Today's Guest: Jerry Beebe of in Marmora and Ocean City, New Jersey
Today's Host: John Bentley
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Jerry Beebe Expert PageANNOUNCER: This VTalk Radio Photography Spotlight is brought to you by morephotos.com helping professional photographers with all their internet needs. Welcome to the VTalk Radio Photographer Spotlight with your host, John Bentley.
JOHN: Today on VTalk Radio Photographer Spotlight, we have Jerry Beebe, he is the owner of Seashore Photos of Marmora, New Jersey and it looks like they also have another studio on the boardwalk in Ocean City, New Jersey. Jerry, welcome to VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight.
JERRY: Well thank you. I'm glad to be her.
JOHN: It's a pleasure to talk to you today. Now Seashore Photos. Looks like you've got quite a thriving business going on there on the east coast. Tell us a little bit about it.
JERRY: Seashore Photos is kind of the culmination of about 12 years of photography business here at the shore. We started out by doing a lot of local families, children, weddings, and our location here right next to the Atlantic Ocean near a real big tourist area, Ocean City, New Jersey, led us to think that people may want to have their pictures taken on location outside at the beach. Those of us who live here at the shore, we kind of take the beach for granted. You know, we go there all the time, but the people who come down and vacation here, the coming to the beach and coming to shore is a very special thing for them and so even more so then local people here. People who vacation here and many of the people who come here vacation year after year after year, you know, having a picture of their family on the beach is a very special memento that they want, and they like them big for their walls. And a lot of times it's extended families, grandpop and then the family and then the children and grandchildren. So we took about 4 years ago, we took a store on the boardwalk in Ocean City directly across from the music pier with a big window and on a boardwalk like Ocean City's boardwalk in the summer, you'll have 8,000 - 9,000 people a night walking up and down that boardwalk, and what better way for a photographer to show off their work than a big window on this boardwalk, and gosh it really took off. People came, and they saw the pictures, and they wanted them. After that we started to phase out some of our other work and just concentrate solely on beach portrait work at that time.
JOHN: Well with that it seems like you have a lot of seniors that like that idea too so you're doing a lot of senior photography on the beach as well?
JERRY: Sure do. We do the local high school...the Ocean City High School and a lot of that is studio work, but a lot of those seniors do like to have their pictures taken outside since they live here, but you'd be surprised how many families from out of the area with a boy or girl who is a senior in high school, they also like to have their pictures taken on the beach, and we get a lot of requests for that in the part of our session where we'll do some individual shots of the senior boy or girl, and then they'll actually use those shots as part of their son or daughter's senior picture package, and they'll have them in the yearbook that way. So it's not just for the local kids, it's also for families coming in from out of town. They want senior pictures too.
JOHN: Now I see that you also have a contract with a dance studio in the area. Tell us a little bit about that.
JERRY: Well my wife has been photographing at dance school for almost ten years, and it's a chance for...first of all she loves the costumes that they do for their shows and it's always been a lot of fun for her to try different unique things with these girls at the dance school, and like I say the one school we've been doing for almost ten years, and we've done some other schools since then. We have added to our client list, but what's nice about that is, you know, we do a lot of high key work, you know, on a white background with the individual students and then with the groups and then there are a lot of other creative things you can do once you have those images. A lot of customers want collages and they want different composite type images. Sometimes friends will get together for, you know, they'll both pose in the picture or a small group of special dancers, what have you, but it's been a great niche for us too.
JOHN: Now, Jerry, you have a website. Would you kindly share your website information and contact number with our listening audience today?
JERRY: Sure. Our website is www.seashorephotos.com and if you would like to give us a call, our number is (609) 390-7711. We're in the southern New Jersey area.
JOHN: We are in the studio with today via telephone with Jerry Beebe, he is the owner of Seashore Photos of Marmora, New Jersey, and you're listening to the VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight. We will be right back after these important messages. Do stay tuned.
ANNOUNCER: This VTalk Radio Spotlight is sponsored by morephotos.com, the online photo sales solution to professional photographers worldwide.
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ANNOUNCER: We now return you to the VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight with your host, John Bentley.
JOHN: We are back in the studio with Jerry Beebe, he is the owner of Seashore Photos of Marmora, New Jersey, and the boardwalk in Ocean City, New Jersey, and you're listening to VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight. I am your host, John Bentley, thanks for coming back with us, Jerry.
JERRY: Glad to be here.
JOHN: Now we've been talking about your photography business. Let's get into a little bit about you. Why did you decide to become a photographer and how long have you been in business?
JERRY: Well my background has been in communications. My wife was the photographer. She's been a photographer for over 20 years now. She got a degree in advertising from a college in New Jersey, and kind of stepped into it sideways where she always loved taking pictures and began doing friends and family that sort of thing, and everybody loved it and so one thing led to another and she began doing more and more. And then as the business grew, I decided to join her in the business. I was always an amateur photographer myself a little different vein. I wasn't really a people kind of photographer, more of a landscape photographer, but when things started to get very busy for her, I jumped in, and things have just mushroomed now to the point where we're very busy probably nine months of the year, and the other three months we just sit back and rest. We're kind of wore out from the other nine months.
JOHN: Sure. Sure. Well what about some of the communities and cities in the area that you cover in the Jersey area?
JERRY: Well Ocean City, if you're looking at a map, Ocean City is at the very northern end of Cape May County. Cape May County is the far southern tip of New Jersey, and Cape May County is located about an hour from Philadelphia and about 2 hours and 15 minutes from New York, and maybe about 3 hours from Washington so a lot of people live in a three to four hour radius of Ocean City. Ocean City is located just south of Atlantic City which I'm sure you know about...a big gambling center. So a lot of tourists come down through the summer, and they visit Brigantine and Atlantic City and Ventnor Margate. Of course, Wildwood and Stone Harbor are some towns farther south along the beach in Cape May County. Ocean City is unique in that it's a dry town. There's no alcohol served or sold in the city of Ocean City. It was a former Methodist, like a camp meeting town, and they've kept those laws on the books and the result is that Ocean City has kind of turned into a very quaint, very family friendly town. In fact, it was travel channel's number one family destination for 2007. So Ocean City is a great place if you've got a young family to come. It's a very clean town. So we do the bulk of our work there. And then, of course, there are other communities located just off of Ocean City. The different mainland communities throughout Cape May County, Seaville, Cape May Courthouse, right on down to Cape May which is very popular in itself...very Victorian themed community, Cape May, New Jersey.
JOHN: Now, Jerry, you do children photography. I see a number of photos on your website. What do you do to make children comfortable in the studio?
JERRY: Well there's, you know, each child is different. We usually tell our customers that when you're going to bring your children into the studio to be photographed, first of all make sure they've had their nap. That is so important. There's nothing more difficult for a child then to come into the studio and try to get them to relax and pose if they're already tired and cranky. So a well rested child and actually a fed child is, you know, they're a little more content and a little easier to handle. Out on the beach is interesting. We usually don't have as many problems with children in keeping their attention as we do in the studio. One nice thing about the beach is that there's lots of things to look around and see. It's a very interesting place for children, and they generally are happier and more content out on the beach. And the other thing is for parents to kind of step back. Sometimes we have parents that get a little too involved in trying to make sure their children are smiling and happy and sometimes that puts more pressure on the child. Sometimes it's good for a parent just to step back. The photographers knows that children sometimes need a little break. The photographer knows that sometimes the kids are getting on the edge of their patience so if the parents sometimes just steps back and lets the photographer kind of handle things and gives the child a little room, the child will relax. If the parent gets real uptight then almost always the child gets uptight too.
JOHN: Sure that makes sense. Now before I let you go, Jerry, would you kindly give your website and contact information one more time for our listening audience.
JERRY: Sure. If you're coming to the Jersey shore and you're thinking of a beach portrait certainly check out our website. A lot of examples of the different beach work that we do. It's all sunset work done that last hour before the sun goes down to give you the best light that we can possibly get for you. The website is www.seashorephotos.com. And we do other work as well. We do a lot of studio work, and we're doing a lot of other creative design work as well. One thing you'll see on our website is our Signature Edition portraits which is where we take an image that we've taken of your family and then we have an artist actually digitally paint that picture. It's a combination of digital and traditional techniques. They paint on a Walcome tTablet and they actually paint digitally brush strokes on it and then it's printed on canvas, gliclay style, sprayed, and mounted and then traditional brush strokes with an actual brush are done over top of the print and it gives it a real nice three dimensional look.
JOHN: Yeah, those are very nice. I was checking those out on your website. Very nice. Jerry, I want thank you for joining us today on VTalk Radio's Spotlight.
JERRY: Thanks a lot for having me.
JOHN: We have been in the studio Jerry Beebe of Seashore Photos in Marmora, New Jersey, also of the boardwalk in Ocean City, New Jersey. You've been listening to the VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight. Have a great afternoon everyone.
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