Lessons

Lesson Info

Big Prints, Big Profits

I cannot wait to talk to you about this subject about printing your own work, you know, before we get started on this, so I want to just clarify and let you know that I'm a hybrid studio I also use an amazing color lab a photo is my color lab so there's a place for both of those universes, so I'm not hard core worth I on ly print my own work, but there are times when it's the right choice just as using a color lab like a photo is also the right choice. So how in the world that I get started doing this anyway? You know, I have to tell you I never wanted to become a lab, and today I'm happy to say that I'm still not a lab about seven or eight years ago, I was approached by absent to just try one of their printers. The first thing I said to them was, wait a minute, I don't want to be my own lab I really like working with the color lab blah, blah, blah. But I said if you want to send me the printed to try out, I'm open minded and I believe it's really important for all of us to continue to...

in our careers to be open minded to new things, even if it's not something at the time that we think will ever do it's kind of like being a wedding photographer and saying I'm never going to photograph children as I'd rather have a root canal that which is exactly what I used to say in the olden days and now of course I'm photographing lots of families and children and doing all kinds of things and loving every minute of it so they sent me the printer is an absent forty eight hundred printer I brought it into the studio and I hooked it all up and for the first eight months I printed my boarding passes on it can us sir did and then in october at the time, the color lab that I was using way were starting to get busy with the christmas rush. I wasn't happy with the prince that I was getting from them, so I thought, all right, when we were in a russian, we just really we're in a big hurry so very reluctantly I printed my first photograph, my first eight by ten print and I literally looked at that photograph and went, oh my goodness, what have I been doing with this crazy printer and how have I been abusing it by having a print boarding passes instead of anything good? And I will tell you I on ly talk about products that I really use that I really believe in and that's why it took me so long to get to get to where I get actually talk about printing my own work as I really needed to buy into it and not just I'm not with those people who just say stuff and then you know, do other things I really believe in it so let's talk now about the printers that I use I used the absent three thousand printer which prints small prince if I need them like you know, up to eight by ten size and I'm going to show you in a few minutes the way that I use that printer I use the seventy nine hundred and also the absent photo stylist ninety nine hundred now you're probably wondering bam hello, what do you have the seventy nine hundred and the ninety nine hundred? Well, I got this seventy, nine hundred first and you know the old saying about, you know, go big or go home well, I finally came to that realization that I needed to be able to print big and I love being able to do that and I'm going to show you in a few minutes about some of the ways that I do print very, very large I use a variety of different kinds of papers I really believe that variety is the spice of life and variety is one of the reasons that I'm still in business right now and that my career is still relevant and not all of you kids were young here, but one day you're going to be an old lady like myself, and then you're gonna have all those of the young kids out there trying to take your your spot. Well, if you always strive to continue to do and move forward and don't get yourself stuck in a rut doing the same old thing because it's, the way you've always done it, you are always going to be at the top of your game, and they're gonna have to drag me out of here and I mean in life kicking and screaming, I mean, I'll be that little old lady at a wedding with their little walker, you know? Maybe when I'm photographing milica do knows I don't know all I know it that I love what I do and people still painting a very, very nice premium to do it. But why do they still pay me it's? Because I'm not doing this, folks. This is this's bambi can troll photography in nineteen eighty seven what you don't know about this picture, though, is that this blue background was outside. Is that not crazy? Yes, we would bring our brides again. We always had to shoot with a blue background outside, you know? And you sell your little light and everything it's not a bad portrait, but it is very nineteen eighties as you can tell by the garments and and the way the photography was done, if you all want a blue background, by the way, you have to go somewhere because I don't even have backgrounds in my studio. And now if you think that's something, look at this. Ok, this is bambi in nineteen eighty seven. Do you see what I charged to photograph a wedding? I charged four hundred and twenty six bucks. I'm here to tell you that we were just raking in the dough and you know what you got for that four hundred twenty six dollars, and you're probably thinking to yourself, what does this have to do with printing? It has everything to do with it. You got twenty four eight by ten photographs or you could have some five by five is in there as well. You see, this taught me a valuable lesson, and as I was reviewing this, I went through my archives about three months ago looking for old pictures and to put into my program, and I looked at this and I went, oh, my goodness, the scary part is do you know that there are still photographers out there that charge four hundred twenty six dollars in two thousand thirteen to photograph a wedding? Think about that folks so I learned very, very young in my career that I could not afford to do the same things that everyone was doing I will tell you I'm the proud holder of a two point eight g p a from hard way high school yeah let me tell you I was at the top of the bottom of my class and I am proud of that but you know what? I wasn't dumb and I'm not a dumb woman but if I can see it I can do it but if you ask me to read it from a book forget it and it's kind of a ryan now that I've written a couple of books are actually I had a amazing writer write my books for me because you know I can't spell very much has tried to spell genetically, you know, and sometimes it doesn't always work so the moral of the story is is that I needed to learn very quickly what to do right to keep my career moving and more importantly to be profitable so that I could be successful and make this a career and not have to do this as a hobby and then go get a day job how many of you would like to do that I just got to tell you, I've lived my dream for almost thirty years now started when I was like twelve yeah that's that's close enough so but that's why I put these in here because I feel that it's really important for you all to see where I came from and recognize that I'm one of you I did not come with a silver spoon in my mouth we were very poor when I was a little girl we were so poor when I was a child that I thought toast was a luxury when I was a little kid and I spent the night at my girlfriend's house in the morning if they had toast with butter on it, I had died and gone to heaven, which is why I've always had a lifelong battle with carbs anybody else in the room like that? Yeah, so but that's why? Because I was just I was just obsessed with bread and end it all that that was just such a great thing and so it's really affected the way that I think and so boiling it down. The reason all of that information is important to you is because the way that I progress further was either enhanced by my actions or diminished and so I had to think, ok, what are you doing bay? Because you're not doing very well, you're charging four hundred twenty and you are paying the client for the privilege of photographing there that so what can you do to change that? So I did what I'm very well known to do concepts at work. I went shopping. Now you're probably thinking yourself, what does louis vuitton have to do with printing your own work? So what does louis vuitton done? They have found a way to make a canvas and leather handbag look so desirable that you and I will spend eight hundred thousand dollars, twelve hundred bucks, whatever to buy ah purse here you could buy a car in some places for that amount of money, or you could buy a good down payment on a car. Why in the world with somebody spend that much you see, louie vuitton has found a way to make their product looks so amazing that people have to have it. Do you know that when I tapped into that particular market that's when my career took off, you see, one of the things that louie baton did is that they found a way to make that product look so special that you just had to have it. Now the on ly rich people buy louis vuitton handbags that only rich people get you're right because I have one and I'm not by any stretch rich and I know a lot of women who are not wealthy by the real thing, in fact, it's funny because you could go to new york city, the canal street and you can buy you can buy those fake louis vuitton handbags for like, what is it like? Oh, twenty dollars or something? I don't know. I've never bought one of those. Ok? Just so you know, but my point is, is that it made that product look very desirable? Well, let's, look at what they've done to make their products look amazing. So can you see where the handbag is? In this picture, you could barely see it home, because a handbag is actually right here. And you could actually see me. There's me? I shot this with my iphone. There's the picture. So you see, they found a way. And did you notice the color atonality? What they did? They continue to this day to find a way to make people look at their stuff. Oh, I gotta have that well, that's. The mental thought process that I wanted for my brides and my babies and my mom's, everyone. I wanted them to look at my work and see that it was special and there has never been a time ever, ever, ever like now, when it is so important for you and I to remember that and to mimic and use that as a springboard for our success because there are so many photographers out there today all well I can do that, you know, you know that the shooting burn folks that just you know, give them a disk and that's it you see, that is a commodity like jim was saying this morning it becomes a commodity but you see when you show them a product that's very special that has handmade elements to it or you know you use textures to create something that's a very unique piece and it's got your signature on it then and only then do people want to see what you're doing and then they're willing to spend more for it and they know they can't get it somewhere else that's the key is that they can't get us somewhere else and occasion I'd have a bride go well, you know, bambi so and so is willing teo, you know, do my wedding and they're they're like a third of what you charge and, you know, I totally understand that, you know, my family and I run a budget to just have a question what if you don't like any of the pictures and, you know, one of thing you're not going to get for that amount of money a bambi cantrell image? Ah you're right that's right and that's the value and the beauty of creating a unique product and a variety of unique products. I'm always on a mission to continue to find unity ways of expressing my craft is the photographer now let's, go on, just and look at this photograph of these butterflies in this in this glass case do you see that this is an advertisement for I saw this this is from the bellagio hotel and it's a picture it's it's actually not a picture it's a real case that has jewelry in it and here's the jewelry guys here and here you could you could you see it? Could you? But do you see what they did? They were genius, absolute genius because you know that that guy walking through that hotel with this little trophy wife or his old girlfriend, they're walking past and everything and she goes, oh, honey, look at the body, the butterflies and he she drags him over to the case because, oh, I want to go in can we just look, the's greatest things that we've ever said to our husbands or boyfriends, right? I just want to go look and before you know it, he's bought in and he's brought you something very special, and so when I saw these ads and this, I'm always on the lookout for more, no matter where I'm at I will I go shopping and I look at the way things were displayed and the kind of pictures that they're showing because that tells me where things are going and how I can adapt my style of photography for the new age for something that's different so that I can keep on trend you know it's kind of like a designer fashion designer by the way if I wasn't a photographer I would be a designer it's kind of like a fashion designer saying ok I created my line and this is my style and that's all I'm ever going to do is the same thing they don't every one of the designers they every year they create and they more a little bit and that's not a bad thing that's a good thing that's what gives them their edge so I want you to think about that and keep that open mind thirdly I want you look at the way this this photograph is laid out look at how large the picture is in the background you see how they tie in photographs to particular products now there's a couple of things that I got from this this is a storefront in london england one of there were two things that I found really clever about this first of all I love that big print right there it's a lifestyle print which helped me when it came time for me to start creating large prince printing my own work for bridal salons, you know, hair salons and such, and I'm going to show you about that now, but the other thing that's really cool about this, and this is where I'm going next, I'll tell you, because none of you will do it. So I'm going to tell you what I'm going to do, but just not go on record being done it first, you see these boxes right here, maybe is going to start creating a sculpture. I want a visual sculpture, I want a long photograph to go down a group of boxes, and I want to cut it here and here, and then I want to turn him a bit to create a fine art piece again. It's always about looking outside the box, you have to start thinking and abstract ways like the color blue is not the color blue or or fabric isn't just made out of, you know, textiles that you can purchase that that, you know, joan's fabrics, sometimes it's made out of a window screen, sometimes it's made out of tin foil, so thinking an abstract way. So let's, look at what we can find, what we can do in the way of creating prints, and such for hair salons and bridal shows, and this is where being I'm opera singer in this I love it and every in fact it's crazy I love bridal fares even though I only do maybe one or two a year you know why I like him because it gets me to see um I on the right track is where I'm going is that still relevant to today's bride because remember a bride is nothing more than a woman who hasn't had her kids yet problemo mom us and had killing kids in many cases ah baby is nothing more than a small bride, right? So all of these things kind of worked together and so one of the people who was really instrumental and helping need to see how this would play out is this woman right here? Her name is lori lopez she's the owner of wild orchids, the salon it's, a hair studio and annie in california and what I believe in doing are creating display prints for that salon you know, there is nobody in the world who talks more than a hairdresser does they have a captive audience? You cannot you understand that you're having your hair done where you going to go? So it's my goal to give them a reason to talk about me in a positive way so some of the things that we've done I'll give you some examples of things that I've done that have worked really well the first thing that I've done is we've created a day of photography centered around that salon will gather all the hair stylist together. I'll go in for free and do beautiful head shots for them on doll create posters of them. Guess what that hang in? They're salon now that the great thing about printing your own work especially in this case, is that you can have an idea on a thursday morning and you can complete the idea thursday afternoon. That's to me, one of the biggest reasons to incorporate printing your own work and what you do because you can, you can, you can think quick. How many times have you had a great idea? And then you've got busy with all this other stuff, and then six months later oh, yeah, I had that great idea back when. Well, this is one of those times when you can actually make it happen, and I really liked that ability to do so. Not only that, but it also gives you the opportunity to kind of tweak an image based upon the client that you're working with and then print it to see how you like it. Now what we generally do when we print big prints and the prince that I print are at least sixty inches, we print nice big photographs I want I want them to be seen across the room. So what I would do though is is on my side of myself well is this person and how can I interpret them? And in lori's case she's just a very, very often guard crazy oh crazy woman she's just not and so I know I have a lot of leeway so when I prevail start by printing a small photograph first so I can see what it's going to look like to see whether I'm on the track that I want to be mentally and then once I've done that I'll print a strip second see how it looks in big picture and then finally I'll go to print the big one I hate waste I absolutely cannot stand waist and I truly believe in a very passionate about the importance of that we are you know, watching out for the environment is such so I'm really careful not to just be wasteful now if you're going to go into printing your own work because you think it's cheaper you're in for a little rude awake it's not cheaper that's not why you do it you do it because it's another art form it's another art form you need to let your prints cure overnights and others you need you can't just print and then mountain right away you need to cure them let that let them dry and then we spray all of our prince with a just with a clear coat, we spray them on one of the things we've just started doing as we work with a little framer and the bay area that that we my studios in and he has just started doing spring for us, which is great, I will tell you, you don't, I don't think it's rocket science to get the spray out and spray the print. It does take a little bit of practice, and you do need to wear a mask if you're going to spread your photographs, so think about that so it can be a little bit more complicated. But, you know it's, not that big a deal. Is it's actually pretty easy? This is one of the displays we did, by the way, for the hair salon in walnut creek, you'll notice that the pictures that I'm showing in here are family oriented there's a lot of young families that go into this hair salon. And so I wanted something when there were when they were walking over to go sit under that hair dryer, I wanted them those air eye level so that they could it means, oh, that looks great. And then we have each photograph is titled I like to create posters and so will titled them something you know and something really cute and clever and then well, sometimes I'll sign the print so that we can make it very, very special I'll tell you right now this is one of the most amazing things that you can do to give your company your business that boost because it is in a location where women gabby and lots of women that are in our same kind of age group they is a fabulous fabulous tool here's another one that I did this was actually the first hair salon that we that we actually did this this introduction to and that is one of the hair stylist right there so again I'm creating images of the stylist as well because I want them to see what I can do for them that's step number one step two is to have une evening where we come together and what we'll do is we'll make it a charity event and we'll come in and we'll bring bring all bring wall ports and they'd hang for a week before the show and then the evening is centered around a new evening a charity people pay like, you know, two or three hundred bucks to come all do head shots for them for their facebook page or something like that they walk around, we have champagne and orders and all kinds of nice a nice evening and it's a way for me to teo give back to the community. We just did one for the cancer support center in walnut creek, california, and that is so awesome. In fact, they have won that tonight, and I won't be there for some here, so but this is a terrific way to give back to the community and to keep your stuff your work fresh and exciting so they would know. I can't even imagine showing the same prints the next year or six months later, I wouldn't even dream of doing that, so we really like to keep it fresh. Why did you guys have any questions so far? You're doing ok. All right. So now look at what? Yes, hon. How do you begin establishing those relationships? You just walk in off the street and say a good answer. That's a great a great question. Rather. Okay. How do I establish those relationships? Will that's where you come in, where you want to start thinking about people in your community, that that could help your business and that you've got something a message for them? This is what we did. I went through the telephone book, and I went and found the communities that I wanted to do business with that community that had people that were in the economic genre or that kind of an area that that would be good for me young families are really important in fact, one of the areas that we did way sent information to was in a very affluent area, but they targeted and we found out afterwards that they that their market was more mature older people like, you know, fifty in their fifties and sixties and I went no that's not our that's not really what we want a market to we want a market to a younger crowd because young families they're more apt to become returned repeat buyers and such great great question so here's, what we did I sent we sent out a beautiful, beautiful promotional piece and guess what if you guys come back this afternoon for my second program, which is on photographing families? I'm going to show you some of my beautiful marketing pieces that I did when we sent them out to the hair response, and so we just sent them out this beautiful little letter that said, hi, you know, I'm bambi cantrell and and I would love to be able to do some cross promoting with your salon here's what we'd like to do we'd like to come in to your salon on a day that works for you and photographed all of your silence completely free of charge and then once they have seen the photographs if you like what I did, put it on your website and give me a photo credit. In addition to that, we'd like to talk to you about maybe doing some cross promoting, which leads me to this area right here. So we did that with this salon. This is the first one we did. And so we had again that that charity evening and this is all my material right here. So we developed un experiencing what we do is each hair stylist gets a group of little cards like these little cards right here went out and these were printed on my absent printer right here, these little cards, it was for boudoir session. And so what we did, we gave each stylist a handful of those and said, hey, if you refer a portrait client to me and they come in in the book a session, we in turn will call the hair salon, and we will purchase a gift card from from you in that client's name. So what it does is it takes the client from their door to my door and then back to their door and so it's a great way and you always have something handed out, so sometimes I will, sometimes I'll use those those those promotional pieces for family portrait sessions a variety of different kinds of things I must show you more about that here's one of the posters we did and what we did with this hair salon we had this day that we said ok this is going to be a day where it's your fantasy you created a theme we invited the stylist to come in I arranged for the models it's ok today is fantasy island okay I want you to think of a team and their theme was ice cream and so they brought the model in and we hired a hair part of the hair people did the hair and we have makeup artists come in and then I created a syriza photographs that we're just fun because if you make an experience of fun experience guess what people really want to talk about it and then they'll start tweeting about you and then they'll start facebooking about your business and so it's a really cool tool and because I could print in house so quickly while odd they are there that day guess what I've got this baby rolling out on my beautiful ebsen ninety nine hundred printer on these kind of photographs I love printing on the absent cold press bright white paper it's a very beautiful fine art paper it's just the color is just a rich and vibrant and just they're scrumptious that law so anyway but this is a terrific tool again, it is all towards the bigger picture of making you look like a hero and giving you lots and lots of great business from a client. Here is one of the piece I did for robert jensen. These are the photographs that I did and guess what? On the night we had our gala at their salon, I brought this poster where we showed all the stylist and afterwards I don't have a picture of them signing, but all of them signed it. So do you see how you can take, you know, beautiful fun pieces like this, and you can incorporate them into what you're doing to really create a very interesting look. You guys kind of questions here's, one of the other ones we did. This is one of the gals that worked at one of the salon she's, one of the hair stylist on dso took her outside, and I did a series of images of her she's, a colorist. So I wanted to make sure that I photographed her opposite of the way that that was showcase your hair in a really interesting way. So I took her outside to a park that's close to my studio, and I thought to myself, ok, she's got really red hair. I want to contrast that against this bright green grass, and that way I could really create an image that route popped and because on the night that we had this gala for this salon all of their pictures of themselves we're going to be showcased in forty inch prints it was always come look at my picture coming baby did this one for me also it was great so this is really really I'm not kidding you you do this and you're going to go crazy yes uh huh I think what you're doing here is really cool for someone who maybe you're starting out doesn't have let's say a big budget are there kind tips or tricks that you could maybe suggest ways to do this on a smaller scale as we're growing our business teo you know get the same great sort of results yes excellent question yes just remember anything that I'm doing you khun scale down the most important thing is to get your butt out there and start going after the business you don't have to create big prince what if you did this okay this is a small you could print this on a small epson printer that this's was printed on my epson three thousand it's with the fine art paper it's just on a little wooden box I got this box that michael's I think it was six dollars and the prince itself the photograph was maybe another three bucks or so and then you use a net he sieve there's just an adhesive you put on the board itself or you can even buy these boards you can buy them so that their pre treated so that you don't have to even you know you don't have to spray them I mean you don't have tio get them uh prime them in other words you have to do that what if you had a hair stylist you said you know we're going to do something really special and fun is that within your budget wouldn't be any reasonable friend I know it's crazy it's a very simple and does it look like it's homemade it doesn't look homemade does it? It looks like it's a beautiful piece of art now this is one of the things that I've done it in this piece is I sprayed the picture after I you know, after I let the photograph dry and then mounted it to the mountain board when you're going I'll show you when we get to that part I'll show you another he's about this and then I use dekel ng I mean not declan I use gold leaf or silver leaf pens to just to make to put around the edge I just think it cleans it up and finishes it up just a little bit so this is such an easy affordable thing I guess what you present this to your hairstylist what's she going to do with it is this small enough to fit on a work station I love this heart I'm not kidding you this was like I was like oh I heard the angels linking what I thought of this one I know I'm sorry but I get excited over the dumbest things it doesn't take much pro photographer would like to know how far on the average are the salons from your studio and what sort of the maximum distance it would be accepted apple to you how far how is that window if you're starting out and how do you expand right question um I would say my average distances like ten to fifteen twenty miles the bay area is quite spread out so like I have salons and walnut creek I have some in diallo I have some in a danville and then a few in lafayette that we've worked with and then a few indonesia where my studio is that um so you know, I have a variety of different kinds of places that we go to to me it's the most important question to me is is it close enough that people would drive to my studio for a session or is it possible for me to do the session there to do that? Is that going to be effective now ok, if that was too much too expensive for you the last thing that I showed you if that was like oh my god baby, I can't do that it's it's too expensive ok, how much would you like to guess that this photograph cost me to make how about too? Because when you buy it and by the way I'm addicted to michael's okay there were two for three bucks okay for them and they're all they are little tiny mats they're I mean they're ready to hang so all I did is I primed them this by the way is my dog cooper how much is this worth to someone that that's their dog worth a lot to them? See in fact my business partner was asking me the other day said baby is how much are you going to sell those things for and I go this is not for sale no you couldn't put a price tag on it but what it is this is a this is something that I would give somebody as an incentive so in that acute of acute item and this is what they look like blank I mean it's just silly, huh? Yeah, I glue it on I use just that that sticky glue the spray kind it's very basic let's reposition able so if you make a mistake you can pop it off you know, just peel it off and then do it again and then once it sets for like twenty four hours it set its it's firm it's set for good but it's a terrific little thing that you can do now see my goal is that all of you take baby steps take baby steps to get yourself started and the reason for this is because if you take those baby steps, then guess what, you're going to be in business a lot longer don't feel like they have to do everything just right now, but when you do get ready to go big, then make sure that those big prints count this is one of the pieces that I did this was a photograph that I shot for the cover of metropolitan bride magazine, but it's also one that I showed at a bridal theory very, very large, probably eight feet tall I mean it's very large because I want people when they're walking that show to go whoa that's different that's really amazing and then maybe I might have the magazine cover right there. In addition to that, this is one of the other pictures that I shot from metropolitan bride, but could this not easily go into a bridles a bridal salon? And so one of the things I've done is I also work with bridal salon giselle salon in san francisco that said, maybe we'd love to showcase your work we need thirteen sixty inch prints and so it's a great way to do it so I would pick out images that really reflect kind of what their style is of course dresses that were purchased in that salon and that really showcase that kind of fun edgy look and then I have carte launch and but I will tell you this is how you do it if you never ask, you're never going to receive, so you have to be willing to ask and here's the other part about that don't go showing up at that salon it you want to get them to be your friends and to work with you don't go showing up, but those salons dress like you rolled out of bed you need to dress the part like you own it so that when they see you that they feel that you belong in there with them. So I make sure I wear my best suit that I probably wouldn't wear this maybe I'd probably wear my best suit something that just made me look like a real professional and so that I could so that when they saw me, they would say, you know what? She's somebody I liked I think her she looks professional and I feel secure with her. What about a med spa? Okay, med spas are like my favorite thing nothing I've had any work done, but let me tell you how powerful our med spas they're fantastic this photograph would that not be a great image for somebody who was going to go into a med spot and go have, you know, have bo talks done or something of that look at it because they do facials, doesn't it short those skin tones beautifully, so I go in and I I have beautiful cards made that have this person's picture on it and then have, like and create a variety of them for them to keep. I want them to have my promotional pieces, I want to create a promotional piece for them. What a better way to do it than to do it on, you know, through your your printing efforts in the studio because you can create something, especially on the fine art paper that I love, because then it's something very, very special and very unique, and then those guys are all over themselves, you know, to have you have you to work with you is just great, and I'll tell you what the recent med sponsors so great is guess what? They have disposable income, and they care how they look, they're interested in they're interested in themselves, I think it's a really good thing. One other thing that I have been very successful in isn't school auctions, and I think this is one of the best reasons for for printing some of your own work. The kind of pictures that you show are as important as what you put those pictures on. So I want those images to be exciting and fun loving and playful. I want those people. But when they had that, they cannot walk past my little stand at that. That that at the auction, we contribute to probably thirty schools in the bay area. And I love it. It's, my favorite way to contribute because it benefits the school. I mean, they make a nice chunk of change off my porch is now. People fight over them, which is really fun. It's exciting for me as an artist. But it's also great for them, because they get they have a way to fund their schools. I think that's really great. So this is one of the trip ticks that I would show at one of those a school auctions. Now, here's, the beauty here is the beauty of working with your printer, because then I can say, hey, you know what this is? I see that we have the willow creek school coming up on friday and it's thursday because I get busy and forget stuff, and and so then I go, who do we photograph last year from that school, you know what, why not use their family portrait, hello, and guess what that mom is going to do? Course caesar with parent permission I never showed anything without getting colonel consent. So guess what that mom is at the auction cause that's where she saw me the year before and she goes, oh my what my family I guess and everything you guys look so amazing blah blah blah blah blah so it's a terrific way to get you know again to have your fans talking about you. One of the things I've learned is really important, by the way is that I found that it's important for me to be able to communicate with them on b there so I've started going to that those shows and I think that's a really great way for me to become friends with the school with the principal hi hari that being thank you so much for contributing to our auctions this great, of course guess who's going to get a family portrait gift card for me hello the principal of that school and maybe any pete one who's in a position of authority that I think could really benefit my business but this allows me a variety of creative outlets and I think that this is all part of my photographic experience. Questions question I love your energy this is exciting uh, are you the archival qualities of printing on that disk go down to the primer the spray, the inks and what have you didn't talk to your client out maintaining the integrity of that problem? My prints are all archival and the way you know, the spray that we use the the any of the textiles that go into what we do is all archival. Yes. In fact, it's got a longer longevity the when you think jet print from my understanding it's got a longer life life, then regular photographic prints. One of the other things I like about ancient prince in general is the fact that they are more vibrant. They tend to be a bit more vibrant than regular photographic prints. My color lab, a photo also will print on fine art paper. They have an entire line, which is fabulous so that you know, for the people who don't want to get elaborate and that they don't want to mess with thanks and all that stuff, then they can have an amazing color lab that will also do that part so you can take advantage of those things as well. Now why do I have this this slide up here with neiman marcus? What do you think I learned from this ad? I love the way that that print those prints in the back are laid out, which leads me now to our trusty little table I think that that you don't ever get a second chance to make a first impression so this is what we started doing when anyone purchases a portrait from me bring us under a little bit like this when they purchase a portrait they don't just get they don't just get a picture of misha they don't get just something like that ok? They don't get that they get that beautiful photograph mounted in an eight apply acid free matt you see this is something you cannot purchase at costco you can't purchase that from them you know this makes your work look like art and that's when people start seeing the the nesting that you do and this is exactly why I started the this whole process is really upgrading my image and especially when it came to you know the way that my work was perceived was to do it this way so I print my beautiful images sometimes on fine art paper I always signed those mats because art is signed and then we don't use four ply mats we use eight ply mats I think eight ply is all the difference in the world they're not super inexpensive I want to say the matter like ten dollars apiece but it really does make a difference and then this is what they look like just a simple eight ply math they come from ready man it's ready matt dot com and this is a mat that was created by amazing, amazing digital artists say you don't want to do any of your own work, you just want to be ableto show up and let it showcases self there's an amazing artist. His name is jonathan penny, and he also creates fabulous, fabulous, fabulous you could send him a digital file and he'll get it ready. He'll do all the artwork, and then he'll mounted in your beautiful eight ply mats and then do some really fun declan and so forth with the print as well. So it's a terrific resource as well. So if you don't want to do it yourself, you can still get that fine art look from a lot of different people. Okay, so what about doctors offices, charity auctions and client appreciation? Okay, one of my clients was this beautiful little mommy. And as you all know, when you take birthing classes, um, you know, you have to go on your with what other mommy's. So what I did is I first did her session and her session. I did a variety of photographs of her, and I got to know a lot about this young mom, by the way, that she came for her session, the kind of clothing that she brought toe where was very soft and very blush colored and it was very soft and food food, and she had those little ballet slippers and stuff, you know, that was kind of that very soft, elegant look, and so I wanted tio I wanted to give her something to give out to those little mom she's at her birthing class. So the first thing I did was something like this is your family's story is just now being written. Start the next chapter with a complimentary maternity portrait session in our trendy loft studio, a gorgeous hand printed eight by ten portrait is included as a gift. So from her to those a little mommy's in the room, we decided to do this kind of promotional piece. Now this wasn't bad, but it just didn't float my boat. You know why I didn't like it? Because it's kind of like the same kind of promotional piece that everybody does your body has five by seven stuff like that and again, member could go back to the louis vuitton thing, you've got to do something different, so I started thinking, racking my brain, well, what could I do that would give my work a fine art feel and that would make it look special? Well, this is where I went from there I found amazing card stock, the head of gorgeous dekel edge on it I got envelopes that also had a deck aled edge. You know, we love women are tactile creatures, and women are my client. Men are not my client, women or my client. And so I thought, well, what could I do with that? And so on the inside, we printed it. Here's our little printing. This is a little gift card just like that. But now, wouldn't you agree? This just looks a little bit boring. So, here's, where I went to next with this this concept, I started creating a line of greeting cards that I could customize for every single client. You want to see how I did it. It's so dumb. Easy. I'm not kidding you. And I hate that you're going to it's going to be annoying that I have to show you this is you're all going to do it. I'm not worried way make if we elevate the photo community. Really? Who cares? You know, there's enough business for all of us. The first thing I did was I needed to. Obviously, I selected a photograph from that particular client and and I did a picture like you see here with her and her little maternity out that and then I cut them. To a small size now you'll notice that I'm using a very small size like this is probably two and a half inches by two and a half inches I specifically did not want to go bigger you see when you go big it starts looking cheesy and crafty and I don't want to look cheesy and crafty I wanted it to look like like this was that this was a piece of art because you know art doesn't have to be big and when you look at like regular greeting cards they always have the picture really big and bold and just very obnoxious so I started with that and then this is what I got from here this is so crazy I bought this silly stuff it's from a company called dirk o at the their web addresses in this light show actually if I do advance one slide I can show that to you so here's those little stickers okay there I ordered them specific size like two inches long by about one inch you can order any size that you want may see if the photograph were just tacked on the front like that and it just looks like a picture stuck on but if you take this photograph and you put it on this little this sticky stuff right here that see how it's got that little bit it's like about a quarterback and an inch you create a fine art piece then they look awesome. So I and this is as big as I would want the picture. In fact, this is almost a little bit too big. But you get the idea. And then after I did the photograph you want to see how stupid easy this is. Let me show you. I'm not joking. This is so crazy. Um ok, here we go. Here is our really expensive gold pen. All right? You just take that you use a ruler as you can see with my ruler, I have you. Is this a lot? Let me take my box here, just cover and put this on the inside so that I can draw on the outside. And this is all you do. You take your picture, you lay it down on on a hard surface. Now these are all done by hand and I like that. I have to tell you, this is very soothing to me, it's very soothing. And I just go like this. I go one takes me about oh, I'd say, you know, a minute or two to do each hard too three and four. Okay, how hard was that? Now look at what that did with our picture. Do you see how it took it from being just a photograph, it gives it a rich look I tell you, of all the things I've ever done here, you can pass this around for you kids to see of all of the different kinds of things that I produced. This is by far one of my very favorite things I've ever done because when people see them, if you got a card like that, would you throw it away? Now you would not, so it really has given people get them and they go, oh my goodness, I love that that's really special. So when I did this little mommy's maternity pictures, I use that maternity photograph on the on the promotional piece to get the hurt to send out to her friends when they saw that picture of her there. Oh my goodness, this is gorgeous! She does beautiful prenatal photographs all I want to hire her to come in and do that, and then they'll come in and I'll photograph them and then guess what? My next thing is to get birth announcements and that's what these are our birth announcements, they're not super inexpensive, I don't, I wouldn't I don't want something that's super cheap if you want something, chief, go to costco and they are they can go to costco, go print their guts out on that cheap stuff my goal is to do something special that makes my work look and and sing but that's not the end of the story I think as important as the way that you lay that card out is the way that you finish it and this is also something that we do it on all of our are enlargements as well this is a deck learn it's a handheld dekel a deck lor and basically you just take the photograph or the greeting card you take it and you go like this you said it on a desk if you don't have strength in your hands like I don't he pressed down and it'll imprint blind in boss your logo or whatever you want and I'll tell you what when people get that oh, this is beautiful this is very official it looks really elegant it's also a great thing one of the other ways that we've used it I don't have any samples to shake and I just thought about it just right now is one of the other things that we've done is that will send a certificate of authenticity see how that could work ok, so now we gotta do have any questions about that. Any questions throughout one can you define blind in boss place? Yes ah blind in boston here I'll show you what a blinding boss pieces and then that way there's there will be no question and it's better than okay here is an envelope that is blind and boss and basically what it does is it that pushes the material or the greeting card the your imprint through the greeting card so it has a beautiful tactile feel and we do we in boss every single greeting card that goes out this is also one of my greeting cards that I did for this family. This was the last photograph of this lovely woman before she died I thought I had the privilege of photographing her and her husband just before she died and what an amazing picture that could be to send him say, hey, you know what I just want you know, I was thinking about you, which leads me to other ways you and I can can really be to impact families every family that comes into my studio and I photographed them as soon as they're gone as soon as they leave, my goal is to create a card to say thank you mean and again, this go back to being able to print your own work and how quickly can you do that? This is again one of the benefits. So what I do is after they've left the studio, I will sit down, I'll find the photograph that I think just kind of says the best says a lot about them and maybe in this case after I did the session with this little baby that was the photograph and that ended up being the birth announcement for for this young lady I sent her a little card I just said I want to say thank you how much fun I had photographing you and your beautiful new daughter just for the record it was not fun on she'd be the first time it I'm not kidding you I have a whole new respect for people who were photographing newborns it's like you wait for like ten hours for that kid to find the croak and goto splitting I'm not getting like ok, come on and she she was just it was hilarious so once she was asleep though and I want that you want to know how I got that baby to hold onto that teddy bear well, there it's been what can I say? So but you've got to do what you gotta do, right? So but that's my thought processes I want what people that very same week that they're on the high about the photographic experience I want them to go oh yeah that's awesome oh, and then to get this beautiful card they're never going to throw that thing away they will not do that they're going to keep that and it's going to be something that they would even frame so again it's a great way to make you look like an artist questions yes now is that card the first image that they've seen is that he's their image the royal question yes it is the first image and we require that families come in for viewing we don't let them see their pictures online I think if you show your work online you are that is not a smart move it is not a good thing because you want we want to get them impacted emotionally about your pictures not only that but if you show somebody a picture online if they have a tiny little monitor that's how they see their images and I want them to be crying and really being impacted but that's why this picture that is really important the one that goes on the cover of this thanks you know it's not going to be hi mom looking in the camera like oh hi we're all of families around the fireplace or whatever it's got to be something that's emotion invoking you know maybe it's children running down the hallway or you know moms and dads and their kids you know playing together and laughing it's always something that's emotion driven not just static imagery and I'm gonna talk more about that in my program this afternoon so it's it's actually pretty easy to do for large portrait's large things that I want just for my own studio images like this one are going to hang on my wall in the studio I want images that are highly impactful and that are unique I don't want them to see things in my studio that they can see anywhere, which is why it's important for me that we turn around imagery quite often in our studio and change it up because there's just nothing more boring than having somebody come in for their their photo shoots, seeing a picture on the wall and then coming back you know, maybe a couple of weeks later or something and this seeing other pictures you are seeing the same pictures like there was thought, yes, I don't have a studio yet, so can you suggest anything for people that don't have a side sir can I sure can because I worked out of my home for years, my son, my husband, I have one child and when he was growing up, we homeschooled him and so I was I stayed home and my husband and I worked it out so that we could give him a good quality education in spite of my two point eight g p a and so I understand how it feels to work out of your house. What I did though, is I designated one room that was, you know, kid free, that was just in my case it was my living room and I hung client beautiful images on the wall not a lot of pictures but big prints that were very impactful and that way when somebody came, they came right in that room and cameron our son because what will happen is if you don't make that room a kid free room, then guess what? They're always have a crises when you have a client, they always need your attention at that moment and so that's how I handled it one of the other things I did when cameron was very young, it was my husband, we worked out an arrangement that went out that I had clients that day that he would take care of on off to go do many things and it's a great way for you to still be a business person even in your home it's very popular a lot of people work out of their homes nowadays, so it's not it doesn't have that stigma that it used to of oh, you're a little mommy and your little part time or, you know kind of thing, it really can have a very professional look but it's up to you to make it look professional. Well, how do you do that? Well, it's, the way that you dress it's the way that that room looks doesn't look like like dad's going to sit out on that couch any moment and watch a football game or is it pristinely clean and doesn't look like a show room those were the things that are going to make it well worth your time to kind of invest in not a lot of furniture you don't want too much furniture in that room because if you have too much, then guess what it's going to cluttered looking and then it makes people feel a bit claustrophobic and they can't imagine having your portrait in their home because they're thinking, oh, that's just too big and that's what you don't want if you want to sell big print and big, especially fine art pieces and you want something for people to get that's going to work out great, does that answer your question? So I think that was really important to me, one of the other things that was really helpful and it was important to me when I worked out of my home was the fact that what a client came, I had good nice music on, you know, playing I kept it very, very professional, andi, I really tried to create a very personalized interview process in fact, they really like coming to my house because they felt heck, I know where you live. I mean, I could come egg your house if you don't do it nice to have all my portrait, not only that, but I did need a permit to shoot in my own backyard. So that's it that's not a bad recent as well on dh also here's another idea for those of you let's think that you have a client, that you've already done a session for one of the things that we've, we've tried that we found very, very helpful and fun is why not print one image that's a large piece and sell it upon inspection? So another was when they come into view their pictures for the first time, they see one of their portrait hanging on an easel oh, my family on this, gorgeous, I gotta have that and, well, guess what? Because we've already we could we got crazy and this and I'm on this is absolutely the way I am I go, guys, I'm sorry I got a little nuts I couldn't help myself, but I just want a little crazy and, you know, I I had to print one just for me to just show you because it's so pretty if you would like to have it, then maybe we wait, we say, you know, well, we're happy to give this to you in a specific cost or whatever. So it's a great way to kind of get people kind of in the zone is left and also show them what a big picture looks like. Because, you know, they're thinking in their mind they're sitting down on your couch and they're going, oh, honey, I want a big picture. Well, what's the big picture or will eight by ten? Sorry, have you ever seen people put eight by ten's on their well, one of the thinking that looks like a postage stamp looks ridiculous, so I like them to see bigger images, and if it's a picture of themselves, they're more likely to buy into that. Does that make sense for you? Do you see? I really you have a question, charlie, when you have a client come over for their preview was the types of products you're offering and how do you not offer too much for client confusion? Or do you have a say kind of a say, no, that lady fabulous question, but could I get you wait and hold that for this afternoon's program? Because I'm going to show you about, we're going to go into detail on the different kinds of stories that I tell and how I how I'm able to do that, so I don't want to give too much of that away, but thank you that's a good question anyone else got a question through one alabamy share, um, so paloma would like to know what size enlargements do you recommend for display and living rooms? Or do you kind of talk to them about their wall space? It really depends on the client's home that's a really great question. So what we generally do is well, when we are working with our clients will say, could you just take a couple of cell phones, cell phone pictures of your living room you know where you might hang a wall portrait? You know, if you were going to do a well portrait, show me some pictures and what we want to see is we want to see that before we do the photo shoot why colors? Because if their house is all white and airy, you know, we want to know that we want to use that kind of our high key area in the studio, maybe photograph outside and, you know, a new area where they have, like, a really soft grasses and stuff not put him in a dark area, you know, an area that's going to be real hard or rel rel stuffing to give an example this little girl right here when she came into the studio her and her mother came in for a session. She came in twice the first time she came in and the mom goes, you know, my daughter's, a little actress and so she says, I need to have a head shot done and I went ok, that's good, I think that's a great idea. And so we did her little head shots and when that child walked out the door, I knew I had not done my job. I just kept thinking, you know, I'm not feeling it because it's not her, so I invited her to come back in. In fact, if you want to see this entire session the last program I did for creative live in january when they came to my studio is available, I'm sure for purchase through creative live here you'll see the entire segment I did with this young lady. And so what I did say that, you know, I kept looking at her hair. She had this, um, amazing blonde hair and I kept thinking tim burton kind of morse with alice in wonderland and I just wanted something that was a bit funky, and so we hired a makeup artist to come in and do her makeup and then we had a hair cell is coming. I said, I want big hair. I want real big wild hair because I want her to look a bit tim burton desk and we did this I did this photo shoot in the studio against one of my dark gray walls but now can you see how the subject fits the environment and all kind of works? And this is the photograph that absolutely won her family over that's really cute, her garments, her garments are so silly. Well, she's not wearing that's, not a shirt on her that's, not a blouse that's, a pair of tights that we cut holes in for the hands. And then we wrap the tights around her back and then she's wearing just a little a little, too, too on her underscoring, we found the little hat at, um, at like one of the craft stores for, like a dollar ninety five for something like that, so you don't have to spend lots of money to create beautiful pictures. Just remember, keep it pure and keep it simple. I'm going talk more about that in this program this afternoon. Yes, darling, you mentioned earlier about creating images that were timeless, not having an image that's that stated when when doing large prince, do you find that people are going for particular mounting options like a star from board or canvas, or mounting them in a frame? Great question. Aa lot of our clients still do gallery wraps, and we'll talk more about that this afternoon, but I am finding more, more people like fine art, the fine art look because it looks a little bit different and that's why? One of the reasons that I came up and thank you for segue weighing into this fear so simply for me, that's one of the reasons that I came up with doing this kind of a peace because it's not like a gallery rep to me, this is modern gallery rap. I'm not a huge fan of just the normal gallery rap. Look, I wanted something that was a bit more unique and by taking a piece of fine art paper and then a teasing it t your mount board or to your your piece right here and then giving it that little gold border I could, I could start with something that was going to be a little bit more unique. Does that make sense for you? So I believe it's important to do we have the tried and true pieces that we always do. As I said, many people still love gallery reps and they don't have to be framed, but a lot of people are moving towards some other pieces that have a bit of a different look, I will tell you a lot of it depends on the demographic of the client that you're working with because it's been my experience that the people who are more have are more affluent if they're very wealthy, they would not even think they would never put a well portrait on their wall that's not gonna happen, they don't do that. They want little tiny pictures five by seven or an eight by ten is a huge picture for them, so I wouldn't want to do that. So let's, talk about what you might want to show in a display pretty sells kids, so make sure that you have a pretty subject. This is my my very favorite client that I've ever photographed her name is bunny and or barbie could be hurting could barbie, huh? So but and I'm actually making a joke like this, but remember in your studio that pretty cells in addition to that let's talk, we're going to switch gears, and as we close our show down this afternoon, I'm going to show you one of the the other elements that goes into the fine art world of printing. When they asked me to do this program on printing, I really struggled trying think, well, how in the world can I make aa program about printing your own work? Not boring? I mean, come on it's like, ok, you go and delight room and you select this I mean that is a snooze fest and I'm sorry but it's been done julien cost did in a million years ago and you could get the youtube thing on it you know very easily so I tried to find a way to give it a human face I wanted you to see at a new open your minds to creative ideas that you could use for for printing your own pieces that made it very special and very, very unique. One of the more unique things that I've done is to work with wax on due in cost ix it is so much fun and I find again because I'm working with women that they love that tactile feel they love that look that is very rich and very tactile the kind of images that I'm going to show that I'm going to do and encaustic four are not going to be your high mom pictures ok they're not going to be hi mom looking in the camera that doesn't work for and caustic it's like because then they look like they've got bad skin and they looked really, really weird what I would do that would be a fabulous and caustic piece because there's romance to it in fact I over exposed to this photograph by about a stop to keep it to give that whole light elegant soft look I added a bit of silver the silver and bossing around the edges the silver trim on it and now this print is ready to be to be to be worked in wax now one of the other things, too, when you're working with the fine art paper aa lot of people don't like working with the fine art paper when they're doing in cost six, because it sucks up the way. It's the key to success is making sure you spray your print first if you spray your print first that's why, you know, in fact, when I was I was struggling with that when I initially started doing in caustic and get sucking up the the black so bad, and so I thought, well, what can I do? And I had a little brain, you know, little like bill came on my brain, and I went, wait a minute, you know what? If we spray the print hello, that would do the trick? And so that was where I just sprained the print, put a couple of coats of clear code on it, and then it made it so that it would accept the ink or nothing but the wax in a nice way. One of the things that we do o good, my might, my wax is about ready to a couple of tools that you're going to want to have. You're gonna want an easel because when you're when you're working in the wax itself, you want to be able to have the wax dripped down as you manipulated one of the great things about working and caustic so if you don't like the way it looks, guess what? You can rework that print over and over and over again. The photograph that you see appear is a finished piece that I just completed. Let me just put this up a little bit way this is un encaustic pc how it's got that little bit of texture on it I'll pass it around for you to look at but when she agree, this is the right kind of photograph to do and encaustic it's not it's fairly dry. I did it a couple of days ago takes a couple a little while for it to cure, like most places like I mean, if I wanted to, I could scratch it if I really wanted to, but I won't. But the whole idea is to create a piece that when your client comes in that now they see you not as just some photographer who's going to give them a disk of pictures, but an artist and that's the thing to think about it, you know, you can I have a disk of images? Yeah, but are you going to get this no no you're not so my goal is to create some things that are so specialized in so unique that they would not even we're gonna go have that done I can't go to costco they can't go anywhere they have to come to me to get these things that are specialized and it is not rocket science kids it's not rocket science it's a little on the messy side and it's been my experience and I must complete slob so I'm always getting waxed all over the place and you notice I'm not wearing an apron like I should be or anything so we might have wax all over the studio here but what you're going to need I use the use that it's called are an f in caustic medium and I like working with it I like the premixed kind of wax with within koszics you need to work with a wax that you had a resident to so it'll go so hard and I like the premade stuff because that way I don't have to worry about don't like mixing stuff I want to be able to do it on a day and not you know, just keep it super simple so for the sake of time we're going to use this little piece right here so I'm gonna take my little piece stick it on my easel like this and now we're going to use a little tray let's see let's try this oh yeah I think that's gonna work okay, then you get some really high tech things like this these little foil pieces this is what you're gonna melt the wax in and it's awesome you want by the way when you're using wax the melting the wax you want a very low temperature? I think I haven't said it two hundred ten degrees so you want the wax melted but you do want to burn it or anything so just a low temperature the next thing that you're going to want to do is you're going to want some very cheap brushes I like the nylon brush is I think they're very easy to work with these just really cheap I think it was like a dollar fifty for the brush sometimes the little the little the little teeth come out and they get in your pieces it did in that piece right there but again because you could rework your picture over and over again you can go up so I don't like that and you can get it right out. So without further ado let's see how we're going to make this work here is our our gun and basically the way you use this gun this is very hot so you want to be careful when you're using this kind of a peace it has the dialling back so I could get it can get hotter or cooler it has two speeds it could get this is the high and basically the idea is is that as you paint your piece that you start getting the white to manipulate the wax you use your hot your blowgun right here keep your hands away from the front of this it is very very hot and you will burn the crap out of your hands. Okay? Ah, a lot of people are asking online where the best places to purchase all these products are your paper urine caustic work. Okay, um they're very good you can buy just about anywhere aa lot of the encaustic stuff I bought it I think dick blick you know, so they're not there by some for a very simple place like dick. I know that um michael's carries the boards that carry a lot of the products that carry the glue that you can glue the prints down with. Um so but dick flick will also have the final paper and such it might want to use if you are going to use a different kind of paper of one of the papers that is they have some of the other epsom papers are just crazy gorgeous, the luster papers just amazing and then they also have some other papers that I want to talk about this afternoon that are just fantastic to use too so let's go and we'll get our piece that started ok, so now here we have our photograph and we're going to take me to step our brush into our wax mixture and we just start painting it down like this as you see, and later my little gun on and as you brush on, you're going to see it's going to have kind of a milky, milky look to it and you might want to start when you start doing a piece like this, you may want to start on a smaller piece like like you see right here so that you can so that it's easy for you to kind of get the feel of to see how you're going to like it. So you see, I'm just making large brush strokes and the great thing about see how that I mean, I don't know if you can tell it from where you're sitting, but you see how I'm making just very nice strokes all the way down, and as it as this heat gun blows through the blows across the print, it'll create drip marks that you could just wipe them down as you see that I'm gonna go just a little bit more and then we'll this piece will be pretty much ready one of the other things that you can do to within caustic is that you can create patterns on the photograph so if you decide that you want to have it looked more brush stroke like you can do that, you get this down here and I'm going to be good to go, okay? So we've got basically our first cut on you see how it looks kind of milky looks kind of on the milky side now if you let it, if you let it dry, it'll get clear again. But now what I want to do and I have a bit of a difficulty years a little bit, I have a little trouble getting it toe work, right? So you can see it, but now that I've got my first layer of encaustic on now, I can go through and just start creating my my designs that I might want to do. Maybe I want to be a nice vertical line, and I've started get some little there's, a little areas here that are going to be a little bit less perfect, but I think that's all good for the and cost if you don't have to everything so perfect. Um, you may want to make horse on the lines and basically that's all you do. I mean, you'll want to go through issued look at your piece as you work out your piece. See how it's got kind of that that line across I mean you've got those lines now you see this area right here where when you get close you'll see how it has like it's got a drip mark oh I have a drip mark what do I do pay just use your little gun it'll melt away and then you can straighten it right on out and so that you don't have to have any have any lines or marks if you don't care for it and then the finished piece and this is how my first piece that I did before I came this is how it looked so super super simple again the whole goal to doing fine art pieces like this is to give your clients something that they can't get somewhere else you haven't questions about that? Yes what's the gun cold again this is called a let's see what this is called it's called a heat gun now isn't that a clever name? It's called the vt eleven hundred heat gun and I like it because you do have varying temperatures on the back it also is it it's got it's got you know two different speeds they make more elaborate ones than this one I just said keep it simple as long as it blows hot air I'm ok with that the other thing too is that this is just a hot plate now they make this real fancy fancy shmancy hot thing you know especially for encaustic said if you're going to maybe do this like fight in the art world, then you may want to get there a little special, but this was just like like my like twelve dollars and ninety five cents from you know from from target heat out and so but it'll do and I'll do fine on the job I actually got this I stole this from for my house my husband can't make pancakes anymore because I stole it so any right the other thing too that's great about working in and caustic says you notice how my brush now oh lord, see how my brushes all dumped up it's ruined right know all you have to do is you could just put the heat gun on it, blow it and it'll it'll melt all the wax and then you can reuse your brushes so you don't have to have again it doesn't have to be like a winner lose kind of thing and I really encourage all of you did too just try some of these concepts for fun that's why you do it to begin with because it's fun and then you find a way to work it into what you're doing in your business and that's when you that's those are the things that pulled you from being average joe photographer to being the photographer that is sought out not because of what you charge, but in spite of what you charge and I think that's so important in our world today. It's it's so important to me that all of you are successful in our career. This is the most wonderful profession that there is guys, I absolutely I can't believe I get paid to do this. It is just such an amazing thing, but it it's not without hard work and it's not without fear that you're going to screw it up and you're gonna make a mistake, embrace those mistakes, enjoy them and, you know, in the beginning, sometimes people go oh my goodness, maybe you're printing your own work. Oh, that's, scary and, you know, you have to know about color profiling all a profile is a recipe that's what it is it's a recipe that's basically being diesel glorify wait, that's, what profile is long as I know if I'm working with cold press paper, I select the cold press profile and I'm good pretty much good to go, and the printers are just amazing. I can't even tell you how much I love working with the absent printers, but again, any of these things can be done without you having to go into that expense. Because you can have your amazing color lab like you know, a photo, because, hey, I want to order a particular photograph. I want it to be an eight by eight size, and you sent him the picture. They send it back to you either printed on luster paper or whatever, you know, ever kind of photographic paper. And then you can start this process. And that way you can do baby steps and try a lot of different kinds of techniques. Ondas they mentioned these little, those little silly one of my favorite things. So there's little silly piece is the little black and white. This little card someone had the dogs on him. I'm also very resourceful. I was telling you about how that you glue your photograph down first you spray it with the adhesive, the reposition ability. Is this what you want to use? Spray the board first with the piece of then I mount my photograph, and I never amount to straight the first time, by the way, a cool thing about having this gold leaving on it just what's. Really cool about that. Is that height you screw up? Not that I ever make any mistakes, but it does, it really hides all of your screw up. So, there's, another reason why you have that, you know, for an experience person who know who makes lots of the stakes may be ok and then and then here's one of the other things that cool too. Okay, you see this little piece right here? This is the end cap on a roll on the roller for for my epson paper and I got to looking at what you know what? Because they want to charge like it's, like five bucks for that little scraper thing that goes across the print to mounted on the picture, you know, to mount the picture to the board like this. I went this fits in my hand perfectly it's made of plastic it's smooth. It works so I try to recycle everything I can and try to use my time wisely. That way. Yes. Do you have any suggestions for inexpensive ways to cut your own matte board? Uh, cutting that board? No, I don't cut my own map boards and I got to tell you that's an area where I don't want to cut my own that and the reason I don't want to cut matte board is because it's not cost effective now this is the crazy part I'm willing to go toe put my efforts. And I'm not going to watch my pennies on certain areas like anything that comes where it involves a picture, but when it comes to matt, those eight by ten are the maps like from ready math eight ply once they're like ten bucks do I really want to spend an hour or a half hour? Do I want to spend that much time, you know, cutting a matt? No, I'd rather spend the time creating the artwork and creating the fine art piece on dh, then that's going to give me something very special let's see, I know I put that little here to sort of, um, so I'd rather spend it in other area I'm not saying you shouldn't do that. This is the kind of photograph that I would want to do and encaustic with see how it's got that beautiful, soft, rich, smooth kind of look images like this one that I just shot this about two weeks ago of a high school senior light toned images look better in and caustic then darker tones, however, I feel like there's no absolute rules on anything I have got some images that I have shot that actually looked really great done in a caustic that were darker tone prints, so that might be the one I might this is a darker tone print, but this would be phenomenal phenomenal in caustic so I try to create a variety of images when somebody walks into my studio I want them to be wowed from the moment they walk in. I want them to buy me as soon as they walk through that door so that as they're walking through looking at the pictures I want to go I gotta have this oh my goodness, this is this is amazing! And this is oh, how creative well and I finally got called on artist I can't even tell you how much that meant to me that somebody called oh, you're the artist and somebody called me a door that's not just a photographer because I'm in a building. My studio is in a about one hundred fifty year old building in northern california in historic arsenal building scent of this little town of venetia, california and we are in a little art community, the rial artist and they are the biggest snobs you have ever met in your eyes. Oh, you're just a photographer that's exactly what did call it? Oh, you're just a photographer's I had the first year I was there, I spent the entire year tryingto you know, one of them because, you know, oh, they're artist and I'm not you know, but I'll tell you what's good about that because they really helped me two brought in my my thought process on media on what medium I should say and that, what can you use this for? And is this a medium that you could if you could adapt to photography? And so I've become friends with a lot of the artists in my building, just for that reason, so we can try a variety of different kinds of scenarios? Here's, another photograph that would look fabulous, and this again, is this a dark piece? But this would look amazing, done in and caustic, and what I would do it in making this into caustic. This is when you maybe want to use a small brush, like maybe a small brush about this big, so you can create some brush strokes, just some small brush strokes to give it kind of a fine art look, it's been my experience with doing the encaustic that the the little weasel is really been helpful? It kind of helps you to keep from being awkward and dumping things on the floor, and I am truly the biggest klutz that ever hit the universe. And so I want to make sure that try to keep things safe as I can, and not wear clothing that has that's flowing on the day that I'm doing this because you get it, not only you screwed up everything, but whatever this kind of photograph that soft romantic photograph really lends itself to doing pieces that are oven and caustic nature questions yes, I was curious how you present this to your client and that how you're describe sing it to them because I know you're not telling them or I'm assuming you're not telling them oh, I did this so easy and I don't know how you know what? Actually, I don't I don't talk to them about the process you see, I think that's part of our problem in photography we wait so thrilled over something we learned how to do that we tell him away too much information really do we really need to tell him all that stuff? And I'm mother is telling me I'm the oldest photographer on the planet so I can tell you this, okay? And we wait I had a client I won't even tell you what his name is and this young man he was one of my best clients about twelve thousand dollars worth of wall portrait before he even thought his wedding album. Ok, so he was my friend, so one day he comes into the studio just pops in and it was hey bam I oh, come back here I gotta show you, I've been working on one of your pictures and I and I had learned a new technique and photoshopped I'm rolling my eyes right now right so anyway bring him back and I shown what I've done and he goes that means you could give me more hair and at that moment I went oh my goodness I have totally screwed up the universe it was awful and that client went from being my favorite client to to be the biggest client pain in the backside that you have ever ever met the biggest south end of a north bound meal you have ever met in your whole life because from that moment on oh you can fix that photo shop oh you can fix that you could do a caustic says he won't take you five minutes pull up so I've learned that I don't I don't go into detail about how I do it I just offer the service and let that be up to their imagination and they sail baby how'd you do that I go well if I told you I'd have to kill you so I don't I don't let him I don't like to boss me around and tell me that I can't you know that I shouldn't do something one way or the other so I really try to keep it you know keep it free flowing and give people reasons to purchase my byproducts from my fine art greeting cards they're not inexpensive I give them to some of my clients that purchase a nice ah very nice a product that I don't sell the cards because I don't want them fit. Putting a price tag on that car. Are you one of my images on it? I'd rather give them twenty cards and say, you know what, your you were so amazing as a client. This is what we chose to do.