Rangefinder Magazine
April 2005

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2005 Hy Sheanin Memorial by Emily Burnett
Scholarship Winner: Wes Kroninger

The Hy Sheanin Memorial Scholarship, in honor of Rangefinder Publishing Company founder and WPPI co-founder, Hy Sheanin, gives people new to professional photography—assistants, recent graduates or those starting out in business—the opportunity to attend the WPPI Convention and Trade Show where they can improve their skills, art and business.

With nearly 40 applicants, the competition this year was intense. Each applicant had to submit a portfolio with 10 8x8 or 8x10 images, a cover letter explaining why the applicant wanted the scholarship and a brief resumé. In addition to registration for the WPPI 2005 Convention, the scholarship recipient received round-trip airfare to Las Vegas for the convention, lodging for eight nights at Bally’s, a one-year membership in WPPI and a subscription to Rangefinder.

This year’s Hy Sheanin Memorial Scholarship recipient is 27-year-old Westly Kroninger of Baton Rouge, LA. Among the many high-quality entries, Westly’s work stood out to the scholarship judges.
Wes heard about the scholarship on the WPPI web site. He was already a WPPI member and says he “saw the scholarship as an opportunity to learn and advance in the photography field. I have been spending a lot of time learning about the business side of running a portrait studio, and I am excited to learn some new techniques and tricks.”

When he applied for the scholarship in October, Wes had been out of school for a year and working as an assistant to David Humphreys, who has been a photographer in Baton Rouge for over 25 years. According to Wes, “Spending this time as an assistant to David in his commercial photography business has taught me a lot about the art of photography and the business. Working with David taught me about fashion photography and lighting, and I try to incorporate that into my portraits.”

David has won awards and garnered national recognition for his advertising and corporate work, and now Wes has teamed up with him to form Fine Light Studios. In his application Wes explains, “Six months ago I partnered with David to start a new portrait business called Fine Light Studios, LLC. Where David’s business is strictly commercial and advertising, this new venture focuses primarily on portraiture for the consumer market.”

According to Fine Light’s web site: “Fine Light Studios was created to offer sophisticated yet spontaneous portrait photography to the Baton Rouge area. By giving clients a different experience and product than they are used to, we hope to redefine the meaning of portrait photography. We hope that our clients will come to Fine Light Studios because they feel confident that they will get a little something extra out of their visit.”

Westly’s photographic education began in 2000 at Columbus State Community College in Ohio. In 2003 he moved to Baton Rouge and continued his education at Louisiana State University. While there he worked as a photographer for the LSU Gumbo yearbook. In 2003, Wes won a first place award for his yearbook photography at the Southwestern Journalism Congress Convention—competing against students from the major universities in Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. He also won a second place award for in the Academic Photo category.

For the WPPI convention, Wes chose to enroll in Matthew Jordan Smith’s Plus class, “Portraiture With a Kick.” Wes says, “I chose Matthew’s Plus class because I think his style of portraiture is really similar to what I want to do.” He also picked three MasterClasses: Jeremy Sutton’s “Getting Creative With Painter” about creatively using Corel Painter, Gene Martin’s “Advanced Lighting and Creative Concepts” about everything from light sources to color temperature, and Chris Lalonde’s “Don’t Just Make It Good… Make It Amazing!” about tricks for high-end file preparation. Wes also registered for the WPPI Business Institute—new to the 2005 convention.

As for the future, Wes says, “I love the creative freedom that portrait photography allows and the feeling I get from making people happy with my photography. I have had mothers come in to look at their proofs and cry, and that feeling, to me, is the biggest benefit of this business. My main goal is to make my business successful enough to have my own storefront somewhere and earn my living making people happy.”

WPPI intends the Hy Sheanin Memorial Scholarship to encourage beginning photographers in their love of photography. This scholarship opportunity for new photographers is meant to advance photographic excellence through education—a goal of Hy Sheanin’s that has been, and will continue to be, a tradition at Rangefinder and WPPI. WPPI uses this scholarship as one way for the organization to continue that tradition, and an opportunity for beginning photographers to express their love of photography—and perhaps receive something in return.