! Affiliate of the Professional Photographers of America !
VPPA NORTHERN DISTRICT NEWSLETTER
Monday, April 20th 9:30 – 4:00
April 2015
Governor ~ Kathy Kupka, FP Lt. Governor ~ Barbi Barnum, CPP Secretary ~ Andrew Clark Treasurer / Newsletter ~ Jim Sanders, FP
Best of Both Worlds Jamie Hayes & Mary Fisk-Taylor
Do not miss this chance to spend time and learn from two Master Photographers and amazing business instructors, Jamie Hayes and Mary Fisk-Taylor. Jamie and Mary share the best of both worlds with lighting and posing instruction, extensive marketing and sales information with a dash of fellowship and lots of fun. Jamie and Mary own and operate two extremely successful photography studios in their market area of Richmond, Virginia. Their small home studio specializes in high-end wall portrait installations and custom designed weddings and their newer addition is a higher volume high school senior and boutique event business. They gross well over one million dollars a year in professional photography and are very proud of the sustainable and proďŹ table brands that they have built in their market area. Highlights of this program will include building a camera room in a very small place, posing and lighting for environmental as well as studio portraiture, low cost but very high impact marketing plans and great sales techniques for all types of studios. Whether you are a seasoned professional or just starting out in the professional photography industry this is a program of priceless knowledge and information.
Silk Mill Wakefield Conference Room 1707 Princess Anne Street Fredericksburg see map on page 21
James H. Hayes III, M. Photog., Cr., CPP, ABI, API Mary Fisk-Taylor, M. Photog., Cr., CPP, ABI, API Hayes & Fisk the Art of Photography Real Life Studios Richmond, Virginia Jamie and Mary attribute the success of their studio to their sound management and business skills combined with their love and passion for photography. Their commitment to creating priceless portraits and wedding albums has earned them an extremely loyal clientele as well as a sterling reputation in the state of Virginia. Their business savvy and creative marketing concepts have enabled them to establish an extremely profitable and fulfilling portrait and wedding gallery. They have also expanded their business by opening a secondary studio that specializes in both boutique events and high school senior portraits. Mary and Jamie currently gross well over $1,000,000 in their photography studios. As PPA Approved Business Instructors, Jamie and Mary offer informative and motivational programs to all of their students. They have both participated in several state, regional, national and international conferences giving both full-day and weeklong classes. As affiliate jurors they have had the pleasure to judge several international print competitions including Korea and the Philippines. They are both proud many members of several professional photography organizations, including: Professional Photographers of America (PPA), Wedding and Portrait Photographers International (WPPI), Virginia Professional Photographers Association (VPPA), and Society of XXV. Jamie has been honored with many awards on both state and national levels. His most recent achievements include the Kodak Gallery Elite Award of Excellence, numerous Kodak Gallery Awards of Excellence, PPA Traveling Loan collections, SEPPA Distinguished Awards, Best Wedding Albums VPPA, Best of Category, Fuji Masterpiece Awards and the VPPA Grand Award (Highest Print Case) several times.
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Clara “Polly” Frye June 25, 1921 ~ March 21, 2015
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A Lifelong Exposure
by Marie Piacesi This article was originally published in the Virginia Professional Photographer magazine — Winter 2010 Every association has one member who embodies the best of what that association aspires to be. Someone who tirelessly gives back to each member, whether they joined yesterday or many years ago. Someone who thinks of the association members as her extended family and treats them as such. In the VPPA, our one such member is Clara Nelson Earman, or as we know her better, Polly Frye. As a 57 year member of the VPPA, and Executive Treasurer of the Association for more than 20 of those years, I thought it would be fascinating to explore her past and discover what roads she’s traveled to her current status as “Queen Mum” of the VPPA. The eldest of two daughters of W.C. and Stella Crowe Earman, Polly was born in a farmhouse in Keezletown, Virginia. She attended elementary and high school in the same community, graduating from Keezletown High School as Valedictorian of her class. Except for seven years in Virginia Beach, she has lived in Keezletown or Harrisonburg all her life. You may be wondering how the name “Polly” came about. Two boys in her seventh grade class, brothers Lawrence and Russell Layman, began calling her “Bill Earman’s Polly Parrot”, thinking she was a chip off the old block, Bill Earman being her father. Polly Frye: “When I was single and in my 20s, my Daddy would take me to dances at Massanutten Caverns in Keezletown. Mother didn’t approve of dancin’, but she didn’t object to him taking me. He would always say, ‘It’d be all right if you wanna take a little drink, ‘cuz Momma can’t smell it anyway’. So we had a good relationship and a good time. He was kind of a prankster. He delivered milk to the little community, Grade C milk… This one lady that worked, he’d always go to her house and put it the refrigerator, then he’d take a piece of pie on his way out. Y’know, he was just a likable person… I dunno, they just started calling me Polly Parrot, Bill Earman’s Polly Parrot.” Polly’s first photography job, in 1943, was with a local studio in Harrisonburg, where she trained as a black and white negative retoucher. While working there, she met her future husband, Charles Frye, who had returned home from 6 years in the U.S. Navy. Marie Piacesi: What type work were you doing at that first studio? PF: “They had a photo finishing business and also did portraits. I don’t recall that they ever did many weddings, ‘course you didn’t do a lot of weddings back then. People came to the studio and you had a portrait made, maybe the bride and groom… it wasn’t a big deal like it is now as far as photography. They had photos made in the studio or in the home… you didn’t go out and get a cake and all that stuff. It just wasn’t done. After all , it’s a little hard to carry around an 8x10 camera… I didn’t take any pictures when I worked at the first studio. All I did was negative retouching and maybe help entertain children, that’s what I was trained to do.” Charles and Polly married in 1949 and soon after, an opportunity became available for them to purchase an old established studio in Harrisonburg. Mr. Lupton Kaylor, owner of the Dean-Kaylor Studio, wanted to retire because of failing health. On March 1, 1951, they became the owners of Charles and Polly Photographers. 13
MP: What equipment was the studio using then? PF: “An 8x10 Century camera… I’ve got 500 8x10 black and white negatives that were taken in the ‘30s and ‘40s. Mr. Kaylor had to take it on location to do these pictures… ‘course he had a tripod and all that, and I’m sure a focusing cloth. That’s what we used at first… ya’ had to go into the darkroom and load each sheet of film separately, even for your portraits in your studio.” MP: While working as Charles and Polly Photographers, what was your favorite thing to photograph? PF: “Children… businessmen always made me nervous… Before Charles went back in the Navy he did a lot of the photography. After he left, ‘course I did everything. We didn’t do Senior portraits as such. We had Madison College there, which was an all-girls school way back then, and we did a good many of those. We had a good wedding business, back in the ‘50s and ‘60s.” MP: How did you become involved with the VPPA? PF: “We started going to State Conventions. See, I’m in the picture in 1952, down at Old Point Comfort, the Chamberlin. We’re both in that picture, so that proves we got active right away. And Margo Kent was one of the people instrumental in getting me involved. When she was President, she appointed me as the Membership Chairman, and I swear, I think I’ve been on the Board ever since… About 1968 is when I started as Executive Secretary, and wrote the first policy manual, with the Board's approval, of course, cuz we didn’t have anything down in writing… I’m just a has-been, yea I am… I has been everything there is.” (she giggles, in her soft, reserved, high-pitched Polly kind of way) MP: Who were your influences and mentors? PF: “Margo Kent, I can tell ya’ that don’t take much thinking. That was one of her favorite things… she would get the Past Presidents together and we were the “Has Been’s”. She was a wonderful person, kind of eccentric, but so free… I would’ve been considered competition, we were 25 miles apart and there weren’t that many photographers. She would help you and do anything for you, she was that type of person. She wanted to see you succeed. She was a great portrait photographer and a good artist. She did the classic type of portraiture that nobody does anymore. I always admired Van Moore, too. He was a wedding photographer in Richmond, worked with Wendall Powell [a Past President of the VPPA]. but Margo especially. I think she was sort of an inspiration to a lot of women, cuz she was one of the first, y’know, women photographers to make a name for herself, so to speak. Her brother, David, down in Pulaski was a photographer and he came to all the Conventions way, way back. He was a Past President way back in the ‘40s.” The studio Charles and Polly purchased was started in 1865 by William Dean, and was in continuous operation for over 100 years, until the Fryes closed it in 1967 when the family moved to Virginia Beach. Charles was active in the Fleet Reserve and in 1962 was recalled to active duty during the Cuban crisis. Polly continued to operate the studio alone until the move to Virginia Beach. At the time of the move, Polly’s boys were in the 7th and 8th grade. Along with taking care of the children, she worked part-time for the Boice Studio, where she felt right at home with his 5x7 Century camera. She also worked in the basement darkroom for Frank Dixon, school photographer when schools were segregated. The studio photographed the black schools and Polly had a tendency to print the skin tones too dark. Mr. Dixon eventually brought in a black girl to be Polly’s darkroom helper, with Polly exposing the paper, and her assistant “souping” them. 14
MP: How long were you in Virginia Beach? PF: “Seven and a half years, came back March of ‘75. My husband was very ill at the time and we rented an apartment. I had all the intentions of going back to Virginia Beach, I still had my house. After he passed away [November 1975]… I stayed in the area… I decided to go to Keezletown and open my business out there. It worked fine. People said, ‘Nobody’ll come out to the country’, but they did. Mostly my former customers, but you picked up new ones, too. Word of mouth. I was still doing weddings then.” MP: Had the style of your work changed? PF: “Not particularly. I was still pretty much doin’ the same thing, ‘cept in color. (giggles) That came along there, ya’ know.” MP: Tell me about your family. PF: “I have three children, Brent and Bruce, Bruce is the older of the two. I have Tony, who’s a half brother. He’s the one that has the two older grandchildren. He’s going to have a birthday soon, he’s gonna be 70 years old. We’re going to have a party for him. Anytime I have a chance, I like to have a party. (giggles) He lives in Keezletown, and his girls live in Keezletown. Everybody lives in Virginia, one’s in Virginia Beach, and one’s in Mechanicsville. The one in Virginia Beach, he’s never been married, he’s not old enough yet, he’s only 54. Brent’s the baby, big baby, too. They got bigger as they came along. (giggles) I’m lucky, they’re all in Virginia. My sister’s 6 boys are all living in Virginia, 3 of ‘em live here in Harrisonburg.” PF: “Lemme tell ya’ and interesting story. My Daddy was one of 7 boys, no girls. His mother was a seamstress. He used to tell how the boys would sit there and do the peddling; and when they wouldn’t do right, she’d thump ‘em on the head with a thimble. (giggles) I never knew my grandmother; she died before I was born. Then he comes along and has 2 girls and no boys. The generation changed to girls. Then the two of us have 9 boys and no girls, then for a long time, we thought we weren’t gonna have anything but girls! I had 3 granddaughters before I ever got a grandson, over a period of 40 years, 35 years before I ever got a boy. [My sister] had 3 or 4 before she ever got a grandson.” For twenty years, from 1978 to 1998, Polly operated her studio from her home in Keezletown, before moving to the Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community. PF: “The year I decided to quit doing weddings [around 1993], I did the last one in December, I said to myself, ‘If all weddings were like this one, I wouldn’t be quitting.’ The girl was a more mature person, had everything planned to a tee, everything worked so smoothly… We go to the same church, I tell her now, ‘Ya’ know, that was one of the best weddings I did.’ It’s nice to end on that note.” MP: When you stopped weddings, did you continue to do portraits? PF: “Oh yeah, I’m still doing portraits, not many, I do a few family groups and stuff.” MP: How did you keep up with your clients? PF: “I’m back where I started. People would come up to me all the time and say, ‘You did my wedding 40 years ago and I say, OK, who are you?’ cuz a lot of them I don’t know. I’ve been to any number of them, we did their weddings during the ‘50s. It’s fun to see all their children, 15
grandchildren, great grandchildren. I enjoy that — that’s icing on the cake. We didn’t have a great big population like we have in Harrisonburg now, so everybody pretty well knew each other. I’ve had some photography shows, so people know how to contact me. I’ve been doing these old photographs [of Harrisonburg from the ‘30s and ‘40s]… down at the Tourist Center. They do some advertising and I send out some special invitations, so word gets around. I’m going to a 50th wedding anniversary next month, of one of my brides. It’s so much fun seeing all their family. I have all these negatives from these weddings. I pull out the negatives, get one scanned and have a print made. I give them their negatives and write a little note saying, ‘I kept ‘em for 50 years, you can keep ‘em for the next 50.”
Polly keeps busy with her involvement in many organizations, including the VPPA. She has been a member of Quota International of Harrisonburg since 1953, which provides assistance to women and girls with speech and hearing handicaps. She is currently serving as President of the Valley of Virginia branch of the National League of American Pen Women. This organization is over 100 years old and is comprised of women who are artists, writers, and musicians. Her other community activities include: President of the Dixieland chapter of the Nippon Club, which aims to strengthen the relationship between Americans and the Japanese through friendships, business and cultural exchange workshops; Board member of the Virginia Quilt Museum in Harrisonburg; Board member of the Shenandoah Council of the Arts, working to foster appreciation of the community’s diverse cultural heritage, showcase local artists, and strengthen arts education; and Central Shenandoah Arts which has served as the affiliate for the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts to the Harrisonburg and Rockingham County area. MP: What’s your favorite type of art? PF: “I’m in a couple of art groups, but I still do photography mostly. I don’t buy any other kind of art, and I haven’t learned to do anything with the digital, with Photoshop. I’m straight prints.” MP: Still shooting film? PF: “No, no, I had to go to digital, I don’t really like it. I don’t feel like I’m getting the results, cuz I don’t know how to do it, that’s the main reason.” Polly was the first woman in Virginia to earn the degree of Certified Professional Photographer. Her other degrees include Master of Photography and Photographic Craftsman, bestowed by the Professional Photographers of America; and the Fellow of Photography degree from the Virginia Professional Photographers Association. MP: What do you like most about the VPPA? PF: “Gosh, that’s a big order, woman… I guess if it wasn’t for the training that I got just through being a member… I mean, I’ve had some school. Went to Winona [for lighting techniques] a couple times, way back… but I think the training and education ya got from your programs was so meaningful to me. Then, the next thing, if not the first, would be the friends I’ve made. Friendships, lasting friendships for years. Friends like Nancy Justice… I’ve got another story there.”
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“Nancy lived in Fairfax and had her studio there and we visited back and forth, just as friends as well as professionals. But anyway, she had two girls, and within the last six months, I got a telephone call… Nancy’s deceased, as you probably know… but she says, ‘This is Nancy Good’… and I couldn’t figure out who Nancy Good is, I kept talkin’, ‘How are ya’ and so forth, and it was Nancy Justice’s daughter. She’s moved to Harrisonburg, she’s an artist in her own right, she’s now doing a lot of painting… She has a townhouse or whatever… anyway, she says, ‘I want you to see what I did in my laundry room.’ She has painted this mural on the wall, it’s like an outside scene of a lady hangin’ her clothes on the line and all… I dunno… It’s just that she looks a lot like her mother did and ‘course I hadn’t seen her for years and years. Photographed her daughter’s wedding, gosh, I dunno how many years ago… probably back in the ‘80s. Nancy Good, the younger Nancy, has grandchildren in college. That’s why she’s in Harrisonburg, among other reasons… but anyway, it’s been so much fun to connect with her. Like I said, she has a lot of her mother’s characteristics. She’s I guess in her 60s probably, now.” “It’s just kinda like old times, we always just sorta clicked. Her husband was such a great guy, too. He used to be the bartender at Convention in the Hospitality Room… real outgoing. He was one of the people who always made a point of goin’ up to new people and tryin’ to make them feel at home and all.” “I’d have to say friends before education. And I do think I have a few friends in this place, in this organization, and a few enemies. That’s what makes it interesting. And I think I can stand up for myself… if you don’t, who will?” (giggles)
Anyone who has attended any VPPA event in the last 10 years has certainly noticed the good-looking gentleman who escorts Polly to all of our events. His name is Lowell Miller; and like most of Polly’s life, there’s a long history there, too. She first met “Miller”, as he introduced himself to her, 55 years ago. He and Polly’s husband, Charles, were members of the local Ruritan Club. Polly photographed Miller’s family over the years, including family portraits and both of his children’s weddings. After Miller’s wife passed away, he and Polly became close companions. In this world of instant digital gratification and ever-changing photography styles, it was very inspirational to me to spend time with this woman who has made photography a part of her life for 70 years. I found that Polly’s life and photography career exemplify the best part of what it means to be a photographer. Not only are we given the privilege of documenting our clients’ family histories, but also, if we are lucky enough, we become a part of their families. And if we get to live as long as Polly has, we get to witness those families’ changing generations. And I can’t think of any better reason to be a pho-tographer. LONG LIVE THE QUEEN!
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Silk Mill — 1707 Princess Anne Street — Fredericksburg
Silk Mill
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