|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
| . | |||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rangefinder
Magazine Profile: Kalen Henderson by Lou Jacobs,
Jr. Kalen Henderson started writing about sports as a high school senior, attended Iowa Wesleyan College, and then spent seven years on a newspaper staff as a sports writer. She also enjoyed taking pictures. One day the paper’s photographer asked her to fill in shooting a University of Iowa basketball game. “The pictures came out okay, and I liked doing double duty,” she recalls. She had a knack for photography, but lacked time. She studied informally for a short time with Rich Voorhes at his Logansport, IN studio.
“ During that period,” Kalen continues, “I had three children in four years, and decided I’d better find a career I could do at home, so I bought a photography business run by a woman from home. The deal included only a few clients and no files. I made studio space in, of all places, my laundry room. That was 1987 in my town, Mt. Pleasant, IA, where there’s still only one other full-time studio, and they knew a lot more than I did then.” Today her competition also comes from four studios in Burlington, IA, 30 miles away (population 40,000). Kalen’s business increased through four building expansions to its current location. She describes it as “an old office building half a block off the town square with a ‘front room’ that is also used for shooting because the window light is beautiful. That’s all the light I need, though at times someone holds a reflector—that person might be a mom who’s helping and observing as I photograph her child. Up to four years ago I shot film, then I went digital. Now I shoot with a handheld Fuji S2, and in the studio I use White Lightning flash.”
Kalen grew the business working “harder and smarter,” as she puts it. “People come to know us, and they’re happy to stay with us. Our style is very relaxed, and clients realize we are going to have fun. Relaxed people are portrayed more successfully. We don’t tell them what to wear, and we show them as they want to see themselves. Hometown folks are comfortable around us, and we know how to illustrate the sparkle that most people have. We work carefully to help them loosen up, because the pictures will turn out better.”
The studio’s minimum wedding package is $795, “for two hours doing formals, the ceremony or whatever they wish,” Kalen explains. Her most popular wedding package costs $1195, and that’s considered expensive in her area. She adds, “Our prices reflect the local economy.” Wedding contracts require half down and the remainder before the ceremony begins. At Henderson Photo, proofs are produced four to a page using Image Buddy, a program made by Kepmad (www.kepmad.com), and they are produced on a Xerox PhaserColor printer (www.freecolorprinter.com). Xerox service offers a free color printer when you contract to use their printing supplies. Kalen explains, “We can show excellent color prints on regular paper using the solid ink printer, and it saves us both time and money because inks last longer and we buy supplies in larger quantities. After a three-year contract, we own the printer.”
Studio promotions are mailed to former and prospective clients to announce package specials that stimulate business. Package specials are also given to people who introduce friends and relatives to Henderson Photo. Kalen received her Photographic Craftsman Degree in 1996 and has since received two more of the four awarded. Other awards include the Kodak Gallery Award, a Fuji Masterpiece Award, acceptance into the PPA Loan Collection, and in 2003 she was the only recipient of the ASP Associate Fellowship. “They hadn’t had anyone apply over the past six years,” she says modestly. Four times she’s been named to Iowa’s Top Ten Photographers. She is also a PPA Affiliate Juror for portrait and electronic imaging. She teaches at least two one-week seminars a year, is a member of the PPA Standards Committee and chairman of the PPA Senior Group.
In
1999 Karen wrote and published the first of a series of short photography
books. It was titled Twelve Money-Making Promotions for Your Studio.
It targets special promotional efforts studios can emulate. Her second
is called 101 Great Ideas. A few excerpts for it appear below. About
the books Karen observes, “The best how-to books in my home are
cookbooks, and I consider my books for studio photographs similar to
cookbooks.” Check her web site, www.hend Here Are Some of Kalen’s Better
Ideas:
• Seek new locations especially for senior shots. Kalen traveled with a friend who guided her to spots she hadn’t noticed before. Now, she takes seniors to an old barn or house, and they enjoy the “road trip. It helps give your business an unusual twist,” Kalen says. • When looking for new props, try building supply and office supply stores.
• When display prints are changed, offer them to the individuals pictured at half price, or a price you determine. • With a coupon offer a free family portrait when you take senior pictures. Indicate the value of the session on the coupon. Kalen’s enthusiasm as well as her photographic skills and good will have helped make her studio popular over a wide Iowa area. Lou Jacobs Jr. is the author of 25 how-to photography books, the latest of which, Photographer’s Lighting Handbook (Amherst Media) was recently published. He has taught at UCLA and Brooks, is a longtime member of ASMP, and enjoys shooting stock during his travels in the U.S. and abroad. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
She explains, “I
went to Rich’s studio for a day or two
at a time, and he visited my studio a few times, but mostly he critiqued
images I submitted to him, and he answered a lot of questions. I was
learning to understand light, and in the process, I slowly gained confidence
to have a style of my own—which grew out of his influence.
Mt. Pleasant is a county-seat community of 8000 and
Kalen employs one full-time studio photographer and a part-time wedding
photographer
plus
six-part time high school girls who take orders and do other chores.
The studio offers a full range of photography services including seniors,
children, individual and family portraits, some weddings, plus selective
school and group pictures. “I also do a lot of sports teams,” Kalen
adds, “but our largest volume comes from high school seniors, followed
by families. There are 20 to 25 high schools in the area, and some kids
will drive 50 miles or more. They’re attracted by our personal
style, and by the fact that we generate confidence that everything will
go well with the sitting. I can empathize easily with most of our clients,
and that pays off. In addition, we’ve developed a reputation for
being honest and reliable.”
Since the market
drives pricing, and price competition is common, Kalen says, “My
theory is I’d prefer to sell someone pictures for
a competitive price three times than charge them two or three times more
just once. I’d rather keep prices a bit lower, and develop relationships
so the odds are good that people will return. We may romanticize that
our work is art, but people also tend to see photographs as consumer
goods.”
Kalen does photo enhancements
on an Apple G4 computer and says she enjoys the control Image Buddy offers.
Selected photographs are sent online
to White House Custom Colour Lab, that also provides the Art Leather
albums the studio uses, and sells along with other products. Selected
photographs are arranged in an album for the client.
“
I’m a big fan of education,” Karen states. “When you
stop learning, you stop growing. The courses I’ve taken help me
prove something to myself, and to others as well. Much of what I’ve
studied has made my work more productive, and I make a better living.”
•
Get a ladder because it can be more flattering to photograph women from
above their eye level. It allows them to stretch their necks and avoid
a double chin look. Works with men, too.
•
Offer a printed guarantee that says, “If you are not satisfied
with your portrait previews, let us know within 14 days. Return them
and we’ll take additional poses to your liking, or completely refund
your session fee.”