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Welcome to the PDN Photo Source Wedding, Portrait and Event (WPE) Guide 2007.
As the wedding industry expands into new ways to capture events, we too at Photo Source have broadened the coverage in our Guide to include more content, industry news and expanded listings targeted to wedding, portrait and event photographers.
Our features in this issue focus on photo business and career topics. "After the Event" examines how leading wedding photographers are maximizing their profits by giving their images a lucrative afterlife. Whether they're reselling images through stock agencies, creating original fine-art prints, or offering their work to wedding magazines for editorial features, these pros prove that with a little marketing savvy one wedding shoot can go a long way. Also in this issue, we profile three photographers who have made a career in portraiture ("3 Paths to a Life of Portraits"). Last, but not least, "5 Pros Share Their Resource Secrets" gives you the inside scoop on the stores and Web sites photographers flock to for equipment deals and inspiration.
In addition to our features and easy-to-read advertorial reviews, our listings section provides hundreds of additional resources and suppliers with all their contact information. The PDN Photo Source WPE Guide 2007 provides the best tips, news and trends in this compact, easy-to-use reference. Photo Source — the one-stop source for all your photographic needs.
—The Editors
TAMRON: A Partner in the Creative Process 
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  hether it's the stability of family portraiture, the cash advances of advertising shoots or the free-range creativity of fine-art work, these professionals prove that a career in portraiture isn't necessarily cut and dry.
EDITORIAL ENVIRONMENTS
Based in New York City and Los Angeles, Chris Buck has worked as a full-time photographer for 19 years. His clients include big names like Microsoft, Morgan Stanley and Hewlett-Packard, and his distinct, quirky images have appeared in numerous publications, including GQ and People. As a professional editorial and advertising portrait photographer, the key, Buck says, is flexibility and stamina.
"It's important as a photographer to have malleability to work in different genres—advertising vs. editorial, natural vs. strobe (light) or real people vs. celebrity," Buck says. "I can do it all because of confidence."
After attending the photo arts program at Ryerson University, Buck got his start at Nerve, a monthly musical paper in his native Toronto. Despite an income of $5 per photo, the two-and-a-half-year experience provided a creative environment where the staff worked to impress their peers rather than the mainstream audience. "This [sentiment] is something that I've kept with me, and perhaps it has kept me from a larger popular success, but I think it has made my work a little more personal and interesting," Buck says.
Now at age 43, Buck is an acclaimed environmental portrait photographer, and recently won the ASMP Arnold Newman Prize for his visionary skill. When we spoke to Buck, he had just photographed his favorite band, The Fiery Furnaces, for Philadephia-based music magazine Magnet.
But no matter who he's photographing, Buck's work shows wit and reveals his cheeky sense of humor. "I often bring in props not knowing how they will be used," Buck says. In the case of Andy Samberg for GQ it was a taxidermy cat; for Kevin Smith in New York it was a plastic figurine; and for Nick Cannon in Complex, a toy gun. "It helps [subjects] relax," he explains.
Buck attributes his early success to an industry professional who believed in him—Entertainment Weekly picture editor Michele Romero, who was the first to offer Buck full-page, repeat work for the magazine. Shooting celebrities like Lou Reed and Morrissey for EW eventually set the tone for Buck's career.
For aspiring portrait photographers looking to work in editorial or advertising, Buck recommends making phone calls, setting up appointments and establishing relationships with clients. "You have to be both driven and focused, but be patient," he says.
Buck adds that holding yourself to the criteria of superstars like David LaChapelle or Annie Leibovitz is futile because their level of success is a rarity in the industry. He also admits that even successful photographers are unsatisfied. "You continue to strive, and to reach your goals, otherwise what's the point?"
FAMILY AFFAIRS
In 2001, then 54-year-old Steve Trachtman was asking questions of his own. Shortly after September 11, he lost his job as a senior consultant for a global financial institution and decided to shift careers.
Six years later, Trachtman is a successful family portrait photographer. Based in New York, he shoots primarily from a studio in Manhasset, Long Island. Working for individual clients, he photographs everything from babies to 90th birthday parties—and every occasion in between.
 Before launching his photography career, Trachtman was a hard-core businessman. In addition to having both a bachelor's degree in business administration and a master's degree in healthcare administration, he completed his post-graduate studies in accounting and computer science at New York University. While working on Wall Street, Trachtman continued to conduct freelance photo and portrait projects on the side, and even became a contracted photographer for the Navy and Coast Guard while still working on Wall Street.
After losing his job in finance, Trachtman developed a business plan to start his own full-time portrait studio and officially opened it in 2003. The same year, Trachtman began attending classes at the International Center of Photography in New York City. Though already an experienced photographer, going back to school enhanced his knowledge of art and portraiture, and also introduced him to fellow photographers.
While studying at ICP, Trachtman also worked as a regular freelance photographer for the Sunday magazine of the New York Daily News. He got the gig after photographing a gala for a prominent New York family. Trachtman had been friends of the family since his Wall Street days, and when New York Daily News wanted to cover the event, the family told the paper they already had a photographer. New York Daily News liked what they saw and offered Trachtman a job.
These days, Trachtman stays busy shooting five to ten portraits and social events per month. His fees range from $500 to $1,500, depending upon the location and complexity of the shoot, though he also charges a premium fee for shooting on-location.
As a photographer and a businessman, Trachtman's biggest challenge has been learning what his clients want in a portrait, and then delivering it artistically. "A lot of portraiture is the mindset and outlook of the photographer," Trachtman says. "It's not the equipment, it's what you do with it."
LIFE AS ART
As a fine-art photographer, Mona Kuhn works when she wants. She doesn't have a specific method and she doesn't have to shoot according to clients' requests. In fact, where she likes to shoot—a desolate location on the Atlantic coast of France—there isn't even any electricity. Because Kuhn's work consists of nude portraits, she describes this location as one "where people feel most comfortable in the nude."
Born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and based in Los Angeles, Kuhn has worked professionally for the last 15 years. At the age of 37, she has published two monographs of her images, Photographs (2004) and Evidence (2007), and has had more than 20 solo exhibitions worldwide. She is currently an independent studies scholar at the Getty Research Institute.
Kuhn admits her work is hard to describe. "I guess it would be a blend of art history and shared memory," she says. For example, an image from Evidence shows a woman washing her feet by a cement basin. This image—a recurring theme throughout art history—is what she explains as "a moment where I was thinking about blending my knowledge of art history, together with some more contemporary daily activity and colors and compositions."
Kuhn's start, she confesses, was a simple one. After falling in love with photography in high school, she graduated magna cum laude from Ohio State University, and received a bachelor's degree in international studies.
 In 1996, "I was photographing people that I liked and was meeting, and by chance [a passerby] asked what I was working on," she relates. Kuhn showed a photograph to the woman, who happened to be a gallery director. "She liked it and she asked me to be in a group show," Kuhn says.
That first show garnered positive response from both viewers and gallery personnel, and she eventually began working with a gallery in San Francisco. Kuhn says a combination of work ethic, referrals and professional relationships led her to other galleries nationwide. Her work is now exclusively represented and sold by Charles Cowles Gallery in New York City and M+B Gallery in Los Angeles.
Many exhibitions later, Kuhn decided to produce a catalog of her work. Instead of financing this endeavor on her own, she approached the art galleries that were representing her about splitting the cost. Kuhn self-published the previously mentioned Photographs in 2004, which was eventually picked up by Steidl, who later produced Evidence this past spring.
As for the future, Kuhn's only goal is to continue to do good work. She advises photographers who are interested in starting a career in portraiture to train their eyes and not waste too much time thinking. Instead, they should spend that time shooting. "I believe that the eye guides you to the next step," Kuhn says.
Photos from top:
Writer's kitchen: Buck's portrait of Bill Buford, the author behind Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany. © Chris Buck
Baby face: One of Steve Trachtman's younger clients. © Steve Trachtman
Page view: An image from Mona Kuhn's recent book, Evidence. © Mona Kuhn
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A lot of prep work goes into a wedding shoot–marketing one's work to potential clients; conferring with them about their expectations; scouting the event site; consulting with caterers, florists and wedding planners; analyzing the lighting situation; and stockpiling equipment. But the profits from all this time and effort don't have to end with the wedding album. With some creative strategizing, many top wedding photographers are giving their images a lucrative afterlife.
STOCK OPTIONS
Elizabeth Etienne, a wedding photographer based in Marina del Rey, California, is so convinced of the long-term profitability of wedding images that she plans to teach an internship program about the wedding photography business in Spring 2008. Etienne claims that "post-production sales can double the wedding photographer's profits," and maximizes her own income by collaborating with Barbara Smith, a fellow photographer whose field of expertise is converting photographic images into unique crafts like coasters and thank-you cards. But for Etienne, the most lucrative income-generator comes from resale through stock agencies.
Etienne's photos are distributed through stock giant Corbis, London-based Alamy, Uppercut and Picade, an exciting up-and-comer fully owned and managed by photographers.  After acquiring the necessary model and property releases, which clients are usually enthusiastic about signing, she selects images for submission. If a client hesitates to consent, Etienne offers some monetary compensation, up to half the profits from stock sales.
Etienne warns that only the most inventive images will be accepted by stock photo agencies; photos of cute, smiling couples are, as she puts it, "a dime a dozen." Of course, she admits, "the clients' needs come first," so the top priority must be to shoot all the photos that clients typically want–however stale the requested poses may be. But Etienne counsels wedding photographers to keep their eyes open for anything fresh to add to the tired catalog of stock wedding photos. "Supply is now higher than demand for stock photography," she explains, so unconventionality is an imperative. "Everyone has seen solemn, horizontal, black and white wedding photos," she says. To stand out, wedding photographers should shoot and submit "anything unusual, anything odd, anything color, anything funny–and vertical, vertical, vertical!"
As Etienne explains, the payoff from stock photography varies from agency to agency, and sometimes comes when least expected, bringing in thousands of dollars or mere pennies, the day after it's submitted or ten years later. But for Etienne, the benefits far outweigh the uncertainties. "I don't have to chase down my market," she says. "I just wait for it to come to me. And it can come when I'm sleeping, or on an island somewhere drinking a martini."
SHOOTING FOR STARS
Bob Davis of la Storia foto has also dabbled in stock photography sales, but advises that most of the larger stock agencies are rarely interested in the kind of genuine photos that real-life weddings produce.
 The Chicago, Illinois-based photographer has been able to lengthen the lifespan of his wedding images by shooting celebrity weddings. Drawing upon his 14 years of experience as a photojournalist for the Chicago Sun-Times, he says, "I've been on the receiving end of these photos, so I'm able to put the celebrities in contact with publications and advise the couple on how they should negotiate their rights."
When he shot Eva Longoria and Tony Parker's wedding, he advised the couple to demand "one-time use, non-archived" status for the images–because if the publication archives their wedding images, they can reuse them any time they want to run a story about either celebrity. Davis doesn't receive a fee when celebrities sell their images to magazines, since they usually hire him on the condition that they control distribution. But his images of celebrity weddings do carry a mandatory credit, leading to profit down the line. "It gets your name out there," he says. "It also lends me credibility, not only with potential clients but also with the publications."
Ability and trust are also keys to success for Joe Buissink, a wedding photographer based in Beverly Hills. Buissink offers two methods of increasing profitability after the event: creating fine-art prints and selling the original files and negatives to the couple.
Every couple he shoots can pay an additional fee (between $1000 and $1500) for duplicates of the digital files and film negatives of their images for their personal use. "I don't feel like those memories should belong to me. They paid me good money to do something for them, but it's their day, and I want them to feel that they own it," he says.
Buissink's real bread and butter are his fine art prints. He usually converts between three and twelve photos, selected by the client, into 11x14 prints matted to 16x20. He prints the digital files in his studio on his HP Z3100 and HP B9180 printers, but he specializes in the old-fashioned look of AA fiber images, printed by his backroom master printer, Robert Cavalli.
For an additional fee, the couple can opt for fine art prints hand-signed by Buissink. "I sign my prints because I want them to feel that they have hired an artist," he explains. Buissink's signature doubles the cost of each fine art print, but he believes that the signed images sell significantly better because, "when [clients] see it's signed, they perceive it subconsciously as art." He adds, "The fine art print really separates me from those [photographers] who dump a book in their laps."
Photos from top:
Stock smarts: Elizabeth Etienne strives for unconventional wedding photographs to make her images more appealing to stock agencies. © Elizabeth Etienne
Marketing savvy: When Eva Longoria and Tony Parker's wedding was published in OK!, millions of people saw Bob Davis' mandatory photo credit. photos by Bob Davis
Picture perfect: Buissink's painterly wedding photographs make salable fine-art prints. © Joe Buissink
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ROGER HAGADONE
www.rogerhagadone.com
I live only a few blocks from B&H [in New York City] and they have great prices, so I generally get everything there. I also order equipment online at OneCall.com, which matches prices, as well as MacMall.com and Samys.com. This way, you usually don't have to pay sales tax. For rentals, FotoCare.com, Adorama.com and RGHlighting.com have pretty cool Web interfaces where you can reserve everything online. If I need to research a city in a different state, I'll use online resources like rasource.com and PDN Photo Source (pdnphotosource.com). I also use sourcebook Web sites like workbook.com, PhotoServe.com and BlackBook.com, just to see who's shooting what and what's going on in photography.
MELISSA MCVEIGH
www.melmcveigh.com
For equipment, I usually look at three places, depending on my budget. For all my high-end equipment, I use Sun Studios based in Sydney/Melbourne (www.sunstudiosaustralia.com), which has great sales service and support. For more generic items, like umbrellas and attachments, I often use eBay because it's usually cheaper and support is not an issue. I often use PhotoServe.com for inspiration, and also subscribe to PDN. I go to the Web sites of photographers I take note of while looking at magazines, subscribe to newsletters and read photo blogs to update myself on what's happening in photography, both globally and across commercial and fine art practices.
JULIET VARNEDOE
www.jsvphoto.com
I use Alkit a lot for proofing. The lab really knows how to do proofing for events. When I need to rent, I rent from them. I also use LeatherCraftsmen.com for designing all my albums. I've been using them for over ten years. They produce quality books, are very reliable and consistent, with excellent customer service and great creativity. You can really make custom books. I have my own list of assistants, but I also use StockPhotoCrew.com. It has a great list of hair and makeup people, stylists and photo assistants looking for work in New York.
MICHAEL CUNNINGHAM
www.mcphotog.com
Through the years I've gotten the best deals online or in-store at either B&H in New York City or Calumet Photographic in Chicago. I always go to the B&H superstore when I'm visiting or shooting in New York. It's a photographer's heaven! Locally, I shop at Penn Camera in Washington, D.C. DigitalWeddingForum.com (for wedding shooters) and dpreview.com are also valuable resources. PDN Photo Source (pdnphotosource.com) is my first resource for all location-related issues, studio rentals, equipment and stylists. I also have PhotoServe.com membership for visual inspiration.
MARK KEGANS
www.markkegans.com
My favorite site for wedding and technical information is DigitalWeddingForum.com, which has photographers of all levels, including some of the world's best, sharing business and tech info; fwforum.com is similar, but more intimate. Strobist.blogspot.com is a blog by a former newspaper photographer with a do-it-yourself attitude who's leading a revolution in teaching how to use small flashes. I also like ChaseJarvis.com; this photographer's stated goal is to open the "black box" of commercial photography. For new gear, there's no beating B&H and Adorama. Nowadays though, some online photo forums with buy and sell areas are great resources. Keh.com has a decent selection of used gear and Midwest Photo Exchange (mpex.com) has hooked up with the Strobist blog to offer gear for small lighting.
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