Chairman of the Board
Doug Peninger dpeninger@SEPPAonline.com
President
George Singleton gsingleton@SEPPAonline.com
1st Vice-President
Kevin Jiminez kjiminez@SEPPAonline.com
2nd Vice-President
Mary Fisk-Taylor mfisktaylor@SEPPAonline.com
Secretary-Treasurer
District of Columbia
Florida
Janet Boschker jboschker@SEPPAonline.com
Salon Exhibition Chair Executive Director
Delaware
Jessica Vogel jvogel@SEPPAonline.com
Georgia
*** Paula Mignagna
***Anthony Maril Joe Tessmer
*** Martin Gudz Kaye Newsome
*** Spencer Smith Jason White
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 919.480.7110 Ad Sales & Business Manager Rick Gibbons ExecutiveDirector@SEPPAonline.com 866.982.4856
Maryland
Mississippi/Alabama
*** Lidia Miller Steve Clark
*** Andrew Lamb Gil Brady
North Carolina
*** Bruce Williamson Janet Boschker
South Carolina
*** Patty Hallman Gregg Martin
Article & Ad Submissions 5th of every month OnLine Publication 20th of each month SEPPA 3710 North Main Street High Point, NC 27265 866.982.4856 Acceptan ce o f a d v e r t i si n g d oe s n ot c a r r y wi th i t en dor se m e n t b y t h e p ub l i sh e r. Opi n i o ns expre sse d b y Sout h e r n Exp osure o r an y 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 ab l e up on re q ue st .
Tennessee
Virginia
West Virginia
*** Jeannie Forehand Barbara White
*** Jim Carpenter Robert Holman
*** Pat Dodd Brentv Kepner
*** state president SEPPA representative
Delaware
Mississippi/Alabama
District of Columbia
North Carolina
www.ppsgw.org
www.ppofnc.com
Florida
South Carolina
www.fpponline.org
www.ppofsc.com
Georgia
Tennessee
www.gppa.com
www.tnppa.com
Maryland
Virginia
www.delawarephotographers.com
www.marylandppa.com
SEPPA is a regional affiliate of the Professional Photographers of America and hosts an annual District Image Judging. To learn more about PPA, click HERE.
www.ppma.net
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West Virginia www.ppwv.org
Plans are underway for the
SEPPA
convention in
2015!
Larry Lourcey www.lourceyphoto.com
If you’re 100 percent happy with your image-making...you probably aren’t growing.
The Meaning of Portraiture At my core, I am a portraitist-it’s just what I do. Sure, I dabble in other things. I photograph my boys playing baseball or pull out the infrared camera for a nice landscape shot while I’m on vacation. However, those are just hobbies. My true passion-- and luckily my job-- is capturing a person’s essence in a photograph. Earlier this year, I was fortunate enough to have Professional Photographer Magazine do an article on my senior photography business. When I was being interviewed, I was asked how I approach photographing a high school senior. My answer was simply that I approach it exactly like every other portrait session. I am trying to create the best image that has ever been made of that person. Period. It doesn’t matter if it is a high school senior, a newborn baby or a Fortune 500 executive. The approach is always the same. That’s just how I’m wired, I guess. Sometimes that calls for an Impressionist-like painting or complex composite done in Photoshop. Other times, a classic
black & white image is the perfect fit. All that matters is that a portrait has depth and goes beyond showing what a person looks like. This summer I had a doctor come to my studio for a basic headshot. He was going to be featured in a magazine article and wanted to supply them with a nice portrait. No problem-- we all do these business headshot sessions every day. However, in my mind, I get a little bored with a plain, vanilla headshot. I created several traditional images of him and he was happy with the results. In the middle of all this I created another image. He had changed into a different outfit and I was playing with the lighting. Since I already had the simple portrait in the camera, I decided to get a little more dramatic with the lighting. I moved the light around slightly behind him, had him just look down and relax -- and ended up with much stronger image. Certainly, the simple headshot would show what he looked like. The second image, however, was a portrait. It wasn’t anything ground-breaking or something that would grace the cover of the Loan Collection book. It was just a nice portrait with lots of emotion and personality. It told a story. As professional photographers, we all
know how to do the basics. We can easily duplicate the look that everyone else has- and honestly-- most clients will love it. The key in my mind is to keep growing. To take it to the next level. If you are one hundred percent happy with your image-making ability, you are probably not growing. Photographer Robert Frank once said, “Above all, life for a photographer cannot be a matter of indifference.� To me, that means not being happy with a basic business headshot. It means keeping passion in what you do. We all get in creative ruts and fall back into old, familiar habits. The great photographers are the ones who can shoot their way through the rut and come out the other side a better image maker.
Victoria Kelly, Cr. Photog., CPP www.victoriakellyphotography.com
Selecting a family photographer should be just as important as choosing a pediatrician, dentist or attorney. Building a Personal Portrait History... Several months ago my husband inherited the 60-year old Kelly homeplace… complete with pale pink carpet, a kitchen floor that had definitely seen better days and a leaky dishwasher. If you’re wondering what the house has to do with photography…there is relevance, I promise! The “bonus” that came with the house was the handyman, Rick. He had been taking care of the house for the last 10 years or so and was quite familiar with its eccentricities and had kept meticulous notes on every repair he had made, materials used and the date. We sat down with Rick and reviewed the history of repairs and made a punchlist of items that needed to be addressed: first was the kitchen floor, then replacing the dishwasher and so on. Now, just for a minute, imagine what could have happened had we not had Rick’s insight into the house: the new
plumber might not have known about a repair that had been made 4 years ago to take care of a leak. Or that Rick had been monitoring a spot on the roof that would need attention in the spring. We all want to build lasting relationships with our clients…you know, be the photographer that they always call when photographs are a “must have”. This month I’m going to share with you how we work with clients to build a personal portrait history for their families. I started photographing the Rodgers kids when first-born Caleb was 9 months old. Lynn started him in our baby panel program and I kept notes on every session… when he started to walk, the colors he was wearing and chatting with Lynn at every opportunity about building Caleb’s portrait history. He graduated from our panel program and Lynn started him in our album club. Then along came Leah. Another panel program followed by another album client. Lynn was such a regular in the studio with Caleb and Leah that one of the first phone calls she made when she found out she was expecting twin boys was to the studio. When the twins (Luke and John) were a year old, I began creating holiday cards for the family. Fast forward through a lot of years—Caleb is now 15 and driving with a learner’s permit, Leah is 12 and the twins are 10. Caleb is already on the calendar for images when he turns 16 and then “of course” we’ll be doing senior portraits. I was able to keep Lynn as a client be-
cause I kept all the notes from every session—and helped her plan which sessions should have a wall portrait, which sessions should have larger gift prints for grandparents and how she should preserve the growing years of her kids. When Lynn calls in September to start talking about the current year’s holiday card, I’m ready…I remind her what we did the year before and make suggestions for what we want to do in the current year. We’ve been doing cards so long I know that she likes to include individual images of the kids on the inside and their ages. This year I suggested we take the kids back to where we photographed that first holiday card when the twins were 1 and I included that image on the back of the card.
The point is this: we must educate our clients that selecting a family photographer should be just as important as choosing a pediatrician, dentist or an attorney. Think about it—would you take your kids to a new pediatrician because you have a coupon?
Make the notes, build the history and keep the client. You’ll make relationships for life and really, isn’t celebrating birth, life and family what we do?
“ The Dury’s staff consists of actual photographers... ” Ever since I bought my first item from Dury’s almost 4 years ago, I have trusted no one else with all of my equipment needs. The Dury’s staff consists of actual photographers with a vast array of technical as well as performance knowledge and they are quick to help me find the right solutions for all of my shooting needs. A few months ago, it was time for me to upgrade cameras and the staff at Dury’s showed me the new Canon 5D Mark III. Simply put, the new Canon 5D Mark III is the best camera that I have shot with to date. I now have the capability to shoot at extremely high ISO’s with little or no noise as well as up to 6 frames per second with a very quiet shutter. Not to mention, the new autofocus system works flawlessly even in the most trying situations! This camera will make even the most discerning photographer very happy as the files that come out of the camera are simply breathtaking.
Jairaj - Kevin KJImages.com
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