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Today's Guest: Terry Fogleman of Fogleman Studio Inc. in Deland, Florida
Today's Host: John Bentley
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Terry Fogleman Transcript Page
Terry Fogleman Expert PageANNOUNCER: Welcome to the VTalk Radio Photographer Spotlight, with your host, John Bentley.
JOHN: Today we are in the studio with Terry Fogleman of Fogelman Studio of Deland, Florida. Welcome to VTalk Radio Photographer Spotlight, Terry.
TERRY: Thank you, John.
JOHN: Tell us about your photography business down there in Florida.
TERRY: Well, we are probably one of the oldest studios in central Florida. Personally, I have owned this studio for about 15 years. I bought it from my father, who started it back in 1968; and he bought it from a guy named Fred Kent, who had had it for a number of years, who had bought it from a photographer, who had bought it from a photographer. So, I would probably say that our studio has been here since photography has begun. I have no definite records of that, but from the stories that I'm hearing, that's probably a true statement. We specialize primarily in portraiture and wedding photograph, and these two are my passions. I photograph commercials; we do children. We are open to doing just about any kind of photography. Being in a small town, as we are, you need to be open to all kinds of photograph. I can't specialize in one area, because being in a small town, everyone needs you for some purpose or another.
JOHN: I suppose at this time of year, you're doing a lot of senior portraits.
TERRY: We are starting to crank up for the Class of 2008 right now. I no longer carry any of the high school contracts like I used to. I used to carry all of the high schools in the area. However, I'm finding that doing that required so much manpower, and nowadays, with seniors finding that they can go about anywhere to get their senior portraits taken, that you lose a lot of seniors to other photographers if you have those contracts, plus you're responsible for all of the photography that goes into those yearbooks; and since I'm a one-man show now, I have cut down in size from a huge staff down to just myself, I find that I want to concentrate on doing more of the kind of photography that I enjoy doing, so I may take only one, maybe two, seniors a day and devote my attention just to that one senior, and they're going to have quite a number of pictures to select from. And, this website, www.morephotos.com has just really opened the doors for me as far as being able to minimize the people copying my proofs. This program is just fantastic. It allows us to see the images immediately. For those seniors who want to show their mom and dad, I don't have to make proofs for them to take them home. I can just load them up on the website and the senior can show mom and dad. I leave them up there for seven days, because the longer you leave them up, the longer they linger. So, if you take them down after about seven days, then they're anxious to come in and get something for themselves.
JOHN: Well, it sounds like you're doing a lot of digital photography. Do you do standard film anymore?
TERRY. No. As a matter of fact, I have gotten rid of all of my film cameras pretty much. I've kept one or two for somebody who might request it, but at this point of the game, I see absolutely nothing in film that digital can't do better. And one of the world's best graphic artists works for me full-time, and I take the photography to one level and then she takes it to the next level with the kind of work that she is able to do for me. It's just breathtaking. My dad, who started me, studied under some of the nation's leading portrait photographers, Frank Cricchio and others, were members of his class at Winona, and the quality of the workmanship that my father did with film is just really outstanding, and yet he comes in here many years after his retirement and looks at the work that we're doing and he's just jaw-dropping because of the fact that we are able to do so much more that in his day they couldn't do. They had the old front projection system, where we could project them into any scene. Now, we have green screen, which allows us so much more flexibility. The technical aspects of putting those images on film were so much more complicated than being able to do it with digital. My favorite is the young high school girl who, once I took her photograph, she says "oh, my eyes were closed," and my favorite expression is "oh, no they weren't," Because you can look at the images now. With film, you just didn't know. You just had to do it again anyway.
JOHN: It certainly makes it a lot easier to go through proofs and what have you, doesn't it?
TERRY: It sure does. It makes file systems so much better. Nowadays, I can just click on that particular individual file and all of the images are there. It's not like the old days, where you had to search through negatives and if you didn't have a proof sheet or you didn't have the negative, we'd go to a fotovix, which was a device that you could put on a television screen and put them there for them to see if you didn't have anything else that you could show them, or you had to wait to have your film processed, wait a week if you used a pro lab to get them to get your proofs back to you. We ended up in the later days having all of those facilities in our own business and doing it all ourselves, but it was cost prohibitive.
JOHN: Terry, would you tell our listeners your website address and contact information?
TERRY: You may call me at Fogleman Studio at (386) 734-1133. Our website is www.foglemanstudio.com. Our email address is foglemanstudio@cfl.rr.com.
JOHN: We are speaking with Terry Fogleman of Fogleman Studio of Deland, Florida. You are listing to VTalk Radio's Photographer Spotlight. We are going to take a break for these important messages. We'll be right back.
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ANNOUNCER: This VTalk Radio Spotlight is sponsored by morephotos.com. The online photo sales solution for professional photographers worldwide.
ANNOUNCER: We now return you to the VTalk Radio Photographer's Spotlight with your host, John Bentley.
JOHN: Welcome back to VTalk Radio's Photographer's Spotlight. Today, we are in the studio with Terry Fogleman of Fogleman Studio in Deland, Florida. Welcome back to the program Terry.
TERRY: Thank you. Glad to be here.
JOHN: Terry, we have been talking about your photography business down there in Florida. Would you name some of the cities and communities in the area that you service?
TERRY: Sure. We service most of central Florida; Deland; we do a lot of business in Daytona. I get to go to the beach quite frequently to do family sittings on the beach. It's a very common thing. We have folks coming down from up north who are visitors or vacationing, and they would like to have a family portrait done on the beach, kind of to show off or to brag, or even to have a beautiful keepsake. They will come down and stay in a motel and they will search the yellow pages and usually find me, and I will go over to the beach and do their portraits on the beach. We also have a lot of weddings and receptions that like to be on the beach. Such places as The Plaza, The Hilton in Daytona, are beautiful venues to do weddings. They really cater to the people, the wedding party. They have lovely places that just overlook the ocean and it's just really very, very pretty. There are places in Deland that I like doing wedding receptions; The Grant Bly House is a very intimate, small, old turn of the century home that they have converted into a beautiful place for wedding receptions. The Holiday Inn, if you want something a little bit more contemporary, located here. West of us is Eustis and Astatula, and at Disney World, where we go and we do a lot of weddings there. Of course, they might like to be in the glass carriage that Cinderella has, or if you would like to have Goofy or Mickey as part of the wedding, they have those characters available. Some of the beautiful churches that they have there, where stained glass and crystal glass open into the castle at the end of the isle. It's just very beautiful; elegant reception areas that they have there, and just well taken care of. Of course, it's a little on the pricy side, but you would expect that at some of those kinds of places. So, we travel quite a bit. I have a bride and groom who just signed me up a couple of weeks ago to do their wedding and are flying me down to Key West. Another couple is talking to me about flying to the Bahamas and doing their wedding over there. Have camera, will travel. More than glad to do that for anybody who's interested in having something unique and special.
JOHN: What about some advice you would give to a client that wants an event shot?
TERRY: My suggestion is to shop around. Every photographer has their own style. Every photographer has their own skill level. Every photographer is more or less comfortable in dealing with people. And, it's the kind of thing that you need to go around and talk to people who have used these photographers, or who have you used in the past and who has done a good job for you. Go and look at the work, because the work in itself will tell the story. Try to see as much as you possibly can. See their latest work. You're only as good as your last wedding. Search the website. See as many samples of the kind of work that this photographer does to kind of get a feel for it. Then, I would go and meet the photographer. Spend some time talking with him. See if this is the kind of personality or somebody that you can get along with, because you are going to be spending a lot of time with him. And, of course, look at prices. It's difficult to compare photographers as far as price is concerned because each has their own things that they offer and you can't compare them on the basis of the contents of their packages, so skill level is going to be an important part of that decision.
JOHN: And what is your most important goal when you're shooting a client, Terry?
TERRY: Making the customer happy. You know, I'm at the point of my life where I don't do it so much for the money. The money is nice, but I could retire any time that I want to. I choose to stay on because I find this enjoyable. I am at the top of my game, and my wife says you would be a fool to give this up, and I kind of agree with her. I would rather be out doing photography than sitting home watching TV. This is just a pure joy to me and I get such a real kick out of doing this.
JOHN: I want to touch on a couple of the other types of photography that you do before I let you go here. Pets and commercial. Let's talk about each one of those subjects.
TERRY: Okay. Pets. In the Deland area, or in central Florida, I don't know of anybody who photographs pets. I don't know why photographers aren't interested in photographing pets because they can be the most fun you can ever have. Photographing a pet, they don't have the hangups that a lot of people have and they are as loved by their owners as any child. And they are so remarkable in what kinds of things the owners like to do for them. They dress them up in clothing. I have photographed a small dog whose owner dressed him up in leathers and motorcycle outfits. I have a Shar-Pei that I photographed in a tutu. It makes you chuckle to see what people put their pets through because they love them and enjoy their company. I have pets that have been in the family as long as some of their teenage children. Pets; they are a great deal of fun to photograph and there are not many of us around in this area who do photograph them. Another area that I like photographing is I do Halloween photography. I set up in my studio during the night of Halloween, and we're here all day photographing the little kids in their outfits. And that is just hilarious to see how parents dress their children up, too. I do some commercial photography. I had a gentleman bring in some model airplanes that he wanted photographed. We photographed them on a green screen, and we picked out different skies to put the models I, and they literally looked like they were flying through the air and very realistic, and he is using them for brochures. Brochures is another large amount of work that I get to do for people who are in real estate or seeking office or things like this. They come in and have a nice portrait taken. I do a lot of work for attorneys, where the attorneys send them in for accident-type portraits to show the damage that they can use in a court case. I do a lot of passport photography. This is people coming in, whether they are looking for an American passport or any country in the world. I have a large book that gives us a lot of the dimensions on those things. A lot of people go into these dime stores to have their pictures taken, and half the time they don't pass because people there don't have an understanding of what the requirements are. And each country is very specific. Canada is the most difficult, and Mexico is the easiest. So, unless you know the requirements, oftentimes they are going to be refused and this day and time with its taking so much time to get a passport processed, it would be best to get it done properly.
JOHN: If you could give your website and contact information for our listeners, that would be great.
TERRY: Sure. I am Terry Fogleman, and I own Fogleman Studio in Deland, Florida. Our phone number is (386) 734-1133. Our website is www.foglemanstudio.com. And our email address is foglemanstudio@cfl.rr.com. And I look forward to serving you.
JOHN: I want to thank you for joining us to day, Terry. Terry Fogleman of Fogleman Studio in Deland, Florida. You have been listening to VTalk Radio's Photographer Spotlight. I'm John Bentley. Have a great afternoon.
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