Southern Exposure December 2011

Karen Howlett-York Sign Your Art Mary Fisk-Taylor Working with Tweens Victoria Kelly Point and Shoot

GALLERY GALLERY

Each month, Southern Exposure magazine will feature images from the annual affiliated judging. All images in the “Gallery� scored 80 or higher and have earned a credit toward the SEPPA degree (SPF).

Loan collection images earn one additional credit.

Dorma Tabisz The Meadows Heartbeat

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Robert Harris Brewing Winter Storm

David Huntsman Window Rock

Cheri MacCallum Storm on the Homefront 69

Chairman of the Board

Mary Alice Ross maryaliceross@gmail.com

Delaware

President

Doug Peninger ncdoug01@triadbiz.rr.com

District of Columbia

1st Vice-President

George Singleton george.singleton6@verizon.net

2nd Vice-President

Anthony Rumley anthony@anthonyrumley.com

Secretary/Treasurer

Kevin Jiminez kevinjiminez@aol.com

Salon Exhibition Chair

Jessica Vogel jvogel@shelbywireless.net

Executive Director

Thomas McCollum seppa@comcast.net

***Don Engler Peggy Parkinson

Florida

***Bob Blanken Joe Tessmer ***Donna Campiz Kaye Newsome

Georgia

***Sally Jackson Jill Stringfellow

Maryland

***Vanessa Ard David Corry

Mississippi/Alabama

***Patti Ford Gil Brady

Southern Exposure Southern Exposure magazine is an online publication of SEPPA and is published monthly.

North Carolina

Editor Doug Peninger NCDOUG01@triadbiz.rr.com 336-883-7104

South Carolina

Ad Sales & Business Manager Thomas McCollum seppa@comcast.net 888-272-3711

Tennessee

Article & Ad Submission 5th of each month On-Line Publication 1st of each month

Virginia

SEPPA

2712 Marcia Drive Lawrenceville, GA 30044 888-272-3711 www.4seppa.com Acceptance of advertising does not carry with it endorsement by the publisher. Opinions expressed by Southern Exposure or any of its authors does not neccesarily reflect the positions of the Southeastern Professional Photographers Association.

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***Karen Goforth Janet Boschker

West Virginia

***Clark Berry Greg Martin ***Mac Brown Barbara White ***Sharon Younce Robert Holman ***Brent Kepner Christie Kepner

***state president representative

Additional information of state events within the SEPPA Affiliate can be found using the state links below. Please view their websites by clicking on the web address and you will be re-directed.

Delaware www.delawarephotographers.com

District of Columbia www.ppsgw.org

Mississippi/Alabama www.ppma.net

North Carolina www.ppofnc.com

South Carolina

Florida

www.ppofsc.com

www.fpponline.org

Georgia

www.gppa.com

Maryland www.marylandppa.com

SEPPA is a regional affiliate of Professional Photographers of America and hosts an annual District Image Judging.

To learn more about PPA, click the PPA Logo.

Tennessee www.tnppa.com

Virginia

www.vppa.org

West Virginia www.ppwv.org

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Doug Peninger: SEPPA President ncdoug01@triadbiz.rr.com

BLINK, BLINK You, too huh? Where exactly did this year go?

Wasn’t it just yesterday that we were having record setting heat? Wasn’t it just last month we had the affiliated judging in Athens? I know it was, wasn’t it?

Well, as you can tell, I’m a little overwhelmed with the speed in which time seems to be passing.

Holiday decorations are up everywhere and the music at the studio has converted over to Christmas carols. I must confess, I love this time of year. It always seems to bring out the best in each of us.

Pehaps the spirit of Christmas is something we could learn to live in througout the year.

For December, I am excited to welcome Karen Howlett-York to our talented team of writers. After the December issue, Karen will be sharing different Photoshop techniques which will be illustrated over several pages and months. This will give you larger images and samples to learn the technique.

Also, be sure to look at the “First-Day Challenge.”

The images you submit will be used for an exclusive set for February 2012.

Doug Peninger SEPPA President Editor

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The SEPPA Board of Governors, at the 2010 meeting in Franklin, TN, approved the all new SEPPA Degree Program.

The Southeastern Photographic Fellowship is now a reality!

You can earn your new SPF Degree in two categories.

The orange ribbon is earned with a concentration in print credits, the purple ribbon with a concentration in service to the organzation.

The requirements for both options are completed with education and/or service credits.

You may also achieve both Degrees, signafied by a purple and orange ribbon.

SEPPA will post the Credit Chart and submission forms at a later date.

Be sure to check back.

All events, beginning April 1, 2010 will be eligible to submit for credit.

Pages

Learn

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SOUTHERN EXPOSURE DECEMBER 2011

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Karen Howlett-York Sign Your Art

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Cover Artist

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Mary Fisk-Taylor Working with Tweens

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Lora Yeater

Victoria Kelly

Point and Shoot

Shop 6 19 36 37

Millers White House

Michel Company Academy Productions

Attend

“Daughter of Neptune”

by Tammy Bevins

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Florida School VPPA IMAGING USA

PPSC/Lamarr School Tennessee PPA

PPNC Georgia PPA

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Karen Howlett-York

One way to build branding in your studio is to add your signature or logo to your portraits from wallets to wall size. By doing this, it will distinguish you from other studios and photographers.

Your signature on the image will allow the viewer to see your name every time they look at your image and give credit to the creator. This is silent marketing. Your name is there all the time. Signing your images shows the client that you are proud of the final results and gives the image an artistic value.

There are several ways you can add your signature or logo to a portrait. The old fashioned way is to hand sign with a metallic pen either in gold or silver for color or black and white portraits, or pencil for fine art prints. This is easier on 11x14 and larger, but is more difficult on 8x10 or smaller as it tends to be very mushy. The other difficult task with hand signing a portrait is that if can be messy. Pens don’t work right all the time and too much ink can come out at once ruining the portrait. Your only option is to start over and reprint the image.

In my studio I use a digital brush created in Photoshop for my signature and logo. Virtual oils and fine art prints still receive a hand signature. Fine art prints are more valuable in the art world if they have a real hand signature. My logo or signature is on everything. I want that branding to be on all my works of art and handouts. I am proud of my work, and I want that message to be seen by the public.

Why should you use a digital signature or logo brush? It is consistent, clean to read, and you can use any color you wish. Plus your employees can sign the prints when ordering from the lab and not wait on you to hand sign everything before client delivery.

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karenloree@embarqmail.com

How to Make a Custom Brush When making a brush it cannot be larger than 2500 pixels. You will also need a Wacom tablet or a scanner.

Save your current brushes palette so you can retrieve them later of the favorites that you use all the time. (Image 001) Name them your favorite brushes and save them in Photoshop Program Folder > Presets > Brushes.

Then, reset your brushes palette to Default Brushes.

(Image 002) Image 001

Image 003

Image 002

The first thing to do is create a new file.

File > New > 2400x2400 pixel, 300 ppi, RGB color, transparent file. (Image 003) This will give you a blank layer to work on.

Choose black or a dark color from the color palette. Creating a brush will not work with white or a light color. You will be able to change to any color later.

Next choose a pencil tool size 20 - 45 in diameter.

This will make a sharper signature. You want the signature to be clean and legible. The pencil tool is located in the tool palette under the toggle of the brush.

Practice writing your name. Keep the best one.

(Image 004) Rotate the signature if you wish to use a diagonal angle. You may also add the year to your signature.

Karen Continues on page 14 Image 004

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Image 005

Now you are going to create the actual brush.

Go to:

Next we are going to determine the actual size brush to stamp on an image.

Edit > Define brush preset >Name your Brush > Ok (Image 005)

Make a new file.

File > New > 8 x 10 300 ppi, RGB color, white file.

(Image 006)

To Make a Brush from a Scanned Logo Open your logo file in Photoshop. Use the magic wand tool to select your logo. Hold the shift key to continue to select all logo parts to add to the selection.

When you have it selected, click control j (pc) or command j (mac) to put a clean cut out copy on a new blank layer. (This does it in one step) Now you are going to create the logo brush. Go to Edit > Define brush preset >Name your Brush > Ok Once you have all your logo and signature brushes made, you need to save them so you can retrieve them later. This helps when you have a computer crash or you want to put them on other computers.

(Repeat Image 001) Now its time to actually use the brushes on portraits.

The most common question asked is “How do I know what size to make the brush?�. Well, here is the solution. Pull some old images sizes 16x20, 11x14, 8x10, 5x7 and 4x6 to write on. If you don’t have images, make some cut outs from paper in these sizes. Hand write your actual signature on each of these sizes as if actually signing your clients portrait. By doing this step you will know the appropriate size to stamp your logo or signature without it being too big or small. This takes out the guess work.

With a ruler, measure each signature for each size portrait and write that measurement down on a size chart that you will keep by your computer for you and your employees to refer to.

16x 20.....1 1/2 inch, 8x10......1 inch, 5x7.....3/4 inch. etc. Repeat this for all sizes.

Add Rulers to the edge of file. View > Rulers, or control or command r Make a new layer to stamp signature or logo on.

Layer > New > Layer 0r click on new layer on Layer Palette.

Pick your logo or signature brush from the Brushes Palette.

Move the brush to the upper left corner where the ruler is located and start measuring. You will need to write down the brush size (master diameter) for each portrait size. For my signature 16x20.....was 1 1/2 inches....which equals to 500 for the master diameter. It will be different for the studio logo. Your signature and logo will also be different sizes from mine. So this is important that you do this step so your images will come back from the lab with the appropriate size logo or signature.

This is what my size chart looks like.

20x24......2 inches...........600 16x20......1 1/2 inches.....500 11x14......1 1/4 inches.....400 8x10........1 inch................300 5x7..........3/4 inch.............250 4x6.........1/2 inch..............200 wallet.......3/8 inch.............175

Image 006

Using your Custom Brush on an Image Open your image in Photoshop, color correct, retouch and save your image.

Image 007

Crop your image to a size for printing.

Make a new layer Choose your logo or signature brush Choose a color for the brush from the color picker palette. (Image 007) For a gold color I use #BC9611 and for silver I use #AFAFAF. When you find colors you like write down the number on your chart.

Make the brush the appropriate size for the image, and click mouse to place signature or logo 1/4 inch from lower right hand corner. Placing the brush in this area will allow room for framing or die cutting wallets. The only time I put my signature on the lower left hand side is if it will look like a tattoo on the subject.

One more thing that you can do to add some flair to your custom brush is to add a drop shadow and bevel and emboss effect. This will give your brush a raised, wet look.

Image 008

To add this layer style go to

Layer > Layer Style > drop shadow, and then Layer > Layer Style > bevel and emboss. For a faster way to access the Layer Style click on the fx on the layers palette. (Image 008) Now you may flatten your image, save as a jpg and send to your lab for printing. You have something that is consistent for all your images for printing, facebook, web site, blog, and advertisements, etc.

Karen continues on page 20 15

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Focused by whcc is the premier resource for photo related product templates in our industry. We offer an ever-growing line of high quality templates created by some of the photographic industry’s most talented and creative designers and photographers. Impress your clients with professionally designed press printed cards, books, or studio marketing pieces without having to spend all your time behind the computer. All focused templates are fully customizable Photoshop PSD files and are easy to use. Simply drag and drop your photos directly into the template.

Put your name out there for everyone to see. Be proud of what you do and sign your art. Artists of other mediums put their signature on their work and so should the photographic portrait artist. (Image 009 and 010)

Image 009

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Image 010

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July 15th ~19th 2012 Hanson Fong Jen Hillenga Ken Sklute Louis Tonsmeire Jr. Phil Scarsbrook Clark Berry

Business, pleasure, and a lot of learning!

Classes start July 15th 2012 on the campus of the University of South Carolina in the capital city of Columbia South Carolina.

Register now at:

www.thelamarrschool.com

Lora has been truly blessed with the gift of telling a story through the lens of a camera. What began as a love of capturing her own children has turned into a true passion in 2008 when she was able to start her own photography business, Memories by Lora Yeater Photography.

Lora is a member of the Professional Photographers of West Virginia, Professional Photographers of America, American Senior Photographers (ASP), and Senior Photographers International (SPI).

She has been named West Virginia Photographer of the Year 2011, 2010, and 2008. This was a high honor for her the first time ever entering competition. She has only competed four years and was able to earn her Master of Photography Degree in the first three years of competition. During the years of 2010 and 2011, she has scored perfect 100’s on three of her prints.

Lora has had great success in her few years of competing and plans to continue that quest in the years to come. She says “I enjoy entering competitions each year because I always strive to do my best and am able to raise the bar higher and set significant goals for myself to achieve.”

About the Art

My great grandmother was a Native American fascination for this art. This is the 2nd series print of Nati ated . I want my art to show peaceful reflection and e comes only with quiet inner peace. “The Embrace” sho mother and baby. You can see the quiet inner p

This print is a PPA Loan print for this year as well a

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n , so this has created a ive Americans that I have creexpress a depth of serenity that ows the loving bond between a peace in the baby’s eyes.

as Distinguished at SEPPA.

Note: Images chosen for the cover of Southern Exposure are first place, distinguished or other award winners from the annual district judging.

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Mary Fisk-Taylor

mary@hayesandfisk.com Twitter @maryfisktaylor facebook - maryfisktaylor

At our Real Life Studios we tend to offer several fundraising partnerships with small sports or teen organizations in our area. These are great partnerships. They not only allow us to raise money for non-profit children’s based groups but they allow us to bring new clients in the door. Especially clients that will one day be a high school senior and will feed our senior business. So, this is win-win situation all the way around.

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This normally works by offering a lesser or reduced creation fee. We will offer this creation fee to this group exclusively and quite often we will advertise or promote these as mini-sessions. Which means they are about 30 minutes, one outfit, one background, etc. We are able to book many of these sessions during our slower time of year and day. I do not generally make these appointments for prime time evening or morning. Also, these are never done on the weekends.

The reason that the associations are so quick to be involved is that they stand to benefit from a great fundraising opportunity and it will essentially cost them nothing. I create e-blasts, PDF for emailing, facebook posts, twitter feeds, and fliers or posters for their gyms or rec buildings. The group or association just has to make sure that they are advertising both by word of mouth and virally amongst their database, facebook fans and twitter followers.

Even though these are mini-sessions and even promotion driven we do try to take the time in the camera room to “Kick it up a Notch!� We are only using one outfit and one background but that does mean that I have to limit myself to one-pose sales.

By taking the time to create some images with a little more drama and spice, or using a shallower depth of field or selective focus you can, in minutes, create images that relate an entirely different mood and are hard for our clients to walk away from.

So be creative, have fun and enjoy being charitable.

This is a rather simple way to keep appointments on the calendar and hopefully feed future business and clients to your studio as well as being charitable and giving back to your community. Also, we will offer exclusive Mini Session collections that are only available to these clients and the key here is we stress that they are ONLY available at the initial order/viewing appointment. The good news here is that 99% of the time we are confirming their order the first time they come in and not having to schedule second or even third ordering appointments.

The collections are discounted about 25% to 30% so it is a substantial savings and worth the time to make the decision the first time around. However, we show samples of these sessions in several areas of the studios and like to display large gallery wraps or fun metal prints. These items are in the larger collections and we tend to run a solid $500 - $600 average on these quick 20-minute sessions. sessions.

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Victoria Kelly

I’ve resisted the notion of adding a small point-and-shoot camera to my arsenal for quite a few years...but I’ve been on two trips this year where traveling with my “big” camera was overkill and my iPhone camera wasn’t quite up to doing the heavy lifting.

I recently visited my brother in Tennessee. He has mentored me throughout my photographic career and when he adds something new to his camera collection I definitely pay attention. O n this trip he was singing the praises of the Panasonic DMC-ZS8.

Yes, it’s a point-and-shoot...but when he showed me the 16x20 he printed off of a Panasonic file, you can be sure I was hanging on his every word.

And then I bought one, too. My new baby camera (I purchased the ZS9 model) arrived via the US Postal Service on Saturday before Thanksgiving... and it fit into my mailbox at the studio. When I unwrapped it I realized that it’s about the size of a deck of cards. But don’t let appearances deceive you. When I tell you what’s under the hood, you’ll be wanting one, too.

For starters, it’s a 14 megapixel camera. It has a Leica lens. You can record HD video. The playback mode has a slideshow feature with several transitions AND music! You can hook it up to your television set to view your images. It has aperture priority and shutter speed priority. IT EVEN HAS A MANUAL MODE. And it was less than $200 dollars. (Yes. I shop Amazon.)

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vkelly@victoriakellyphotography.com www.victoriakellyphotography.com

I sat, pondering my new acquisition on Sunday afternoon...it seemed to have everything that one could want in a small camera. But wouldn’t it be great, I thought, if I could upload to Facebook like I do with my iPhone?

Well...I can. I had purchased an 8 Gb Eye-Fi card several months ago to use with my Nikon and iPad. I popped the card into its reader and attached it to my trusty Mac...there was a new firmware update and something called “direct mode” has been added. I downloaded a free app for my iPhone and paired the eye-fi card with my phone. Now, lest you Droid users start thinking bad things, there’s an app for the Android platform as well. Once I inserted the card back into my Panasonic, every image I snapped was miraculously slithering into my iPhone--COWABUNGA! (You should note that you can also pair with your iPad. It DOES come with a software disc for Windows computers. If you’re running a Mac like I am, you’ll be looking for alternative solutions.)

Remember when I called it a baby camera? This little bundle is definitely no baby. The images are tack sharp, the menu layout is one of the best I’ve seen and the price is definitely right. (I should probably admit here that I am the new owner of a “hello kitty” tiny camera case.) It fits perfectly into every handbag I own which means that wherever I am and I’m compelled to make a memory, I can make it happen.

Have you been good this year? Tell Santa what you want in your stocking...it’s a Panasonic DMC-ZS9...and if he’s feeling generous, he just might leave you an Eye-Fi card, too.

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GALLERY GALLERY

Each month, Southern Exposure magazine will feature images from the annual affiliated judging. All images in the “Gallery� scored 80 or higher and have earned a credit toward the SEPPA degree (SPF).

Loan collection images earn one additional credit.

Brent Kepner Down on the Farm

Rose Mary Cheek Mountain Fog

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Keely Deuschle Peaceful Escape

Stan Jones Snow Day

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