Today's Guest: Dave Eskridge of Eskridge Sports and Event Photography in Chandler, Arizona
Today's Host: John Bentley
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Dave Eskridge Expert PageANNOUNCER : This VTalk Radio Spotlight is brought to you by www.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 V Talk Radio's Photography Spotlight we have Chandler, Arizona, photographer, Dave Eskridge of Eskridge Sports and Events Photography and Fine Portraiture. Welcome to the program today, Dave.
DAVE: Well thank you for having me.
JOHN: It's certainly nice to talk to somebody from a warm region of the country. You've got a business you been doing for number of years down there, let's talk...give us kind of a general over view of what you've got going on.
DAVE: Well I have been in business for 25 years photographing families, children, high school seniors, over the years, and then within the last 15 years, I incorporated sports and events into my business structure, but I cherish the clientele that I have, and I look forward to new clientele, to provide them with their portraiture needs, as well as the corporate clients for their events. My additional interest in doing sports photography was blossomed through my love for sports.
JOHN: Let's talk about sports because men I love sports, I'm a big sports guy. So tell me a little bit about what you're doing in the sports aspect of your photography business.
DAVE: Well in the sports arena I photograph action. I do as well photograph the teams and individuals at the youth level but I'm involved with sports photography from youth the to pro including high school and collegiate levels. So I'd been very fortunate to have established a great clientele through the Fiesta Bowl, the Insight Bowl, BCS Championship, as well as, the Phoenix Open which I've photographed for the last 15 years and it's very rewarding and, of course, very exciting to share the moments that happen in sports in a unique way and almost in a, well I tend to call at a Sports Illustrated fashion, because I try to capture the moments on the field or on the ice or on the court. So that it has a true reflection of the action that has occurred.
JOHN: And that's a really important niche to have in your photography business for sure. Now you have done a couple of big time events. As a matter of fact, you've been doing the Fiesta Bowl for a number of years now haven't you?
DAVE: Yes, I've been involved in the Fiesta Bowl. I'm actually on the Fiesta Bowl committee because of my commitment to their photography needs. I've been with the Fiesta Bowl for 13 years, and I really, really enjoy not only being part of the committee because it's a wonderful bond of family, so to speak, it's a conglomeration of committee members, both men and women of all different, you know, administrative and business. But it's all with one goal to put together a wonderful event for the Valley of the Sun that we refer to as Phoenix. And within that, I not only photograph all the games because they, but then the Fiesta events umbrella. There's 32 other events in connection with the Fiesta Bowl and the Insight Bowl, which within the last five years has been brought up from Tucson to the Phoenix area. I'm also a part of the Fiesta Bowl's theme, I'm a member of the BCS which is the Bowl Championship Series. It's really been a great experience to photograph national championship games on a collegiate level as well from everything from the Fiesta Bowl at Ohio State...Miami game in 2002 which went into overtime, actually double overtime, but it's just, like I said, there's other events involved. There's of course the Clean and Court. There's a wonderful parade that's on New Years Eve day every year where it's hundreds of thousands of people attend. So it's not only the sports side, but also I'm able to utilize my services for the guests and in order to provide them with coverage of these other events.
JOHN: Great. Now Dave, we're going to take a short break here to get the commercial, but we'll be right back on VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight.
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JOHN: We're in the studio with Chandler, Arizona, photographer, Dave Eskridge of Eskridge Sports and Events Photography and Fine Portraiture. Welcome back to VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight, Dave.
DAVE: Thank you so much. I appreciate you having me.
JOHN: Hey, I forgot to get this in the first segment. Let's give your website address and contact information really quick here, ok.
DAVE: Ok. My website is www.eskridgephotography.com. That's E-S-K-R-I-D-G-E Photography all one word .com, and also on that site, there is a link to an additional site which is my sports and events site www.eskridgesports.com where you can also view the events that I have covered and information about the sports and events coverage.
JOHN: Well, as you have stated, sports photography is probably your passion and the biggest part of your business. You do dabble in some other things. Let's talk about weddings. Is weddings a big part of what you do? What are you doing in the wedding aspect?
DAVE: Well weddings are actually a small percentage at this point. I've photographed weddings for the past 20 years as well, but have kind of taylored back on the weddings market so to speak just in order to concentrate more on the corporate events as well as the sports events. But I certainly enjoy doing weddings and basically the weddings I do at this time are for current clientele, families that I've worked with through the years. It's one of those things that I call keeping the client for life where I've photographed children at the newborn stage all the way through their weddings. I guess that's a reflection of my age, but also a reflection of my clients trusting my abilities and I enjoy working with them.
JOHN: Sure and your commitment to a family to go from the beginning, you know, all the way through their lives. That's a good thing to have that consistency in portraiture is a good thing. Now on the corporate side, are you doing like, you know, bus shots of people for...
DAVE: I do everything from the, what we call, head and shoulders or executive portraits to actual events. There are different events. Maybe they have an awards dinner where they want me to photograph, not only the couples that are attending, but also the presentations, as well as, sometimes 3, 4, 5 day events with corporations such as one of my clients is Coach Handbags where I go to their national what they call their ABC convention, photograph all the events, because they not only have, you know, break outs and meetings for their in-house operations, but they also have a lot of activities that are in conjunction with the week long event, and of course, they want to have that photographed and a lot of times we will also at the end of the week will structure a slide show for their award presentation dinner. So there's a lot of opportunity, especially here in Phoenix...the Phoenix area, because we are definitely a tourism...is our number industry here, and so to capitalize on that and have the ability to provide the service for these companies that are coming into town, but as also because of relationships with some of these companies, I've had the opportunity to travel to different locations where they're having their events and it's been very...it's been a great experience.
JOHN: Let's talk a little bit about that. Now obviously you have a studio right there in Chandler, but let's talk a little bit about some of the cities and communities surrounding Chandler that you actually do business out of.
DAVE: Well Chandler is a suburb of Phoenix and Phoenix has incredibly grown over the past 15 years and the resort industry is, like I said, it's the top industry here, and so because of that there is some wonderful venues. The Arizona Biltmore, for example, the Venitian, the Princess, the Fairmont Princess hotel in Scottsdale. Scottsdale is a mega because of the golf opportunities and, of course, our weather 8 or 9 months out of the year which is so beautiful really has the opportunities to draw top end clientele to the area. So within the area there's a variety of different locations that offer wonderful accommodations as well as large meeting areas and even in the east and south east valleys, there's a Sheraton Wild Horse Pass which is a wonderful location that has a golf course encompassed within it's campus so to speak. There's areas in, like I said, Scottsdale is the number one area as far as the resorts are concerned, and there's other within the Phoenix metropolitan area, I'd say it's a number one location or very sought after location for these corporations.
JOHN: Now, Dave, you're an award winning photographer. You got the Kodak Gallery Award and the Fuji Masterpiece Award. Congratulations on that. Briefly tell us a little bit about that.
DAVE: Thank you. The Fuji and Kodak awards are awarded to photographers who through PPA which is the Professional Photographers of America and through the PPA, they have print competitions every year where photographers submit 3 to 5 images for the competition that are judged and merited through the Professional Photographers of America and then Kodak and Fuji offer additional awards which are the Masterpiece and gallery awards respectively, and those awards are very prestigious awards because of course coming from the top two names in the industry. So because of that, also when submitting the prints it allows the photographer the opportunity to obtain degrees through Professional Photographers of America which are the Photographic Craftsman and Masters Degrees, and I've been fortunate enough to obtain the Craftsman degree which is and not only for print merits, but also for speaking to photographers nationwide at their state conventions or at the national convention for the Professional Photographers of America. I've been very fortunate to have had those awards, but the awards are just truly a reflection of the hard work that goes into photography, and I cherish the awards, but I also cherish my relationship with my clients more.
JOHN: Sure. Now we need to wrap things up here, Dave. We certainly appreciate you joining us today, but before we let you go, let's get your website address again and contact information.
DAVE: Wonderful. My website again is www.eskridgephotography.com and my contact information is...you can contact me either by email at dave@eskridgesports.com or also you can contact me by phone on my direct phone to the studio is (480) 699-9622 and I am located in Chandler which like I said is a suburb of the Phoenix metropolitan area. So my address is 125 South Alma School Road, Suite No. 1359 and that's Chandler, Arizona, 85224.
JOHN: Thanks again for joining us, Dave, on VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight today.
DAVE: Thank you again for the opportunity to be involved and I appreciate your time.
JOHN: Sounds good, Dave. We appreciate your time also. This is John Bentley for VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight signing off.
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