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VTalk Radio Photography Spotlight
Today's Guest: Brian Geraths of Prints Charming in Portland, Oregon
Today's Host: John Bentley

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Brian Geraths Transcript Page

JOHN: Welcome to VTalk Radio Photography Spotlight. Today's program is sponsored by Morephotos.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 Brian Geraths of Prints Charming Photography of Portland, Oregon. Welcome to the program Brian.

BRIAN: Thank you very much, John.

JOHN: Tell me a little bit about your photography, Brian.

Brian: Well we're pretty much a full service portrait studio. We do quite a variety. We do anything from high school senior portraits, of course, children's portraits, families, weddings, photo journalistic especially. That seems to be the most popular version still today as more photo journalistic weddings. The other wing of our business is custom picture framing. We do, in 1995 when we opened the studio, it was intended to be a portrait and framing studio and we've kinda focused more so on the portraits for the first 10 or 12 years here, but as of today, I have a new office manager starting that is coming in with a great deal of custom picture framing experience and so we're gonna lean into that a little bit more so we can provide a full service one-stop kinda thing so people don't have to go out to another business in order to do that since we're selling those high end acid free kind of products. Anyway, so yeah, I've been in business since 1996 and we've just been growing every year and looking forward to another 10 years.

John: Can you tell me some of the other photography that you do, Brian?

Brian: I do a fair amount of commercial photography as well. I've got some regular clients, Starbucks, and the Portland Rose Festival, and the Marriott. They've been giving me a nice steady stream of life style and interior type images to do for, you know like the Marriott. One of the local Marriotts here is doing a remodel and so I've been, so as they get done with the construction on different wings of the hotel, they've had me in to shoot different things, like their concierge lounge and lobby and things like that. Anyway, that's pretty much the majority of the stuff I"m doing.

John: Do you get a lot of senior portraits in the fall time.

Brian: Definitely. Our high school seniors probably start about June, in fact, we've dubbed June 15th as our start date because its' usually about; mid-June. Seniors usually go through about December. They start trickling off about November. But we definitely keep busy. September is about our peak on high school seniors.

John: Can you tell me what make your service unique? What sets you apart from other photographers, Brian?

Brian: I would say the thing that makes it the most unique is that it's not cookie cutter, that it's more essence-filled. We like to really make sure that we capture the true personality of the subjects - taking the time to put them at ease and not just jump into the camera room. I like to have some conversation in the midst of the session and, you know especially with the high school seniors. Teens you can't fake teens out. They know if you're being genuine or not. And, you know they're sizing you up. You want to put them at ease just make them feel comfortable, not, you know, let them know it's a comfortable environment and the result is always something a little bit truer. You know, get in on a conversation, get on a topic what they're interests are, things like that. What you get on the other side is just totally different. You know you're not getting fake smiles. You're getting somebody who is actually enjoying the session. We take them to places, especially high school seniors. Ok, with weddings, you're picking your destination, you're deciding where you want to get married. But with high school seniors, most of the time they're going to a studio and expecting to just be in a studio, cheesy props, cheesy backgrounds, tend to expect that there might be a few of those. I take them into the forest, down town Hurban, Haines, along the river. I've done some on the coast. Weddings, of course, on the coast as well, but there is such a huge difference in the expressions you get out of people when you're out in an environment that you're comfortable in versus sitting in a studio and feeling like you're just going to get some cookie cutter shot.

John: Great, Brian. Can you tell me your website address and contact information?

Brian: Our web address is www.yourprints.com. Our studio line is 503-246-3056.

JOHN: We are in the studio speaking to Brian Geraths of Prints Charming Photography of Portland, Oregon. You are listening to VTalk Radio's Photographers' Spotlight. We are going to take a break for these important messages; please stay tuned.

ANNOUNCER: This VTalk Radio Spotlight is sponsored by morephotos.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: We are in the studio with Brian Geraths of Prints Charming Photography of Portland, Oregon. Welcome back to the program, Brian.

BRIAN: Thank you, John.

John: Can you tell me a little bit, we're talking about weddings and senior portraits and all the kinds of photography that you do, tell me some of the facilities that you shoot at?

Brian: Yeah, a number of the weddings that have photographed in the Lake Oswego, Tigard, there's a number of churches, there's one called Whole Life Center, which is the only church I know of in Lake Oswego that overlooks the lake so that's a great venue. I just booked one for the Gratto which is an incredible, incredible, scenic place for a wedding for a wedding and Portland's White House, and Gray Gables and there is a number of them in the area here. A lot of the hotels, you know the Benson Hotel, Gabador Hotel, boy without writing them down, I couldn't think of all of them right off the bat.

John: Can you tell me the service area you cover?

Brian: Well, I would say our studio is pretty much in the southwest corner of southwest Portland which puts us right up against Tigard, Oregon, Lake Oswego, geez, Wilsonville, Westland. I get a lot of high school seniors from those areas - the Westland, Wilsonville, Tualatin, Tigard, Hillsborough, Beaverton. Just about all of the Portland suburbs. Vancouver, Washington. We get a lot of Vancouver and Camus, Washington. Gresham, Oregon, and northwest Portland. I do get quite a few high school seniors from the northwest Portland area as well.

John: Can you tell us why you decided to become a photographer, Brian?

Brian: I absolutely love doing this crap. I started shooting when I was about 12 years old. Started charging when I was about 17 periodically. I mean shooting mostly for hobby then, but I spent 20 years in grocery retail and I was great disciplined. Got me into system and organization and has probably been the only reason I've still survived in this business. You know getting the business aspect of training, but I love doing this. There isn't a day that goes by that I'm not pinching myself just grate ful that I get to do this for a living and knowing my clients are happy with what I'm doing. I've survived the last 12 years of business with very, very minimal advertising. It's been, you know, a number of referrals. I would have to say is been what's kept me in business.

John: Great. Can you tell me, what is your most important goal when shooting an event.

Brian: Not missing a thing and capturing everything from an artistic perspective I would say. You know, it's one of those things that when I get on site, and I get going, I don't have a pre....I go over the plan with the bride. I always go to rehearsals, I'll just say. And even if it isn't a wedding, or it's an event, I just photograph the Rose Festival Centennial Ball and I like to get into do as much research as possible. Get into what the feel of the event is and then just let go. I have a good road map in my mind about what the end result needs to be and then try not to miss anything. You know. The little details - anything that they spent time and money on, you know for decor or the cake and things like that. Making them look absolutely stunning. You know get a nice artistic perspective, great lighting. And then, of course, every time there's laughter, those things, you know, people love to see themselves having fun and so at times like that, if you kinda get a bead on the people that are the comedy of the crowd, and you know not necessarily magnetize towards them, but when you know there's something funny going on, whatever, to really get the reaction - get the faces of the people around them as well.

John: So you try to use laughter then to kind of relax them a little bit. What other techniques do you use to make a shoot run smooth.

Brian: Well, you pretty much said it right there. Because I have to say aside from weddings, that same theory in portraits is putting people at ease in front of the camera is a specialty, and you know I'm not going to say I'm the best at it, I just know it's worked for me. I think that most people when you point a camera at them, they tense up. You can't see yourself - you don't know at what point that person is going to squeeze the trigger, am I gonna look dumb, is my tongue going to be sticking out? Or whatever it is that concerns them tenses them up and so talking to them in the process in a portrait session, you really have to be a talking Mary to convey to them, I'll usually just be carrying on a conversation, get going, see their reaction, hold that, take the shot, and then I'll get an idea of how they respond to different things and we just keep the dialog going so it makes it fun for me too. I get to learn a lot about a lot of different people. So, anyway, I'd say that's the majority of it is the psychological aspect is just making people feel comfortable about what they are doing.

John: Great can you give us you website and contact information once, Brian.

Brian: The website is www.yourprints.com and the telephone is 503-246-3056.

JOHN: We're have been in the studio with Brian Geraths of Prints Charming Photography of Portland, Oregon. Wanna thank you for coming in the studio with us today.

JOHN: You are listening to VTalk Radio's Photographer's Spotlight. Thank you for joining us.

ANNOUNCER: You have been listening to the VTalk Radio Spotlight; only on vtalkradio.com. Radio for the 21st Century.

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