Bert Behnke www.behnkephoto.com
Families and Children
Basic/Intermediate
“There’s a lot of room at the top, but it’s pretty crowded at average!” Every photographer needs to decide where they want their business to be and how they want their photography perceived. This class will be about the life choices of being a portrait photographer as well as the actual business of portrait photography. Bert strongly feels that the lifestyle you desire to lead should be the basis for how you run your business, not the other way around. Each day you will experience this philosophy. Each day there will be actual photographic sessions, discussions on business and marketing and open discussions with students on their goals and desires. It is Bert’s hope that each student will come away with a definite idea of how they want their business and their life to work together to create both personal and financial success.
Bert and his wife Cindy, run their studio as a Family Portrait business, they specialize in ALL aspects of family portraiture, from the family group to the infant to the senior to the wedding portrait. Family means being a part of the circle that offers you the opportunity to become a part of your client’s family relationship. While the family portrait is their main goal, you need to be an expert at all other types of portraiture and even commercial and event photography, to best serve your clients.
There will be a strong emphasis on group posing to help you with the families, lighting kept simple but effective and using public relations and today’s marketing methods to put your studio in a better position. The portrait sessions will be examples of what Bert makes a living from, while creating wonderful images. He will also go into details on the working of his home-based studio, from conceptualizing, building and operating it.
For this class, Bert asks each student to bring the following:
*Examples of their studio work; prints, portfolio or CD’s are acceptable.
*Their studio printed materials; ie. marketing items, newspaper ads/releases, etc. Enough copies to share with entire class.
*A list of local media such as newspapers, magazines, radio, television with addresses, e-addresses and contact information.
*Cameras, etc. for class photo assignments.