Featured Shows

Featured Transcripts

Expert Pages







brought to you by

www.volunteerrecords.com




VTalk Radio Spotlight
Today's Guest: Joe Ramos of Beyond Images Photography in Medford, Oregon
Today's Host: John Bentley

Listen to this Show
Publish this Show on Your Website
Show Sponsor www.morephotos.com
Joe Ramos
Joe Ramos Transcript Page
Joe Ramos Expert Page

ANNOUNCER:  Welcome to the VTalk Radio's Photographer Spotlight with your host, John Bentley. 

JOHN:  Today's program is sponsored by morephotos.com the online photo sales solution to professional photographers worldwide.

JOHN: Today we are in the Studio with Joe Ramos of Beyond Images Photography of Medford, OR.  Welcome to VTalk Radio's Photographer Spotlight, Joe. 

JOE:  Thank you.

JOHN:  Well you have a photography business up there going on in Medford, Oregon.  Would you tell us a little bit about it.

JOE:  Sure we do most of the basic things.  We spend time with a lot of people's families.  It's a really good time to meet a lot of new and interesting people.  We photograph primarily high school seniors, but we do a lot of families, children.  We're involved with some local charities and other local businesses as well.  It's really a good time.

JOHN:  Well you also do weddings.  I'm sure weddings are a big part of your business, are they not?

JOE:  Absolutely.  Yeah, they make up about a third of our business, and we balance the rest between families and seniors and commercial.  As far as our wedding business goes, Oregon is a very scenic area, and we have a lot of outdoor weddings here, and we have kind of a growing community of vineyards in southern Oregon now, believe it or not, and so there's a lot of new vineyards like Paskal and Valley View Vineyard that we photograph at as well as our traditional venues like the old hotel in Ashland called Ashland Springs Hotel, and we just have really good relationship with a lot of different venues and a lot of different vendors.

JOHN:  I see that you do some model photography also.

JOE:  Oh, yeah, you bet.  We have quite a few people coming out of our area that go into show business, and because we are really close to the Ashland Shakespearian Festival, we photograph a lot of actors as well, and there's just a great deal of people looking to get into whether it's the modeling industry or the acting industry, movie, whatever.  We have people that always need head shots, portfolios, always trying to break out of the small town, you know.

JOHN:  Sure.  You ever get any calls from the FBI for head shots?

JOE: No, not too many.

JOHN: That's good.   

JOE:  Definitely not anyway...

JOHN:  I'm sure that would be a good gig if you did good.  That'd be a constant business.  Tell us some of the cities and communities  in the area that you service, Joe.

JOE:  Well kind of the county hub here is Medford and it's probably around population of about 70,000 - 75,000 and there's quite a few surrounding areas.  Ashland is probably the most famous town in southern Oregon because of the Shakespearian Festival.  It's very quaint, kind of an alpine type city Tudor houses.  The downtown are is very lively and the southern Oregon University is there so it's just springing with young people so it's kind of a neat community.  There's skiing in the winter on Mt. Ashland, summertime we've got rivers and hiking and all kinds of stuff.  There's a lot of really little communities dotted all through out our area, and as far as what we service, we have people from as far as Alturas, CA, which is about a 3 1/2 hour drive from here up to Brookings, Oregon, around the entire circle of area coming to Medford because it is kind of the largest hub in southern Oregon and in the valley itself, I think we have around 120,000 people and it seems very small, but we get people from all over northern California and southern Oregon coming just to Medford.  So we have a pretty big tourist industry and it's kind of nice.

JOHN:  What about wedding facilities or banquet halls?  I know you mentioned a couple of things earlier, but is there anything else in the area that you work out of?

JOE:  Well yeah, the biggest one we work out of, and I don't mean physically, I just mean popularity wise it Ashland Springs Hotel and it's a turn of the century hotel, absolutely beautiful.  It kind of looks like a scene out of Casa Blanca, brides just really dig it when you go in there.  It looks really like 1930 style.  Huge palm trees everywhere.  That's the primary one that we have the best relationship with.  We're on there website of course and in a lot of their advertising, but also there's numerous small places as far as like, you know, Red Lion.  Several churches in the area, the Catholic Church, you know, the big Presbyterian church here.  They all have, you know, people that we know on staff that will recommend us to their brides and so on.  It's really good for business to have a good working relationship with the people at those venues so that you can...you know, they can think of you first.  So what we try to do, for instance, is we will photograph there weddings over the course of a year, and then we'll make up a little flyer that on the front of it has photographs of their venue that we have taken when we were there, and then on the back, we'll put like just a little thing about Beyond Images who we are, what we like to do, and we give them a whole stack as a way for them to...if a bride comes in say here's some photographs of our place, but of course, it's got our name all over it.

JOHN:  Boy aren't you just the smart little guy, there that's a great idea.  That's a good idea. 

JOE:  Know how to work it, you know.

JOHN:  Yeah, you do.  You've got to find a way to push your business, and that's a really good way to do that.  Now, tell us how long you've been in the business and why did you decide to become a photographer in the first place, Joe?

JOE:  Well, I've been shooting for about 18 or 19 years.  I started literally straight out of high school doing anything that would fall into my lap and totally had the passion for it.  Basically as far as how I got into it was I took a college course right out of high school, and didn't know what I wanted to do.  It was an elective and I just absolutely fell in love with it, and I grew up in the Napa Valley and we continue to have clients down there til this day, because I really developed a good relationship.  We started Beyond Images Photography about 9 years ago.  Opened a retail location about 7 years ago, and we just been doing great.  It's awesome.  We have a lot of great customers.  Like I said, we go on location so anywhere from Portland to Napa Valley, down to L.A., up and down the west coast shooting, it's great.

JOHN:  Joe, would you tell our listeners your website and contact information.

JOE:  Sure it's www.beyondimages.com.  We're in Medford, OR.  We have an 800 number.  It's (866) 841-0863 and of course, our regular phone number is (541) 779-0863.  My name is Joe, and my wife is Stephanie, and they can talk to either one of us. 

JOHN:  We are speaking to Joe Ramos of Beyond Images Photography of Medford, OR.  You are listening to VTalk Radio's Photographer Spotlight.  We're going to step aside for these important messages, we will be right back.

ANNOUNCER: Looking for a bridal show in your area?  Visitwww.weddingdetails.com for a list of upcoming bridal shows in your area.  Visit www.weddingdetails.com tonight. 

VTALK RADIO:  VTalk Radio.

ANNOUNCER: This VTalk Radio's Photographer Spotlight is sponsored by morephotos.com, the online photo sales solution to professional photographers worldwide.

ANNOUNCER:  We now return you to VTalk Radio's Photographer Spotlight with your host, John Bentley.

JOHN:  Welcome back to VTalk Radio's Photographer Spotlight.  Today we are in the studio with Joe Ramos of Beyond Images Photography of Medford, OR. Welcome back to the program, Joe.

JOE:  Hey thanks, good to be back.

JOHN:  Now you do a lot of weddings...that's a big part of your business.  When you do weddings are you the only photographer or do you take a couple photographers with you, and you're doing a lot of outdoor weddings, is lighting a problem?

JOE:  Well we do have...it's my wife and I actually both shoot.  That way brides tend to be a little more comfortable with a woman in there when there when they're getting ready and the guys tend to be more comfortable with another guy in there.  That way they can be pigs and not have to worry about offending anybody. 

JOHN:  Good answer...

JOE:  So, as far as that goes, yeah, it's the two of us and then, of course, we take assistants with us.  I've got somebody with me and she's got somebody with her and that way it keeps things flowing...any time you need something somebody is there to help or little reflection.  As far as shooting outside goes, I'm totally in love with outside lighting.  We're really fortunate in our area, you know, we're at about 1500 feet elevation.  We've got really good even light.  It gets a little glary at times, but for the most part, the venues that we have are situated right, and we tend not to shoot into the sun where people are squinting and glaring.  We tend to find a nice place to shoot where it's comfortable, good background, good lighting.  I use a little bit of fair flash on occasion, but I really don't like the artificial look of it so if I can avoid it, I do at all costs.  If you have to, though, you have to.  I try to use primarily reflective light so I use a gold, silver combination light disk for most of the reflection and we also use which, in my opinion is one of the best tools that I have in my camera bag, and we call it...it's a target which it's a light disk with a black, gray, and white on it.  We...one sides white...we get a custom white balance set, flip it over, get our exact histogram reading off of the target and any time...as long as the lighting doesn't change, we can shoot like crazy in there, shoot on manual the way it should be, and have our adjustments just perfect.

JOHN:  I'm assuming you're strictly doing digital photography anymore.  Do you do standard film at all?

JOE:  No, actually, we were the first studio in southern Oregon to fully adopt digital photography, and I shed a little tear about 5 years ago as I let go of my medium format gear for the last time.  I realized it had been sitting in it's bag for a year without ever being touched and decided it was time to just let go.

JOHN:  Sure.  That makes sense.  Now outside of just a simple setting, what do you do to make your clients comfortable when there' in a session with you?

JOE:  Well, I don't know.  I guess I just really try to be myself and that helps them be themselves.  I talk to them more like you're hanging out at the local pub than if you're in an interview or sitting there with a big soft box pointed at your head.  You know, usually like, we do a lot of head shots for real estate agents, doctors, business people, and they're the most nervous when they come in, because they just don't want to have their pictures taken.  So, usually before we even get started, we hang out for a little bit.  We chat, find out what they're interested in.  I sit them down, tell them not to worry about anything I'm just checking my lights and I'm popping away, meanwhile we're having a conversation and they don't realize they're getting their portrait taken. 

JOHN:  Ah, very good.

JOE:  So, it's just...I try to keep it as light and casual as possible.  I'm not big on formality.  I tell people sometimes we opened our own business so I wouldn't have to wear a tie anymore.  So it's kind of the idea.

JOHN:  What's your most important goal when you're shooting a client? 

JOE:   Oh, there's many.  Mostly, of course, is that they're going to be happy when I'm done.  And so to get there, like I said, I try to bring out their own real personality, the good aspect of it that is.  And, you know, you just really have to keep your eye on what they're going to use the picture for so you tend to steer the conversation towards that way.  You know, if it's a casual picture, maybe a lady is coming in and she wants to have some nice shots done for her husband or something.  Well then you kind of steer the conversation into sort of a romantic how long have you guys been together, how did you guys meet, you know, that sort of thing.  Whereas if you're shooting the same woman for a business head shot, you're going to talk about what she does in her business, how she get's clients and that sort of thing, and it puts them into an emotional and mental frame that you can then photograph.

JOHN:  Great, Joe will you please give your website and contact information again for our listeners.

JOE:  Absolutely.  It's www.beyondimages.com.  Our phone number toll free is (866) 841-0863 or locally it's (541) 779-0863.  We also have a presence on My Space, of course, who doesn't, and it's actually myspace.com\josephbip and you can find us there.  We always run specials.  A lot of our clients are high school teenagers so we talk to them directly.

JOHN:  Great, we have been in the studio with Joe Ramos of Beyond Images Photography of Medford, Oregon.  I want to thank you for joining us on VTalk Radio'sPhotographer Spotlight today, Joe.

JOE:  Thank you. 

JOHN:  I am your host, John Bentley, thank you for joining us today on VTalk Radio's Photographer Spotlight.  Have a great afternoon. 

ANNOUNCER:  You have been listening to the VTalk Radio's Photographer Spotlight; only on www.vtalkradio.com.  Radio for the 21st Century.



go to top of the page