NAPCP October Newsletter: 2012! by Alice Park

napcp

NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 2012

featuring

the wonderful Allison Parker of Feather Nest Photography

Plus

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

look at the Mintedâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Inside a specialPhotographer Affiliate program!

Hello friends! The autumn leaves have fallen like pieces in their place and we’ve transitioned flawlessly into the colder season. We’re in the midst of everything this season brings – pumpkin carving, choosing the perfect Halloween costume, adding that extra layer of clothing and of course, holiday portrait sessions. The holidays are a short step ahead of us, and it’s a busy time for everyone (we’re certain your children have started their wish lists!). We’re planning for the hustle and bustle of the holiday season to make sure we’re there to capture every magical moment. After all, it is the most wonderful time of the year! On another wonderful note, Award winning photographer Allison Parker of Feather Nest Photography is our October member spotlight. Based out of The Woodlands in Texas, Allison specializes in newborns and babies in their early years. Inspired by everything around her - including light, color, music, art and the seasons (just to name a few!) – Allison enjoys capturing the candid personalities of babies and children. Fixated around the idea of “adore them, sing their praises AND feather your nest,” she’s constantly fascinated by the precious moments they bring to our lives. Recently switching to digital files, Allison’s passion shines through her photographs with surreal light, which ultimately creates artfully stunning images.

This month, we’re all about Minted as our Featured Vendor. An online store that prints

and sells designs in the form of paper goods, Minted is a global community of independent graphic designers. Specializing in stationary and wedding invitations, we’ve grown to love their new photographer affiliate program. By partnering with Minted, we’re able to offer our visitors (that means you!) access to stationary that isn’t offered anywhere else online.

We just launched our popular Video Interview Series with “The Digital File Debate” as

our first episode. We had an overwhelmingly positive response and members of our online community page on Facebook can still continue the debate. Members can ask questions and state their opinion on the best business model. We’re really excited about this series, and plan to launch more in the future!

We also recently announced the winners of July 2012’s NAPCP International Image

Competition. Many thanks to everyone who participated! If you need us, you can find us trying to get through the busy season by staying organized withour calendars and digital post it notes (thanks for the tip, Allison Parker!).

Sincerely

The NAPCP Team

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

The new TripleThic Pg. 5 .......... Featured Photographer: Allison Parker k card. The thic ™

kest. The best. Exclusively ours.

Our new enhanced signature paper is now optimized for photo printing

Pg. 19 ....................................... Tip of The Month Pg. 21 .............................. Featured Vendor: Minted We love our design community.

Pg. 23 .................................. Video Interview Series Pg. 24 ................................. Apply For Membership WIth Minted’s Photographer Storefro nt Program you can leave your printing , card design, and customer service needs to us. Find out more by visiting www.minted.c om/photographer

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WORKSHOPS

ALMOST ONE-ON-ONE WORKSHOP A Three Day Workshop With Virgil Bunao

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!

Image Competition We are excited to share that the winners of the July 2012 International Image Competition have been announced! A big congratualtions to all of our winners and Recognition of Merit recipients. The purpose of the international competition is to recognize the creative and technical excellence of child photographers around the world, reward talent and serve as a vehicle for education to better the industry as a whole. To view the full gallery of winning images please click here! NAPCP

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FEATURED PHOTOGRAPHER A L L I S O N PA R K E R

Images by Allison Parker of Feather Nest Photography

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ased out of The Woodlands in Texas,

award winning

photographer Allison Parker specializes in newborns and babies in their early years. Allison enjoys capturing the candid personalities of babies and children while gaining inspiration from a variety of places music, art, color and the changing seasons. Fixated around the idea of “adore them, sing their praises AND feather your nest,” she’s constantly fascinated by the precious moments they bring to our lives. Recently switching to digital files, Allison’s passion shines through

her

photographs

with

surreal

light,

which

ultimately

creates artfully stunning images.

NAPCP

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What is your favorite accessory other than your camera? Good old fashioned Bonne Bell chapstick. Jewelry - love it. Who is an artist that inspires you? Deborah Caiola - her social compassion projects inspire me! What is your biggest marketing effort for your business? Honestly, to be nice and be a positive space in my clientsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; day as well as always putting my best work out there. It comes back around to me. I have the nicest and coolest clients in the world who are basically interested in the same things as me. Beyond that...I think google, facebook and the blog are my best weapons (I should utilize them better but always run out of time) 09 | NAPCP

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How important is photoshop/lightroom/aperture in your final images? Not the most important things, but still important in setting myself apart. I do as much as possible in lightroom. It is an amazing tool and I don’t know how anyone functions without it. I find that if I stop there though, my images fall flat and aren’t as special as I can get them in photoshop. Photoshop is where I feel like I can get that extra softness and sweetness which is hopefully more of a signature style my clients will expect. I like to have time to pour myself into an image if it is special to me. If you weren’t a professional photographer, what would you be? A singer...I would just want to be paid to sing in my car though! It’s the only thing I could do all day every day and never get bored. NAPCP

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Who would you photograph if you could be invisible for one day? I would love to do a series or project on Mothers in all stages of life and all places in the world. I’m very interested in Motherhood in countries/areas that are different than what I know. I’d love to travel and document that diversity. I’m especially interested in the differences culturally in nurturing and feeding babies. If you had to choose one lens to use during shoots, what would it be? 85mm 1.2L (Canon) Where do you find inspiration for your sessions? Everywhere...specifically for me...LIGHT, LIGHT, LIGHT, color, music, art, dance, the seasons, nature, paint store swatches, those pinterest color combo swatches, motherhood, all things vintage, So You Think You Can Dance, Restoration Hardware, Anthropologie, Antique stores, old movies, old pictures, spirituality, love, emotion.

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Do you sell digital negatives in your packages, and if so, what made you decide to use this business model? I recently changed my business model from one where I included the digital negatives in all of my collections to one where the digital negatives are offered only in the two higher end Collections. I have 4 collections and no a la carte options. The first two Collections focus on artwork (prints) and an art book to curate all of the images in the â&#x20AC;&#x153;story.â&#x20AC;? The higher two Collections focus on larger gallery wall art, an art book to tell the story and a copy of the digital negatives are then included for additional printing or extended family printing. As a consumer I would want the digital files, but as a business owner and artist understand they are terribly valuable. My clients have been 13 | NAPCP

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really good with their digital images in the past, but seeing a huge canvas not cropped properly or not wrapped properly bugged me the last couple of years. So, it was time for me to change my business model a bit. one last question: your images are filled with surreal and dreamy light… what is your favorite action recipe or post processing tip to achieve this look? I would say the edge of the light and proper equipment is my friend on that look. For post processing, I run an action that I’ve made and tweaked over the past few years. It finally feels almost perfect for me. I am prone to change my mind about every 6 months though. It’s several basic stacked tweaks that NAPCP

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I found myself consistently making. It’s a soft light layer, a mid-tone bump, and a hue/sat layer bump. I’ve played with the output in levels for some of that airiness and I run that when I feel like it. To see more of Allison’s work, please visit her site here!

Thank you so much Allison!

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TIP OF THE MONTH HOW TO STAY ORGANIZED DURING THE BUSY FALL SEASON

by Allison Parker

1. I’ve found the good old fashioned post it note method, with a modern twist that my kids can’t destroy works for me. I had these mac post it notes all over my desktop when I came across Leah Remillet’s free desktop work board that

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you can customize. The combination of post it notes and an organized work board has been the only thing that has consistently worked for me. It’s simple, easy to update and flexible. Here’s what mine looks like. Instead of the actual folder of images, I use mac post it notes and move them through the process. I empty my cards immediately when I walk in the door & I start a new post it note in the “cull” box at that time. I put the shoot date & due date on it. I can make notes to myself there too as well as keep all of my to do’s in one place. 2. iCalendar that syncs across my desktop, laptop, iPhone & iPad keeps me in check and I always have access to my schedule. 3. I set alarms for myself if I know someone is coming to pick something up, I need to make a phone call at a specific time, or I have to be somewhere because I loose track of time easily. 4. I use my laptop specifically for scheduling, email and my workflow timeline system. I reserve my desktop computer for editing and design work. It doesn’t even have email set up on it!! So, I’m doing one or the other. Not being distracted by everything at once helps me be more efficient. 5. Everyone’s time is so different. I think one of the most helpful things for anyone though is to evaluate your own time and goals. I recommend some kind of app or program for keeping track of how much you are working each week and specifically on what. I found a program called RescueTime this year. It tracks time on the computer for you & generates very specific reports. I’ve been able to identify and eliminate distractions and now know exactly how many sessions I can shoot per week with the hours I have. I schedule that many sessions and I don’t take any extra. When you know how many hours you are working on that computer, it forces you to evaluate what your time is worth and what you can physically do in 1 week (and what you must make from that session for the time involved).

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The new TripleThick™ card.

Our new enhanced signature paper is now optimized for photo printing

The thickest. The best. Exclusively ours.

We love our design community.

WIth Minted’s Photographer Storefront Program you can leave your printing, card design, and customer service needs to us. Find out more by visiting www.minted.com/photographer 21 | NAPCP

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FEATURED VENDOR MINTED.COM You may know Minted.com for their array of fine paper goods including their lovely holiday photo cards, all sourced from a global community of independent graphic designers, printed on their thick beautiful card stock. What you may not know of is how photographers can work directly with Minted for all of their photo card needs. Minted recently re-launched their Photographer Storefront Program just in time for the holidays.

Leave your printing, card design, and customer service needs to Minted this holiday season. Your clients will love our unique designs and luxurious, premium paper and you will love the convenience and 13% profit for every sale you bring to Minted. FIND OUT MORE INFORMATION CLICK HERE!

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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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Membership