For March’s portfolio event, Kayleen Kauffman and I headed west for a whirlwind trip through Missouri. Bringing almost 200 pounds of portfolios, our own dolly and carry-on luggage, we took off from Philadelphia International and flew to our first stop of the week: Kansas City.
After grabbing our four large Tenba cases (and receiving some suspicious glances), we hauled ourselves over to meet up with our Kansas City photographers for a little happy hour. The weather was beautiful, and we quickly realized the clothing we’d brought wasn’t exactly appropriate for the 80 degree heat we found ourselves in. But it was no matter, we were just happy for the sunshine and to share some cold beers.
The group decided to meet at The Foundry for drinks and frickles (fried pickles—they were delicious!). To our delight, Nate Luke, Earl Richardson, the guys from 8183 Studio, their studio manager Tori, Austin Walsh and Alistair Tutton‘s studio manager Kate all stopped by. Our conversations ranged from Austin’s sweet swag, to 8183′s portfolio, to living in Virginia (as many at the table, including myself, had done at some point in the past). Eventually though, the party had to come to an end as Kayleen and I had to prepare for the next day’s meetings. So, we said goodbye, gathered our things and headed to the hotel for the night.
KC photographer happy hour.
The next morning, we woke early and drove to downtown Kansas City for our first review of the day at Sullivan Hidgon & Sink. SHS is a branding and marketing firm with clients like Pizza Hut, Borden Cheese, Blue Rhino and more. We spread out around 20 books and cinnamon buns before calling in the creatives. The group made their way in and started looking through portfolios—both books and iPad. I must add, this was one of the more meticulous groups I’ve seen. Each creative took time to carefully review each portfolio cover to cover before moving on.
Kayleen pushes portfolios into SHS.
As for crowd favorites, the group was pretty unanimous in their love of Bruce Peterson‘s still life work while several creatives mentioned liking Winnie Au‘s dog portraits and Nate Luke’s angler photography. They also commented on the “real” food lifestyle work of Jennifer May and Jody Horton.
After each book had been carefully looked through, we packed up, said goodbye and headed around the corner to meet up with Austin Walsh again. This time, he took us over to visit his studio. It was a really nice space—it left me with a little office envy to be honest. Unfortunately, we couldn’t spend too much time at the studio as we had two more meetings to ahead of us.
Austin Walsh's studio.
Our next review was at Barkley, one of the largest independent agencies in the country. They boast a number of big name clients including Daisy Brand, Krispy Kreme, Lee Jeans, Weight Watchers and more. When we entered their large office building we were escorted to a theater-like room. There, after setting everything out, around 20 creatives browsed their way through the books and complimented our selection. A few group favorites included Mark Katzman’s impressive portfolio (wooden case with built in iPad), 8183 Studio’s splash photography, Teri Campell‘s before and after food shots, Lincoln Barbour‘s clean style and Ryan Nicholson‘s motion reel.
After the last Barkley creatives shuffled out, we made our way to our last review of the day at the full service agency, Bernstein-Rein. Our BR contact, Stacey Cooper, led us to a bright conference room where we laid out the books and some delicious afternoon snacks. Stacey had worked with us on a shoot in the past and had nothing but nice things to say about Wonderful Machine. She even referred photographer Jill Hunter to us, so we knew it would be a good review.
When choosing books to show to the Bernstein-Rein creatives, we picked portfolios we believed fit stylistically with their clients such as Hostess, MetLife, and McDonald’s. The group loved Teri Campbell’s work, especially his leave behinds which show everything his studio has to offer—including a workout room, washer dryer and full kitchen. Some other favorites included the food photography of Lincoln Barbour, Adriana Mullen and Rob Grimm. The art producers were very friendly and seemed happy with everything we had to offer, including the fact that we offer stock requests and production services. As we packed up, we asked the group where we should go for dinner. The answer was a unanimous vote for Oklahoma Joe‘s, so we piled our portfolios into the car and made our way over.
Bernstein-Rein.
Luckily, the BR creatives had warned us that Oklahoma Joe’s was in a gas station, because if not, we’d probably believed we were at the wrong place. However, as soon as we walked up to the front door and saw all the signs directing lines around the building, we knew we were in good hands. Oklahoma Joe’s is known for their outrageously good BBQ and delicious sauces. Anthony Bourdain even listed is as one of the 13 places to eat before you die. Kayleen and I drooled over the chalkboard menu before deciding on pulled pork and beef brisket sandwiches. All I can say is…best BBQ I’ve ever had!
Yum!
Once we were thoroughly stuffed, we headed to the car and said our last goodbyes to Kansas City before hitting the road for St. Louis!
A summary of our 4 hour trip from KC to STL.
Be sure to check back tomorrow for the St. Louis portion of our trip!
Our February portfolio event kicked off with an early call time at Wonderful Machine headquarters. Enjoying the unusually warm weather, Jess and I arrived in New York City and unloaded our gear for meetings in the SoHo and Tribeca neighborhoods.
Our first meeting was at Bartle Bogle Hegarty (otherwise known as BBH), whose clients currently include Google, Sprite, Vaseline and British Airways. You may also recall BBH’s comical work for Axe in their “Clean Your Balls” mock-infomercial. After taking a moment to observe their space—complete with black sheep illustrations, a ping pong table and an incredible view of the NYC skyline—we set out the portfolios. We had some nice conversations with the BBH creatives about the work of our photographers including John-Francis Bourke, King Lawrence and John Fulton.
Bah... it's a BBH sheep.
Once the BBH review was done, we headed to Starwood Hotels and Resorts, conveniently located just a short distance from BBH’s office. With hotel chains such as Sheraton, W, Le Meridien and Westin, we knew Starwood would be a great place to share the work of our hospitality and travel photographers. Upon arrival, we were escorted to a room adorned with worldly photos in ornate frames and a large conference table where we laid out the books of Raymond Patrick, Terry Vine, Julian Love, and Lauryn Ishak to name a few.
At the meeting we had a chance to learn more about the photographer selection process from Starwood photo producer/editor, Suzanna Shields. Suzanna explained that when choosing a photographer, they not only like to see appropriate shots in a portfolio, but also like to see outtakes as well. It’s important to Starwood that a photographer can both obtain the hero shot as well as capture a wide range of images that represent a location’s uniqueness. They also like for a photographer to be able to work well with hotel guests and resort managers. This is so important in fact, that Starwood has a questionnaire that they have photographers fill out covering a wide range of scenarios to gauge their experience.
Starwood creatives review portfolios.
You can view our video recap of our BBH and Starwood meeting here:
After looking at some beautiful destinations and resorts, we wrapped up our meeting and drove uptown to grab a quick bit. Inspired by the warm and tropical locales on view at Starwood, we swung by Dos Caminos to extinguish our craving for Mexican. Afterwards we headed across the street to Parents Magazine—our final review of the day.
Our Parents review included a mix of children and lifestyle books from photographers like Natalie Young, Erin Kunkel, Ingrid Skousgard. The intimate meeting led to a discussion of the work they have a tough time finding. Their photo editor and director both expressed how it’s often difficult to obtain “real moments” in kid shoots, and that good kid photographers can seemingly make the camera disappear. They also stated their preference in print promos: small postcards with appropriate/inspiring imagery that they can tack to their bulletin board.
Craig and the Parents Magazine photo director and editor.
Once we were rapped up at Parents, we made our way to the Chelsea Daylight Studio where Jess gave a Pricing & Negotiating presentation for ASMP. The lecture gave insight into the major steps of a commercial production, from estimating licensing fees to pre-production and execution.
Jess giving his ASMP Pricing & Negotiating presentation.
After the presentation, we capped off the night with a quick drink across the street at Pars Grill House, where Wonderful Machine members Landon Nordeman and Radhika Chalasani joined us. Also in attendance were our new friends from Phase One, who co-sponsored our ASMP event. Then it was back to Philadelphia to start planning next month’s review—see you soon Kansas City and Saint Louis!
If our first portfolio review of 2012 was any indication of what’s to come, then we’re in for a fantastic year. We kicked off the New Year by dropping by the agency Tierney, right here in Philadelphia before traveling down to Baltimore to visit our new friends at Tri-Media and FILA.
Our meeting with Tierney was much anticipated. With big local clients such as Independence Blue Cross, PECO, and TD Bank, we were excited to meet the creatives behind the ads and commercials that are so prevalent in our area. Kayleen, Jess and I rolled up with our usual cargo full of fantastic portfolios and photo gear and spread out about 20 books next to delicious catering from DiBruno Bros. After hitting “play” on the iPad reels, we waited for creatives to fill the room.
It was great to see some familiar faces and meet new members of Tierney’s creative team. The room quickly filled with people eager to be introduced to new talent and snag some awesome leave-behinds. We were sure to include portfolios from local photographers such as Ryan Smith and Jeffrey Totaro, while also displaying portfolios from out-of-town shooters like John Schulz, Greg Vore and Roger Hagadone.
Overall, the meeting went incredibly well. Afterwards, we returned to the office to unpack, reorganize our cases and prepare for our excursion to Baltimore.
Two days later, we were on our way. The grey skies and wet weather didn’t impact our moods as Kayleen and I got an early start for our drive down I-95 towards “Charm City.” As an alum of Baltimore’s Towson University it was great to return to the area and reminisce on my college days. Our first meeting was with Tri-Media, located right in Towson, about 25 minutes north of downtown Baltimore. Tri-Media is a smaller agency that works in a variety of capacities with clients such as The Discovery Channel and Snyder’s of Hanover Pretzels. We set up shop on their large conference table (with a nice view of my alma mater out the window) and spread out a great selection of work. The agency was pleased to see the work of local shooters such as Dean Alexander, Clark Vandergrift and Steve Buchanan along with other photographers like Adam Ewing, Nick Hall and Leo Gong.
We chatted about the food companies Snyder’s had recently acquired, and how hopefully this will translate into bigger photo projects. In addition, we talked about their web work for Discovery Channel’s Shark Week, which seems to be exponentially growing in popularity every year. Really, who doesn’t love watching a shark leap out of water at 2,000 frames per second?!
We wrapped up our visit with Tri-Media around noon, which gave us some time to grab a quick bite and check our email at Buddy Maratta’s Café and Deli by the busy Towson traffic circle. After filling up, we got back on the road to head north to Sparks, MD where FILA is based. For those not familiar with the rural towns outside of Baltimore, the scenery quickly turns from cityscape and gridded streets to horse farms and windy roads. After stopping for a moment to snap some photos in the woods, we reached FILA’s corporate center. We arrived a bit early, so we took a moment to walk around the scenic pond on their attached corporate park, and carefully stepped around the goose droppings (seriously, I’ve never seen that much goose poop).
After thoroughly cleaning the soles of our shoes, we entered FILA’s office and Amy Gray (their director of photography) welcomed us into their conference room to spread out our books. A few other members of FILA’s creative team soon joined us, and we chatted about recent and upcoming projects. FILA shoots a lot of their catalog still life photos in-house, but they have plenty of projects throughout the year that they hire photographers for. Amongst other portfolios was the work of Kevin Winzeler, Laura Barisonzi and Rick Lohre to name a few. After hearing more about their recent projects, we learned that they have international offices that generate their own content for unique projects around the world. While FILA’s Maryland office mainly works on US-based projects, I was happy to present the work of Munich-based Christian Brecheis to elaborate on the vast presence of Wonderful Machine members in international locations.
After another set of successful meetings under our belt, we were excited to drive down into the heart of Baltimore for a photographer happy hour. We reserved space at one of my favorite spots from my undergrad career, Red Star Bar and Grill, located on the beautiful cobblestone streets of Fell’s Point. The turnout was fantastic, and Dean Alexander, Steve Buchanan, John Davis, Jonathan Hanson and Clark Vandergrift all joined us for a few rounds. Conversation topics included Clark’s competitive cycling career, the local ASMP scene, new studio spaces, and of course, the hot topic of iPad vs print portfolio presentations. Our photographers couldn’t have been friendlier, and it was a fantastic way to end a productive day.
After parting ways, Kayleen and I began our trek up I-95 back towards Philadelphia. Overall, the meetings went incredibly well, everyone was extremely friendly, and it was fantastic to finally put faces to names. The day was a complete success, except for the flat tire I got on the way home…but that’s a different story.
