Marketing Imagery Demands Attention

When it comes to making a product look its best, many marketing professionals will say a quality photographer is worth their weight in gold — then they’ll joke that some charge as much.
But savvy marketers also know nuances in lighting, angle, background, color and a million other minute details are dealt with in a skilled photographer’s eye and captured for all time. Or at least until the ad campaign expires.
They also know those nuances in an attractive image have the power to sway bottom line sales on everything from chicken wings to multi-story buildings.
An industry of marketing firms has been built to cater to the ever-expanding community of suppliers that serve Bentonville’s Wal-Mart Stores Inc., and those firms created a need for people who can produce jaw-dropping, call-to-action images.
There are as many as a dozen world-class commercial photographers who now call Northwest Arkansas home, though many frequently work on location out-of-state.
Nationwide the entire photography industry, including portraiture, is estimated to be worth about $7 billion in annual revenue, and the U.S. Department of Labor calculates more than half of all photographers are self-employed.
That’s quite an entrepreneurial feat considering a digital camera back (the computer part not including the actual camera or a lens) can easily run $25,000.
One photographer said he’d accumulated $300,000 worth of photographic equipment (including lights, computers and power packs), while most said they had between $70,000 and $100,000 tied up in depreciating gear.
Most photographers said they customize charges depending on the project, but one said his basic rates start at $150 per hour with a two-hour minimum, and go up sharply.
Many said a typical shoot that produces one quality product image can take half a day.
“The most important thing about hiring a photographer is making sure they can execute your vision,” said Amber Savage, vice president of brand management for New Creature in Rogers. “If they don’t do that, then they aren’t helping your brand.”

Silver Shooter
Richard Berquist, owner of Berquist and Associates Photography Inc. in Fayetteville, was one of the first commercial photographers to set up shop in Northwest Arkansas. He opened his business with a partner in 1987, when images were still captured on silver halide backed film.
Around 2000 and 2001, his studios were cataloging dozens of digital images a day for WalMart.com and the business employed about 15, including photographers, assistants, stylists and post-production Photoshop workers.
But, Berquist said, Wal-Mart took some of its imaging in-house and farmed out some, and some of its suppliers — who in-part used his studios because Wal-Mart did — shifted to other alternatives.
Now Berquist is the lone photographer in that business along with one computer assistant, a stylist and occasional help from his wife. The couple has diversified the studio space near Dickson Street into Teatro Scarpino, a cross between an Italian ice cream parlor and an event venue.
Though he doesn’t specialize, Berquist said he shoots a lot of product images specifically for packaging.
Anna Greenhaw, a designer at New Creature, does a lot of package design and hires a lot of photographers for images she needs.
“[The photo] can make it or break it,” she said. “It’s necessary.”
Many photographers who worked with Berquist and Associates in its heyday now operate their own businesses.
Berquist said because of digital technology and the ad industry’s tight deadlines, photographers now truly compete in a world market.
For commercial photographers, traveling is frequently a must and meeting the client face-to-face is mostly optional.
Berquist is considering an offer he has from a Chinese printing company to work in that country for six months.

Specialized Shots
In larger markets, studios can become specialized and serve a photographic niche but most area photographers said they can’t afford to focus on just one field. The market demands quality prepared food shots as well as boxed products and corporate shots, so diversification is a key to success, they said.
Joe Wittkop has been a professional photographer since 1979 and relocated to Fayetteville in 2000 from New York City. He worked with Berquist for a while before striking back out on his own.
Wittkop guesses about 80 percent of his work is attached to Wal-Mart, either directly or indirectly. He also photographs a lot of jewelry for a client based in California.
Wittkop works mostly in his studio where he can control the entire environment and only a few assignments take him on location, he said.
But part of a good photographer’s repertoire is the ability to build realistic room sets so it looks like they’ve gone on location. Both Wittkop and Berquist keep a handyman’s workshop stocked with windows, doors, fake walls and various papers and fabrics.
They can erect what looks like a corner of a room in as little as a half-day.
Both Berquist and Wittkop have done work for Northwest Arkansas CitiScapes Metro Monthly magazine.
James Keltner, owner of Keltner & Associates in Bentonville, said he doesn’t specialize either, but he does a lot of consumer product work and food photography for Chiquita Brands International and Fresh Express.
“You don’t get a lot of notoriety and it’s a lot of hard work,” he said, but he likes it.
Keltner & Associates is actually an advertising agency that uses Keltner’s photography services, which has precluded him from shooting for some area firms, he said. But he frequently gets business from Saatchi & Saatchi X in Springdale, the largest point-of-purchase and marketing firm in Northwest Arkansas.
He said he does between three and four photo shoots per week.
“If I’m not shooting, then we’re touching up or building sets or flying to a location,” Keltner said.

Commercial and Industrial
One exception to niche photography in the area is Don Shreve, owner of Shreve Imaging LLC of Fayetteville.
Shreve almost never works in the studio or on table-top product shots, preferring to work with available ambient light.
“It’s a problem-solving thing; I find it’s more stimulating,” he said.
He photographs a lot of large industrial stainless steel products that can’t be brought to a studio, so he lights them on location, he said.
Shreve also has a client in Los Angeles that sends him “all over” shooting commercial real estate, and he photographs for some area architects and contractors. He also does some feature work for Celebrate magazine.
About two shoots per week is all Shreve can handle, he said, but he spends about twice as much time doing post-production retouch work on the computer as he does in the field. He has one assistant who helps with some of his computer work.
Most photographers are upbeat about the future of the business in Northwest Arkansas, seeing mostly seasonal dips.
“I haven’t — in three or four years — had to go in search of work … thankfully,” Shreve said.