Rangefinder Magazine
February 2005
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Generation Next: Martin & Ryan Schembri by Lorraine DarConte
I crawled in on my hands and knees and begged for the job,” remembers photographer Martin Schembri (Master Photographer/AIPP), of his first portrait studio position. “They decided to give me a go, mostly on my keenness to get the job.” The persistence and dedication that paid off for Martin 28 years ago continues to help him carve a special niche today in Sydney, Australia’s burgeoning portrait/ wedding market.
For Martin, the journey between that first job and the new studio he’s about to open with son Ryan was peppered with a string of successful studios that included a school photography business. “With school photography, the cash flow was good, and it paid the bills, but it became mundane. The repetition of doing the same thing over and over every day was killing me,” admits Martin. “But I enjoyed the portrait and wedding work because it allowed me more freedom to play around with different aspects of photography.”
Martin progressed from studio to studio and even ventured into a minilab/portrait studio situation at a shopping center. “It was a successful  combination because the lab attracted quite a bit of clientele. I had very good exposure; I didn’t have to advertise and was shooting a solid 10–15 portraits per week.” He also picked up a lot of commercial work from lab clients. “We had a lot of businesses that would walk in the door with film to process that lead to commercial contacts.” Martin photographed company openings and presentations and eventually moved on to product shots. “We photographed everything from perfume bottles to beds,” says Martin. “But it wasn’t a large element towards our turnover—maybe one to two commercial jobs per week.” After 10 years at the mall location, Martin sold the business and relocated to a residential address, where he’s been operating for the last seven years.
New Studio, New Direction
Today, the Schembris are on the move again. “We’re looking to take our studio in a new direction—new look, new location, new name (Savy, with one ‘v’),” states Martin. “And Ryan will be shooting a lot more as I’ve cut down on weddings. I will be shooting selected weddings and portraiture—the way I want to—spending the time, experimenting, trying different aspects, views and outlooks.”
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Weddings are handled a little differently in Australia than in the U.S. For one thing, what’s popular in the States, isn’t necessarily a big hit Down Under. Martin says the photojournalism fad arrived in Oz about 10 years ago, and quickly spread. “John Whitfield King, a brilliant photographer, was probably the first in Australia to photograph a wedding with a Leica and black-and-white film in a more natural way, rather than posing people. However, I’ve learned that many of these candid images rarely wind up in the album or get reprint orders. So we mix the traditional shots—safety shots, we call them—for mom and dad, with more edgy shots for the bride and groom. Photojournalism had its phase,” says Martin. “It came in strong, lasted about four years and has simmered down quite a bit.”
What is popular in Sydney is the marathon wedding. States Martin, “It’s not unusual to photograph a wedding that kicks off at 10:00 in the morning and continues until 2:00a.m. Do that long enough, and you get very tired. I knew if I continued at that pace, I’d be burned out early in my career.” Instead, he developed a bad neck. “My doctor advised me to have someone carry my bags.” That’s when Ryan, then 14 years old, entered the picture, eventually becoming Martin’s best assistant. Slowly, Ryan began photographing too, and Martin discovered he had a good eye.
“I taught him the basics—the rules of what to do and what not to do,” says Martin. “There were some rough years when he wasn’t quite getting it. But the knowledge, ability and outlook he has today is something I didn’t have until after 10 years in the business.” Today, Ryan is the youngest Master Photographer of the Australian Institute of Professional Photography (AIPP) ever.
Fast Forward
“We don’t use film anymore; we’re purely digital,” notes Martin. “We shoot with Nikon D100s and D1[X]s, which we use as studio and backup cameras. We also use a Hasselblad H1 with a Kodak Pro back, and three lenses from wide angle to telephoto. In the studio, we shoot RAW and try to shoot as high a file size as possible.
“The only problem with digital cameras,” says Martin, “is manufacturers keep trying to improve file sizes. New camera introductions hit around a five JPEG size—that’s 36 MB. If I’m shooting a wedding up to 1000 images, that’s a lot of cards, a lot of storage, and a lot of information to work with. I think 36 MB is big enough. Anything beyond that for general portraiture and weddings is wasted space. Most clients don’t order portraits that big; 99 percent of images are no larger than 8x10. Digital camera manufacturers should concentrate on producing cameras with better color and more consistent exposure metering to help photographers with post-production.”
Father and son still work a number of weddings together, but for the most part, that’s now Ryan’s job. “Portraiture is left entirely up to Martin,” says Ryan, “because of the demographic area we’re in. He’s doing a lot of traditional family portraiture, and it’s what people come to us for. At the new studio I want to target a different clientele as well—a much younger family. We’re in a well established area at the moment where families have older children. But the area we’re going to will also target families with toddlers.
“I’m only 22, and I don’t have my father’s business sense,” admits Ryan. “He’s accomplished a lot in 28 years. We do get into ‘not quite heated’ discussions, about where the business should go and what markets we should be targeting.” They’ve decided to compromise and target both older and younger clients. “It’s a bit of a battle sometimes,” he says. “I’m a young person who doesn’t think of money, like, where do we get it from? It’s just there, and I go and spend it (on equipment, etc.). He’s always telling me there isn’t a money tree in the backyard. I’m still learning about the process.”
Ryan’s other goal is to make a name for himself, apart from his dad. “For a long time I’ve been Martin Schembri’s son, especially here in Australia,” continues Ryan. “But since I’ve just become the youngest Master Photographer in Australia, and I’m starting to have my own name. I’m also looking forward five to 10 years when clients will come to the studio for its overall style and not just to have Martin Schembri photograph them.”
 In the near future, Martin will be spending most of his time developing his software program called You Select It (www.you
selectit.com), which allows users to design their own wedding albums from Schembri-designed templates. He’s also looking forward to working overseas—“Something that the right clientele will pay for,” he laughs. “It’s always a dream to say, ‘I just want to shoot what I want to shoot, how I want to shoot, when I want to shoot.’ But that’s probably the retirement dream,” he concludes. “However, the luxury of having Ryan run the studio will put me into the position of shooting for the sake of shooting—no time structure, no pressure of expectations or requirements. Because Ryan’s young, he’s keen. He’s keeping me alive, keeping me going. He’s my retirement fund.”
Martin and Ryan Schembri will be teaching a “Late Night” program titled, “Let the Old Teach the Young and the Young Teach the Old” at the 2005 WPPI Convention on Tuesday, March 22 from 9:00-11:00 p.m.
Lorraine A. DarConte is a freelance writer/photographer living in Tucson, Arizona. Her work has appeared in numerous publications including, Rangefinder, Studio Photography & Design, Newsday and the Tucson Visitors’ Guide.
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