Today's Guest: LaVonne Bennet of Bennet Photography in Newburg, Indiana
Today's Host: John Bentley
December 2007
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LaVonne Bennet
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LaVonne Bennet Expert PageANNOUNCER: 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 Lvonne Bennett of Bennett Photography of Newberg, IN. Welcome to VTalk Radio's Photographer Spotlight, Lvonne.
LVONNE: Well thanks for having me.
JOHN: I've been checking out your website. It looks like you've got a lot of great content on it. Can you tell our audience what kind of photography you specialize in?
LVONNE: Well our studio is mostly weddings, preschools, families, and corporate accounts.
JOHN: Can you tell me a little bit about the wedding photography. That's a big part of your business, isn't it?
LVONNE: The wedding industry has taken a dramatic change in our area, because everyone and their brother has a camera now. So we've had to redefine our wedding industry. You will notice that we shoot more artistically a lot of photo journalism, a lot of tradition is still recommended in this area. So what we've learned to do is shoot square instead of rectangle, and I think that's made a big difference on the impact of our clients. So we've taken a different approach to it. A lot of photo journalism, always two photographers at site, one to capture the traditional and one to capture the photo journalism as it's actually happening while I'm working with the clients. It's sort of exciting to see the industry change, but at the same time, it's a little scary to know that it's changed enough to where a lot of people can step in to this with the digital technology. So, we just constantly moving forward with it.
JOHN: You also do a lot of corporate business too?
LVONNE: A lot of corporate. We do a lot of doctors, lawyers, and factories. They come in, a lot of it is done on site as yearly updates which is really nice accounts for our studio. Some of the doctor's offices or therapeutic hospitals they may have somewhere between 200 and 400 physical therapists that are in their buildings or other types of associates. So we go in 4 times a year and update all of their employee lists and it's used for the website, for their brochures, and things like that. So those have been really good accounts for our studio.
JOHN: I understand you also do preschool photography.
LVONNE: The preschool I would have to admit that most people think that I'm absolutely insane to take on anywhere from newborn up to the 6 year olds. And this is approximately 3,000 preschool children a year. I absolutely love it. It let's me go in with new designs every year, new portrait back drops, new types of props, and gives the parents something that is more studio like than it is like a regular school picture. So we go in and really achieve a high end preschool portrait image as opposed to just taking one shot. And what makes us different in a preschool industry isn't the part that I've been doing for 25 years is with the new digital technology, we're able to shoot more than 3 or 4 frames per child to ensure that we've got, you know, really good expression and a real good composition. We can continue to shoot 40 or 50 frames if we have to. Not that I want to, but if I have to, I would do that in order to make sure that I don't have to go back for a retake day. I love the preschool children. It's probably some of the biggest accounts I have in the studio, and I keep those very active and most of those accounts, some of them are 25 years old. We've just been shooting that long in the same school and growing every year in that part of the industry.
JOHN: Now you have a studio there in Newberg, IN. You do studio work also, correct?
LVONNE: I do studio work. My husband is a full time high school senior portrait photographer, and he does all high school students that are coming from the different areas from the Henderson County, Warrick County, Vanderburgh County, and Posey County, and I do the families. So the preschool industry lends me to do the family portraits. So whenever we're doing the preschools, we advertise in their packet that we also do families so when they receive their packet a lot of the business that we get is coming straight from the parents direct from that advertising piece. They call, they schedule their fall or spring family portraits, and we do those indoor and outdoor, and we take on a lot of their pets. We're involved in the Vanderburgh County Humane Society. They put out a book once a year called Happy Tails so we are involved in shooting the family pets to go inside the Humane Society book.
JOHN: What about athletics? Are you doing anything in athletics?
LVONNE: Currently all we're doing is just the Evansville Hockey League which is a pretty large account. It takes place in the fall every year, and it's about a 5 - 7 day photo shoot. Because of the number of leagues we have to do it at the time that they come in for their practice games, and obviously they're not all coming in at the same time so we spread it out over 5 - 7 days. We just go in in the evenings, all day on Saturday and Sunday, get that part done, and that's also a very lucrative account for our studio too, because it's been real active for about 7 or 8 years. They seem to like what we're doing so...and we do different props with them every year, different backgrounds, and different sets. It's made it more of a traditional studio type portrait, but it's a lot higher end. We can control the lighting and things like that, and I think that's why the parents like it. It's not your traditional hockey puck and stick,and they're just standing there. We're actually creating a type of hockey type portrait and we're excited about that account and we're hoping to grow over to Louisville, Kentucky, and up into Cincinnati. That's our intent with the hockey leagues, but other sports we don't do at this time.
JOHN: Lvonne will you tell our listeners your website address and contact information.
LVONNE: The website is www.weddingsbylvonne.com and Lvonne is spelled L-V-O-N-N-E and the contact to call us is (812) 858-9537.
JOHN: We in the studio today with Lvonne Bennett of Bennett Photography of Newberg, IN. You're listening to the VTalk Radio's Photographer Spotlight. We'll 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.
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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 Lvonne Bennett of Bennett Photography of Newberg, IN. Welcome back, Lvonne.
LVONNE: Thank you.
JOHN: We've been talking about your services there in Indiana. Can you tell me some of the communities and cities in the area that you cover?
LVONNE: Mostly for our preschools we're in about 5 different counties. We are in Jasper County, Posey County, Vanderburgh County, Warrick County, and Henderson County. Those are the counties for the preschools because they're all within a 50 - 60 mile radius. As far as weddings, we love doing destination weddings. We will go anywhere in the United States that's within a two day driving period. So if we're in southern Indiana if you want to get married in Alabama, and I can get there within two days, I'm more than happy to take that wedding on. I have done two weddings in New York City, a little bit more difficult, but absolutely loved all of the architecture and the things that were opened up to me there in order for the creativity part of it. Love the destination weddings, but all the other things that we do like the doctors, lawyers it's always in the five county area so Jasper, Warrick, Posey, Vanderburgh and Henderson Counties. Most of it stays in that area.
JOHN: What about wedding facilities or banquet halls in the area that you use a lot?
LVONNE: My favorite in Evansville is the Ivy Room in Evansville. It's part of the Swercka Building off of Virginia and I think North Main. Love that facility and the Executive Inn down town. Those are two of the more higher end facilities along with Cainbridge. Cainbridge is a big brand new facility that opened about a year ago, and it's on a golf course and it's a private community, but can be rented out to the public for weddings and anniversary parties. So those are my three favorites, but there are several such as the Discovery Lodge and I believe there's one Apollo Run up in Jasper that I really enjoy too.
JOHN: How long have you been in business, Lvonne?
LVONNE: We began in 1981 so we just celebrated our 26th, getting ready to start our 27th year, and we've been shooting together as a couple for the last 15 years, and my husband and I, so it's been really rewarding. Our desks are about 2 - 3 feet apart. We work 24/7. We've been married 28 years, so it seems to work for us.
JOHN: Now why would somebody want to use a professional photographer when they could get Uncle Joe to come out with his digital camera and shoot the event? What else do you do that makes your service unique?
LVONNE: I think what people say the most when they come in and they actually see the work, the highest compliment I get is, oh my these are so clear and so good. And what the difference is the technology of knowing the lighting patterns, how to get good lighting, how to get good files. Everyone has a digital camera these days, but if you don't know how to manipulate that camera to get the best file out of it, that's the difference between having Uncle Joe do it and having a professional do it. And we also tell our brides it's really important to hire someone that can keep the day flowing that understands the concept of a wedding to where you can have a professional come in, get those family pictures done, know what needs to be done, and get it done in a very timely manner, move on so that they can actually enjoy the celebration of their day instead of having people stop and think about well let me try this and let me try that. We don't have to try it, we already know what we're doing so we can do it efficiently.
JOHN: What's your most important goal when you're shooting a client, Lvonne?
LVONNE: Service, service, service, service. We are very service oriented. Our goal is if we do a wedding on Saturday to have it up online for them ready to view within seven business days. If it is a client that comes into our studio, it is up online within 24 hours. The product that they purchase from us is ordered the same day from our studio to our lab. The same day the client places their order with us it is usually drop shipped directly to their home so they have their product within seven business days so it's always service, service, service whenever they work with us.
JOHN: If you had to pick a dream photo shoot, what do you love to shoot? What would that be?
LVONNE: Well I do love the preschools, obviously, it's very trying, but if I really had a dream photo shoot, I think I would like to be somewhere in the Caribbean doing a wedding. That is really out of the box for me, I've never done it. I dream about doing it. I dream about locations such as that, and maybe as I age, and I get a little more comfortable and someone says, you know, hop on a plane and come down here and I want you to cover this event I think our work shows that we can do it. Our past work shows that we can do it. It's just making that dream happen and meeting the right client to let it happen.
JOHN: Once again, Lvonne, will you give our listeners your website and contact information.
LVONNE: Sure it is www.weddingsbylvonne.com and my phone number is (812) 858-9537 and we're located in the very southern tip of southern Indiana.
JOHN: We have been in the studio with Lvonne Bennett of Bennett Photography of Newberg, IN . Thank you for joining us today on the Photographer Spotlight.
LVONNE: Thank you. I enjoyed it.
JOHN: This is VTalk Radio's Photographer Spotlight signing out.
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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