Delaware President
*** Jim Hill
George Singleton gsingleton@SEPPAonline.com
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Kevin Jiminez kjiminez@SEPPAonline.com
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Mary Fisk-Taylor mfisktaylor@SEPPAonline.com
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Janet Boschker jboschker@SEPPAonline.com
Salon Exhibition Chair Executive Director
Jessica Vogel jvogel@SEPPAonline.com
District of Columbia
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Rick Gibbons ExecutiveDirector@SEPPAonline.com
S out he r n E x p o su re
Souther n Exposure magazine is an online publication of SEPPA and is published monthly. Editor V ictoria Kelly vkelly@SEPPAonline.com 919.818.0726 Ad Sales & Business Manager Rick Gibbons ExecutiveDirector@SEPPAonline.com 336.687.1943
Maryland
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North Carolina
***Anthony Maril Joe Tessmer
*** Jackson Koontz Kaye Newsome
*** Spencer Smith Jason White
*** Lidia Miller Steve Clark
*** Shauna Denney Gil Brady
*** Rose Mary Cheek Rose Mary Cheek
South Carolina
*** David Junker Gregg Martin
Tennessee
*** Dorma Tabisz Barbara White
Virginia
*** Jim Carpenter Robert Holman
Article & Ad Submissions 5th of every month OnLine Publication 20th of each month SEPPA 3710 North Main Street High Point, NC 27265 336.687.1943 Acceptance o f a d v e r t i si n g d oe s n ot c a r r y w i th i t en dor se m e n t b y t h e p ub l i sh e r. Opi ni o ns expre sse d b y Sout h e r n Exp osure o r any o f i ts aut h or s d oe s n ot n e c e ssa r i l y refl ect t h e p osi t i on s of t h e Sou theaster n Pro fessi on a l P h ot ogr a p h e r s A ssoc ia t io n . Asso ci ati on f i n a n c i a l i n f or m a t i on avai l a b l e up on re q ue st .
West Virginia
*** Pat Dodd Brent Kepner
*** state president SEPPA representative
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Did you know..... In the past, the reason photographs had the sepia look was actually utilitarian as sepia improved the archival quality of the photograph (allowed it to last longer without degradation). Now, the older generation may have already known this but you’d be surprised how little the younger generation knows about processing analog film. The reason sepia improves the quality of the photograph over the long-term is in the chemical process. The metallic silver in the print is converted to a sulfide compound which is 50% or more times more stable than silver.
“Your IPC-Year Resolutions” Christine Walsh-Newton, M. Photog., Cr., CPP Most people set plans and goals prior to January 1 and call them New Year's Resolutions. Businesses do it on whatever dates coincide with their fiscal year and call it a Budget. Schools do it with children during the the typical school-year months and call it an IEP. No matter what you call it, somewhere in your personal or work life, you've got a couple of non-standard resolution periods in your life. One of the big ones in my life is image competition, which operates on a time line that's a little bit different for everyone, but generally ends with the occurrence of the International Photographic Competition (IPC) every August. (Which just happened.) So, here we are at the beginning of a new cycle. If you want to get technical about it – the new cycle started when we uploaded our IPC 2015 entries and dropped off our cases at the shippers, but I think we'll just let that slide. For now. At the beginning of every new competition year, I decide what competitions I'm going to enter. To start with, I list the competitions of the organizations/district that I am eligible to compete in. This year, my time line includes the competitions of my local affiliate, my state affiliate, my PPA district (Northeast) and IPC. It's important to note the dates of all of the competitions on your time line from the very
beginning so that you may allow for both your image preparation and printing times, if you enter prints. I can see by my own time line, below, that I have an extraordinarily tight time period between my state competition and my district competition. I'm highly doubtful that I'll have time to remake any images after my state competition, so my thought process here is that my state case of 6 will be used to determine which 4 images within it will advance to district. There will be no time for remaking or reprinting. November 7: November 16: February 12: February 27: May/June:
State Fall Competition (digital) Local Affiliate Competition (print) State Annual Convention Competition (print & digital) Northeast District Competition (print & digital) IPC Early entry (print & digital)
I'm a little bit nervous about that tight time line and I would feel a whole lot better if I knew I had the ability to re-do my entries if I needed to. But I don't. So in order to assure that I have the best possible case for my state annual competition in February, I'm going to have to find another competition or two to try out my entries somewhere in the time period between mid November and mid-January. More than likely, I will check into different PPA districts. I'm allowed to enter districts other than my home district for score and critiques only, so I will be availing myself of that opportunity again this year. This past year at my own district (Northeast) I sealed three images, but drew a dreaded 79 for my fourth. I then utilized the Southeast District (thank you, kindly) to try out four additional images to help me decide what to use as my 4th in my case. That process worked out very well, as the image I went with scored an 85 at Southeast and went on to earn a Loan at IPC. Now that we've laid the groundwork for WHEN we're going to do this, we are going to define exactly what we are going to do: Resolution #1: Utilize the IPC regular entry period. Now, right off the bat, let's get this last minute procrastination thing under control. I wait until the last minute almost every single year. I generally enter on the last day of the late deadline. Anyone else? Yeah, me too. Let's cut that out. I tried feeling smug this year because I entered the day before the final day of the late deadline, but that was sort of a false victory, you know? I don't know what it is about deadlines, but I seem to push right up against them. In fact, I'm about 5 hours away from the official deadline on this article, so it's an issue across the board. But, let's get this stress knocked down a notch. Let's not avail ourselves of the extra-special-super-duper-extra-fees-outthenose-late deadline. M,kay? Let's enter when we're supposed to and then sit back and
sip margaritas and laugh at our friends who crash the PPA server at midnight. (OK, not really, but you know what I mean.) Let's relax. Let's work steadily throughout the year in an organized manner so that when competition deadlines roll around, it's not chaos. Which brings me to... Resolution #2: Schedule Image Creation A lot of competition instructors and judges will tell you the same thing; keep a special folder where you drop potential competition images on a regular basis. Fully work them up as you photograph and retouch them and put them in the folder. Determine how often to do this according to the needs of the competitions you enter. For me, I like to do at least one full solid entry each month. Then, I have a rotating “stable� of twelve or so completed images when a competition is nearing that I want to enter. Now, we all know that what we intend to do and what we actually do are two different things. I'd like to tell you, truthfully, that I have twelve images in my folder right now. But I don't. I had a tantrum after Northeast District and ditched everything I'd worked up to date and now I have to start over. But even before then, I didn't stay up with my goal of creating one image per month, and oftentimes, a nearing deadline meant you would find me hunched over my computer after-hours working like crazy to finish my case. I did have about eleven images to choose from for districts this year, but they certainly were not created in the slow methodical way that I intend on doing them this upcoming year. Resolution #3: Find a Focus Haha, right? Seriously, though, competition for me generally has a purpose. For the first three years, I entered client work only, until I had earned enough merits to receive my Master's Degree. For me, that was important. After I earned my Master's, I then decided to use competition to experiment, to play, to have fun, to try new things. Within reason, of course. One year, I decided to work in the style of Richard Avedon. One year, I decided to utilize portraits of folks with their hands in the image because hand posing was one of my weak points. One year I decided to try high key, toned black and whites instead of the low key and straight black and whites I'd been creating. This past year I decided to abandon the portrait category, totally. For awhile I worked within the illustrative category with a case of florals, but eventually, that just felt too experimental, and I compromised with a half-portrait, half-floral case. I did wind up pushing myself by entering the nonevent album category for the first time, so in the grand scheme of things, I did spread my wings, creatively.
I haven't decided yet what I'm going to do with this next year's focus. I am excited to continue on in the non-event album category and of course, I will create portraits, as usual. I should probably work on photographing some women more, as I tend to cocentrate on male subjects. Whatever I decide on, it will be because I have identified a weakness, a skill set that needs improving. I may also do some entries for fun, but it would be out of character for me to do an entire case with no defined purpose. I enjoy the fact that competition can serve what ever purpose you assign to it. Perhaps you would like to continually compete with client work, or perhaps competition is your sole outlet for images created for personal purposes. There are those who compete with personal projects, ranging from self-portraits to images taken while on vacation overseas. Whatever your desire, you can find a way to fit it within competition. Make competition work for you by utilizing these resolutions to inspire your own list. Find something you need to improve on and make at least one of your entries a challenge for this weakness. The year I worked on hands, three out of four of my entries had hands in them. Because hands were a “thing” for me and I avoided them like the plague. Normally I wouldn't suggest dedicating most of your case to one focus, but if you decide that's the way you want it, or that's the way it needs to be, then goodonya. Competition is more than the annual nail-biting event that most consider it. It can be a real educational component in our careers. It can help shape and mold our styles. It can refine our work flow and and dictate our work ethic. Many of us work harder and longer on competition images than any others that pass through our hands. We learn new retouching skills, new ways of processing, different enhancements – some that we never would have attempted if we were not working on competition images. I challenge you to use the upcoming competition year as a growth opportunity. For you, for your work, for your business... and for your clients. Determine your IPC-Year Resolutions and get cracking!
Christine is a portrait photographer and owner of Gallery C in Dover, Ohio. She is a co-author of “The Daily Book of Photography” and authors “Wootness: The Big Girl and Guy’s Guide to Starting a Photography Business.”
Need Passionate support? Call Photobiz... Victoria Kelly In the years that I’ve had my studio I’ve always had a web presence…first with a local gal who carefully coded each page and then with a succession of web companies that offered various and sundry pieces to win my business. Until now. I recently attended the Carolina Photo Expo tradeshow and discovered Photobiz had a booth close to the front door. Since you all know I have a weakness for shiny things I stood, just outside their space, admiring the MAC computers (they were so CLEAN!) and keeping my eyes fixed on the iPad that seemed to be a mirror of the website that was displayed. John and Mitchell were working the booth—mind you, there was no “hard sell”, no “gimmick”---just two guys exuding the confidence of KNOWING their business…and, yes, I was intrigued. So I stepped closer…there were no questions about my current website, no “sales talk”…just two guys asking me how I enjoyed the tradeshow and what I liked best.
(Sidebar: I had been looking for a new website company for awhile…my current solution employs three vendors and nothing talks to anything…so I was curious what Photobiz could offer me. And, yes, mind you, changing websites is a chore about as welcome as emptying the cat box…but I digress.) I fired my first question to Mitchell: “I’m looking for a website presence where all my pieces are connected and everything talks to each other…whatcha got?” And then I spent the most glorious twenty minutes of my entire weekend and became a diehard, card-carrying, evangelistic disciple of all things Photobiz.
Guess what? I had a response to my seven questions almost faster than I can get my chai tea latte from Starbucks. And I emailed again. And again I had a fast response. Now, here’s the bottom line: Photobiz worked to find a solution for ME. I was able to take three vendors and consolidate all my “stuff” into one—Photobiz. I’m expecting my new site to be live and fully functional THIS WEEK. Yep, this week. And, just like he promised, Mitchell is there for me. (I think we’ve bonded…I’ve added him to my holiday list.) The bigger bonus is that I am actually saving money each month. Now, really… what’s not to like about THAT?? Oh, and their tagline? The one that says “powered by passionate support”? It’s true.
In those twenty minutes Mitchell helped me select a template, changed the colors, pulled my logo from my current site, set up a contact page, showed me how to connect my blog and I was blown away by how amazingly simple it was. In twenty minutes. I signed with Photobiz on the spot. Mitchell promised he would be with me every step of the way. I was so excited to get home and get my galleries loaded, my blog converted, my store set up…so I spent the next week putting my plan together for the new site: galleries, information, blog… and then I emailed Mitchell.
And, so, dear readers, the moral of this story-- If you’re looking for a new website presence you should have Photobiz at the top of your list. Because I guarantee you won’t look any further.