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VTalk Radio Photography Spotlight
Today's Guest: David Myers of Treasured Images in Slidell, Louisiana
Today's Host: John Bentley

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JOHN - Welcome to VTalk Radio Photography Spotlight. Today's program is sponsored by More Photos.com. The online total photo sales solution for professional photographers worldwide. I'm your host, John Bentley.

JOHN: Today we're in the studio with David Myers of Treasured Images of Slidell, LA. Welcome to the program today, David.

DAVID: Thank you. JOHN: You have been a photographer for quite a few years. Tell us a little bit about your history.

DAVID: Alright. I started in November 1992, mainly doing children and family portraits and worked my way through the, I guess, worked my way up into management, and worked for several different companies and in 2004, we started Treasured Images focusing in on mainly schools and daycare photography and of course being here in Louisiana, after the hurricane hit, there weren't a whole lot of schools and daycare centers open so we shifted gears and turned into mainly a pet photography company. We got cameras shooting as many as 50 - 60 Petco Stores nationwide each weekend offering a variety of poses of people with their pets, of their pets individually, and portraits with pets all across the country at the Petco stores.

JOHN: Tell us how do you get in a situation here with an animal and get great photos. How do you get an animal relaxed when you can't communicate.

DAVID: The suggestions we give to our customers is to walk them and to try to tire them out before the sitting and then of course we keep the pet parent or owner right next to the pet the entire time so they can sort of control the animal to make sure they don't go running through the store or see another dog and want to take off. So, like I said, we do our best to keep them close and keep them seated that way. We use a variety of tricks and noises to get the desired look that the customers looking for. And if none of that works, then what we do is have them keep the leash on the pet and we use the digital technology we have to remove the leash after the fact and make the dog look like or you know whatever pet it is look like it sat there like an angel the whole time even though maybe it was trying to take off or getting rowdy at one point or another.

JOHN: Well you do a very good job of that. We've been taking a look at some of the pictures you have on your website. Can you give us your website address real quick.

DAVID: Sure it's www.treasuredimages.net

JOHN: I notice on your website you have some exotic animals if you will. How do you get a bucket of ferrets to sit there without squirming around? Those animals are crazy.

DAVID: It takes a lot of, sometimes it might take us 10 or 12 shots to get the right one. You know, I can remember that sitting, and that one was basically, the owner trying to get them all pointed in the right direction and us being quick with the camera. So, yeah, we photograph mainly dogs and cats, but we don't turn away any pets. We photograph everything from alligators to skunks, ferrets, of course you see the mice and gerbils and hamsters on there as well as, we've even had people bring in a miniature horse to a Petco store. So, we don't turn anybody away. If Petco will let the pet in the building, we'll photograph it.

JOHN: Now do you just stick with indoor shooting of these animals or do you do some outdoor shooting also?

DAVID: Normally we just photograph just in the Petco stores. We set up a mobile portrait studio in one of the Petco aisles, and we try to keep it as secluded as possible. Usually we set up an aisle where we have product on both sides of us and we close off the one end of the aisle with the backdrop, and of course our camera and lighting equipment is set up on the other end. That kind of keeps the distractions to a minimum and it also, you know it's about the closest thing we can get to an actual portrait studio type room that we can on the sales floor of a retail store. We've had special requests from customers that you know say, I've got 3 or 4 horses and obviously I can't bring them up to Petco so can you come out to my ranch and take some portraits for us or something like that. In those cases, we do our best to accommodate them. You know that varies a little bit by market and photographer, but um when we get those requests we've been able to get some great outdoor shots as well.

JOHN: Well obviously you specialize in pet photography, but you do other kinds of photography too. Can you tell more about the other kind of photography you do?

DAVID: Sure here in the New Orleans area, we do quite a bit of school and daycare work as well now that things are you know back online and the schools and daycares are opened up after Hurricane Katrina, and we do that mainly in the fall. August through November are pretty busy with daycare and school pictures. And also spring, but springs never busy as fall, because everybody wants to have their child's portrait made right after they get back in school. Usually August, September, October, November, and December; namely October and November though. And then we have our fairly slow spring, like February, March, April type of thing. We occasionally shoot weddings as well as senior portraits and corporate events.

JOHN: Great. We are on Photographer's Spotlight on VTalk Radio. We're speaking with David Myers of Treasured Images of Slidell, LA. We are going to take a break and we'll be right back after these important messages.

Announcer - This VTalk Radio Spotlight is sponsored by More Photos.com . The online photo sales solution for professional photographers worldwide.

VTALK RADIO ... we now return you to VTalk Radio Photographer's Spotlight with your host, John Bentley.

JOHN - Welcome back to VTalk Radio Photographer's Spotlight. We're in the studio with David Myers of Treasured Images of Slidell, LA. Welcome back David.

DAVID: Thanks.

JOHN: We were talking about the different kinds of photography that you do. Can you tell us a little bit about the areas you cover as a photographer.

DAVID: Sure. We go to the Petco stores throughout a large part of the country. I think we service right now today, around 500 of their 800+ stores. We currently cover Alabama, we have photographers in Tennessee, Georgia, Colorado, Florida, of course here in Louisiana. We've got the whole state of Texas covered. As well as Virginia, Missouri, Ohio, North and South Carolina, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Kansas, and then we just rolled out three new markets in California, and we'll have the entire state covered and work our way up the rest of the west coast by the end of this year. So, we cover a large number of stores. The way we do it, we go to several stores in each of these states each weekend and make sure that over a couple of month period every store has a visit. So we are able to take care of every customer out there who is interested in having their pet photographed.

JOHN: What about some of the towns that are in the area right around Slidell? Do you cover those extensively also? DAVID: Yes, in Louisiana, we cover the Petco stores in Metairie, Kenner, Harvey, Houma, Baton Rouge, as well as Monroe, and Shreveport. And New Orleans of course, and then we also do a lot of school and daycare photography in those same areas as well as the gulf coast, like Gulf Port and Biloxi, Mississippi.

JOHN: Are there some wedding facilities or banquet halls, or anything like that in the area that you either favor, or have a lot of business?

DAVID:No. The weddings we've photographed so far, we've partnered with a friend of mine and basically just done wedding photography for friends and family.

JOHN: What is your most important goal when you're shooting an event? Whether it's a wedding or shooting animals? What is it you are looking for?

DAVID: We definitely want to get the customer the final product they are looking for. Get the expression and make sure we offer the products and sizes they are after. We offer in addition to the portraits a variety of specialty items where they can have their portrait made into a key ring or a mug or a mousepad, or something even as fancy as a lighted crystal that is laser etched. We've got a lot of different items. Way more than we can mention here, but all of that can be found on our website and customers can have their portraits turned into just about anything.

JOHN: Maybe you could described a couple of those items that they can have their portrait put on. Would I get a picture of my mother and put it on my favorite coffee cup? DAVID: Yeah, coffee mugs, key chains, mousepads, luggage tags, tshirts, ceramic tiles, puzzles, neckties, photo sculptures, there's a lot of different things. And around Christmas time, we offer ornaments and Christmas cards as well. JOHN: Now you've been in the business since 2004, did I hear you say? DAVID: Yeah, Treasured Images has been in business since 2004, I've actually been in the portrait business since 1992.

JOHN: Why did you decide to become a photographer?

DAVID: It's something I always enjoyed as a hobby and I decided to try it professionally and this is the way it took me, and I've done a lot of different things, you know from the photography itself to the training and management and 2004, opportunity knocked and we decided to start Treasured Images and so far so good.

JOHN: What is the most unique thing you shot, whether it's an event or animal? What's the most unique thing you've ever shot?

DAVID: I'd have to say the photography we've done at Petco has brought us a lot of different opportunities as far as subjects go. In other words, I've always photographed families and children, and done well at that, but at Petco, where the families are getting in the portraits with their animals, not to mention all the different kinds of animals people will bring in, to a point of one lady brining in and it wasn't even an animal, it was a pet rock, and that was her pet and she brought it in for portraits. We've seen some pretty unique things in our relationship with Petco and just some great customers out there.

JOHN: Pet rock, that's a good one.

DAVID: We thought so too.

JOHN: That is good. Well I gotta tell ya, David, it's been a pleasure speaking with you today.

DAVID: Same here

JOHN: We're gonna be wrapping things up here. Can you once again give us your website? And is there a contact number where our listeners can get ahold of you?

DAVID: Sure, yeah, actually you can go to www.treasuredimages.net. You can view all of our Petco schedules on there as well as once you have your portraits taken, you can view an order for portraits right online. Our contact information is on there as well. To make an appointment or to just ask questions about the pet photography, you can call our toll free number which is (888)Cutepix the numbers are (888)288-3749

JOHN: Thank you David. Once again we've been speaking with David Myers of Treasured Images of Slidell, LA, and we are VTalk Radio Photographer's Spotlight. Thank you, have a great afternoon.

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