Todays Guest: Tom Quinn of Expressive Images Photography
in Wall, New Jersey
Today's Host: John Bentley
September 2007
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Tom Quinn Expert PageANNOUNCER: Welcome to the VTalk Radio's Photographer Spotlight with your host, John Bentley.
JOHN: This program is sponsored by morephotos.com the online photo sales solution to professional photographers worldwide.
JOHN: Today we are in the Studio with Tom Quinn of Expressive Image Photography of Wall, New Jersey. Welcome to VTalk Radio's Photographer Spotlight, Tom.
TOM: It's nice to be here, John, thanks for inviting me.
JOHN: You are very welcome. We appreciate you coming to the show. Now you have a photography business out there in Wall, New Jersey, tell us about that, will you?
TOM: We have a photography business. It's a family owned business. My wife and myself are both photographers. We photograph generally between 60 and 100 weddings a year. We also photograph some schools and families. We do school fund raisers with PTAs, and we do some dance schools and some martial arts schools. So we do a wide variety of photography, generally of people.
JOHN: Do you have any other services that you offer your clients?
TOM: We offer videography. We have a gentlemen who has been in the business for about 15 years, and he does all our directing of the videos. He does all the editing of the videos, and we send out various videographers depending on their availability. Still photography is done strictly by Trish and myself with once in a while we have a third photographer who we do send out. We also offer our own brand of water color thank you cards, and we make bridal DVDs, all your pictures on DVD. We have a through the years DVD program, so if you join our program, any pictures that we take, we'll put on DVD for you, you can play them on your TV and you can also add pictures that you take while you're on vacation, at home, your own personal pictures. So it's a nice way to memorialize your years.
JOHN: That sounds like a nice service. You also cover seniors. I see Bar Mitzvah's also?
TOM: We do some Bar Mitzvah's and some scenic photography through the year. We don't market so much to those clientele, because we stay very busy with the weddings and the families, but we do get people who know our work, who come to us from local areas who are looking for that type of photography.
JOHN: Can you tell us any wedding facilities or banquet halls in the area that you like to use?
TOM: We work an awful lot at The Channel Club. We're also recommended there. We're recommended at the Waterview Pavilion, Doolan's in Spring Lake, The Spring Lake Manor, The River House, The Crystal Point, Vanity Fair, and the Ramada in Tom's River are some of the places that we work regularly.
JOHN: Tom, what about some of the surrounding communities and cities that you serve out there in New Jersey?
TOM: We serve all of Mammouth County and all of Ocean County. We've also gone as far as Middlesex, up to New York. I haven't been to Connecticut; I've been to Pennsylvania, but we generally try to stay within Mammouth and Ocean Counties. We have to go a great distance to work, then obviously we have to charge a travel fee which we prefer not to do. We try to keep our photography affordable for everybody by working locally.
JOHN: And how long have you been in business, Tom?
TOM: We've been in business 16 years. We started in 1991. My wife was the original photographer, and she actually taught me the business. As we've gone along, it's changed from film to digital, and now I'm really the expert on the digital end at this point. We love to upload all our images to our website. We put a lot of our sessions on the website if anybody wants to purchase long distance, they can go right to the website which helps out because I'm right by the Jersey Shore, and people come down here on vacation, they'll hire our services. We'll do a session at the beach, and then we can put them online so when they go home, they can actually purchase from home and have it all shipped to them.
JOHN: That sounds very convenient. Now you mentioned something about doing digital. Do you do primarily digital now or do you still do standard film?
TOM: We're 100% digital now. Digital has finally made the full transition that's just as good as film as far as we're concerned. We love it because we can do so much more with it with CDs, DVDs, putting them online. It's much more convenient for everybody, because they're not constrained by photos in an album to look at to place their orders, they can now do it in a variety of different ways and by putting it, say online, it's bigger than the old proofs that they used to get. By putting it on a CD or DVD it's much larger so you can see all the details in the picture and the colors are just as good as film if not better.
JOHN: Now I understand that you decided to become a photographer because it was your wife's business, why did she get into the business in the first place?
TOM: Well it's always been her passion. She was a photographer prior to my meeting her, and actually she was practicing on me to open her own business, and I said, how about if I try on you also, and I found that it was my passion too. It really helped us start a family business because I love it as much she loves it. We love dealing with people. We love going to events, and we love capturing beautiful images, expressive images of people.
JOHN: It is a lot of fun. I'm an amateur photographer myself, and I totally enjoy the creative aspect of it. Now, can you tell our listeners your website address and contact information?
TOM: Sure. My website is www.expressiveimagephoto.com that's all one word. And our phone number is (732) 974-3399, and my email address is eip1710@optonline.net.
JOHN: You are listening to VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight. We are in the studio with today with Tom Quinn of Expressive Image Photography of Wall, NJ. We will be right back after these important messages.
ANNOUNCER: This VTalk Radio's Photographer Spotlight is sponsored by morephotos.com, the online photo sales solution to professional photographers worldwide.
VTALK RADIO: VTalk Radio.
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. We are in the studio today with Tom Quinn of Expressive Image Photography of Wall, NJ. Welcome back, Tom.
TOM: Thanks for having me, John.
JOHN: We're very happy to have you today. I've been looking at your website, and I see a number of services that you offer. Could you expound on a few more things that you guys are doing?
TOM: Sure. Besides just photography, we also to custom framing for people. We have a large selection of frames in our studio, and when somebody is to come in, we can frame just about anything. We have a lot of option with our framing. You can get matting, regular glass, non-glare glass. You can get museum glass if you're looking for it. We also offer canvas prints and what they call an artist's wrap of canvas prints and that is something where the canvas is on a stretch mount and it wraps right around the edge and you just hang it up without a frame and the print actually goes around the edge of the picture. It's really a beautiful item. We love it, and we sell a lot of that here.
JOHN: I also noticed on your website that being out there in New Jersey, you're doing a lot of beach photography. Can you expound on that a little bit?
TOM: We love the beach. We're a mile from the beach. We go there during the summer time probably 3 times a week to photograph families. Probably the best time to do it is late in the evening about 7:30 or so when it the sun starts to go down over the horizon. You get that little area there what's called golden light. The sun actually goes down below the horizons, but you still get the sunlight over the top and it's a really, really pleasing light that you get for about 1/2 hour to 45 minutes. There's no squinting because the sun has gone down. The sky is usually beautiful with that dusk look about it. We do a lot of that work down there. People seem to love it, and we also do a lot of posing, but we'll do a lot of candid stuff done at the beach during that time with the kids playing in the sand, walking away with the family, and that kind of thing, and those are the pictures that really bring out the emotions in people later on in life. Like if you've had that picture for ten years, people call us back and say, oh I love that picture I have on my family walking around on the beach, and it really makes us excited too that we know people still have that picture up ten years later.
JOHN: I see a number of those types of shots in the wedding portfolio that you have on your site too. Very nice. Very nice pictures.
TOM: Thank you.
JOHN: Now when a client comes to you to do a photo shoot, what's some of the advice that you give them?
TOM: Well we try to tell them...well a wedding obviously they're going to be wearing whatever the bridal party is wearing, everybody is dressed nicely, but at a family portrait or a children's portrait, we like to have some nice, solid colors. Nothing too bright. We like whites with khakis. White shirts with jeans. Something that's not going to take away from the expression on people's faces so your eye is drawn more to the person than what they're wearing. You really don't want to wear anything busy. Prints, we try to stay away from prints. Light blue, pastel colors, all very nice; works very well on the beach, on location, or in the studio. We do a lot of park work too, and that works great at the park...if you have a white shirt and khakis on or jeans, and you have a green background with a lake and a bridge behind you, it really, really looks good.
JOHN: What's your most important goal when you're shooting a client, Tom?
TOM: Our most important goal is to capture that person's spirit. We like to...we call ourselves Expressive Images, because we like expressive images, and we try to get as friendly, and we try to make it as casual and as personal as we can when we're photographing someone so that they're relaxed. You want people relaxed. You want people interacting with you. And the more that they do...the more comfortable they feel with me, the better my portraiture will be, and the better they'll enjoy the portrait session actually too.
JOHN: What separates you from the competition?
? I would say our experience and our personalities. Both myself and my wife as photographers, we really try to learn everybodies name, we try to learn something about you so we can interact on a personal level while we're working with you. We may be posing you and make it look as natural as possible. We try to do everything to make it look like you're having a really nice time, and your portrait comes out and it really shows you as opposed to what I would prefer. I want it to look like something that you might have taken, but better because of our experience working with people. So one of the things that you get with Expressive Image is my personality and my wife's personality and our experience working with people and dealing with all different kinds of personalities with our clients.
JOHN: This is some really good information. Can you give us your website and contact information once again, Tom.
TOM: Sure, my website is www.expressiveimagephoto.com. My phone number is (732) 974-3399 and my email address is eip1710@optonline.net.
JOHN: We have been in the studio with Tom Quinn of Expressive Image Photography of Wall, NJ. I want to thank you for joining us today, Tom.
TOM: Oh, thank you. Thanks for having me, John.
JOHN: You have been listening to VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight. I am your host, John Bentley. Thank you for joining us today.
ANNOUNCER: You have been listening to the VTalk Radio's Photographer Spotlight; only on www.vtalkradio.com. Radio for the 21st Century.
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