Today's Guest: Patty Kaufman of It's U Photography. in Phoenix, Arizona
Today's Host: John Bentley
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Patty Kaufman Expert PageANNOUNCER: This program is sponsored by morephotos.com the online photo sales solution to professional photographers worldwide. Welcome to the VTalk Radio's Photographer Spotlight with your host, John Bentley.
JOHN: Today on VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight, we have Phoenix, Arizona, photographer, Patty Kaufman, of It's You Photography, joining us via telephone. Welcome to VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight, Patty.
PATTY: Thank you.
JOHN: It certainly is a pleasure to have you on the program. Let's give the audience a little overview of what you do down there in Phoenix.
PATTY: Well, we do all kinds of photography. We have the most beautiful weather here, so we do lots of weddings that are outdoor at many golf facilities. We do family portraits on location, sports including baseball, football, basketball, hockey, you name the sport, we shoot that. We do senior, graduation photos, corporate event photos, conventions, preschools, and regular school photographs.
JOHN: Now Patty, let's talk a little bit about you and how you came to be a photographer in the first place. What inspired you to become a photographer?
PATTY: Oh, I was the kid that always took the camera from my parents and doing the vacation saying, oh no, I'll take the pictures and then I would go through the roll of like 24 in like 5 minutes and say, could we buy another roll please? So that just started me on my way.
JOHN: Sure and how long have you had It's You Photography?
PATTY: We've been in business for a little over 20 years.
JOHN: Wow, ok so you've got lots of experience. So let's talk a little bit about probably the bulk of your business is probably weddings, isn't that true?
PATTY: I do a very large amount of weddings.
JOHN: Let's talk about the wedding industry. Certainly weddings present their own difficulties and you have to be spontaneous and you have to be able to deal with things that happen. Is that not the case?
PATTY: You know what, that's what makes it fun. Every wedding is different. Everyone who employs me is different. Every bride and groom have their own personalities and you just adapt and you just have a fun day no matter what happens. I had a gal going down the isle actually lose her slip on the way down.
JOHN: Yikes.
PATTY: It was a little hilarious, but you know what, you maintain. You just shoot what you know they want to remember, and I think I got her mother carrying her slip on the way back down the isle at the end of the event.
JOHN: So she just slipped right out of it, pardon the pun.
PATTY: She just, yep, she certainly did.
JOHN: That's funny. You never know what's going to happen.
PATTY: You never know.
JOHN: Now when you do a wedding, I would imagine that depending upon the size of it, do you take another photographer with you or do you have an assistant?
PATTY: Yes. Yes, I do. I periodically I have an assistant with me or also available in a package, you can have a second shooter.
JOHN: And let's move on to maybe some other things that you do. What is another big type of photography that you do?
PATTY: I would say probably my next biggest would be probably corporate events. Corporate events, conventions, are also a large amount of my business. We just built the beautiful, new Phoenix Convention Center which holds who knows how many people so conventions are another large part. We also have the beautiful JW Marriott and Desert Ridge that is also a very large facility to work in. So we have a lot of...with our beautiful weather...we have a lot of opportunities for conventions.
JOHN: What about maybe some of the wedding facilities in the area that you use?
PATTY: Oh, we have great wedding facilities. Well, of course, we have Fountain Hills and Fountain Hills was built probably at least 30 years ago, because they have the largest fountains. I don't know why they built a huge fountain in the desert, but it's beautiful and Sun Ridge Canyon is one of the most beautiful properties there that has a gorgeous golf course, a beautiful outdoor facility for weddings and then an indoor facility for receptions so that's beautiful in Fountain Hills. It's one nice city to work in besides the greater Phoenix area.
JOHN: Speaking of, what about some of the surrounding communities around Phoenix that you actually do work out of.
PATTY: Well there's Anthem. Anthem I've heard referred to as a pop-up city. That they decided a few years back let's go ahead and start a city right here in the desert and they have made a great, great community. There's all kinds of stuff to do and they have a beautiful Anthem Country Club in which to shoot in. So Anthem is a fun place to go. We mentioned Fountain Hills, there's also Peoria and Peoria is just right surrounding next door to Phoenix and in Peoria they have an Old Town Wedding and Events Center, they also have the Union Hills Golf and Country Club so there's a lot of beautiful places there also.
JOHN: Now we're going to take a break here, but before we do that, Patty, would you kindly share your website address and contact information.
PATTY: Sure. it's www.itsuphoto.com and I can be reached at (602) 866-8328.
JOHN: Today via telephone we are in the studio with Phoenix, Arizona, photographer, Patty Kaufman, of It's You Photography, and you are listening to VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight. We're going to take a break, we'll be right back after these important messages; do stayed 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: Did you ever wonder why the groom is supposed to carry the bride over the threshold? What does the saying something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue mean? Visit www.weddingdetails.com and click on the lore and tradition section. We've got culture and tradition information from around the world. Visit www.weddingdetails.com tonight.
JOHN: We are back in the studio with Phoenix, Arizona, photographer, Patty Kaufman, of It's You Photography, and you're listening to VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight. Welcome back to the program, Patty.
PATTY: Thank you.
JOHN: Now, we're talking about cities and communities around your area that you work out of. Let's just talk about what's a good place to have a wedding?
PATTY: There are some beautiful, beautiful places in the Phoenix and Scottsdale areas. One of my very favorite places to shoot is Royal Palms. It is a beautiful antique hotel just right on the bottom of Camelback Mountain that has beautiful little garden niches in which to hold weddings and the food, oh my goodness, the food is fabulous. So that is a great place for a wedding. Also there is a place called the secret garden. It's also nestled at the bottom of the mountain which would be the bottom of the south mountain and it is a facility in which it is a historic building in which they re-did and have a beautiful garden in the back that has gazebo in which weddings are held under and they built a lovely reception center.
JOHN: Now let's get into maybe some other photography that you dabble in, Patty. I'm sure that portraiture is a big part of what you do. You have a studio, correct?
PATTY: You know what, I work strictly on location. I like to incorporate a person's lifestyle into the photograph so I either shoot at their home or we shoot at an outdoor facility.
JOHN: Have camera; will travel then?
PATTY: You've got it.
JOHN: Well that's nice u don't limit yourself to just a studio.
PATTY: I'm not a fake tree person. If I"m going to have a tree in the photo, I'd like a real tree there. With our weather it just makes shooting on location so much more fun.
JOHN: I'm sure and I'm very jealous here. We're up here in Michigan so I've been to Phoenix; I've been to Arizona, I know what it's like down there. Well certainly you have dramatic back drops to do wonderful photography with. Now family portraitures a big thing you do. Let's talk about families. Let's talk about children. Let's talk about that aspect of your photography business.
PATTY: In the family portrait, I mean, whether it's a large family reunion which I have a few coming up here in which you shoot the entire family together and usually you do grandma and grandpa with all the grand kids, with their own children, the big kabam of everybody, and then break out each individual family so that you encompass everybody in one great setting.
JOHN: Now one of my favorite photographs to look at are children photographs and certainly that presents its own situation for ya. How do you get the kids...how do you interact with the kids to get these great photos?
PATTY: You know, I kind of let the kids do their stuff. They are just so much better when they are not having to sit posing in one little place and in a studio. Those I do working outside in an area and just let them be them, and you can really capture their emotion, their fun. It's not the frozen smile photos, it's more the natural awareness of their surroundings photos and they're really loads of fun. And along with those new baby portraits are just the very intimate moment with mom and baby, mom, dad and baby, and just baby alone. And, of course, before that what we love to do are the pregnancy photos. Those are just a very intimate, beautiful like a lot of back lit with the airy photos to do.
JOHN: And you do senior portraits to. I would imagine at a certain point in time, you're doing a lot of those.
PATTY: You know what? I'm very, very busy now with senior portraits and seniors create their own fun. They are wild, they are crazy, they have oh I just did one in which she was noted for her high top shoes that match her headbands. So we had beautiful pink high tops with pink headbands and wild outfits and what a fun time it was to capture her in her own environment. That was really a lot of fun to shoot.
JOHN: Now we don't have a lot of time here, but if you could briefly touch on a couple of the albums that you offer on your website. I see a couple of one being a story book album and another one being a tea style album.
PATTY: The story book album is an album that has come to be within the last 5 years in which takes the album from just putting the photographs in underneath a matte to creating a story of the couple. So it would involve doing stays behind photographs and a lot of black and whites, a lot of black and white with patches of color in, and all the photos are morphed into a page that has become its own hardback book of hardbound pages. So there's no more photos underneath mattes. Your page of your images creates you're story book album.
JOHN: Well Patty, it's certainly been a pleasure talking to you today. It sounds like you've got a great business down there in Phoenix and we are certainly jealous up here in Michigan. I wish we could be down there enjoying the wonderful weather and the great opportunities you have as a photographer. Beautiful area and you have some beautiful photography. Thanks for joining us today on VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight.
PATTY: Thank you very much.
JOHN: We have been in the studio today with Phoenix, Arizona, photographer, Patty Kaufman, of It's You Photography, and you've been listening to VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight. Thanks for joining us today. Have a great afternoon.
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