighter this year…and hope you’ll join us!

Kicking the year off with a bang, we’ve chosen Sarah Hebenstreit of Modern Kids as

our January member spotlight. As one of the most sought-after children’s photographers in the San Francisco area, Sara focuses on the wonder, complexity and joy of childhood in her photographs. She has a unique and fresh approach to portraying a child’s lifestyle and has recently shot for companies like Amazon and Wired. Sara will bring her West Coast vibes to Charleston this spring as she joins us as a headline speaker at the 2013 NAPCP Retreat. In this issue, we get a little glimpse inside her world using her Instagram photos – don’t miss it!

So, around here, we love a good camera accessory -- and we’re all about FOTOSTRAP

right now. Made in the USA, FOTOSTRAP is a vintage-inspired camera strap that works well and looks even better! Dedicated to giving back to the community, FOTOSTRAP donates a portion of proceeds to the non-profit organization, Fotolanthropy. This month, FOTOSTRAP is giving away a fashionable camera strap to one lucky winner! More details are inside this issue. The NAPCP January 2013 International Image Competition is underway. Don’t forget to submit your photos by Thursday, February 14. In addition, registration for the 2013 NAPCP Retreat is officially open. We hope everyone can join us April 8-11 at the Francis Marion Hotel in Charleston. Register for the retreat before January 31 and be entered to win the ultimate giveaway package. More details here!

Guess what? NAPCP is now on Instagram! Make sure to follow us to get a behind-the-

scenes look at all the exciting projects we’re working on this year! We have a good feeling about 2013… we’re glad you’re along for the ride!

Sincerely

The NAPCP Team

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

Pg. 5 ... Featured Photographer: Sarah Hebenstreit

Pg. 21Ă&#x; .........................................Behind the Scenes Pg. 23 .......................... Featured Vendor: Fotostrap Pg. 25.....................................NAPCP 2013 Retreat Pg. 26 ................................. Apply For Membership NAPCP

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WORKSHOPS

for additional details click here!

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N E W S & ANN OU N CE ME N TS Facebook Community We hope that everyone will partake in our brand new 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!

Vendor Download Page We are super excited to share the launch of a new feature on the NAPCP website! Several of our amazing vendors have contributed FREE downloads exclusively for NAPCP members. These downloads include template designs, educational videos, and much more! We will be adding a few more downloads this month so be sure to check it out! The page can be found under the "Resources" tab.

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FEATURED PHOTOGRAPHER SARAH HEBENSTREIT

Images by Sarah Hebenstreit of Modern Kids Photography

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ased in San Francisco, Sarah Hebenstreit of Modern

Kids Photography shoots for some of the best kids brands around the world. She has a BFA in Photography from the Minneapolis College of Art & Design. When she's not shooting she is eating her way around San Francisco, designing products with her husband, or collaborating with her family's bookbinding business in Pennsylvania. Read on to learn about how Sarah got her start as well as a peak at the must haves in her camera bag!

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Tell us your story. How you started and how your photography, brand, and focus has changed over the years....? More than ten years ago I received a BFA in Photography from a tiny art school in Minneapolis. It was a really interesting time to study photography; before the advent of really good digital cameras and the world of social networking. We were all very dedicated to the history of photography and most of us shot on large format film. I loved my time in art school but it didn't prepare me to make a living as a photographer. After school I spent many years working within the industry (editing, sales, marketing) but not as a photographer myself. In 2008 I finally had the confidence and runway to launch a small business. I started doing family portraiture which I loved and in the last two years my business has evolved into mostly commercial and editorial kids photography. 09 | NAPCP

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We love your editorial, modern approach to capturing children and families. How did you develop your style over the years? The history of photography is really inspiring to me. I look at mostly fine art and editorial photographers over the last 150 years. Some of my favorite photographers are from the 1970s onward and are shooting mostly in color. I have learned to rarely look at other portrait photographers so that I can keep my work feeling fresh. I think our photographic eye is easily influenced so you want to make sure you are looking at many types of imagery not just your own genre or you will find yourself in a creative rut rather quickly. Also, my mother is a self-taught photographer who has been shooting for over forty years. She's amazing and she inspires me.

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Tell us about some of your favorite commercial assignments? I love shooting catalogs and tackling big projects. Typically, those shoots are very long days that are condensed into a week or two - with lots of production beforehand. I love the team aspect to those shoots. Everyone is so important from the client to the stylist to the assistant that help me get smiles from kids when my face is hiding behind the camera. I also get to see lots of beautiful modern homes! What has been the biggest marketing effort for your business? I am a big believer in making real-world connections on top of social media. It is easy to create buzz online but meeting and engaging people face-to-face will propel you much further. From a portrait photography standpoint I'd stay highly engaged online and partner up with big blogs or companies in your area. Also, blog and share only your very best work and engage your audience differently than your competitors. You are never too small of a business to call a company you admire and work with them. 11 | NAPCP

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If you werenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t a professional photographer, what would you be? I love the idea of being a chef but I don't like the hours instead I would love to have a design studio with my husband where we make all sorts of beautiful and useful products. Who are some of your favorite artists/photographers? I am still very much in love with fine art portrait photographers. Some of my all time favorites are Rineke Dijkstra, Justine Kurland, Stephen Shore, Alec Soth, August Sander, Sally Mann, and many more.

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How important is photoshop/lightroom/aperture in your final images? It's incredibly important but I'm somewhat of a purest/minimalist and I don't like over-manipulation. I think you can never really improve an image that is shot with a great lens and in beautiful light. Where do you see yourself in 5 years professionally? I see myself shooting more and more work that is self directed and in collaboration with people I admire (both designers and stylists). Also I'd love to focus on more personal projects which would connect me back to my fine art degree a bit. I hope my kids business is shooting for even more companies and bigger productions. NAPCP

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Any new and exciting things in the works you want to tell us about? Oh well this is on a personal front but my husband and I finally moved in to a house we've been renovating in San Francisco over the last five years. I'm enjoying that so much (thank goodness for Pinterest). Thank you so much. I'm excited to meet everyone in Charleston! To see more of Sarahâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work, please visit her site here!

Thank you so much Sarah! 17 | NAPCP

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1) My Lowepro Pro Roller X bag. I can't imagine not having this bag. It goes everywhere with me and it's perfect for air travel. 2) My Nikon d800 it's so beautiful almost as good as a $20,000 medium-format camera. 3) I love my plain-old, super-sharp Nikon 50mm 1.4G. 4) For big shoots I normally rent Profoto strobes but I love my mom's old White Lightning strobe. It's amazing what you can do with one light. I've used this light for a number of editorial shoots. It's perfect. 5) I am having fun with my Nikon F100 film camera. I love shooting film and this

A ME R A B E C AG

ESSENTIALS TH

AG E C AME RA B

WITH SARAH HEBENSTREIT

I have so much gear but right now these are things I love and couldn't live without!

one is more economical than shooting my Contax. I shoot my personal life entirely on film. 6) The Hassleblad my mom gave me. It doesn't see much film these days but if my house was on fire this is all I would take. 7) My Bogen tripod has been by my side for more than ten years. It is incredibly sturdy and I use it for all of my cameras and my laptop during tethered shoots. 8) Finally, my bag is often full of rental gear and I love my local Calumet, they know me very well and give me good deals on rentals but if I have a longer term project I use BorrowLenses.com

BEHIND

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

SCENES

WITH SARAH HEBENSTREIT

photos. Enjoy behind the scenes looks at some of her shoots as well as her family and friends.

XOXO,

Sarah

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FEATURED VENDOR FOTOSTRAP Professional photographer Katie Norris founded Fotolanthropy in the summer of 2011. As this giving based business continued to grow, she began to see a need for a way to fund Fotolanthropy and keep it going. Katie had always desired to design her own camera strap that would compliment todays styles after wearing her same old black camera strap for years. With Fotolanthropy continuing to grow and tell stories, Katie decided to act on her dream and design a camera strap to sell and to use a portion of each sale to help fund Fotolanthropy!

FOTO is dedicated to using only quality materials in order to create a secure and long lasting camera strap. The FOTOSTRAP is environmentally friendly as well as it uses 100% genuine leather and organic cotton duck fabric. FOTOSTRAP is structured with a strong webbing filler, durable brass hardware, and strong, luxurious veg leather that gives the strap the strength it needs for any camera type. NAPCP

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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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