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4 • www.ppmag.com

PROFESSIONAL

senior editorJOAN [email protected]

features editorLESLIE HUNT

[email protected]

editor-at-largeJEFF KENT

[email protected]

art director/production managerDEBBIE TODD

[email protected]

creative services manager/publications & SSACHERYL [email protected]

creative services coordinatorVALENCIA [email protected]

eastern region ad managerTARA TRUITT,

404-522-8600, X230, [email protected] region ad manager

AMY WALLS404-522-8600, X279, [email protected]

publications sales staffdirector of sales & strategic alliances

WAYNE JONES404-522-8600, x248, [email protected]

EDITORIAL

director of publicationsJANE GABOURY

[email protected]

Gift of diamondsIMAGES THAT DAZZLE AND INSPIRE

Who doesn’t like a bit of razzle-dazzle for the holidays—a sparkly

trinket in a gift box, shimmering garlands, the glint of a winter wonder -

land. And so this month we present a handful of jewels: a selection

of the year’s best images from the PPA Loan Collection created by

the eight 2012 Diamond Photographers of the Year (page 92).

These are the individuals who set the bar for professional

photographers everywhere. They were willing to submit the fruit

of their creative labor to be judged in one of the most rigorous

image-making contests, the International Photographic Competition

(IPC), and their images were found worthy of the competition’s

highest honor.

Judging for the IPC is unique among photography contests: The

gold standard against which the images are measured comprises 12

specific elements. This structure brings objectivity to an inherently

subjective assessment and also calls to mind a connection with the

long history of photography. Artistic styles are transient, but the

core elements of excellence in photography are timeless.

It’s striking how adaptable those timeless elements are. While

you’re appreciating the images created by the Diamond Photographers,

you’ll see that these 12 factors do not constrain photographic

artistry or flatten anyone’s creativity; they are spacious enough to

define every great image.

Enjoy these photographic gems.

From everyone here at Professional Photographer and the entire

staff of PPA, here’s wishing you a most wonderful holiday season.

We can’t wait to kick off the new year with you next month in

Atlanta at Imaging USA 2013. �Jane Gaboury

Director of [email protected]

twitter.com/jgaboury

facebook.com/ppmagazine

twitter.com/ppmagazine

pinterest.com/ppmag

editorial officesProfessional Photographer

229 Peachtree Street NE, Suite 2200, Atlanta, GA 30303-1608 U.S.A.404-522-8600, fax: 404-614-6406

Professional Photographer (ISSN 1528-5286) is published monthly subscriptions

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fax 847-291-4816; [email protected]; www.ppmag.commember services

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Advertising materials contact: Debbie Todd at [email protected]

Subscription rates/information: U.S. Print: $27, one year; $45, two years; $66,three years. U.S. Print and Digital Combo: $37, one year; $65, two years; $96, three

years. Canadian Print: $43, one year; $73, two years; $108, three years. CanadianPrint and Digital Combo: $53, one year; $93, two years; $138, three years.

International: $19.95 one year digital subscription.Back issue/Single copies: $10 U.S.; $15 Canada; $20 International.

PPA membership includes: Domestic $17.50, Non-Domestic $42 annual subscription. Subscription orders/changes: Send to Professional Photographer, Attn: Circulation

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Periodicals postage paid in Atlanta, Ga., and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to Professional Photographer magazine,

P.O. Box 3606, Northbrook, IL 60065-3606Copyright 2012, PPA Publications & Events, Inc. Printed in U.S.A.

Article reprints: Contact Professional Photographer reprint coordinator at Wright’s Reprints; 1-877-652-5295.

Microfilm copies: University Microfilms International, 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106

Professional Photographer (ISSN 1528-5286) is published monthly for $27 per year by PPAPublica tions and Events, Inc., 229 Peachtree Street, NE, Suite 2200, International Tower, Atlanta,GA 30303-1608. Periodicals postage paid at Atlanta, Ga., and additional mailing offices.

Acceptance of advertising does not carry with it endorsement by the publisher. Opinions expressed byProfessional Photographer or any of its authors do not necessarily reflect positions of Professional Pho -tog raphers of America, Inc. Professional Photographer, official journal of the Professional Photog raphersof America, Inc., is the oldest exclusively professional photographic publication in the Western Hemisphere(founded 1907 by Charles Abel, Hon.M.Photog.), incorporating Abel’s Photo -graphic Weekly, St. Louis & Canadian Photographer, The Commercial Pho tog -rapher, The National Photographer, Professional Photographer, and Pro fes sionalPhotographer Storytellers. Circulation audited and verified by BPA Worldwide.

contributing editorsDON CHICK, LORNA GENTRY, ROBYN L. POLLMAN, ELLIS VENER

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RAREFIED AIR The 2012 Diamond Photographersof the Year claim the summitby Jeff Kent

ON A SCANNERDARKLYBarry Taratoot’s nocturnalflower affairby Stephanie Boozer

ARTFUL LIFEFritz Liedtke balances contemporaryphotography with a Bohemian lifestyle to create original artby Lorna Gentry

FINE ART: LOWCOUNTRY SPLENDOR

Fine-art nature photographer Jim Crotty shifts his focusby Erin Quinn O’Briant

WEDDINGS: SWEET SECOND ACT

Marie Labbancz trades a therapist’slicense for a master photographer degreeby Lorna Gentry

IMAGE BY: BARRY TARATOOT

126

114

134

92

104

Features

DECEMBER 2012

CONTENTS

DepartmentsCONTACT SHEET24 Jason Bell: “World Stage”26 PP ’s giveaway of the month26 PP asks: Business or love30 2012’s Top tomes

PROFIT CENTER37 What I think: Jim Crotty38 Ask the experts40 Starting over:

My nutty business iconby Kalen Henderson

42 Strategic pricing: How to leverage session fess and collectionsby Bridget Jackson

44 Brand smartsby Kelly Lyle

46 Messages that get you hiredby Zach Prez

THE GOODS53 What I like: Fritz Liedtke54 Roundup: Camera bags

by Robyn L. Pollman58 Pro review: Canon imagePrograf

iPF6400 large-format printerby Stan Sholik

64 Pro review: Inkjet mediaby Stan Sholik

68 Pro review: Nikon D600by Ellis Vener

74 Pro review: Quantum CoPilot by Stan Sholik

ON THE COVER: The spirit of Sherlock Holmeswas the inspiration behind Richard Sturdevant’s“Time Traveler.” To create this Loan Collectionimage, Sturdevant used a Nikon D4 camera and85mm f/1.4 lens with an exposure of 1/250 second at f/11, ISO 200. Light was provided bythree Profoto D1 Airs. Compositing took aboutfour hours, with postproduction accomplished inPhotoshop 6 and Corel Painter 12 as well as Nikand Topaz software.

8 • www.ppmag.com

14 FEEDBACK18 FOLIO77 IMAGING USA

141 PPA TODAY154 GOOD WORKSPROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER | DECEMBER 2012 | WWW.PPMAG.COM

Marie Labbancz fell in love with wedding

photography the first time she experienced it. “It fit my personality. I’m very ADD

and I love action,” she says. It seems the perfect culmination of her experience

in theater and longtime career as a social worker.

IMAGE BY: MARIE LABBANCZ

CONTENTS

134

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Professional Photographers of America229 Peachtree St., NE, Suite 2200Atlanta, GA 30303-1608404-522-8600, 800-786-6277FAX: 404-614-6400, www.ppa.com

2012-2013 PPA boardpresident*TIMOTHY WALDENM.Photog.Cr., [email protected]

vice president*RALPH ROMAGUERA SR.M.Photog.Cr., CPP, API, [email protected]

treasurer*SUSAN MICHALM.Photog.Cr., CPP, [email protected]

chairman of the board*DON DICKSONM.Photog.Cr.,Hon.M.Photog, [email protected]

directorsDON MACGREGORM.Photog.Cr., [email protected]

MICHAEL GAN M.Photog.Cr., CPP [email protected]

ROB BEHM, [email protected]

LORI CRAFT, [email protected]

MICHAEL TIMMONSM.Photog.Cr., [email protected]

RICHARD [email protected]

STEPHEN THETFORDM.Photog.Cr., [email protected]

AUDREY L. WANCKETM.Photog.Cr., [email protected]

industry advisorKEVIN [email protected]

PPA staffDAVID TRUST, CAE Chief Executive Officer [email protected]

SCOTT KURKIAN, CPA, CAEChief Financial OfficerChief Operating [email protected]

JANE GABOURYDirector of [email protected]

KRISTEN HARTMAN Director of MemberValue and [email protected]

WAYNE JONESDirector of Sales & Strategic [email protected]

SCOTT MORGAN Director of [email protected]

WILDA OKEN Director of [email protected]

CARLA PLOUIN Director of Marketingand [email protected]

LENORE TAFFEL Director of [email protected]

CLAIRE WHITEDirector of Allied [email protected]

SANDRA LANGExecutive [email protected]

*Executive Committee of the Board

12 • www.ppmag.com

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WEDDING DELIGHT

Wanted to take a moment to say

thanks a million for including us in your

wedding issue (“Wedding-Day Documen-

tary,” October). We are floored by Erin

O’Briant’s article and by the gracious space

you allowed to feature our story. We’ve received

such cool feedback from our peers so far, and

our parents and grandparents are demanding

their copies ASAP to brag around town with.

Thank you again for all you do with the

magazine. We thoroughly enjoy it.

Kitty & Craig Fritz

Twin Lens

HARD WORK PAYS

Great story, Kalen (“The Race Goes

to the Swiftest,” October). Like you, I find

that hard work pays off, and truly loving

what you do will lead you to become a better

photographer. Keep up the great work!

Kevin Thompson

Denver Sports Photographer

I just wanted to say how much I appre -

ciated Kalen Henderson’s October

article (“The Race Goes to the Swiftest”). It

is so indicative to how many of us are feeling

these days. Bravo for saying it.

Tracy Martin

Tracy Martin Design & Photography

COVERED IN LOVE

I love this magazine! I have had

many magazine subscriptions in my life, but

this is the first one I’ve had that I had read

cover to cover—every article, every ad. It is

great for beginner or seasoned pro. Well done.

Miranda Lutes

Miranda Kay Photography

Just got my September issue—love

it. I can’t wait until I get my new

issue every month. There is always some-

thing fun and new for me to learn.

Corrie Gamel

I have been a longtime follower of

Professional Photographer magazine.

All the information it provides is great.

Tim VanDyke

EMAIL • FACEBOOK • TWITTER

SEEKING FEEDBACKIf Professional Photographer is on your mind, tellus what you’re thinking. Send your questionsand comments via email, Facebook, or Twitter.

feedback|


[email protected]

facebook.com/ppmagazine

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GHIONIS ROCKSOCTOBER

Love the little girl picking up the veil

on the October cover! I love chil-

dren; they will do anything to get

the attention on them selves! They

are key to a fun photograph.

Debra Reschoff-Ahearn

Jerry Ghionis is a master.

Steven Mackie

Jerry rocks!

Ray Kwong

Jerry has done it again! Wow!

Derrick Yellock

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folio| Comprising images selected from the files of the PPA Loan Collection, Folio is a monthly sample ofaward-winning photography selected from PPA’s annual International Photographic Competition (IPC),which is open to non-PPA members. The Loan Collection is a select group of more than 500photographs chosen for distinction by the IPC jurors. ppa.com/competitions/international.php

CABEL NOTEBOOMFor this student, who lives and breathes softball and wanted something a bit different for her senior portrait, Cabel Noteboom, of Cabel NoteboomPhotography in Hardin, Mont., dressed her up and put her on the pitcher’s mound. With a Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera and Canon 24-70mmf/2.8 L USM EF lens, Noteboom exposed “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” for 1/3,200 second at f/2.8, ISO 200. A Canon Speedlite 580EX II softenedthe shadows. Noteboom removed unnecessary background objects and used a Topaz filter in Adobe Photoshop to soften the image. cabelnoteboom.com

©Cabel Noteboom

EARL DASHIELLFollowing behind an extra-large dump truck with a snowplow running about 45mph during a heavy snow storm,

Earl Dashiell, of Dashiell Studio of Photography inPoquoson, Va., was able to capture “Heavy Metal”between windshield wiper swipes. He used a Nikon

D300 camera and Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8G IF-ED AF-SDX lens. With the camera preset for the conditions,Dashiell exposed the image for 1/250 second at f/8,

ISO 400. He used Adobe Photoshop to remove backgroundvehicles and add sparks and flame, then added wisps of

blowing snow with Corel Painter. “It’s always a goodidea to have a competent driver accompany you while

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MUFFET PETREHNOn assignment for the Children’s Mercy Hospitals andClinics in Kansas City, Kan., Muffet Petrehn, of MuffetPetrehn Image Design in Paola, says she was asked to

create “real images that show emotion and tell thestory of the surgeons and nurses in the cardiac unit.”

During an open-heart surgery on a 2-year-old patient,Petrehn captured “Hands That Heal” with a Nikon D3camera and Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G AF-S VR lens,exposing the sensor for 1/6,400 second at f/2.8, ISO400. The image was incorporated into a book to help

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Award-winning portrait and commercial

photographer Jason Bell, who divides his

time between New York and London, won

Gold in the Prix de la Photographie Paris

competition for his “World Stage” series for

the Royal Opera House in London. Bell has

been photographing the series of ads for six

years, ever since the campaign’s inception by

London ad agency Dewynters.

Bell presents four portraits annually to

promote the company’s upcoming season.

The images feature performers in locations

reminiscent of the settings in which the

operas are set. Rather than photographing

the performers in-studio and compositing

the backgrounds, Bell photographs the

dancers and singers in locations around the

world, including Australia, Cuba, Russia,

Mexico, Armenia, and nearly every European

country. The settings make for stunning and

dramatic portraits and often pose logistical

and physical challenges for Bell and his

crew, not to mention the performers.

In Greenland, Bell learned just how quickly

icebergs move when he placed a singer on

one and he stood on another. “Every time I

set up the shot and was about to take the pic-

ture he would have moved, and so had I. On

top of that, the producer kept saying, ‘Just to

be clear: If you fall in the water and we don’t

get you out in 45 seconds, you’ll die.’ That

doesn’t make for a very relaxed shoot.”

Further, Bell had to get the shot in about 90

seconds—that’s how long the performer

could last without his heavy overcoat.

Heat and sand in warm climates posed

problems as well, yet Bell says he enjoyed it:

“To get extraordinary pictures no one has

seen before you have to go to extraordinary

lengths.”

To see more of Jason Bell’s work visit jasonbellphoto.com.

CONTACT SHEETWhat’s New, Cool Events, Interesting People, Great Ideas, Etc.

Jason Bell brings that notion to life in a series of posters promoting London’s Royal Opera House l BY LORNA GENTRY

All the world’s a stage

All images ©Jason Bell


CONTACT SHEET

We ask a penetrating ques -tion, you post an insightfulanswer, and someone walksaway with a rad giveaway.That’s the way we do thingsover at Professional Photog - rapher Facebook central. You should definitelyjoin us there: facebook.con/ppmagazine.

DID YOU START YOUR STUDIOBECAUSE OF YOUR LOVE OF PHOTOGRPAHY AND THEN LEARNTHE BUSINESS, OR DID YOU LEARNTHE BUSINESS SIDE FIRST?

I worked with other studios to learn as muchas I could before stepping out on my own.From pricing to products and everything inbetween, I wanted to be certain be able toprovide the best for my clients.

—Margaret Ooyen Lemke

Photography first, business second. Trickyto come at it that way, but it’s been worth it!

—Jen Dean Photography

I got my bachelor’s degree in business man-agement while working at an investmentcompany, then went to photography school.I combined the two and never looked back.

—Catharine Morris

For me it was a love of photography first.Thankfully, my husband and I had owned abusiness before, so I was aware of some ofthe requirements, but this is a totally differ-ent field, so there’s still lots to learn.

—Kelly Morin

I learned the business first—or at least Ithought I did. The business is ever changing,and it keeps me on my toes. I’m alwayslearning, which is just one of the reasons Ilike Professional Photographer magazine.

—Ever After Photography, Inc.

I developed a love for photography as a child. Itwas always something my dad and I had in com -mon and could talk about. As I got older, I tookclasses in high school and eventually startedtaking pictures for friends as a hobby. I fell inlove with it and decided to make it a career.I’m learning the business side along the way.

—Ashley Freehan

I started my life as a certified publicaccountant, so the business side is easier;however, mar ket ing is its own beast, and itis one I am learn ing to tame to keep theclients coming in the door.

—Lorrie Galliher

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CONTACT SHEET

With the success of the Summer Olympics

and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, London

has been celebrating all year, and the world

keeps cheering it on. This fall, Taschen

published “Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth

II,” a grand tribute to the monarch. Editor

Reuel Golden tells the reigning queen’s

remarkable story through hundreds of pho-

tos, many previously unpub lished. Golden

also wrote Taschen’s “London: Portrait of a

City,” a photo-rich look at historic and con-

temporary London. In October, Dewi

Lewis, in association with the Museum of

London, published “London Street

Photography 1860 to 2010,” a fascinating

survey of 140 years of photos taken by well-

known and anonymous photographers.

From across the pond in New York

comes “New York at Night: Photography

After Dark” (powerHouse Books). This

gorgeous volume is a goodnight kiss from

photography gods—Henri-Cartier Bresson,

Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, and Robert

Frank, among them—and demigods who

prowled the dark streets of Gotham.

One of those New York nightwalkers was

Walker Evans (1903-1975), whose seminal

1938 book, “American Photographs,” has

been reissued by New York’s Museum of

Modern Art to honor its 75th anniversary.

Evans worked for the Farm Security Admin-

istration, and some of his iconic FSA work

is included in the 50th anniversary edition

of “The Bitter Years” (D.A.P./Distributed

Art Publishers). The book’s title was a 1962

MoMA exhibition curated by Edward Steichen

that spotlighted the important work done

by FSA photographers from 1935-41.

Walker Evans contemporary Eliot Porter

(1901-1990) not only influenced photogra-

phers for generations with his pioneering

use of color, but he also inspired U.S. envi-

ronmental law with his 1962 Sierra Club

book “In Wildness is the Preservation of

the World.” This fall, Getty Publications

released “In the Realm of Nature,” by Paul

Martineau, about Porter’s sublime nature

photography. Martineau, who is associate

curator of the Department of Photographs

at the J. Paul Getty Museum, also pub-

lished earlier this year “L.A. Style,” a deep

dive into the career of Herb Ritts.

Like Eliot Porter, Joel Meyerowitz was

an early advocate of color photography.

This year, for the first time, a career retro-

spective of his work has been published in a

limited edition two-volume set titled “Taking

My Time” (Phaidon). The set includes a

signed print and a DVD of his film “Pop.”

Meyerowitz wrote a poignant introduction

to a new book on Paul Strand (1890-1976)

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camera away from faces and into his gar-

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small and grand specimens during all sea-

sons is a lyrical metaphor of life.

“Heavy Hand, Sunken Spirit” (Dewi

Lewis), by David Rochkind, shows Mexico

at war with the drug cartels. Rochkind has

lived in Latin America for a decade and

experienced firsthand the horrific wake of

ongoing violence and turbulence. His

unflinching visual exploration of the brutal

conflict shows its impact, which has drasti-

cally changed daily life for Mexicans.

Conversely, life in nearby Cuba has been

mostly unchanged for a half century. Andrew

Moore continually returned to the island to

photograph the architecture and people from

1998 to 2012. Upon the release of his book

“Cuba” (Damiani) in September, Moore told

The New York Times, “Changes are coming

probably sooner rather than later to Cuba in

all kinds of ways, and this is my portrait of the

end times of this very self-contained world

that Cuba has become over the past 50 years.”

Richard Misrach didn’t have to travel

any farther than his front porch to take

photos for his book “Golden Gate” (Aperture),

published this year to commemorate the

75th anniversary of San Francisco’s Golden

Gate Bridge. Over three years beginning in

1997, Misrach photographed the beloved

bridge from his porch at all times of day

and night and in every season, delivering a

lovely medita tion on an American icon.

Misrach has another book out this year as

well, “Petrochemical America” (Aperture),

an unnerving and unfor gettable visual tour

of Louisiana’s Chemical Corridor.

Phaidon Press has published a large-for-

mat, signed and numbered book of venera-

ble photographer Steve McCurry’s amazing

“The Iconic Photographs,” which includes

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From “Instant: The Story of Polaroid,”by Christopher Bonanos. Photo ©Bill Ray

From “The Iconic Photographs,”photo by Steve McCurry

32• www.ppmag.com

a signed print. This special edition beauti-

fully showcases his best-known images

from Southeast Asia, Africa, and Europe.

“Photography Changes Everything,” by

Marvin Heiferman (Aperture), is food for

thought for anyone whose life has been

touched by photography—in other words,

everyone. Drawn from the online

Smithsonian Photography Initiative, this

book is a rethink of the medium’s history,

practice, and power.

And finally, if you’ve been following the

story of Polaroid unfolding over the past

few years, then you know how fascinating it

continues to be. “Instant: The Story of

Polaroid” (Princeton Architectural Press),

by New York magazine senior editor

Christopher Bonanos, gives a behind-the-

scenes look at the history, art, and

science of one of America’s most innova-

tive companies.

From “Golden Gate,”photo by Richard Misrach

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Professional Photographer P R E S E N T S Business, Marketing, and Sales Strategies

What I thinkJim Crotty on the art of selling andbuilding a business for the long haul

What do you wish you’d known when you were start-

ing out in photography? How to sell. The technical

can be learned and artistic vision developed, but

going into business is the art of selling.

If you had to do it all over again, what would you do

differently? I would have started much sooner.

Photography is my passion—I was meant to do

this—but it took some journeying down other

paths to reach this destination. Building a reputa-

tion as a professional photographer is a long-

distance race. It doesn’t happen overnight.

How has the game changed in professional pho-

tography in recent years, and how have you

adapted? The professional needs to step out of the

box in market ing, branding, and relationship-

building. There’s more pressure to be creative in

exploring other revenue streams. I started present-

ing workshops in 2009. I had some concerns

about educating my competition, but I’ve learned

that there is more to be gained in building com-

munity than being overly protective.

What’s your best business tip? Do social media mar -

keting. And one of the best investments I’ve made

was hiring a graphic designer to design my logo. Build

and value a base of support among other professionals,

from accountants to commercial bankers to suppliers

to printers. And always value your local market

and existing client base that helped get things started.

IMAGE BY JIM CROTTY

OHIOPHOTO.ORG

Q. I’ve been doing commercial and portraitwork for a large health system for about ayear. At first, the work was mostly photo-graphing property, new construction, andevents. I do not have a contract with thisclient. I charge an hourly rate and gavethem a CD of high-resolution imagesbecause they said it was the practice of allthe photographers they used. Now I’mseeing my images on billboards through-out the area and I’m getting no credit forthem. I am shooting more portrait ses-sions for this client now, though, which ismy niche. Should I talk to them about acontract? No longer give hi-res images onCD? Increase my prices? I don’t know howsomething like that works with a hospital.A. At this point it might be difficult to changethe agreement without losing the client’s

business. You need to ask yourself if you arehappy with the money they bring in, and figure out how to leverage the billboardexposure to your advantage. A slight rateincrease agreed upon ahead of time for thenext project would not be out of bounds, asprices do go up. As long as it’s a reasonableincrease and you provide good service andquality, it shouldn’t have them price shop-ping elsewhere.

The practice of giving them a CD ofimages is less than ideal, but you’re stuckwith it if you want to maintain the relation-ship with this customer. However, you canand should provide a licensing agreementalong with the CD. With local client compa-nies, I’m fairly liberal with my licensingagreement. It pretty much says they can doany kind of self-promotion with the images,but I own the copyright and they may notsell the images to a third party. Both partiessign the agreement as an acknowl edgementof receipt of the images and the licensingagreement. It’s a good idea to then electron-ically register those images as a body ofwork with the Library of Congress. Withnational companies, other considerationsshould be made based on specific usage.

In most commercial applications—businesscards, brochures, billboards, etc.—a printedphoto credit is not practical. But that doesn’tmean you can’t leverage those applicationsto your advantage. It’s fantastic that yourphotography is being used on billboards aroundtown. To take advantage of that, you need totake pictures of them and place them onyour blog, social networks, and websites. Ifit’s a lit sign, go at night with a tripod andshow the world how impressive your imageslook in advertising. Ask for tear sheets,printed materials, and promotional items inwhich your photography is used. You canhave them on hand in your studio and pho-tograph them for posting on your website.

GOING FORWARDIt’s always a good idea to have a written agree -ment with clients so both parties know what’sexpected. I always have at least two meetingswith the client. The first meeting deals withthe project—output, deadlines, details. Thesecond meeting is to present the estimateand pricing and close the deal. The first meet-ing tells me three things: the scope of theproject, whether I have the necessary skillsand equipment to do the job, and the expensesinvolved. I do not accept jobs beyond myskills or where the quality of output would bein doubt. I’m much better off referring thosejobs to another photographer I respect whocan do the job. As I calculate my estimate, Iinclude costs related to travel to locations,gas, time spent photographing the project,postprocessing, electronic registration, andhiring an assistant if needed.

That’s my base charge. With new customers,the base charge is due before the project starts.My established clients expect to pay when theproduct is delivered or to be billed per priorarrangement. The final bill usually doesn’t varymuch from the base charge unless the clienthas done something to increase costs, suchas changing access times or adding locationsor products not mentioned in the agreement.Even then I restrict charges to minimum costsand keep the client informed. After the imagesare processed, I charge a price per image used,which is included in my licensing agreement.

GOING NATIONALWith national company clients, other consid-erations come into play with usage licensing,such as national regions, production runs,media type, and a multitude of variables. Twoexcellent articles concerning this are accessi-ble to PPA members on ppa.com: click onResources, go to the Article Library; click onPricing ,and find “Mastering the Art of Pricingand Estimates”; click on Contracts and Formsand download the PDF “Limited CopyrightLicense or Usage Agreement.” �

—Vance Wagener, CPP

Got a question? The SMS team wants to hearfrom you. Email our panel of experts c/o PPeditor Jane Gaboury at [email protected].


GURUS FROM PPA STUDIO MANAGEMENT SERVICES ANSWER YOUR BUSINESS,MARKETING, AND SALES QUESTIONS. FOR INFO ON WORKSHOPS, GO TO PPA.COM.

Ask the expertsCommercial clients and contracts

STUDIO MANAGEMENT SERVICESPROFIT CENTER

©V

ance Wagener

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PROFIT CENTER: STARTING OVER

BY KALEN HENDERSON, M.PHOTOG.MEI.CR., CPP, API

One of the perks I get from living in small-

town America is the view from my dining room

window. I am blessed with a large backyard,

complete with giant walnut tree and vistas

of the neighboring farm field. The local wildlife,

clever as they are, have discovered that the

living is good on the Henderson grounds

due to this proximity to open country.

Among the herds of deer, flocks of wild

turkeys, and occasional fox are my favorite

critters—the squirrels. For years, my chil-

dren have ridiculed me for my love of these

rodents, accusing me of contributing to

squirrel obesity by hanging corn feeders

from the trees. I adore my furry friends

because they are constant reminders of how

I should be running my business.

Squirrels? As business icons? Seriously?

Seriously.

It’s December—typically the culmination

of a crazy fall and holiday season in the pho-

tographic industry—and you are sitting with

your feet up enjoying a cup of hot cocoa. You’ve

survived the crush of the season and have

money in the bank. You’ve dealt with all the

clients who needed something at the last

minute and expected it at a discount store

price. You’ve worked evenings and weekends

to accommodate everyone else’s schedule.

You deserve a little down time.

Enter the squirrels.

Just when I think I can enjoy some quiet

time to recuperate, I remember how cold and

harsh January and February can be. Those

happy clients with visions of sugar plums

and canvas gallery wraps become ghosts of

Christmas past, and the sound of a ringing

phone is a mere memory. Outside my window,

the deer are nosing through the snow look-

ing for something to snack on, but the squir-

rels are snug and smug because they’ve stashed

away bushels of corn and nuts in the old wal-

nut tree. They remain as fat and happy as they

were in October, assured of their survival.

Most of us are independent business peo-

ple, starting our studios out of the love of

photography and learning the business along

the way. Every fall, we get so engrossed in the

here and now that we forget about the long,

cold winter around the corner. Our creative

minds are engaged full force, and our logical

business brains are sitting on the sidelines,

hoping to get into the game before the

fourth quarter.

My words of wisdom for you today: Don’t

stop. Your next bank deposit is only as good

as next month’s sales. I guarantee this truism

learned from years in this industry: People

don’t buy portraits in the dead of winter. They

do not want to venture outside when it is cold,

let alone be photographed after weeks curled

up on the couch watching college football,

clutching a bag of Cheetos. They no longer

have that summer glow. Convincing anyone

that January is a great month for portraits is

like selling snow cones in the Arctic.

This why you have to keep going. Consider

all those clients who happily bought holiday

por traits. While the memory is still strong, give

them a reason to come back: a coupon, a pro -

motion or, better yet, a special product. Winter

is the best time to sell products from images

already taken, especially products that can be

ordered from the comfort and warmth of home.

So put down that cup of cocoa and pick

up the calendar. Look at January and Feb-

ruary, and make yourself a marketing plan

that you can put into action. Don’t forget

that 10 percent of your clients are going to

get a camera or some kind of imaging tech-

nology during the holidays. Many of them

are are likely to believe they can do what you

do because they own what you own. Your

marketing plan should take that factor into

consideration as well.

Surviving the winter months in this

industry is possible only if you are well pre-

pared—and well prepared begins where

busy leaves off. Work hard. Plan ahead. And

have a happy holiday. �

Kalen Henderson’s Studio K/HendersonPhotography is located in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa.

My nutty business iconSquirreling away business in the slow season


©Veer

I noted in my last column that pricing strategies

can overcome the dilemma of the first unit of

sale. I illustrated the first unit of sale dilemma

last month when I calculated the price of

one 8x10-inch print to be $194. If you have

a session that results in just one 8x10 being

sold, then the single purchased print has to

bear the burden of all the costs associated

with the session and the product itself. Most

photographers would be challenged to sell an

8x10 for $194.

Let’s say that, instead,

we sell an 8x10 for $75.

The cost of sales (COS)

would be calculated as follows:

Cost to produce $48.50

Sales price $75.00

COS ($48.50 / $75) 65%

As a reminder, the COS target established

through PPA’s Benchmark Survey is 25 per-

cent. To combat the first unit of sale dilemma,

some additional pricing strategies must be used.

SESSION FEE STRATEGY. Let’s use

the cost to produce an 8x10 that was estab-

lished in last month’s “Making Money” col-

umn: $48.50. In that case, if you sell an 8x10

for $75 and your session fee is $150, then

the COS is 22 percent, which is $48.50/

($75+$150). A session and sale typi-

cally takes up to 7 or 8 hours to com -

plete, so selling a ses sion and an

8x10 for $225 works out to

be an hourly rate of

about $28 for your

time invested

in the client meet -

ings, the session itself,

postprocessing, ordering, etc.

It is important for you as the studio

owner to understand the concept of

COS as well as the amount of time

you are investing, the amount of

money you are making, and the

number of sessions you need to do to

make a certain amount of money. In other

words, you would need to do a whole

bunch of sessions if the resulting sale is

just a single 8x10.

PACKAGES AND COLLECTIONS.

A better strategy would be to sell packages

or collections. Doing so allows you to spread

the time cost associated with producing the

first unit sold over multiple units. Let’s con-

sider the following example:

Wall collection includes a 40-inch canvas

and five gift prints

40-inch canvas $1,350.00

Two 8x10s $150.00

Three 5x7s $150.00

Session fee $150.00

Total sale $1,800.00

Total cost $343.50

COS 19%

As you can see, the COS is significantly bet -

ter, and the total sale equates to an hourly

rate of $225. This would allow you to do far

fewer sessions to yield the desired level of

income. And in the example above, the gross

profit (which is the total sale minus COS) is

also sig nif icantly better: $1,456.50 versus

$176.50. Selling from the upper end of your

price list and selling multiple products per

session combats the first unit of sale

dilemma as well as the amount of sessions

you need to do in order to make enough

money to create a profitable business.

My challenge to you this month is to

determine what you want to sell and what

you are selling and do a cost analysis com-

parison. By doing so, you will gain a per-

spective on how changing what you sell can

impact your profitability.

Once you have determined your prices,

it’s time to tackle the price list, which you

can create based on your costs, and that’s

what we’ll cover next month. �

Bridget Jackson, CPA, is Studio ManagementServices manager at Professional Photogra-phers of America. Email [email protected].

Strategic pricingHow to leverage session fees and collections

PROFIT CENTER: MAKING MONEY

BY BRIDGET JACKSON

©Veer

Starting a photography business isn’t some-

thing that comes naturally. All the financial

data and business methods can seem like a

game with seriously complicated rules.

Go to any seminar on photography and

at some point, the topic of branding will

be introduced. The presentation by Jerry

and Melissa Ghionis that I attended in

Chicago last year left an indelible impres-

sion on me. Their conversation solidified

for me the importance that branding plays

in a business plan.

I left the seminar pumped to rebrand

myself, make my name more widely known,

and move my business forward. With a new

custom-designed logo and fresh marketing

material, I presented my brand to the world

with renewed vigor. The effort gave me a

sense of accomplishment.

However, there were questions still nag-

ging at me: Is branding merely the logo I

put on all my images? Is it the feeling that

my marketing material conveys? I have a

logo and some pretty good marketing mate-

rial, but have I branded myself? The more I

thought about branding, the more I realized

I had much more to explore.

At its simplest, a brand is an impression,

the mark you leave on a client. It represents

every aspect of your photography business.

Like a flag represents the culture of a coun-

try, a logo brings to mind all that your busi-

ness embodies, both your products and the

experience clients have of working with you.

Branding involves your work values, your

business, the style of the images you create,

the postprocessing, the printing, and your

clients’ experience with each of these.

BEGIN WITH YOUR MESSAGE.

Every professional photographer studies

light, posing, camera technique, postpro-

cessing, and all things tech nical. So what is

it that makes your photography different

from another photographer’s? It’s your

voice, your passion, and your vision.

What unique message do you deliver in

your work? Discovering who you are as you

relate to photography and the passion you

have for your work has the potential to set

your business apart from the others.

Brand smarts

BY KELLY LYLEPROFIT CENTER

Creating memorable marketing


All images ©Kelly Lyle

Discovering my message involved taking

a personal inventory. What do I hold dear?

What do I want my audience to feel and

think when they view my work? Because

photography is an art form and the photog-

rapher the artist, it is essential to identify

the exclusive, passionate vision you want to

communicate through your images.

To find my message, I created a list of

my character assets as I saw them and then

asked others what they saw as my strengths.

I looked at my photographs and selected the

ones that stood out to me as my best work.

By examining the list and the photographs,

I discerned what I value in my art and I

began to think about what I wanted my

work to say.

FROM MESSAGE TO BRAND.

Everything in your business is affected once

you home in on your central message. It

becomes a lens through which you view

every step of your work. Customer service,

from the first point of contact to the last,

can be fine-tuned to communicate your spe-

cific message as well.

Your message will provide guidance

during photography sessions. You’ll begin

to more easily recognize when the composi-

tion that reflects your message appears in

the view finder. As images communicating

your message are added to your portfolio,

confidence builds, and you further define

your brand.

Your message also offers a target in

postprocessing. It is easy to become over-

whelmed by the tools available and lose a

sense of identity under the layers of post

work. Keep asking yourself if the process-

ing you’re using is true to your message and

reinforcing your brand.

Consider customer service—better yet,

customer experience—when developing

your brand as it relates to the message you

wish to convey. Every point of contact with

the customer should be leveraged to com-

municate a consistent core message: the

business card, consultation meetings, photo

sessions, and delivered products.

Branding involves every aspect of your

business. Defining your vision and passion

in photography and converting your ideas

into a clear message is the beginning of cre-

ating a memorable brand that clients will

become excited about and want to share. �

Kelly Lyle owns a boutique photography studioin Bloomington, Ill., specializing in weddings.He and his daughter, Sarah Kamin, have beendeveloping their brand for the past five years.


“Every professional photographer studies light,posing, camera technique, postprocessing, and allthings tech nical. So what is it that makes yourphotography different from another photographer’s?It’s your voice, your passion, and your vision.”

Wouldn’t it be nice if online advertising were

a big slot machine that always paid off—put

in $1 and get back $10 or $100 in additional

business every time. We all know the real world

doesn’t work that way, even though we some-

times see a competitor scoring a project.

Successful online advertising, unlike casino

games, does not depend on chance. But you

can set the odds in your favor with a couple

of ace-up-the-sleeve marketing techniques.

START WITH A TARGET CLIENT.

Websites can show different advertisements

to different people, pairing advertisers with

a subset of customers who have the desired

interests or demographics. That’s why you

sometimes see a Web ad about the same

topic as the email you’ve just read. It might

feel creepy as a consumer, but it’s good news

for you as an advertiser. Web targeting offers

the freedom to choose who sees your ad.

For example, CM Photographics used

Facebook ads to target 24- to 30-year-old

women who were engaged to be married. Early

campaigns generated nearly $40,000 in rev-

enue directly from a $600 advertising invest -

ment. Of the Facebook users who were directed

to CM Photographics’ website from the ads,

60 percent became qualified leads and actively

expressed interest in more information. Now

three years later, the photographer continues

to experiment with the adver tising message,

landing pages, and incentives. Understand-

ing these factors helped him earn $200,000

in sales from a $3,500 investment.

Targeting is important for two reasons. It

ensures that new inquiries come from your

most profitable or preferred prospects, and

it yields higher returns. Without targeting

(for something like a website directory), you

pay for exposure to an audience—maybe

Web visitors from California for a Min-

nesota business—that won’t result in new

business. Here are a few of the most popular

targeting options:

• Location (region, city, venue)

• Time (hour, day, date)

• Gender

• Age

• Interest

• Search phrases

To do: Write down how your ideal client

fits into the above segments. You can’t create

an ad message without first identifying the

clients you’re trying to attract with an ad.

CRAFT A COMPELLING MESSAGE.

The Web is so crammed with advertising that

most spots go unnoticed. Take advantage of

these marketing tactics to maximize visibility:

• Speak directly to your ideal client with

a powerful message. Use active phrases in

the text, such as “View stunning wedding

photos.” Showcase your experience with

words like “award-winning,” “Master Pho-

tographer,” or “Certified Professional Pho-

tographer” as appli cable. Use images that

represent your best work.

• Scout the online advertisements that will

appear next to yours. You don’t want to be

Messages that get you hired

BY ZACH PREZPROFIT CENTER

Simple strategies for success with online ads


©Z

ach Prez

CM Photographicswould love to be apart of your event.Mention this ad for$500 off!

CM Photographics used Facebook ads to target 24- to 30-year-old women who were engaged to be married.

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caught offering a $50 discount when the

next ad has a $75 discount. Also check your

competition’s ads to ensure you’re using a

unique message.

• Include a call to action that motivates

your audience to engage with you. Basic

examples include “Click here,” “Sign up,”

and “Call now.” I’ve experienced huge

increases in converting viewers into clients

by simply asking them to do something.

• Include your name or company name

in every ad so that even if users don’t click

the ad, they’ll be more likely to remember

you and your brand. It sometimes takes sev-

eral advertising exposures before a person

will engage with a business.

• Test each ad with variations of the

aforementioned strategies to see which per-

forms the best.

SEND USERS TO A UNIQUE

LANDING PAGE. When viewers click an

advertisement, they have to go somewhere.

Where you choose to send them will make or

break your campaign’s success. Most photog -

raphers direct their ads to the studio’s home -

page, which is a terrible idea. Rather than

risking your audience getting lost within a

range of options, take the one thing you

want them to do and put it front and center

on a unique landing page. Quality landing

pages maintain the tone and design of an

advertisement and pay off on the ad’s prom-

ise. Focus on the key action you want users

to take by eliminating all other obstacles.

Here are four priority elements of an

effective landing page:

• Call to action: a big area on the page that

says who to contact or where to download.

• Benefits: What’s in it for users when

they engage?

• Great photos: three to five amazing

photos that address the target audience.

• About you: your headshot, a personal

biography, and a summary of your experi-

ence that includes awards and testimonials.

Insider note: Google gives advertisers a

higher-quality score (and also important,

cheaper ads) when the landing page closely

matches the ad’s keywords.

The best part about a unique landing

page is its ability to track your exposure.

This works in any kind of advertising, even

print articles (for example, the special URL

used at the end of this article).

INCLUDE AN EXCLUSIVE OFFER.

Incentives drive action. In an industry where

advertisers are piled high next to one another,

even the smallest incentive can motivate users to

engage with your ad instead of someone else’s.

An ad without an offer, such as “Visit my

website,” isn’t as effective because it positions

the advertiser’s interest first. Why would some -

one click that? Instead, write the ad with the

customer’s interest first. Think value and bene -

fits. Here’s an example: Get a free 10-page guide

that makes wedding planning easy. The free

guide is the value; easy planning is the benefit.

The most popular offers for online adver-

tising are:

• Free PDF downloads on topics such as

how to organize photos, frame inspiration,

lists of local wedding vendors

• Face-to-face meeting such as a free con-

sultation or behind-the-scenes venue tour

• Special price offer such as a free 5x7-inch

print, no sitting fee, 10 percent off, or $50 off.

You might not know if your past promo-

tions have delivered any new business, but

you can measure performance. By making

the offer exclusive to each ad, you can track

exactly how many sales occurred as a result

of your investment. If you spend $100 to

advertise, then five people inquired about

the free offer, and three of them became new

clients, it’s easy to know if you should repeat

the advertising campaign. This sort of ana-

lytical approach is necessary before opening

your wallet.

SET YOUR EXPECTATIONS AND

BUDGET. Planning ensures you’ll get enough

bang for your buck from each ad. First, con-

sider how much you can afford to spend to test

the waters. I recommend an investment small

enough not to be painful in case the campaign

generates zero interest. But it needs to be large

enough for an accurate test. An initial invest -

ment of $100 works for most photographers.

Second, determine how many sales you’ll

need to make more advertising worth the

money. Depending on the size of your busi-

ness, getting just one new client might make

for a successful test. If it takes a long time

for a customer to hire you, set a smaller goal.

Aim, perhaps, to get 10 people to attend an

event, 20 people to subscribe to an email

newsletter, or 100 people to like a Facebook

page. The important part is to set your goals

before the campaign launch.

Third, budget extra time or money for a

second opinion on your ad design and landing

page. A second pair of eyes (a significant other,

a former client, a trusted mentor) often

uncovers weaknesses you hadn’t seen or

enhance ments you can make. Another option

is to hire a designer or marketing specialist.

Consider the cost as insurance on getting the

best results.

The best Web advertising campaigns have

an attractive message or image and send the

audience to a unique landing page that pays

off the ad while measuring results, giving

customers an exclusive offer to close the deal.

Know your expectations before beginning an

advertising campaign, and then watch the

results closely before you continue to invest. �

Zach Prez has 10 years of Internet marketingexperience helping photographers increase Websales. He offers a free marketing ebook at photographywebmarketing.com/ppa.


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Professional Photographer P R E S E N T S Products, Technology, and Services

What I likeFritz Liedtke on the art of slowing downcapture and speeding up processing

What makes your workflow flow? Adobe Lightroom,

which has made my workflow speedy and simple. I

also have a Wacom tablet, which I’ve programmed to

function with Lightroom, making my editing even

faster and easier.

Little thing, big difference ... I

switched from PocketWizards to the

RadioPopper JrX radio slave system a

couple of years ago. I love being able to

remotely control three banks of lights from a

little transmitter on the top of my flash.

What new product are you going out of your way to

use? The Lensbaby Edge 80 Optic. I used to work

with tilt-shift extensively with my 4x5 film camera.

I’ve really missed it in the digital age. The Edge 80 al-

lows me to select a slice of focus right where I want it,

with sharp optics and very intuitive handling. It gave

me my look back.

Has a piece of equipment ever changed the way you

approach your photography? Early on I purchased a

Minolta Autocord TLR medium-format camera.

Switching to the larger negative and larger viewfinder

slowed me down and made me pay attention to com-

position. This process continued when I began using

4x5 cameras. These cameras make the act of photo-

graphing more of a ritual, a process, because you move

much more slowly than you do with a 35mm camera

glued to your eye.

IMAGE BY FRITZ LIEDTKE

FRITZPHOTO.COMT

THE GOODS ROUNDUP BY ROBYN L. POLLMAN

In the bagTote your gear in style

NEW CONVERTIBLEBrooklyn is that rarest of photographic accessories: a fashionable cam-era backpack. You can load up this chic bag and carry it all day. It accom -mo dates a 15-inch laptop, iPad or tablet, camera with attached lens, onelong lens, one short lens, flash, battery pack, and wallet. Best feature:Easily converts from backpack to messenger bag to accommodate yourtravel and shooting needs. Epiphanie; $224.99; epiphaniebags.com


BYE-BYE BOXYMove over, boxy camera carrier, there’s a new bag in town. She’s

well bred but knows how to hang. An ideal merger of function andstyle, the Classic Canvas bag boasts seven padded compart-ments that allow customizable stashing with room for a laptop

and water bottle. Best feature: Looks and carries like a traditionalhandbag, and you’ll love the extra protection of the metal feet on

the bottom. Emera; $169; emerabags.com

SAILING INTO COMFORTThis classically styled and comfortable Georgia Nautical satchel hasplenty of pockets to keep photographic and personal gear organized.The faux leather exterior is complemented by a dark blue cotton lin-ing. Best feature: security. The antique metal hardware locks shut,and the iPad pocket is zippered. Jo Totes; $107; jototes.com

CRAFTED BY HANDHandcrafted of water-resistant waxed canvas and detailed with

full-grain leather, the Brixton camera bag is a compact solution forcarrying a DSLR, two to three lenses, and a 13-inch laptop. It has

four removable dividers, two front pockets, and a back pocket withenough room for an iPad or Moleskine. Best feature: The waxed

canvas makes this an ideal outdoor bag, especially for early morn-ing dew-drenched shoots. Ona; $269; www.onabags.com


DESIGNED FOR YOUPorteen Gear puts you in charge of the bag design, with a

choice of more than 100 fabrics and several leathers. The bodyof the bag is made of water-repellent waxed canvas that ages

beautifully. The flap is made of high-quality leather and thestraps of heavy-duty polypropylene webbing. Durable Rhino

Twill lines the interior. Best feature: You control the look andfunction of your bag. Porteen Gear; from $101;

porteengear.com

CASUAL ELEGANCERich looking yet casual, the Classic Collection 13-inch LaptopBackpack contains a special secure compartment for a 13-inchlaptop. The optional insert holds a professional camera gear set.Best feature: The removable insert allows you to pack your gearcarefully outside the bag before stowing it inside. Jill-e; $69.99(plus $34.99 for optional camera gear insert); www.jill-e.com


ON SAFARIYou don’t have to venture into the outback to appreciate howthe Safari is more than just a beautiful bag. Made of durableleather and lined in soft cotton, it can handle your camera withattached lens, extra lenses, 15-inch laptop, and life’s extra necessities. Remove the inserts and use it as a handbag. Bestfeature: The lens cap holder keeps your cap where it belongs andalways within reach. Shutter Bag; $299.95; shutterbagusa.com

GOING TO THE CHAPELThe charming Chapel Convertible Backpack packs a

camera body with grip, 9-inch lens, flash, phone, batteries,accessories, and an iPad. Best feature: The back zipper

pocket has slots for compact flash cards and credit cards sophoto gear stays safely stowed inside when you grab your

keys and whatnots. Kelly Moore; $229;kellymoorebag.com

BAGS GALORESee exactly what fits in each of these bags and more in our Web-exclusive roundup: ppmag.com/web-exclusives.

STYLISH SURVIVORLoaded with pockets and supported by a widewebbing shoulder strap, this Medium DSLRMessenger Bag sports black and gray her-

ringbone wool. The removable insert for a cam-era and lenses has two adjustable dividers withVelcro attachments. Best feature: The incredi-

ble interior padding looks durable enough tosurvive whatever you might throw at it. Stash

Bags; $159 to $199; stash-bags.com

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REC

[ AF ]

Large-format digital printing was once a luxury

few professional photographers could afford.

Now 24-inch production printers can be had

for less than the cost of setting up a wet

darkroom and take up much less space.

The prime market for these printers are

photographers who’ve been doing high-

volume printing with smaller-format print-

ers at slow print speeds, and those who want

to get large prints faster than the lab delivers.

Canon’s latest 24-inch model, the imagePro-

graf iPF6400, is a leading example of the

latest technology available.

The 24-inch, 12-color iPF6400 prints

with the Canon Lucia EX pigment ink set,

the same inks used in Canon’s 44- and 60-

inch printers, which guarantees color consis-

tency across the line. With four mono chrome

inks in the set, Canon seems to have given

special emphasis to black-and-white and

black-and-white tonal reproduction. (More

on that later.) There’s no delay in production

or waste of ink when switching black inks

for the printing media.

A new efficiency with the iPF6400: sub-

ink tanks to hold small quantities of ink. If

an ink cartridge runs dry during printing,

the reservoir in the sub-ink tank allows

printing to continue uninterrupted while the

empty cartridge is replaced.

Large-format printers operate most effi-

ciently with roll stock, but this one also has a

topside manual feed for 8- to 24-inch cut

sheets in thicknesses of 0.5mm to 1.5mm.

Canon provides ICC profiles for its brands of

roll and cut-sheet media. Other paper sup-

pliers promise profiles soon, but at the time

of this writing, only Hahnemühle paper pro-

files are available for the iPF6400.

Canon provides its own printer plug-in

software for printing directly from Adobe

Photoshop, which simplifies the selection of

printing options while customizing them.

This allows users to print 16-bit color

images directly and prevents the double

application of color profiles. Included in the

plug-in is an adjustment pattern tool that

allows small versions of the image to be

printed with different color or gray adjust-

ments before you print the full-size image.

Another Canon Photoshop plug-in, this one

accessed from File > Automate, provides a

gallery wrap layout tool.

The software CD supplied with the printer

I tested installs these plug-ins into Photoshop

CS5 and earlier versions. If you’re on Photoshop

CS6, it’s best to download the software from

the Canon website. Even then, I needed to

move the plug-ins from CS5 to CS6. If you are

comfortable with the more complex print func -

tions in Photoshop and Lightroom, you can

THE GOODS: PRO REVIEW

This is how to address your need for large-format or high-volume printing.

BY STAN SHOLIK

Monster printerCANON IMAGEPROGRAF IPF6400


The control panel on the printer displays its many menus and options on a monochrome LCD screen.The six inks on the left are used far more than the six on the right.

All im

ages ©S

tan Sholik

Photo courtesy of Canon

use them rather than the Canon plug-ins.

Other plug-ins bundled with the iPF6400

allow printing from Canon’s Digital Photo

Professional software and Microsoft Office.

Also included is Poster Artist software to

speed and simplify large-format poster out-

put. With the removal of Adobe Picture

Package/Contact Sheet II from Photoshop

CS6, there’s no convenient way to lay out

multiple images for large sheets or rolls.

SETUP AND TESTINGThe iPF6400 arrives in a sizable box wired

to a palette. A substantial amount of assem-

bly is required for both the roll-around

stand and the printer itself. However, the

box holds all of the materials, including the

necessary tools and instructions. I was a lit-

tle surprised to find I needed to install the

two printer heads as well as the 12 ink car-

tridges, but everything went without a hitch.

With the aid of an assistant, I had the printer

mounted on its stand in under an hour.

After loading the software, connecting

the printer to the computer using USB 2.0

(you need to supply your own USB cable) or

10/100/1000 Base-T/TX Ethernet, and

loading a sheet of adjustment paper that is

provided, the printer went through a 45-

minute alignment and calibration cycle and

was ready to go.

I quickly discovered the difference between

this professional large-format printer and

my desktop printers. The iPF6400 is not

designed for users who need an occasional

print in varying sizes and on varying surfaces.

It’s intended for a production environment

with a user who has time to become familiar

with the printer and who intends to print on

a limited variety of roll media.

While the Canon Photoshop plug-in sim-

plifies the setup for printing, the iPF6400

itself contains enough menus and submenus

to rival a professional digital SLR. I went

through a few false starts and some weirdly

sized prints until I learned the interaction

between the settings in the printer and the

settings in the Photoshop plug-in.

Working with different media is easy, and

installing and remov ing paper rolls is straight -

forward. Switching from roll to sheet print-

ing is also direct, but you must pay attention

to what you’re doing so the settings in the

printer match those in the print dialog box.

With all of the settings aligned, color print

quality is excellent. Images with dimensions

of 800x1,200 pixels print amazingly well at

12x18 inches. Color output from Nikon D800E

and PhaseOne IQ180 files printed 24 inches



When printing from Adobe Photoshop, you have a choice of using the Photoshop printer driver or thesimpler but just as comprehensive Canon printer plug-in.

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wide is nothing short of spectacular. No matter

what Canon media I used, the color prints

lacked a small amount of shadow detail;

otherwise, they were an excellent match to

my color-managed monitor. None of the

color or monochrome prints showed a hint

of metamerism—color change—under vary-

ing lighting environments.

MONOCHROME PRINTSI was slightly less impressed with mono-

chrome prints from the iPF6400. On both

the Canon and Hahnemühle media, for

which I had the correct ICC profiles, the

balance was on the warm side of neutral

rather than the neutral gray shown on my

monitor (or available with Advanced Black

and White in my Epson 3880). Canon tech

support suggested I create a custom profile,

which I did for the Canon Premium Semi-

Glossy roll supplied. No improvement.

The color settings tab in the Canon plug-in

includes a slider to adjust between cool and

warm black as well as color tints, and thumb -

nails of settings can be printed using the

Adjustment Pattern Setting function, but that’s

all trial-and-error. I’d like to see a monochrome

checkbox in the Canon plug-in. With four

monochrome inks, I expected a better match

between my monitor image and the first print.

I expected all 12 inks to come into play

when printing. After creating more prints on

the iPF6400 over the course of a week than

I did on my own printers all year (many were

monochrome), I was surprised to find that

only six of the inks were well below starting

level. The red, green, blue, black, photo gray,

and gray inks seemed barely diminished; the

cyan, yellow, magenta, photo cyan, photo

magenta, and matte black ink levels were

much lower. Tech support said that’s expected.

New print technology in the iPF6400 lays

down dark colors first followed by lighter col-

ors. I still had a lot of ink left in the supplied

90ml starter cartridges. Since the standard

ink cartridges for the iPF6400 hold 130ml

(300ml cartridges are available), you can

print many square feet before you need to

replace a full set of cartridges.

If you have the print volume to warrant a

24-inch wide-format printer and the space to

house it, the Canon imagePrograf iPF6400 can

put you in control of your print output. �

Stan Sholik is a commercial/advertisingphotographer in Santa Ana, Calif., specializingin still life and macro photography. His latestbook is “Lightroom 4 FAQs” (Wiley Publishing).



Canon also includes a gallery wrap layout tool that is straightforward and intuitive to use.

Specs Canon imagePrograf iPF6400

TYPE: 12-color 24-inch printerRESOLUTION: maximum of 2,400x1,200 dpi INTERFACE: USB 2.0 high-speed, 10/100/1000 base-T/TXINK DROPLET SIZE: 4 picolitersCOLOR SET: Lucia EX Ink (pigment based)MEDIA WIDTH: Cut sheets 8 to 24 inchesMAXIMUM ROLL PRINT LENGTH: 59 feetSIZE: 39.4 (H) x 48.3 (W) x 34.3 (D) inchesWEIGHT: About 154 pounds with standUSER-REPLACEABLE ITEMS: Print head, maintenance cartridge, ink tanksMSRP: $2,995INKS: $80/130ml cartridge, $140/300ml cartridge

Computer monitors, flat-screen TVs, smart

phones, and tablets all have a place in image

display, but the ultimate expression of a pho to -

graph remains the print. With digital tech -

nol ogy as in the darkroom, printing is still

an exacting process, marrying creative vision

with the media most appropriate to express

that vision.

Early inkjet papers were available with

glossy, semi-glossy, and matte surfaces to

mimic the basic wet darkroom media. Now

inkjet media comes in an enormous range of

surfaces, as well as a wide range of thicknesses,

expressed as the weight of the paper. Inkjet

paper weight is measured in pounds or grams

per square meter (gsm). The higher the gsm,

the heavier the paper. Traditional single-

weight darkroom paper generally weighs up

to 150gsm, double-weight papers 225gsm

and more.

CANONCanon Fine Art Enhanced Velvet is an acid-

free, 100-percent cotton paper (the most

archival paper type) milled in 225gsm cut

sheets or 255gsm in rolls. All-cotton paper

resists aging and deterioration for centuries

if properly stored. The tone of Enhanced

Velvet is slightly warm and yields deep, rich

blacks. Colors are muted but exhibit excel-

lent detail in the highlights.

Cotton paper absorbs ink, virtually elimi-

nating shadow detail, somewhat lowering

contrast, and softening hard edges. Unless

properly stored, it tends to be less durable

than other paper types, so a final protective

spray is recommended. The surface

reflectance of Enhanced Velvet is very low,

and the paper feels almost wet when it

emerges from the printer. For certain sub-

jects, such as portraits, babies, weddings, or

watercolor reproduction, where softness and

smooth gradation in the highlights are

desirable, this paper is an excellent choice.

Canon Premium Semi-Glossy Paper 2 is

available in 17-, 24-, 36-, and 42-inch rolls.

At 280gsm, it’s a relative heavyweight among

roll papers. The base is bright white and the

surface is smooth like glossy paper, but the

look is more like a satin finish. Canon says its

chlorine-free pulp is environmentally friendly.

If I owned a Canon roll-paper printer, I would

keep it loaded with Premium Semi-Glossy

Paper 2. Every photo I printed on it—color,

black-and-white, HDR, infrared, portrait,

prod uct, and landscape—looked great. The

Canon ICC profile for the paper is an excel-

lent match to my monitor with color images,

and with my monochrome images, a good

tonal match, though somewhat warm

toward red tones.

Canon Artistic Satin Canvas is an archival

35 percent cotton/65 percent polyester can-

vas with a satin finish. It’s available in rolls

and weighs a hefty 350gsm. Acid free, pH

buffered, and produced without optical bright -

eners, it will not yellow over time. The dou-

ble-weave texture is deep, with a look and

feel of an oil painter’s canvas. Trust me: An

oil painting reproduced on it is difficult to

distinguish from the original. Darks are deep

and detailed, whites are clean with excellent

separation of values, and the color gamut is

very high. It is heavy enough to be stretched

and mounted on a frame like traditional

canvas. When the look of traditional oil


Fine-art papers vary in nuances of tone, texture,weight, and surface. Explore your print options.

BY STAN SHOLIK

Artistic detailINKJET MEDIA


A representative sampling of inkjet paper surfaces. From left: Canon Artistic Satin Canvas, Hahnemühle Fine Art Baryta, Hahnemühle Photo Rag, Moab Lasal Dual Semigloss, Ilford Galerie Prestige Smooth Pearl, Red River Polar Pearl Metallic.

©S

tan Sholik

painting is desired for portrait and wedding

images, Artistic Satin Canvas would be ideal.

EPSONEpson Hot Press Bright is a member of the

Signature Worthy line of inkjet media created

for fine-art printing and archival longevity.

It has a smooth, bright-white matte surface

with an acid-free 100-percent cotton base.

At 330gsm, it feels substantial. Hot Press

Bright doesn’t seem to absorb ink like other

all-cotton papers tend to, so shadow detail is

very good. Colors are rich if more muted

than on pearl or luster papers. Tonal range

and color gamut are still high.

Hot Press Natural paper shares the char-

acteristics of Hot Press Bright but with a

slightly warmer natural white surface. With

their matte surface, both papers would be

excellent for exhibition prints or portfolios,

although using a protective spray is advis-

able if the print will get a lot of handling.

At 340gsm, Epson Cold Press Bright is the

heaviest in the Signature Worthy line. It’s a

bright white paper similar to Hot Press Bright,

but it’s slightly textured like the stock for

an elegant invitation. Despite its texture,

images printed on it have the same rich

detail in the darks and pleasing colors as on

Hot Press Bright.

There’s also the companion Cold Press

Natural with a slightly warmer natural

white surface. Both Cold Press papers are

acid free with a 100-percent cotton base.

Epson Signature Worthy papers are avail-

able only in sheets for pigment ink printers.

HAHNEMÜHLEHahnemühle lists its Fine Art Bartya as a

glossy paper, but the surface reflectance is

closer to pearl and satin finishes. It has a

texture unique among the papers I’ve seen—

it’s impossible to describe it other than

gorgeous. Color images print with their full

color gamut and with excellent sharpness.

Monochrome images have clean, bright

highlights and deep, rich blacks with full

shadow detail. The rich tonality has a lot to

do with the baryta layer (barium sulfate, the

material of the best wet darkroom papers).

It’s an alpha-cellulose (buffered, acid-free),

bright white, 325gsm paper. This would be

my choice for exhibition prints, particularly

full-scale monochrome images.

Hahnemühle Photo Rag is available in

188-, 308-, and 500gsm sheets and rolls.

Unlike some other 100-percent cotton

papers, this one is a bright neutral white. My

tests with 308gsm sheets delivered some of

the best shadow detail and sharpness of the


all-cotton papers except the Epson Signa-

ture papers; colors are richer and mono-

chrome blacks are deeper yet retain decent

shadow detail. For projects where maximum

tonality is desired in a truly archival print,

Hahnemühle Photo Rag would be an excel-

lent choice.

ILFORDIlford Galerie Prestige Gold Fibre Silk con-

tains neither gold nor silk, and the surface is

luster rather than silky. It has a fiber base

and an inkjet coating over a true baryta

layer. At 310gsm, it’s heavier than many

double-weight wet darkroom papers.

Thanks to the baryta layer, it produces the

bright creamy whites and velvety blacks of

traditional warm darkroom papers with

excellent shadow detail and sharpness. But

the paper also tones very well to produce

believable gold, selenium, and blue looks

like traditional photographic papers, mak-

ing this paper an excellent choice for por-

traits. It’s recommended for pigment ink

printers only.

Ilford Galerie Prestige Smooth Pearl is a

latest-technology inkjet paper with a clear

nanoporous coating coupled with an

instant-dry nanoporous ink-receiving layer

that yields a wide color gamut with both dye

and pigment printers. It’s another heavy-

weight at 310gsm. I’ve printed on both sheet

and rolls of this paper, and the roll version

feels heavier than the sheets—heavier, in

fact, than any traditional photo paper I’ve

encountered. Both color and monochrome

images reproduce with the widest range of

tonal values and excellent sharpness. The

pearl surface resists fingerprints and virtu-

ally eliminates glare, making this an excel-

lent paper for a portfolio that will be

handled and viewed under many conditions.

I need to live with Galerie Prestige Smooth

Pearl a bit longer, but it may well become

the standard sheet inkjet paper for my desk-

top printers.

MOABMoab Lasal Dual Semigloss 330 is one of

the latest inkjet papers from Moab, a com-

pany recognized for its extensive catalog of

fine-art papers. This is the first heavyweight

330gsm paper that can be printed on both

sides. This feature, along with a surface

coating that resists scuffing and fingerprints,

makes the paper ideal for short-run limited-

edition books. Available in sheets, it’s com-

patible with both dye and pigment printers.

The semigloss surface is somewhat more

reflective than pearl surfaces but much less

so than a full glossy paper. Shadow detail is

superb, but contrast is lower than with other

semigloss papers.

Moab’s Somerset Museum Rag 300 is

the newest paper from St. Cuthbert’s Mill in

England, which virtually started the fine-art

digital printing phenomenon 10 years ago

with Somerset Enhanced Velvet paper.

Museum Rag 300 is a 300gsm, 100-per-

cent archival cotton paper with a warm,

creamy white surface. Shadow detail is

good for an all-cotton paper. Monochrome

images look great on Museum Rag and

have more contrast than on Lasal Dual

Semigloss. Unless it is properly stored, all-

cotton paper has a somewhat less durable

surface than others, so a spray coating is

recommended. The need for coating aside,

it is a beautiful surface, and the paper feels

wonderful. Portrait, baby, and wedding

photos look great on Museum Rag. The

paper is available in sheets and rolls for dye

and pigment printers.

RED RIVERRed River Polar Pearl Metallic is a smooth,

high-gloss paper that replicates the look of

metallic prints produced in traditional

photo labs with both pigment and dye inkjet

printers. The 225gsm paper is available in

the common U.S. photo stock sheet sizes

(4x6 to 13x38 inches) and 17- and 24-inch

rolls. The pearlescent base stock is acid free,

and the paper tone is a warm white. As

you’d expect from high-gloss paper, it yields

excellent sharpness, color gamut, and satu-

ration. I’ve never been a fan of metallic

prints, but some of my motorcycle and auto

racing photos look great on Polar Pearl

Metallic.

Red River UltraPro Satin 2.0 looks and

feels like a traditional photo lab luster paper.

It competes in the marketplace with luster,

pearl, semi-gloss, and soft-gloss papers from

many manufacturers. UltraPro Satin is

available in a wide range of U.S. photo paper

sizes and is priced lower than its competi-

tors. The 270gsm bright warm white paper

is compatible with both pigment and dye

printers. Red River claims there are fewer

optical brighteners in this paper than in

some of its competitors, which should result

in less loss of richness and contrast over

time. Color and sharpness are very good, if

not up to the highest level of a few much

more expensive papers.

New inkjet media are being introduced

constantly, and the range of choices is stag-

gering. With a color-managed workflow and

the correct ICC profile on your printer, the

only limitation is deciding how you wish to

express your vision. �

Stan Sholik is a commercial/advertising photographer in Santa Ana, Calif. His latest book is “Lightroom 4 FAQs” (WileyPublishing).



Find a Web-exclusive review of Epson’snew Exhibition Canvas Natural atppmag.com/web-exclusives.

We are getting spoiled. The D600 is the

third full-frame format (24x36mm sensor)

Nikon model introduced in 2012. Its resolu-

tion matches the discontinued D3X’s and falls

between the D4’s and the D800’s. The D4 is

meant primarily for shooting action, and the

D800 is ideal for studio, tripod, and landscape

photography. The D600 is a lighter weight

all-rounder and a good starter base to build a

full-frame system around. It’s also the least

expensive of the Nikon full-frame cameras.

With 24.3 megapixels of resolution, the

D600 fills the gap between the 12-megapixel

full-frame D700 series and the 36.3-megapixel

D800 series. It’s not as fully featured as the

D800, but it does have an almost identical

dynamic range, excellent to very good sig-

nal-to-noise ratio from ISO 100 to 6400,

and can shoot up to 5.5 frames per second in

JPEG or NEF format. It has dual SD media

slots, a large high-resolution LCD preview


Gateway to full-frameNIKON D600


With the D600 set to Aperture Priority and a Zeiss Planar T* 85mm f/1.4 ZF.2 lens set to f/16, exposures were made at ISO 100, 800, 1600 and 6400. Allfour NEF images were processed identically in Lightroom 4.2 with no noise reduction applied.

All im

ages ©Ellis V

ener

13 seconds, ISO 100 2 seconds, ISO 800

1/4 second, ISO 64001 second, ISO 1600

The Nikon D600 offers sharp capture, a compact body, and a low price, but at the sacrifice of some features.

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screen, and a really nice viewfinder, even for

eyeglass wearers.

Because the D600 is relatively compact and

captures high-quality images, it’s a good choice

for traveling, as a backup camera, and as a

gateway to moving up to full-frame capture.

There are certain features lacking and one or

two small things I wish had not been changed.

The 24 x 35.9mm CMOS array is complete

with a relatively weak anti-aliasing filter simi-

lar to the D800, though not as weak as the

D800E. The anti-aliasing filter is just strong

enough to prevent moiré rainbows in most

subjects without degrading real-world detail,

but in subjects with fine repeating patterns

you may see this. All high-resolution digital

cameras can suffer from moiré. Blame it on

geometry. With a high-quality lens, real-world

subject detail captured by the D600 is out -

stand ingly crisp and is the best I have seen

cap tured by a less than 30-megapixel digital

camera, and that includes medium-format

digital backs.

The native ISO range is 100 to 6400 with

virtual ISO 50 (Lo-1) on the low side and

ISO 12,800 (Hi-1) on the high side in 1/3-

stop increments. Hi-2 is a single-step dou-

bling in gain to an equivalent of ISO

25,600. Metering can be biased by up to five

stops in both positive and negative directions

in 1/3-stop increments. Dynamic range of loss-



This image illustrates the accuracy of red hair and delicate skin tones in the capture. The photos cre-ated for this article were processed in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4.2 and used a custom cameraprofile created with the Datacolor SpyderCheckr Pro System.

This image was captured using a Zeiss Planar T*85mm f/1.4 ZF.2 lens and exposed for 1/1,000second at f/5.6, ISO 160.

less compressed 14-bit NEF (raw) captures

is excellent with detail farther up into the

bright highlight range than I expected

before clipping occurs, and good clean,

noise-free deep shadows and blacks when

shooting below ISO 1600.

While the D600 is not exactly a D800-

lite, the visual results prove that it benefits

from a trickle-down of D800 technology;

however, there are some notable features

missing. For starters, there’s no x-sync (i.e.,

PC) connection. It doesn’t matter so much

in the age of TTL-controlled Speedlights

and radio-sync equipment, but if you want

to hardwire it to monolights or pack-and-

head flash systems, you’ll need an adapter

that fits into the hot shoe. X-sync tops out

at 1/200 second. There’s an auto focal

plane (FP) mode for syncing over 1/200

with Nikon Speedlights, but I couldn’t

find a way to sync the built-in flash at

speeds faster than 1/200 second. Nikon

has limited other exposure options as well.

I wish the autofocus sensors were spread

out over a larger area. If you are using live

view, you can pick and zoom in on any spot

in the frame, but a slightly wider sensor area

in the viewfinder would be welcome.

I also don’t like the ISO button’s location

down in the lower left corner of the back. To

change ISO you have to take the camera from

your eye to find the button, or keeping your

eye at the viewfinder, move your left hand

from under the lens to find the button.

The D600 lacks an internal shutter for

the viewfinder, relying instead on an easily

misplaced viewfinder cover or some improvisa -

tion. That falls into the category of Not a Big

Deal to most photographers, but if you’re

working in bright light with your eye away

from the viewfinder and are not using live

view, light coming in the view finder can

throw off the meter reading and potentially

cause trouble for the AF system, too.

Finally, Nikon has replaced its 20-year-

old, 10-pin remote connection with a smaller

port that also serves the optional GPS. Again,

not a huge problem, but if you have a collec-

tion of radio remotes or an electronic cable

release for triggering cameras, you’ll need a

new cable or an adapter. On the other hand,

Nikon has introduced the WU-1b, which will

give you full control over the camera from

mobile devices (Android and Apple iOS smart

phones and tablets) and will download to those

devices. The MSRP of the WU-1b is $59.95.

For hardwired remote camera control and

downloading, Nikon offers the UT-1, which

connects to the camera’s USB 2.0 port

(MSRP $470). If you want secure wireless

camera con trol and downloading and to net-

work cameras to a single control point,

there’s the Wireless LAN WT-5, which con-

nects to the UT-1. The UT-1 and WT-5 com-

bination’s MSRP is $1,299.

There are a lot of features of the D600

that are neat but not crucial for pros, includ-

ing Picture Styles, a built-in two-shot HDR

processor, the ability to custom process NEF

captures into JPEGs in the camera, a deeply

programmable intervalometer, and video

options galore.

Nikon’s primary market for the D600 is

advanced amateurs and people who want to

make the initial move up to full-frame from

APS-C cameras. The company also recog-

nizes that there are a lot of pros who want a

camera with high capture resolution but who

aren’t interested in dealing with the very large,

workflow-slowing files from the 36.3-

megapixel D800 or who don’t want or need

the weight and bulk of a D4 or D3X. The

smaller size and networking capabilities of the

D600 will also fit well with some filmmakers

who shoot HD video. Despite my criticisms,

the D600 is a pretty sweet and complete

package for a reasonable $2,099.95. �



Even in high-contrast situations, shooting 14-bit NEF images with the D600 captures a large range of clean detail.

U.S.-based Quantum Instruments Inc. is a

leader and innovator in wireless TTL con-

trol of battery powered flash units. Its Trio

flash and Pilot commander provide wire-

less TTL control of the company’s newest

flash heads, while its FreeXwire FW8R and

FW7Q serve as receivers. The FW8R also

triggers any non-Quantum flash that can

be triggered by a sync signal.

Menu-based options on an LCD screen

allow you to configure and change lighting

ratios on the Trio flash and the hot shoe-

mounted Pilot commander. For many pho-

tographers, this presents too many options.

Another downside is that navigating menus

can break the flow of a fast-moving photo

session. Quantum’s latest controller, the

CoPilot, solves these issues with simple and

compact analog dials.

The CoPilot is available for Canon (QF91C)

and Nikon (QF91N) cameras. Attached to

the camera’s hot shoe, it controls the expo-

sure of up to three independent remote

groups of flash units. Each remote group

can consist of an unlimited number of

Quantum Trios, Qflash T5dRs with FW8R

or FW7Q receivers, and non-Quantum

flashes with a FreeXwire Radio TTL receiver.

The remote flashes must be set up first,

and the operating instructions included with

the CoPilot gives clear directions. All units

in each of the three groups must be set to the

same group number, and all units must be

set to the same one of eight channels. The

CoPilot must be set to that channel as well.

With the remotes prepared and the CoPilot

mounted in the camera’s hot shoe, turn on

the CoPilot and you’re ready to shoot using

the camera’s TTL metering to control expo-

sure. If all of your remote flash units are

Quantums, then you have complete ratio

control of all three groups. Simply set the

sliders on the back of the CoPilot to TTL for

each group, and adjust the rotary switches

on the top of the CoPilot to the ratios

desired. A diagram on the top right of the

CoPilot illustrates the ratio settings for the

rotary switches. The ratios range from -2

2/3 to +2 EV in 1/3-EV increments.

A group that consists of non-Quantum

flash units should be designated Group 3

with the Group 3 switch on the CoPilot set

to M. The CoPilot provides a sync signal to

fire the flash but will not control the expo-

sure of the non-Quantum flash.

You can also use Group 3 to connect a

local Qflash T5dR, F4Td, F3d or F2d.

When you do this, you can use the R3/

Local rotary switch to adjust the ratio in

TTL mode. This may sound confusing if

you’re unfamiliar with Quantum nomen-

clature, but it’s actually straightforward to

set everything up correctly.

TESTINGFor my testing of the CoPilot, I set a bare-

bulb Trio flash to bounce into a white umbrella

as the main light in Group 1 and a bare-bulb

T5dR with FW7Q receiver bounced into

another white umbrella as fill light in Group

2. With the aperture set on f/11, I made a

test exposure of the model using only the

main light, set in 0 TTL ratio. It was perfect.

I went on, varying the fill light from -2 EV

to +2 EV. The ratio on the monitor varied

accordingly. If it weren’t for shooting teth-

ered, I could have been entirely cable free.


Quantum releases a simplified version of the Pilot for user-friendly wireless TTL flash control.

BY STAN SHOLIK

Simpler wireless

The ratio rotary switches are found on the top of theCoPilot, along with diagrams to show the settings.Groups R1 and R2 are set in TTL mode at a -1 ratio.Group R3 is set to manual mode but is turned off.

All im

ages ©S

tan Sholik

QUANTUM COPILOT


Ensures maximum color control and fl exibility

Provides powerful control for display color correction

Simple and cost effective display color correction

© 2012 Datacolor. Datacolor® and Spyder® are registered trademarks of Datacolor. All rights reserved.

www.datacolor.com/spyder4

Whatever your style,Spyder shows your true colors.

Calibrate Your World.

Your display is the window to your digital world. An un-calibrated display produces unexpected results. Spyder4 simplifi es color calibration and enables true-to-life reproduction of images.

For more information visit: http://www.datacolor.com/pp

What a simple and practical system this

would make for location portrait and wed-

ding photographers with an assistant or

two, each with a battery powered Quantum

flash. Location users will appreciate the

infrared focusing light that is also part of

the CoPilot, especially when shooting in

low-light conditions.

The only issue I had with the CoPilot was

my own doing. After running some initial

tests, I left it connected to my camera but

neglected to turn it off. By the next morning,

the CR123A Lithium battery that is

included with the unit powered the CoPilot

on but didn’t have sufficient power to send a

sync signal to the remote flash. Installing a

new battery cured this.

The only thing I found missing on the

CoPilot is a test flash button. I like to be able

to turn off all but one group so that I can be

sure each group is receiving the sync signal.

Without the test button, you can do this by

firing the camera, so it’s not a huge deal.

The Quantum Instruments website

(qtm.com) includes instructional videos and

additional information, but the CoPilot is

straightforward to set up and operate, and

the operating instructions cover everything

you need to know. The CoPilot suggested list

price is $199. Unless you need the somewhat

more sophisticated but more complex capa-

bilities of the Quantum Pilot, the CoPilot

provides Canon and Nikon users with TTL

flash control at half the price. �

Stan Sholik is a commercial/advertisingphotographer in Santa Ana, Calif., special-izing in still life and macro photography. His latest book is “Lightroom 4 FAQs” (Wiley Publishing).



Top left: With the fill light turned off on the CoPilot and the camera set at f/11, this is the resulting expo-sure with the main light ratio set to 0 (identical to the aperture). Top right: Setting the fill light-to-mainlight ratio to -2 on the CoPilot added some fill in the shadows. Bottom left: The fill light-to-main light ratioset to -1 produced a good lighting ratio for this model. Bottom right: Setting both the main light and filllight ratio to 0 on the CoPilot resulted in about a 1:2 ratio. With the ability to adjust ratios in 1/3-EVincrements, any ratio within the power range of your flash units is possible from your camera position.

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©Tiffany Reed

Each year, Professional Photographershares a feature story about the DiamondPhotog raphers of the Year. Theseesteemed image creators have earned thehighest level of success in the PPAInternational Photographic Competition(IPC) by landing four images in the pres -tigious PPA Loan Collection. To appre -ciate the scope of this achieve ment fully,it helps to look at the numbers.

During the 2012 competition judged

this summer, more than 1,200 pro fes sionalphotographers sub mitted nearly 5,000images for consideration. This representsabout a 20 percent increase in participa -tion over the pre vious year. Approximately1,800 of those images earned a meritbased on 12 elements defined asnecessary for the success of an art pieceor image (see ppa.com/competitions/international/12elements.php). Of those,only 476 were selected for the PPA Loan

Collec tion. That’s less than 10 percent of the total submission pool. And thisisn’t your typical collection of photosubmissions. This is the PPA Inter - national Photo graphic Competition, thecontest for professionals who haveworked diligently to excel at their craft,studying, composing, and capturingthousands of images in the process. Sothe submitted photo graphs alreadyreflect a high stan dard of expectation.

In rarefied

The 2012 Diamond Photographers of the Year claim the summit

BY JEFF KENT

To land an image within the top 10percent is impressive.

To land four images in this elite cate -gory is amazing. Only eight photog raphersreached that level of accom plish ment thisyear. These Diamond Photo graphers ofthe Year are breathing rarified air, to besure, representing about 0.006 percentof the total contenders.

“The Diamond photographers aresetting the bar for everyone else,” says

Dennis Craft, M.Photog.Hon.M.Photog.Cr.,CPP, API, chairman of the PPA PrintExhibition Committee. “We’ve seen aprogressive improvement in the qualityof images sub mitted to the competitionover the past few years, and those whohave competed over a period of time arereally raising the standard. But whatthese photog raphers understand betterthan anyone is that the IPC isn’t justabout winning awards. It’s also a way to

determine how your images measureagainst good, quality photography. It’s away to make yourself better.”

It’s also a vital component in earning thePPA Master of Photography degree, whichhas become a credible differ entiator in anincreasingly competitive field. For now,though, the Diamond Photographers ofthe Year have no competition. They areon a level by themselves. And these aretheir award-winning images.

air

BEN SHIRK (BELOW)Shirk Photograph, Wilton, Iowa, shirkphotography.com

“WASH AWAY MY FEARS”A senior portrait photographer by trade, Ben Shirk has becomeincreasingly well known for his photographic composites. “Wash Away MyFears” evolved out of an engagement session with a couple who bothsported prominent tattoos. Shirk captured the image using a 16-35mmf/2.8 lens, hand held at 1/30 second to smooth out the moving water.“The painterly effect in the image is the result of a slow shutter speedand a custom Lightroom preset that I created,” explains Shirk. “I removeda few distracting details in Photoshop and created the edges with aPhotoshop paintbrush.”

CAMERA: Canon EOS-1Ds Mark IIILENS: 16-35mm f/2.8 LIGHT: AvailableSOFTWARE: Adobe Lightroom and PhotoshopSHUTTER SPEED: 1/30 secondAPERTURE: f/3.5ISO: 100

©Ben Shirk

TIFFANY REED (PP. 92-93)Tiffany Reed Photography, La Grange, Ky.,tiffanyreed.com

“SAFELY GRAZING”Landscape and fine-art photog -rapher Tiffany Reed captured“Safely Grazing” in Costa Ricaduring her second visit to thisvista. Arriving at dawn, she waitedfor the right moment when shewould be able to pick up the

details in the shadows of the coffee plantations and balance them withthe contrast of the sun rising over the ocean. “As I was standing therewatch ing the animals grazing, I recalled the old hymn ‘Sheep May SafelyGraze,’” says Reed. “I love this image because it shows the vast diversityof this remarkable country.” In postproduction, Reed used the tonalcontrast filter in Nik Color Efex Pro 2 and highlighted some of the darkerplaces near the base of the image to bring out detail.

CAMERA: Nikon D700LENS: 50mm f/1.4LIGHT: AvailableSOFTWARE: Adobe Photoshop and Nik Color Efex Pro, Viveza, and Dfine APERTURE PRIORITY SETTING: f/16ISO: 200

©T

iffany Reed

THOM ROUSE (RIGHT)Rouse Imaging, DeKalb, Ill., thomrouse.com

“SNAPSHOT FROM A DREAM IN PROGRESS”Thom Rouse, M.Photog.MEI.Cr, CPP, divides his time between commercial,fine-art, and commissioned fine-art portraits. “Snapshot from a Dream inProgress” was inspired by a friend’s bout with cancer and the deepthoughts about the fragile nature of life that her struggle evoked. Hecaptured the principal images in studio, illuminating the subject andbackground with strip lights placed on either side of and parallel to thesubject. For a fill light, he positioned a White Lightning studio light in a4x6 soft box over the camera. Later, he composited the different parts ofthe image in Photoshop, primarily using selection and blending modes. “I’mnot so much inspired by the image as I am by my friend and her experience,”says Rouse. “The image is a tribute to its subject and her truthful andinsightful sharing of the experience.”

CAMERA: Canon EOS 5D Mark IILENS: 24-105mm f/4 and 70-200mm f/2.8LIGHTS: White Lightning studio lights modified by Larson strip lights anda 4x6 soft boxSOFTWARE: Adobe PhotoshopSHUTTER SPEED: 1/125 secondAPERTURE: f/8ISO: 200

©Adrian Henson

ADRIAN HENSON (ABOVE)Adrian Henson Photography, New Bern, N.C., adrianhenson.com

“REACHING”Specializing in seniors, commercial projects, and dance school photography,Adrian Henson, M.Photog.MEI., CPP, found the inspiration for “Reaching”after seeing the album of flower images created by fellow Diamond photographerMichael Barton. “It got me thinking about how there is amazing subjectmatter all around us, and with great lighting many otherwise mundanethings could become extraordinary,” says Henson. To prevent the excessivelyshallow depth of field that plagues many flower images, Henson photo -graphed at f/22 and set his focal length to 70mm. He engulfed the wholeflower with light from a strobe modified by a 16-inch parabolic reflector.Dragging the shutter to 1/40 second gave him subtle detail beyond theflower. In postpro duction, Henson used Alien Skin Exposure 3 for the black-and-white conversion, and then spent several hours subtly dodging andburning in Photoshop using a dark layer/light layer masking technique.Finally, he added some sharpening using Nik Sharpener Pro.

CAMERA: Canon EOS 5DLENS: 24-70mm f/2.8LIGHT: Photogenic StudioMax AKC320B with 16-inch parabolic reflectorSOFTWARE: Adobe Photoshop, Nik Sharpener Pro, and Alien Skin ExposureSHUTTER SPEED: 1/40 secondAPERTURE: f/22ISO: 100

©Thom Rouse

©Mark Bryant


MARK BRYANTBryant Photographics, Missoula, Mont., bryantphotographics.com

“I SHOT THE SHERIFF”A portrait, commercial, and architectural photographer, Mark Bryant was one of two “DoubleDiamonds” this year, an extremely rare breed of image maker who lands two four-image sets in theLoan Collection for two different categories (Master Artist and Photographic Open). This feat hasonly been accomplished by three people in the history of the competition: Bryant, Thom Rouse(during a previous competition), and Richard Sturdevant. To create “I Shot the Sheriff,” Bryantphotographed Missoula County Sheriff Carl Ibson in front of an old police car in an alleyway indowntown Missoula. He augmented the available light with a Photogenic monolight modified byan octabox, as well as a small strip light. Later, in Photoshop, he did some dodging and burningand made a few color adjustments. “The image captures Sheriff Ibson’s personality and theenvironment and history of the position in our town,” says Bryant. “Also his strength ofcharacter after losing his wife to a drunk driver.”

CAMERA: Canon-1Ds Mark IIILENS: 24-70mm f/2.8LIGHT: Photogenic monolightsSOFTWARE: Adobe Creative Suite 5SHUTTER SPEED: 1/15 secondAPERTURE: f/8ISO: 100

RICHARD STURDEVANT (ABOVE)Sturdevant Studio, Garland, Texas, sturdevantstudio.com

“SHARK ATTACK”Like Mark Bryant, Richard Sturdevant, M.Photog.M.Artist.Cr., wentDouble Diamond this year, earning eight merits for eight imagessubmitted in two different categories (Master Artist and PhotographicOpen). This is Sturdevant’s second Double Diamond distinction, makinghim the only person ever to earn that impressive honor twice. Sturdevantcreated “Shark Attack” as a demo to show action in the studio. Theathlete dove onto a mattress at full speed so Sturdevant could capture asense of motion for the composite. Later, using Photoshop and Painter,he made a composite in which the athlete was diving into the ocean withsharks swimming around him.

CAMERA: Canon EOS 5D Mark IILENS: 70-200mm f/2.8LIGHT: Profoto D1 Air monolights modified by Larson soft boxesSOFTWARE: Adobe Photoshop and Corel PainterSHUTTER SPEED: 1/200 secondAPERTURE: f/11ISO: 400

JOSE LUIS GUARDIA VÁZQUEZ (LEFT)Xpression International, Granada, Spain, xpressionworkshops.com

“WARPED SHAPES”An internationally recognized wedding photographer based in Spain, JoseLuis Guardia Vázquez created “Warped Shapes” as a creative study inshapes and lines, with an emphasis on composition, elegance, and visualimpact. “The important thing is that the lines are well placed, so we seek apoint of view that allows a strong composition,” he says. In postproduction,Guardia Vázquez made minor enhancements in Lightroom and Photoshop.

CAMERA: Canon EOS-1Ds Mark IILENS: 70-200mm f/2.8LIGHT: AvailableSOFTWARE: Adobe Lightroom and CS6SHUTTER SPEED: 1/125 secondAPERTURE: f/8ISO: 200

©Richard Sturdevant


©Michael Barton

MICHAEL BARTONIndigo Photographi, Batavia, Ill., indigophotographic.com

“TO MY WIFE”As a fine-art portrait photographer, Michael Barton, M.Photog.MEI.Cr., CPP,is accustomed to finding beauty and portraying it in new and creative ways.Inspired by a poem, he created the album “To My Wife” as a creativeapproach to photographing a popular floral subject. “Everyone photographsroses,” he says. “There’s such a challenge in trying to make something newfrom something so old. People say, ‘They are just flowers,’ but each is asunique as each person walking around.” To create the images in the album,Barton used a range of Profoto studio flashes, flashlights, Fresnels, even aniPhone camera light to blend together appealing lighting arrangements andmake the petals pop on his floral subjects.

CAMERA: Canon EOS 5D Mark IILENS: 100mm f/2.8 and 180mm f/3.5 LIGHTS: Profoto studio light, flashlights, iPhone camera light, Fresnels,and “anything within arm’s reach”SOFTWARE: Adobe PhotoshopOTHER GEAR: Kitchen chairs, hotel room furniture, Play-Doh (for keepingthe flowers upright), a Leatherman multi-tool, and a good florist with a fulltrash can SHUTTER SPEED: 1/125 secondAPERTURE: f/32ISO: 100


“I think it’s every photographer’s dream to do some kind of fine art. This is my little corner of the world for my camera, or scanner, that is.”

—BARRY TARATOOT

All images ©Barry Taratoot

scannerBY STEPHANIE BOOZER

Barry Taratoot’s nocturnal flower affairOn a

t’s the middle of the

night, and Barry Taratoot is at work

in his home studio in Dunwoody,

Ga. The only illumination is the

beam of his flashlight, which he’s

trained onto his precious collection

of fragile cut flowers. Taratoot lifts

a stem and painstakingly positions

the buds, petals, and leaves on the

bed of a scanner. He’s got to work

quickly to get the scan before the

bloom is literally off the rose. He’s

working in complete darkness to

forestall the effects of the scanner’s

bright light, which will trick the

flowers into releasing pollen and

speed the blooming process.

‘‘ ’’I’m respectful of the

way the flower looks.

An event photographer by day, Taratoot

has spent the past six years perfecting his

floral photography by night, finding creative

solace in the wee hours.

“I love taking something that’s been

painted and photographed a million times

over and making it look completely different

to someone’s eye,” he says. “It’s the challenge

that I love most, and why I keep pursuing it.

I love the shock value of it.”

It was that shock value that called atten-

tion to Taratoot’s “Les Fleurs Collection,” a

large installation of prints in the atrium of

the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International

Airport last spring. The exhibition proved so

popular it was extended for another month,

and Taratoot sold a good portion of the work.

“People emailed me from all over the coun-

try, sending me their pictures in front of one of

the prints,” says Taratoot. “It was delightful.”

The idea of scanning versus photograph-

ing objects first piqued Taratoot’s interest

several years ago when he read an article about

a photographer using a scanner in place of a

camera. Struck by the dream-like quality of

the light in the images, he ran to the grocery

store to buy flowers and tried it on his own.

“The results were laughable,” he says.

“The scans didn’t look remotely like what I

saw in the magazine.”

He tried it again two years later, this time

with more determination and focus. Scan by

scan, he learned the intricacies of the tech-

nique. Working in the dark, he experimented

with the effects of the intensely bright light

of the scanner, finding out which flowers

would hold up as he held them suspended

over the scanner bed. He played with dis-

tance, background materials, and movement,

eventually settling into a rhythm that worked.

“The scanner is the quintessential machine

for picking up the most minute, intricate details

in the buds and leaves, the delicate veining in

the petals,” says Taratoot. “The way the light

hits all of the various elements of the plant

from so many directions creates this dreamy,

ethereal quality and these shadows that go in

and out of the leaves. You see part of the plant

clearly and brightly and boldly, and then part

of it takes the shadow and background. I don’t

know how you could do that with a camera.”

Taratoot’s taste in flowers grew more

refined, and he began to seek less common

varieties. He learned that there are more than

300 varieties of the lily and myriad varieties

of roses. He fostered relationships with growers

and suppliers, who now call him upon the

arrival of a particularly interesting specimen,

like a chocolate orchid. Whatever the flower,

time is of the essence. Taratoot will often

buy a closed flower and scan it for a couple

of nights, hoping to catch that perfect moment

between bloom and decay. Some flowers—

tulips, for example—shrivel within 20 min-

utes of being scanned. Closed buds will start

to open in an accelerated manner after the

third or fourth scan, then the race is on.

“I’m really capturing the way the flower

grows and opens,” he says. “With a rose, I

get it like a closed ball. Then the petals start

to open, and the next day they open just a

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little more. So you see this sequence in the

images and the little imperfections. I always

thought people were difficult to photograph,

but flowers are just as hard if you really dis-

sect all the elements in a growing plant.”

Water lilies proved to be one of the most

challenging plants Taratoot has worked with.

Once they’re cut, they die almost immediately,

so Taratoot had to figure out how to scan

them in pots with six to 12 inches of water.

He took a road trip to a lily farm in Dothan,

Ala., and was able to fit 12 or so potted lilies

into his car—only retailers get delivery.

“I didn’t plan on the frogs and crickets

jumping around my car on the drive home,”

he laughs. “I also didn’t realize that some

lilies have 4- to 5-foot stems, and that a sin-

gle flower can grow from four to 10 inches

wide. It’s just not the kind of flower you cut

and put into water, and that presented a

whole new set of issues.”

To keep the lilies viable, Taratoot turned

their pots sideways while scanning, keeping the

scanner flat. (The scanner motor isn’t strong

enough to withstand vertical scanning.) The

toil and trouble resulted in some of Taratoot’s

favorite images. Whatever the flower, Taratoot

estimates about one in 20 scans results in

some thing usable, but it’s a labor of love. He’s

a purist when it comes to postprocessing,

retouching only the scattered grains of pollen

that inevitably fall onto the glass and sharp-

ening or adjusting color balance if necessary.

“I’m respectful of the way the flower looks,”

says Taratoot. “I wanted these images to be

natural and show the exceptional elements

inherent in the flower. If an image has to be

forced to look good through digital tools,

that’s when I trash it because I know some-

one will see through all of that.”

Taratoot prints editions of his work either

as giclees on fine-art paper or on high-qual-

ity, archival photographic paper, sometimes

choosing a metallic finish. He prefers the

photographic paper, finding it represents his

vision of the images more accurately in terms

of ink absorption and how it affects light

and shadow. His airport display consisted of

very large “giant man-eating flowers,” he says,

that measured 44x55 inches or more, but he

actually prefers to keep the prints true to the

plant’s actual size, around 11x14 or 16x20

inches. That’s partly due to his decision to

scan at a resolution no greater than 350 ppi,

which may surprise some photographers.

“When you increase the resolution to 600

or 1,200 ppi, you also increase the amount

of light the scanner emits and wind up with

overexposure,” he says. “Then you have to play

with the exposure in Photoshop, which in my

opinion alters the look of the photograph. I

would rather see what the scanner saw.”

Having worked out many of the kinks of

the process, Taratoot shows no signs of

being finished with the floral world. If any-

thing, he’s even more passionate about find-

ing new specimens to scan.

“I think it’s every photographer’s dream

to do some kind of fine art,” he says. “This is

my little corner of the world for my camera,

or scanner, that is.” �

See the full “Les Fleurs Collection” at lesfleurscollection.com, or check out Taratoot’s event photography online at bjtphotography.net.

“What’s most valuable tome is my time. And withthat time I can make art, bewith my family, and travel.I just didn’t want to getcaught up in a life whereI’m working 60 hours aweek and waiting until Iretire to have fun and makework that’s personal.”

—FRITZ LIEDTKE

All images ©Fritz Liedtke

ARTFUL

Fritz Liedtke balancescontemporary photography with aBohemian lifestyle tocreate original art.

BY LORNA GENTRY

LIFE

ome people are

lucky enough

to find what

they love

early in life.

Fritz Liedtke of

Portland, Ore., found it

at age 14 when he took a

month-long road trip with his

dad to explore America. He

photographed the sites using a

Kodak 110 Instamatic camera

and kept a journal. It was a

defining experience. Heady with

wanderlust and the discovery of

his talents, Liedtke pursued

writing and photography in

school, picking up photography

jobs along the way. He earned a

bachelor of fine arts degree in

photography and fine art.

S

In college he shot weddings and did com-

missioned portraits, experience he later used

to launch his business. “I didn’t have a plan

for what I wanted to be when I grew up,” says

Liedtke, 39, on his cell phone on a cool autumn

day in central Oregon, where he and his wife

were vacationing. “Even in art school I was

still kind of figuring out what I wanted to

do, so I decided to keep doing what I liked

and see what happened.” He folded com-

mercial and editorial work into his business,

later gravitating toward those assignments

and away from weddings. Eventually he sub-

contracted most of his wedding business.

Building a photography business is time

consuming, so personal art projects are often

sidelined. But for Liedtke, art is the North Star,

and he’s never lost sight of it. In 2009 he read

a book by a college chum, travel writer Rolf

Potts, called “Vagabonding: An Uncommon

Guide to the Art of Long-Term World

Travel,” and he hatched a plan. “In the book he

talks about living someplace in the world that

is very inexpensive so that you can have time for

your own projects.” If Liedtke and his wife lived

frugally, he reasoned, they could afford to take

long stretches of time off for travel and art.

They went to Europe for three months,

and two years later spent time in Nicaragua,

taking Spanish lessons in the mornings and

spending afternoons working on their own

projects. Liedtke extensively photographed

a small family-owned coffee processing

company. The resulting body of work,

“Beneficio de Café,” became a limited-

edition print series. Subsequent visual inves-

tigations have also yielded bodies of work

made into limited-edition print series,

including “Skeleton in the Closet,” about

people with eating disorders, and “Welcome

to Wonderland,” a series about the awk-

wardness of adolescence.

“When I look at people withfreckles, I think of constellationsof stars in the sky. So I namedthe series ‘Astra Velum,” which isLatin and means ‘veil of stars.’”

—FRITZ LIEDTKE

Liedtke’s most recent project, “Astra

Velum,” began five years ago in San

Francisco, where he was on a commercial

shoot. One evening at a pub with friends he

met a woman whose face was awash in freck-

les. “I thought she was so beautiful and unique,

so I asked her if I could take her picture. It

was night and really dark. The only light was

from the pub’s neon signs. I shot just a few

pictures, but they turned out to be gorgeous.”

He began looking for other freckled peo-

ple to photograph, even advertising on

Craigslist. As he photographed them he’d

ask how they felt about their freckles. Shame

was not an uncommon response. One

woman, April, told him a hurtful childhood

memory about her grandmother scolding

her for not washing her face. “When April

told her grandmother she had washed, her

grandmother said, ‘Your face isn’t clean. Go

scrub it some more.’ But all that was left on

her face were freckles and she couldn’t wash

them away. Some people see freckles as

blemishes. They struggle with the American

ideal of beauty: perfectly clear skin. So if

they have freckles, they try to cover them or

bleach them away rather than embracing

what they have. When I look at people with

freckles, I think of constellations of stars in

the sky. So I named the series ‘Astra Velum,’

which is Latin and means ‘veil of stars.’”

EXPLODING FLASHAlthough he shoots 100 percent digital

(using a Canon EOS 5D Mark II DSLR),

Liedtke reminisces about large-format film

photography. “I miss the process of setting

up the camera, unfolding it and putting it on

the tripod, pulling up the dark cloth. There’s

a bit of poetic rhythm to it that I really

enjoyed. There’s also the interaction with the

subject when you’re shooting that camera.

For instance, the ‘Welcome to Wonderland’

series was almost all shot on 4x5. Working


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with these middle school-age kids, they’d see

me pull out this wooden camera and pull up

the dark cloth, and invariably they’d ask,

‘Hey does that have the flash that explodes

when you take a picture?’ It really has a way

of kind of breaking the ice with people,

because they’re curious. It’s something

they’d never seen before.”

Printmaking is where he indulges in anti -

quated processes, including tintype and pho -

togravure. In fact, Liedtke relishes printmaking.

“Honestly, I find oftentimes that I’m more

inspired by, or feel more of a connection

with, my printmaking work than I do with

photography. When I was in art school I

spent a year taking only printmaking classes.”

To make the “Astra Velum” photographs,

he chose photogravure, and before beginning,

he took a class with a local master printer.

Liedtke added a second technique to the pho-

togravure process called chin-collé, which

impresses a second substrate—in this case

handmade Japanese paper—between the

ink and the backing paper. “This is a tradi-

tional technique in printmaking,” Liedtke wrote

in his artist statement about the series. “It

allows me to create a unique print, with glow-

ing warm high values from the warm Japanese

paper placed against the white of the backing

paper. The result is a handmade print whose

depth and luminescence is unmatched by any

other photographic printmaking process.”

“Photogravure is very tactile,” Liedtke

says. “It’s handmade, and you can tell the ink

is embedded into the print and impressed in

the paper.” The layers of ink and paper give

the print a three-dimensional quality. “There’s

also this kind of dark and moody feel to it

that’s appropriate for the images themselves.”

The “Astra Velum” project won a

Photolucida Critical Mass Top 50 award last

year. The photographs are available for sale

as limited-edition prints and in handmade

books printed on archival cotton paper. The

book cover is handcrafted paper the color of

deep coffee brown that’s embedded with

flecks of mica, which “look like stars in the

sky,” he says, an idea inspired by the title.

Liedtke has found the balance he was

seeking in the configuration of work and

personal time. He remains vigilant about

saving time for art. “I call it buying time,” he

says. “The artwork is important to me, so I

create space for it in my life. I live frugally so

that I don’t have to make a huge amount of

money every year and work all the time just

to pay the bills. I’ve kind of set myself free by

drawing a line I call enough. That’s where I

say I’ve made this amount of money and it’s

enough. What’s most valuable to me is my

time. And with that time I can make art, be

with my family, and travel. I just didn’t want

to get caught up in a life where I’m working

60 hours a week and waiting until I retire to

have fun and make work that’s personal.”

This month the Liedtke’s are expecting

their first child. With a new baby, time

surely will become even more precious to

him, not to mention fleeting. �

See Fritz Liedtke’s fine-art work at fritzliedtke.com and commercial work atfritzphotographic.com.


©Im

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of M

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or nature photographer Jim Crotty,

CPP, last year’s move to South Car-

olina felt like going home.

“I’ve been coming here to vacation since

I was about 15 years old,” says Crotty, now 48,

who moved to Hilton Head Island, S.C., from

Dayton, Ohio, in April 2011. “The Low-

country has always been a part of who I am.”

The resort area draws thousands of

visitors every year to enjoy the golf,

restaurants, and beach, but that’s not

what brought Crotty to this special place.

“There’s a natural beauty here that I find

spectacular,” he says. “I feel like this is where

I’m meant to be, and it’s a very strong per-

sonal connection.” Through his lens, Crotty

reveals the haunting beauty of the Lowcoun-

try’s magnificent coast.

He started with a 35mm film camera at

age 12, but Crotty quickly adapted to digital

tech nology. “I picked up high dynamic

range pho tography pretty early on,” he

explains. “It’s com bining two or more expo-

sures of the same scene but each is done

at a different level, usually adjusting the

shutter speed.” Like many nature photog-

raphers, Crotty uses Photomatix software,

but he tries to get the best quality image in

the camera first. “I don’t go heavy handed

on it,” he says. Crotty finds that subtle,

gradual adjustments give his images a little

extra punch without taking the enhance-

ment too far.

Success in the fine-art business means leaving shyness behind andreaching out to potential clients, art buyers, and gallery owners.

FINE ART BY ERIN QUINN O’BRIANT

All images ©Jim Crotty

Lowcountry splendorA fine-art nature photographer shifts his focus

F

A NATURAL TEACHERThe Hilton Head area isn’t the only natural

landscape Crotty loves to photograph. He

returns to Ohio twice a year to give weekend

nature photography classes in Hocking Hills

State Park. The classes fill months in advance,

and many people take them two or three times.

“To do the workshops is a thrill,” he says. “It’s

very energizing for me to teach because there’s

such a demand for them now. Everybody has a

camera, but they’re confused as to the basics.”

Crotty has discovered that workshop par-

ticipants love the group photography experi-

ence. They stay together at a bed-and-breakfast

where they share meals Crotty has planned.

He uses the facility for classroom-style

learning, but the group members spend

most of their time roaming the park together,

cameras at the ready.

“I do guided tours into these locations,

and I stop and show the group: This is what

catches my eye, these are the lenses I’ll

choose, the setting I’m going to choose. Peo-

ple love that.” Students then have an oppor-

tunity to try it themselves.

Afterward, everyone participates in a

supportive image critique with lots of posi-

tive reinforcement. “By sharing what they

capture with other people taking the work-

shop, they learn just as much from each

other as from me.” The budding photogra-

phers often put together their own Facebook

groups after the workshop weekend is over.

In some ways, the move to Hilton Head

was more difficult than Crotty expected. The

tourists who pour money into the commu-

nity typically spend their vacation funds on

hotels, restaurants, and activities—rarely art.

Crotty’s studio does get some foot traffic, but

the revenue from those walk-ins isn’t enough

to support him.

“People [here] consider art to be paint-

ings,” says Crotty. “I made the mistake of think-

ing there would be a big market here for the

fine art photography I do, but I sell more of

my fine-art prints back in Ohio than here.”

THE FINE-ART MARKETFrom his success with fine-art sales in Ohio,

Crotty knows a thing or two about getting his

photography into galleries. Co-op galleries

are a good place to start, he says, although

your photographs can get lost among so

much competing work.

“Artists by nature are not very aggressive

salespeople,” Crotty says, “and I’m that way,

too.” But to break into the world of galleries

and fine-art photography, a little gumption

goes a long way. “Getting my work into a

gallery means getting to know the owner

and developing the personal relationship.

The owner needs to see you as a true artist.”

Crotty gives gallery owners 8.5x11-inch

glossy sample sheets featuring a few of his

images along with his logo and contact inform -

a tion. Meeting the owner is key. “Once they

meet you face-to-face, they’ll be much more

receptive to considering your worth,” he says.

Before approaching a gallery owner, do

some research. Figure out how your work could

help serve the gallery’s customers, and be ready

FINE ART


FINE-ART NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY GEAR• Quality equipment is essential for fine art photography, and nature has its own set

of challenges. Here’s Crotty’s list of favorite gear.• Canon EOS 5D Mark II and Canon EOS 1D Mark III camera bodies• Canon EF “L” lenses ranging from 17-35mm f/2.8 to 500mm f/4.5 including

24-70mm, 100mm macro, 70-200 f/4 IS, 300mm f/4 IS• Canon Speedlite 450 and 580 flashes• Kirk ball head and L-brackets• Diffusers and reflectors• Lowepro bags, including Pro Roller x300 and Fastpack 350• Bogen and Giottos tripods• After the shoot, Crotty works on a MacBook Pro with Apple LED 27-inch Cinema

Display. Software includes Adobe CS5, Adobe Lightroom 3, Apple Aperture, Nik Plug-In Suite, and Photomatix Pro.

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to articulate it. Also investigate the gallery’s

pricing. “You don’t want to cheapen yourself

or out-price the market,” says Crotty. “Do some

research on what’s being charged in your area.”

When in doubt, aim higher. “When you

cheapen yourself, it’s hard to recover from that.”

Then take a deep breath and go for it.

“You’ve got to step out of your comfort zone

and just walk in. Say, This is my work, this is

my worth, this is how I think it would fit in

with your gallery.”

A big portion of Crotty’s sales comes from

interior designers, particularly those who work

with hospitals and other health care facili-

ties. He maintains relationships with firms

in Ohio and is still filling orders for them.

In this market, too, developing the rela-

tionship is crucial. “They know I can deliver

quality work at a fair price when they need

it, and that I’m a dependable supply source

for original nature photography.” The mar-

ket has exploded over the past few years, he

says, because so many hospitals are being

expanded to serve the aging population.

If Crotty’s marketing savvy sounds pol-

ished, it’s because he worked for years in

corporate communications management

and public relations.

When he arrived in Hilton Head, Crotty

had no idea which parts of his business

would thrive. After he realized that walk-in

buyers wouldn’t provide the income flow he

needed, Crotty diversified. He tapped into

the local portrait market, focusing on family

beach shoots that allowed him to leverage

his skill with nature photography. He got up

to speed quickly thanks to his understand-

ing of Internet marketing.

“I was ahead of the curve when I came

here, and that helped a lot with gaining atten -

tion quickly,” he notes. “I got a few things pub -

lished, and word travels here. That got my

name out there very fast. I put out a press

FINE ART

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release when I opened for portraits, and

that helped a lot. Crotty’s marketing advice:

”Keep your work fresh, get something pub-

lished in a local magazine, and get your

name out there.”

That’s what he did, and customers began

finding him online. Crotty recommends using

affordable online options such as Facebook

ads. People discover him by seeing his pho-

tos and reviews on TripAdvisor.com, even

though he’s not plugging his business.

Crotty’s combination of photographic

skill, artist’s eye, and marketing savvy allow

him to stay in Hilton Head, capturing

images of the beautiful coast that has

inspired him for more than 30 years. �

Jim Crotty’s website, ohiophoto.org, features more of his work.

Erin Quinn O’Briant is a professor at CityCollege of San Francisco and the author of“Glitter Girl: A Novel” and “Be a Great Tutor:The Inspiring Guide to Tutoring All Ages.”


WEB EXCLUSIVETop 13 tips for nature photography. Lookus up online to read Jim Crotty’s advice aboutmaking the best nature images: ppa.com.

FINE ART

“Getting my work into a gallery means getting to know the owner and developing the personal

relationship. Artists by nature are not very aggressive salespeople, and I’m that way, too.”

The most unappreciated, underused piece of equipment in all of photogra-

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Before you moan and groan about the nuisance of carrying a tripod around, con-

sider what it can do for you. First and foremost, it gives you tack-sharp pictures at slow shutter speeds that would cause blur if you were to handhold the camera. What about the in-camera image stabili-zation found in most of today’s DSLRs? Sure, it gives you an edge—but since ev-eryone’s degree of steadiness is different, you never really know how slow you can safely go. And the damage isn’t always obvious blur. Sometimes shaky hands just cause an irksome lack of crisp detail that you may have been blaming on im-proper focus. A tripod insures that this won’t happen.

A tripod is especially important when you’re using a long lens, such as a tele-photo for wildlife photography. That’s be-cause the longer a lens, the greater the chance of blurred results. This is why long-lens photographers set high shutter speeds for handheld shooting—but they’re still often pushing their luck. A tri-pod is the best insurance that they’ll come back with sharp shots. And as a side

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To learn more about which Flashpoint tri-pod is right for your kind of photography, visit the Flashpoint store at Adorama.com. (Just type “Flashpoint carbon” into

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Supporting Role

or 20 years before she became

a photographer, Marie

Labbancz, M.Photog., was a

certified social worker. That turned out

to be fine training for her next career:

wed ding photographer. “Finely honed

interpersonal skills are important for por-

trait photographers,” she says. “I sometimes

need to help clients put things in perspec-

tive because the wedding day can be so

stressful. The bride might be worried about

insignificant details of the day. I try to help

her get in a better frame of mind and focus

on what's really important.”

Labbancz’s warmth and compassion

Having transitioned from social worker to award-winning photographer,Marie Labbancz finds her second career challenging and rewarding.

WEDDINGS BY LORNA GENTRY

Sweet second actTrading a therapist’s license for a master photographer degree

FAll images ©Marie Labbancz

come through in her photographs. Her

work, as she describes it, is happy, sweet,

and romantic. “My style appeals to classic

brides who have a certain elegance about

them. I call them Jackie Os and Grace

Kellys. They tend to be highly educated,

usually between 28 and 38 years old. They

want casual elegance in their wedding pho-

tos, not traditional staged portraits, and

they want photojournalism. Often, they

give me only 20 minutes for family por-

traits, but that’s OK with me. I know my

bride, and the way I appeal to her is with

my website and blog.”

Having been a mother of the groom,

Labbancz is never so focused on the bride

as to exclude the husband-to-be. “My son is

my only child. When he got married, you

wouldn’t know he and I were even in the

wedding by looking at the pictures. It was

all about the bride. I can tell you it was my

big day, too. When I photograph a wedding

and I’m with the bride, I make sure my sec-

ond shooter covers the groom.”

Labbancz lives near Princeton, N.J.

Despite the economic downturn, her busi-

ness has remained strong thanks to refer-

rals, good vendor relationships, and social

media. Because the population is diverse in

her area, she has the opportunity to photo-

graph ceremonies of various religions and

couples of different ethnicities. “One of the

things I love about wedding photography is

being brought into different cultures that I

otherwise wouldn’t have been brought into.

It’s fun. I’ve done Muslim weddings,

Orthodox Jewish weddings, Christian wed-

dings of all denominations, and Hindu

weddings, where the groom sometimes

arrives on a horse, sometimes in a limo.”

She even photographed a Goth couple who

staged their wedding pictures in a ceme-

tery. “The bride was very poised. She had

tattoos and an elegant gown.”

SQUARES AND CIRCLES OF LIFE“I was a square peg in health care,” Labbancz

says of her first career in therapy. “I was a social

worker because I wanted to help humanity.

I worked in Alzheimer’s care with patients

who had dementia. But in the evenings I

was a stage actress and director. I wasn’t

able to take the jump into theatre full time

because I was a single mom. I didn’t own a

camera and had never taken a picture in my

life. But when I would get headshots, it used

to puzzle me how one photographer would

make me look amazing and in another pho-

tographer’s photo I’d look wretched.”

When she was in her 40s she decided to

take a photography class at the community

college. She discovered she had talent, partic -

ularly for composition. “I think that’s the hard -

est thing to teach. You can learn technique

but I think you just have to have a natural

talent for composition.” She concentrated on

fine-art photography and exhibited her work

in galleries; some of her images were pub-

lished in art magazines. Wedding photogra-

phy was the furthest thing from her mind

until she decided to shoot a wedding for free

just to see what it was like.

“I loved it. It fit my personality,” she

says. “I’m very ADD and I love action. I

could never do still life photography. With

weddings you’re constantly going, con-

stantly thinking How do I do this? and How

to do that? Wedding photography has the

same intensity as theater; it gets my artistic

adrenaline flowing.”

Labbancz posted her first wedding pic-

tures online, and within a year she had

booked 50 weddings. “I had to make a leap

of faith and leave social work because I

couldn’t do both jobs. I remember my boss

WEDDINGS

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asking me, ‘Are you sure?’ I kept my license

for three years afterward—just in case—

then finally dropped it. Since 2001, pho-

tography has been my only profession. I’m

single and self-supporting, and I’ve had a

wonderful life from it.”

Wedding photojournalism comes natu-

rally to her. “Because I never worked for

another wedding photographer, I shoot

wed dings the way I see them. I kind of

learned from reading magazines, like

Martha Stewart Weddings.” Now Lab-

bancz’s weddings appear in print: “I’ve had

nearly 100 weddings featured in magazines

over the years. That’s because my style is

kind of editorial. I combine photojournal-

ism, storytelling, and details. For months

every woman planning her wedding day is

asking herself questions like, Should I use

this flower or that flower? That’s why every

detail is important to photograph.”

While she was building her business,

Labbancz also worked on earning a PPA

Master Photographer degree. “Entering the

annual PPA competitions was such a learn-

ing experience for me. It taught me how to

look critically at my images. At least twice a

year I do inspiration shoots. I work with

models, a florist, and a stylist and we do a

creative wed ding shoot. It’s a way to grow

vendor rela tion ships and at the same time

grow your clientele. It’s also a way for all of

us to get our work featured on some of the

top wedding blogs, which helps our mar-

keting. So even though it’s not a real wed-

ding, you’re doing it to grow as an artist

and grow your business. Photographers

should realize that there are different ways

to market yourself and at the same time

keep your game fresh.” �

Marie Labbancz’s online gallery of imagescan be seen at artoflove.com.

WEDDINGS

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ORDERS PLACED NOW WILL

You didn’t get into photography to crunch numbers, but unfortunately, you can’t ignore them. Those pesky numbers say a lot about the health of your business—where you are and where you should (or could) be! So no matter how fast you run away from the idea, you’ve got to make sense of all those numbers. And that’s where PPA can help.

With PPA’s Benchmark Survey resources, we’ll teach you what makes some studios so successful, what pitfalls to avoid, and what changes you can make to grow even more profitable. Seriously. It’s all in the numbers. We’ve helped more than a thousand studios sort things out, and YOU are next!

Get the latest, FREE Benchmark Survey resources now!

6 Summaries & Reports

2 Online Comparison Tools

Webinar to “Put Those Benchmark Tools to Use”

ppa.com/benchmark

What Could YourNumbers Be?

For a stronger, healthier business, follow the latest guidelines:

ppa.com/benchmark

EXCLUSIVE PPA MEMBER BENEFIT

As we all tend to do, Bev and I made a few resolu-tions for the new year,

the resolution to keep the resolutions! Here are a few more:

1 We had the pleasure

where we met another speaker who really impressed us. He talked

-

2

3 Direct mail to clients and prospects isn’t as effective as

us. We also plan to continue our efforts in social network-

4

way and expect different results—we must learn to think in

invented.

5

and fear, not hope and success. When we heard a news

Now, we know everyone has their own resolutions and is

hope those frown lines on your forehead can ease up a little.

-

other like-minded individuals. I always leave with a fresh -

PPATODAYDECEMBER 2012

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGETim Walden, M.Photog.Cr., F-ASP - 2012-2013 PPA President P

PA M

EMB

ER N

EWSL

ETTE

R

© M

onic

a C

ubbe

rly-E

arly

YOUR SUCCESS IS OUR BUSINESS

PPA

MEM

BER

NEW

SLETTER

RESOLVE TO MAKE YOUR BUSINESS BETTER EVERY YEARBy Angela Wijesinghe

Whave a routine; we stick to it; we pay our taxes. Isn’t that

called running

Review Your Prices & Workflow

to assess the prices in their marketplace every year. Did

® Photoshop® ® versions and the

to watch the tech market or review it yourself, you need to

Re-evaluate Your Plans

But do you look at those plans and evaluate the results?

doesn’t mean it will work. It’s smarter to evaluate what

to yield the income needed to cover expenses. It’s handy

you did historically (last year) and what you want to do in

can help you see if you need to sell more, cut expenses or

Be a Nerd: Track Your Results

track your sessions, sales and expenses in software (like


MEET YOUR RESOLUTION (WITH A LITTLE HELP)IF YOUR NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION INVOLVES BETTERING YOUR BUSINESS IN 2013, HERE ARE A FEW RESOURCES THAT MAY HELP YOU REACH THAT GOAL:

These free tools can show you, by the numbers, what makes some studios so successful, what pitfalls to avoid, and what

“PPA’s Benchmark Survey offers incredible information in a format that my creative (not analytic) mind can truly comprehend. It’s benefits like this that make PPA so completely worth the dues.”Megan Anderson, M.Photog., CPP /Graphique Fine Art Photography

help you face the business side of your business with proven

“I made lots of changes to my studio because of the Business Breakthroughs Workshop I attended last year…and I just recorded a record $18,000+ in sales in September alone! This actually works; I can’t believe it!”Callie Page / Callie Page Photography

From classes that teach you how to use your software and

workshops and business publications focused on helping you run your own business, you can learn a lot outside the

(called a Chart of Accounts) that you can import directly into

Plan Your Taxes & Get Help

you make more money? If so, you may owe more in taxes,

even visit DaveRamsey.com for a list of tax experts (called Endorsed Local Providers on the site). And if you are ready to hire an accountant, “interview them like you would an

Resolve to Do This Annually

your New Year’s resolution! (After all, those resolutions are rarely made for fun activities. If you like to do it, you don’t need a resolution!) Will you resolve to re-evaluate, plan and

time next year.


IN IT FOR LIFE CONGRATS, PPA LIFE MEMBERS!By Angela Wijesinghe

H -

honor of their dedication to this industry and association.

career, one where you’re in it for life! In fact, they have

and with the PPA family!

Kenneth Ahlstrom, M.Photog.Cr. / Minnetonka, MN

Andy F. Andrews, M.Photog.Cr. / Durango, CO

Evangelos “Angie” Apostolides, M.Photog. / Canada

Peter Armitage / Australia

Herbert Ascherman Jr. / Shaker Heights, OH

Rolf Augustin / Wellesley Hills, MA

Edwin Baker / Baldwinsville, NY

Dale Barber, CPP / Sandusky, MI

John Barfield, M.Photog.Cr., CPP / Duluth, GA

JoAnn Belling, M.Photog.Cr. / Des Moines, IA

Thomas Belling, M.Photog.Cr., CPP / Des Moines, IA

Gary Blair, M.Photog.Cr. / Sandy, UT

Janet Carson / Ashburn, VA

Lou Coopey, M.Photog.Cr., CPP / Mesa, AZ

Phyllis A. Crossley, CPP / Albuquerque, NM

Glenn R. Curtis / Middlefield, CT

Marie M. Curtis, M.Photog., CPP / Middlefield, CT

Forrest Davisson, M.Photog.Cr. / Portland, OR

Roger Elrod, M.Photog.Cr. / Lincoln, NE

Malcom E. Fancher, M.Photog.Cr. / Indianapolis, IN

George Fenton / Cypress, CA

Thomas Flora, M.Photog.Cr. / Shawnee, OK

Richard Giachetto, Cr.Photog. / Santa Maria, CA

Alan Goldstein, M.Photog.Cr. / Clarksville, TN

Harvey Goldstein, Cr.Photog. / Branford, CT

William Gommel Jr., CPP / Naperville, IL

Sam Gray, M.Photog.Cr., F-ASP / Raleigh, NC

Scott Hall, M.Photog.Cr. / Sylvania, OH

Patricia A. Harrison, M.Photog.Cr. / San Diego, CA

Yoshinori Hayashi, M.Photog.Cr. / Japan

Leif Heilberg / San Francisco, CA

Robert Hillier, M.Photog.Cr. / Saginaw, MI

Al Hopper / Ranger, GA

Howard Hughes / Palatine, IL

A. Marie Kane, M.Photog.Cr. / Rockford, IL

Gary Kious, M.Photog. / Manhattan Beach, CA

William Krider, M.Photog.Cr. / Lawrenceburg, IN

James Layne, Cr.Photog. / Baton Rouge, LA

Daniel Leary / Emporia, KS

Darwin Lloyd, M.Photog.Cr. / Louisville, KY

Anthony Patrick Maddaloni, M.Photog.Cr. / Nutley, NJ

Fred E. Mang Jr. / Durango, CO

Edward Marvins, M.Photog.Cr. / Houston, TX

C. Warren Mattox / Alexandria, VA

John J. Mayer III / Trenton, NJ

T. Fred Miller / Chattanooga, TN

John R. Munns, M.Photog. / Coronado, CA

Wayne Murphree / Flat Rock, AL

Dave Newman, M.Photog.Cr., API / Sandy, UT

Ira Nozik, M.Photog.Cr. / West Hartford, CT

Marian Oles, Cr.Photog. / San Marcos, TX

Mary Lou Oslund, M.Photog.Cr., CPP / Driggs, ID

Thom Payne / Bel Air, MD

Magaret Pecknyo / Flint, MI

Larry D. Peters, M.Photog.MEI.Cr. / London, OH

Art Rich, M.Photog.Cr. / Southington, CT

Barry D. Rittenberg, M.Photog.Cr. / San Antonio, TX

Bruce Roberts, M.Photog., CPP / Elkhart, IN

Joe D. Robinson, Cr.Photog. / Mount Holly, NC

Norman Runyon, M.Photog. / Weatherby Lake, MO

Martin A. Seefer, M.Photog.Cr. / South Windsor, CT

Matthew Siegel / Saint Louis, MO

David L. Smith, M.Photog.Cr., API / Loganville, GA

Keith B. Smith, M.Photog. / Canada

Linda Smith, Cr.Photog., API / Loganville, GA

Aletha Speakar, Cr.Photog., ABI, API / Clear Lake, IA

Robert Suddarth, M.Photog.Cr., CPP / Lubbock, TX

John Tannock, M.Photog. / Cherry Hill, NJ

Michael Taylor, M.Photog.Cr.Hon.M.Photog., API, F-ASP /

Williamsburg, VA

Gary Tuescher, M.Photog. / Platteville, WI

Adolfo Vachier, M.Photog.Cr. / Mount Sinai, NY

Greg Villegas, M.Photog.Cr. / Santa Maria, CA

Richard M. Warner / Whittier, CA

Linda S. Weaver, M.Photog.M.Artist.Cr., CPP /

Winston-Salem, NC

Bob Westmoreland, M.Photog. / Ponca City, OK

Richard H.J. Whitford, M.Photog. / Davenport, IA

Paul Wicka, M.Photog.Cr. / Hamburg, NY

Terrence Winslow, Cr.Photog., CPP / Grand Island, NE

PPA

MEM

BER

NEW

SLETTER


WHERE THE PROS GO FOR THE BEST IN REPRODUCTION SERVICES LabTab



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HELP WANTED: Assistant photographer for con tem -porary pho tojournalistic wedding coverages in OrangeCounty, CA area. Must have digital equipment. Email Johnat [email protected].

INCORPORATION SERVICES

INCORPORATE OR FORM an LLC today! Your art is a business. Treat it like one. The CompanyCorporation can help you incorporate or form a limitedliability company in as little as ten minutes. We are fast, accurate and affordable. Provide additional cred-ibility to your photography studio or business at thefraction of the cost of using an attorney. Call 1-800-206-7276 or visit www.incorporate.com today!

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ife can be cruel. Cruelest of all is to have a

child with cancer or other critical illness.

An outreach to help alleviate the pain,

Believe in Tomorrow Children’s Foundation,

offers housing to families with critically ill

children in the hospital and

respite housing for families of

children who are undergoing chemotherapy

and other protracted treatment. As an exten-

sion of the program, the foundation operates

the Believe in Tomorrow House by the Sea

in Ocean City, Md. This property is available

for those families to enjoy respite stays, free

of charge, by the beaches of Ocean City. The

house can accommodate up to five families,

and Believe in Tomorrow makes available

two other nearby coastal properties.

Families staying at the House by the Sea

have a brief getaway from the difficult rou-

tine of the doctor visits, surgeries, and hospi-

tal stays that disrupt the normal rhythms of

family life. As part of the program, families

may receive restaurant meals, fishing trips,

amusement park admission, and since 2005,

a complimentary family portrait created by

photographer and PPA member John Mick.

Mick, who owns John Mick Photogra-

phy in Ocean City, has donated more than

450 family beach portraits to the guests of the

House by the Sea. In addition to the por-

trait, he gives each family a disc of enhanced

image files from their session, with a copy-

right release for reprinting included. He

adds copies of the image files he creates for

the other families who share their week at

the beach, as many of the families form long-

lasting friendships from their shared experi-

ence at House by the Sea.

Mick’s contribution doesn’t stop there.

To help with fundraising for Believe in

Tomorrow’s ongoing operation, he provides

fine-art prints and portrait gift certificates to

be auctioned at the charity’s fundraising

events throughout the year. His portraits are

also used in promotional video presentations

at the fundraising events. Mick’s auction

donations have brought in more than

$5,000 since 2005.

“I have been a professional photographer

for more than 45 years, and the rewards

have been good, but nothing compares to

the gratitude expressed in personal

thanks from these children and their par-

ents,” says Mick. “As photographers, we

don’t have to go far to find a place to help

others. All we have to do is look. Most chari-

ties and nonprofits are grateful for donations

of photographs and photographic services.

We just have to get out there and do it.”

So get out of your comfort zone, Mick sug-

gests. “Look for a place where your skills are

appreciated far beyond a dollar sign. It will

be your most rewarding effort by far.” �

Learn about Believe in Tomorrow Children’sFoundation at believeintomorrow.org. See more from John Mick at johnmickphotography.com.


good works | Images wield the power to effect change. In this monthly feature,Professional Photographer spotlights professional photographers using their talents to make a difference through charitable work.

Belief in tomorrowJOHN MICK GIVES PORTRAITS TO FAMILIES OF CRITICALLY ILL CHILDREN

Share your good works experience with us by emailing Joan Sherwood at [email protected].

©John Mick

L

Moshe Zusman and Profoto D1.© Moshe Zusman

Profoto.com/US · 914 347 3300 Distributed by MAC Group

See Moshe in action at : Profoto.com/US/Zusman

Documents

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