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Today's Guest: Staci Sulhoff of Michael Graf'x in Cleveland, Georgia
Today's Host: John Bentley
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Staci Sulhoff Transcript Page
Staci Sulhoff Expert PageANNOUNCER: Welcome to the VTalk Radio Hour with your host, John Bentley.
JOHN: Welcome to VTalk Radio. I am your host, John Bentley. Today we are in the studio with Staci Sulhoff of Michael Graf'x of Cleveland, Georgia. Welcome to the program Staci.
STACI: Thank you. How are you, John?
JOHN: Just fine. Appreciate you joining us today on VTalk Radio's Photographer's Spotlight. Tell us a little bit about your photography business down there in Georgia.
STACI: John, we specialize in outdoor portraits whether its sports or corporate events or family portraits and our niche in the market is really kind of an out of the box mentality. Moving out of the box and into an area where people are comfortable and themselves and capturing them in that light.
JOHN: Well you're main push is sports photography. Tell us about the concept behind that.
STACI: Basically we shoot a whole lot of youth sports that our primary focus is to make those little leaguers and those young children look like heroes; look like professionals and doing so it helps their self esteem; helps them feel good about themselves and seeing themselves in a poster picture they can take with them right there at the event makes just a huge difference and gives them a chance to remember their event in addition to the pictures their parents already take.
JOHN: Now do you do on site printing then?
STACI: We sure do. We do on site printing for big events like tournaments and special events. We don't do on site printing for every day games, but if it's a special game or a special event, we do on site printing.
JOHN: When you're involved in a special event like that, how many photographers do you have with you. What size of a crew do you have?
STACI: I'm the primary photographer and we run a crew of 4 people and we on a typical event can shoot 300 - 400 people at an event.
JOHN: Wow, well that's pretty cool that the kids can see themselves right after the game, take a look at the options for pictures. They can even have a life size portrait done of them, isn't that true?
STACI: They can, we do the life size stand ups like you see of the college players and professional ball players. We do that as well as posters that they can hang on their wall.
JOHN: Now you do all sorts of different types of sports. Tell me about some of the variety of sports you shoot.
STACI: Well, we just finished this week the state baseball tournament for the 9 and 10 year old boys in the state of Georgia class C division. We do everything from 3 and 4 year old soccer to golf tournaments. We do a lot of football, dance, gymnastics, tennis. We try to incorporate, especially in our area, a lot of the smaller events that sometimes don't get the coverage that the main events like football and baseball do.
JOHN: Now you also do family portraits. What other types of photography do you do?
STACI: We do family portraits either at parks in the area or we can do them at your home where your children are relaxed and not all uptight because you dressed and buffed and taken them to a place and they're in this white room where they have to smile and it has to look natural. We focus on doing them at a location where they are comfortable. They might be playing. Most of the time the children hardly even know that it's a portrait session other than what the parents tell them. We give them a really relaxed atmosphere and capture them when they're happiest and we can get their true expressions.
JOHN: What about senior photography? Is that something you enjoy doing also?
STACI: We've got a little bit of senior photography. We are interested in doing a little more. We are perfectly set up to do that because of our own location photo shoot.
JOHN: What about corporate or commercial photography? Do you do anything like that?
STACI: We do corporate events. A typical corporate event would include taking photos throughout the event, producing prints for the people to take with them as well as a slide show at the end of their event so they can see some of the kind of interesting highlights that happened through their event.
JOHN: Staci would tell our audience your website address and contact information.
STACI: The website is www.michaelgrafx.com and you can contact me to schedule appointments at (706) 878-9802.
JOHN: We are speaking with Staci Sulhoff of Michael Graf'x of Cleveland, Georgia. You are listening to VTalk Radio's Photographer's Spotlight. We're gonna step aside for a moment for these important messages.
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ANNOUNCER: This VTalk Photographer's Spotlight is sponsored by www.morephotos.com The online photo sales solution for professional photographers world wide.
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. I'm your host, John Bentley. Today we're in the studio with Staci Sulhoff of Michael Graf'x of Cleveland, Georgia. Thanks for returning with us here, Staci. Would you please tell our audience about the area you cover. Communities, cities, that kind of stuff.
STACI: We're in the north Georgia area. We cover Atlanta, GA; Gainesville, GA; Dahlonega; Cleveland; Cornelia; Clarksville; and pretty much any area in the north Georgia region. Blue Ridge, Blairsville. Any of the towns all the way down through Atlanta.
JOHN: What about areas you take people to. You spoke of some property you shoot at. Are there any other beaches or rivers in the area that you like to do photography with your clients?
STACI: We do outdoor portraits at the Chattahoochee River, we do them on the Chestatee River. We do a special event twice a year at Turner's Corner. We do a spring and fall event outdoor portrait session. We can also shoot in your home. We shoot at a number of the waterfalls in the area; Water's Creek, Dick's Creek, Duck's Creek, Raven, Gap, Unicoi, Anna Ruby Falls, Unicoi State Park. There are so many places here in north Georgia that are perfect outdoor locations to shoot.
JOHN: I understand it's very beautiful down there.
STACI: It is. It is.
JOHN: How long have you been in business?
STACI: I've been in photography for about 22 years, and we have focused on our outdoor portraits for little over 5 years now.
JOHN: And why did you decide to become a photographer in the first place.
STACI: I grew up in it and it just came natural, and I started very young and just grew up taking pictures and loving it and when I found my niche doing families and children and the response that I get has just been really spectacular with repeat business with people coming back loving what we do.
JOHN: Staci tell me what your most important goal is when you're shooting a session?
STACI: I would say our most important goal is really capturing in a photograph the true personality of the person we are taking pictures of. I think there are so many people out there taking pictures and it's not a matter of doing anything other than just clicking the camera, and we feel that it's so much more getting to capture the person's personality on film and it's not an easy thing to do. You have to spend some time getting to know the people to be able to do that, and that is one of the things we do that we feel is unique to the market is we spend enough time to get to know you to make sure the pictures we are taking people say, "Oh, that's just like you."
JOHN: Would you kindly give your website and contact information one more time before we let you go today, Staci.
STACI: Our website is www.michaelgrafx.com. Contact information is (706) 878-9802.
JOHN: We have been in the studio with Staci Sulhoff of Michael Graf'x of Cleveland, Georgia. Thank you for joining us today, Staci.
STACI: Thank you for having me.
JOHN: You've been listening to VTalk Radio's Photographer's Spotlight. Have a good afternoon.
ANNOUNCER: You have been listening to the VTalk Radio's Photographer's Spotlight. Only on www.vtalkradio.com. Radio for the 21st century.
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