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VTalk Radio Photography Spotlight
Today's Guest: Gordon Geraci of Elite Photography in Cincinnati, Ohio
Today's Host: John Bentley
October 2007

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ANNOUNCER: Welcome to the VTalk Radio's Photography 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 Cincinnati, Ohio, photographer, Gordon Geraci of Elite Photography . Welcome to VTalk Radio's Photographers Spotlight, Gordon.

GORDON: Glad to be with you. I look forward to the interview.

JOHN: Now, let's talk about your photography business down there in Ohio.

GORDON: Ok. It's flourishing. I started 13 years ago, and of course like most new businesses, it's a struggle when you start, but because of the hard work and our dedication to customer service and high quality portraits, we've been lucky enough to survive the beginning stages of a business and now it's flourishing and we feel quite lucky and fortunate that our clientele really respond to what we offer.

JOHN: Tell us about the services that you offer.

GORDON: Well, we're pretty much known for two types of different portraits, although, we do offer a wide array beyond that. We're pretty much known for either senior portraits which is kind of how we really got our start. When we took the modeling type work that I've done in the past and applied that in a new and different way to high school seniors, and they really, really responded to what we do and what we bring to the table. They all want a chance to both be a model and have different and unique senior portraits that really showcase them at their best where they're being photographed with the right angles, with the right lighting, you know, all the tricks that the models use, now we're applying that to the high school seniors. And then the natural time shoot, that was the growth of family portraits. When you've got high school seniors that are about to go away to college and move on to the next stage of their life, whether it might be even getting engaged or married down the road just a couple of years out, so it's a natural time for families to do a great family portrait; the culmination of the childhood of their children that they've invested so much into, and so we do a lot of family portraits as well.

JOHN: So would you consider that your biggest growing or fastest growing avenue of photography right now?

GORDON: Actually the fastest growing avenue in our business is the on location family portraits where we actually either go out to their home, or we go out to a location of their choice and photograph the family often the extended family maybe it's a 50th anniversary for a parent or something like that, but that's getting to be a very popular way to decorate your home here in the Cincinnati area with a very nice custom made wall portrait and nothing is more personal than having it done at your home. Sometimes even in front of your home and it's hanging up in your hallways or in your living room or dining room when people come into your home and people get a lot of compliments on that if it's a very impressive piece of work.

JOHN: And what about children? You do a lot of photography with just children?

GORDON: We do do a lot of children's sessions. I think all of us love doing the children. It's so fun, they're all so different and, you know, children have good days, they have days where they're going to give you serious pouts. You never know what you're going to get with a child, and we always try to tell the parents, just accept what the child's wanting to give that day. Some days you're going to get the great smiles and other days you're going to get the best funny faces and, you know, you have to work with the child on their level on their time frame. One of the nice things and probably why we do so well with children is we have a photographer and an assistant working with the child so that the mom or the dad or both can just sit back and enjoy the session. They don't really have to work the session, and that really differentiates us from a lot of the department store type operations. We also have appointments here so you're not waiting in line with a lot of other fussy upset children. You're not working with toys that have been chewed on and that kind of thing so it's very much an upscale kind of a children's portrait session where we're going to create the signature type work that's going to hang in your home forever. Now obviously we're more expensive than your department store chains and that kind of thing, and perhaps you can't come to us every time you want a record of your child's development, but certainly at least once a year we'll see our clients and create something very special and unique for them.

JOHN: How big are weddings in your business? Does that take up a lot of the summer time for you?

GORDON: Well, we're actually a little different when it comes to weddings. Being a full time photography studio, we're very blessed that we can have a full schedule on Saturdays and we actually quite a bit more money in the studio working 10 - 5 on a Saturday than we would make going out and doing a wedding. So we actually only do a few weddings a year, and when we do do a wedding it's because we want to do that wedding. It's not how we make our living, it's actually we'll take a little bit of a loss to do the wedding and so usually it's for a very good client or a friend, a former employee, something along those lines, current employee perhaps, but we do love to do weddings, and because we do so few of them, we bring a real excitement when we do it. The last wedding we just did for a very good client, we had three photographers shooting. It's the first time I've ever heard of this, but we had a shot simultaneously taken of the bride walking towards the alter shot from the front, shot from the back, and shot from overhead from the balcony. You can imagine how great that looks in the album.

JOHN: Sure. Now would you kindly give our listeners your website and contact information, Gordon.

GORDON: You can always check out the samples of our work at www.elitephotography.com. And if you would want to email me, you can email me at gordon@elitephotography.com. Our phone number is (513) 554-0300.

JOHN: We are in the studio speaking with Cincinnati, Ohio, photographer, Gordon Geraci of Elite Photography. You are listening to VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight. We're going to step aside for these important messages, we'll be right back.

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VTALK RADIO: VTalk Radio.

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

ANNOUNCER: We now return you to the VTalk Radio Photographer Spotlight with your host, John Bentley. JOHN: We are back in the studio with Cincinnati, Ohio, photographer, Gordon Geraci of Elite Photography. Welcome back to VTalk Radio's Photographer Spotlight, Gordon.

GORDON: Thank you. I'm glad to be back with you.

JOHN: Now, we've been talking about your business down there in Ohio. Why did you decide to become a photographer in the first place?

GORDON: Boy, I tell you, that's a really interesting question. It's probably quite different than most people how I found my way into this field. I actually graduated from Notre Dame, and I was attending law school at Arizona State University, and I was laying out at the pool probably around Christmas where it's about 90 degrees out there, and some guy came running out to the pool with the women of Arizona State calendar. I looked at that, and I go, "I can do better than that and I'm not even a photographer." So the next day, I went and got a camera, and started shooting models and put together one of the very first full color calendars called Looking Good America, 1984. That's how long ago it was. So that's how I got into photography. I started shooting models and pretty much exclusively shot models for the next 9 years before I opened Elite Photography here in Cincinnati in 1993. Our studio in 1993 was about 1200 square feet until we doubled our size by moving in 1997 to a 2400 square foot home. In the year 2000, we moved into an 8,000 square foot facility, our current studio and we just love having it. It's a super studio. It's got like about four different studios within it, with some of the coolest most contemporary furniture you've ever seen. It's got natural light opportunities, a big french window. We've got a library kind of environment study library, and it's got a pool table in it. I mean, it's just got everything I've ever dreamed I could have in a studio. One's a kitchen, I mean, we've got all these different things. It's a retro kitchen. We've got a vintage room. So, it's really cool. One's more like a college loft area, and then outside we have our private portrait park. It's got a ten ton rock waterfall, a gazebo, lots of beautiful natural landscaping. Our style of photography is very much natural. Whatever we have in the way of background settings and environments are meant to be simply enhancers to the portrait. I'm sure everybody listening has seen the portraits where maybe they went out to a waterfall somewhere and you'd have to point out, you see that little speck there in front of that gorgeous waterfall, that's my son, or that's my daughter. No, no, no, the portrait should not be about the waterfall, the portrait should be about your son or your daughter and the waterfall is in the background to enhance it. So that's very much why we've succeeded is we fundamentally understand what is the important part about the portrait and the expression...getting the expression is really the key to being a great photographer. I don't want to put down lighting at all, that's very much an important part of our craft, lighting and posing, but when it comes right down to it, it's about expression. It's about capturing that moment and getting that expression that really signifies who that client is.

JOHN: Sounds like good stuff. You certainly have an interesting studio. I want to come down and see for myself...all the neat stuff you've got in there.

GORDON: Well, we were one of the first studios to go digital back in the late 90s and actually photographers did used to come in from all over the U.S., not just to see our studio, but to see how we operated digitally, and as one of the leaders in the industry in that way, I think that's another reason why we're so far ahead of other studios is because we've been ahead and we continue to press on. I probably spend more time going to conventions and furthering my education. I spend at least an hour if not two hours every single day educating myself deeper and deeper into the photography business and industry so that I can stay on the leading edge and continue to retrain my staff. We have a wonderful staff here of ten creatives. These are people dedicated to their art form. All of them are wonderful people outside of work, but when they come together here at the studio, everybody is dedicated to giving the client first class portraits, first class customer treatment and when we put an ad offering out there for employment, we get inundated with applications from all across the United States and so we really have the opportunity to hire the cream of the crop. I think it's because creatives do want to work in an atmosphere that fosters creativeness where their not stifled, but where they're turned lose and can create. That's what we really want to do. We don't really do it for the money, we do it because of the love, the passion for the art form, and so everybody here is of that mentality.

JOHN: Wow that sounds great. What about some communities and cities in the area that you cover?

GORDON: We've had clients...we're in Cincinnati which is the southwest most point in the state of Ohio. We've had clients drive all the way in from Cleveland which is about 4 1/2 hour drive; drove in for their photo session, did their photo session, turned around and drove back. I mean, it just blew my mind. I know they drove by a lot of great studios between here and Cleveland to come all the way to us, and we felt very privileged for that. We've had clients come from Columbus, Ohio, from West Lafayette, Indiana, from south. We had a model fly in from Washington...the state of Washington out on the west coast. We really have earned a reputation that makes clients seek us out, and they are willing to travel to us. Probably something else I should mention is we also travel. Just last week I was in Arizona, and I was doing a shoot with a couple of models out there, and last winter we were in Florida doing shoots for some models down there. We do high school seniors out on location when we are traveling and that so if anybody is listening in a different geographic region feel free to shoot me an email at gordon@elitephotography.com and if my wife and I are traveling to your area, or would like to travel to your area, we might arrange to do a shoot for you that will be different than all of your friends and, you know, sometimes we travel with staff as well so it's a great way to get some really unique portraits if we're coming to you area.

JOHN: Well, Gordon it's been a pleasure talking to you. Before I let you go, though, will you kindly give our listeners your website address and contact information?

GORDON: Sure it's gordon@elitephotography.com is my email. And our website is www.elitephotography.com and our phone number is (513) 554-0300, and I just wanted to thank you again for the opportunity to talk to all your listeners. I've enjoyed it, it's probably been one of the best interviews I've ever done as far as the depth of the questioning and the follow-ups. I really appreciate it and appreciate your interest. I've enjoyed working with morephotos.com for a long time, so I think very highly of the company and glad you're working with VTalk Radio now.

JOHN: Thanks a lot, Gordon. Appreciate you saying that. I'm an amateur photographer myself so I have a special slant on this kind of interview, so I'm going to take some of the wonderful advice that you've given here today and use it myself.

GORDON: Do me a favor and just don't open up in Cincinnati.

JOHN: Very good. Well we've been in the studio with Cincinnati, Ohio, photographer, Gordon Geraci of Elite Photography. You've been listening to VTalk Radio's Photographer Spotlight. Thanks for joining us today everyone. H ave a great afternoon.

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

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