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Rangefinder
Magazine Profile: The Wacker Family by
Charmaine Beleele In the future there will be a photography studio that features safari-style sessions. In the future photography clients will celebrate a day-on-the-farm experience in heirloom images. In the future, there will be a portrait park where families will fish, hike, even ride ATVs, while they enjoy a family portraiture experience. The future is now in Clintonville, Wisconsin.
Their century-old studio is a piece of history. Jean smiles as she says, “In the 1937 original sales agreement with the former studio owner, a clause states that the photographer must allow the farmer to have first rights to the cold spring water to cool his milk, before the photographer could wash his prints.” This ambience is a large part of their success. “We have tried to keep this warm country charm alive—not create a sterile or high-class-only appeal that would scare away many of our best clients.” She adds, “We continue to stress our family approach to portraiture.”
The Wackers have built their success by careful attention to their MSQ quotient: Marketing, Service and Quality. Every detail of their business radiates from one of these three keys to professional success. Number
One: M is for Marketing
Dave explains, “Service in a small-town studio takes on many forms. It may be driving 27 miles to personally deliver a yearbook. It may be scheduling an off-hours session for a family with a relative in town for a few hours between flights.” Number Three: “Q” is
for Quality
He explains the Big Picture behind image quality at his studio. “We know that in a small town we have to produce a high-quality product that will bring clients from a great distance and keep them coming back. Repeat business is vital to our studio’s survival. Anything less than our best will not be accepted.” In his cleverly written “Senior Portrait Survival Guide,” J.D explains, “At Photography by J.D., we never cut corners, so when you choose one of the money-saving packages, you won’t be paying extra later for retouching, artwork, mounting, wallet boxes, finishing or your school yearbook portrait. Also, you won’t be confused by multiple choices of finishes or even unfinished, unprotected low-price prints. We only offer one finish—the Best.”
The Wackers have found a way, and it is there and open to us all the time—print competition! Jean advises photographers to study the annuals from both PPA and WPPI, work on print crews, attend print competitions and listen to judges’ comments. She sums it up, “Enter what you love to do! Challenge yourself! Do something you didn’t know you could do!” J.D. puts it in plain language: “Competi-tion is a kick in the butt that fuels my creativity! It forces us to keep up with new trends and styles.” In an award-winning entry, they agree, “Impact is number one!” Closely related is their endorsement of the “Ahhh factor,” i.e., the cuteness of a puppy, the grandeur of a scene, the expression of a subject, the wrinkles of a grandmother—anything that moves your emotions. Thus, competition creates the mindset that increases the quality of your images, and the awards influence all three parts of your MSQ!
•
In the future… “Digital chaos will calm down.” Labs
and photographers will strike a balance between outsourcing images to
imaging labs and printing their own work.
They are excited to show fellow photographers “shortcuts that save time and still improve your images.” And for digital dessert, the program will show us how to “increase profits” at the same time that we “reduce our expenses!” The Wacker family will be presenting a program entitled “Turning Pixels Into Profits” at WPPI ‘04 on Wednesday, February 25 from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. at BALLY’s Las Vegas. CharMaine Beleele,
with an MA in Communication, owns Angel Kissed Photography Studio in
Arkansas. She teaches Communication at the University of Arkansas
in Fort Smith. She is also a regular correspondent for the Arkansas
Catholic newspaper. Email her at LBeleele@aol.com or contact her at her
new web
site www.angelkissedphotography.com. |
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The studio Photography By J.D. is a family
affair. Jean, who married Dave Wacker, is the granddaughter of Andrew
Zimmerman. You can still
find the Zimmerman 1906 photograph of Haley’s Comet published in
the Encyclopedia Britannica. One of Zimmerman’s contemporaries,
Dave’s father, established Wacker Photography in the 1920s. So
when Jean and Dave married, they built their photography business on
a double family legacy. Naturally, their son, J.D., inherited his parent’s
commitment to photographic excellence. That’s four generations
of shooters! 
This
family philosophy is the heart of their inspiration. Jean explains, “We
enjoy the inspiration and the fun the environment offers while we photograph
wildlife or the flowers in our prairie, and even sunsets—all the
things we don’t have to photograph.” J.D. agrees, “We
come back ready to do the tasks every studio owner must do, like accounting
and meeting deadlines, with a renewed energy.” 
These award-winning photographers have willingly shared their marketing
secrets in books and workshops. We all know that word of mouth is a potent
marketing attraction, but the Wackers have specific methods of creating
this elusive power. They advise photographers to make marketing personal.
For example, when an email or a postcard would be easier, “send
handwritten notes with a call to action.” They use “thank
you” ads. This clever advertising technique is bound to get the
community talking. The newspaper copy reads: “Thank you, Mrs. Smith,
for helping us to create another ‘Best of Show Portrait.’” They
follow up by sending a copy of the ad with the ribbon to the client.
(Now, is that family ever going to use a different photographer?) The
Wackers also advise a pro-active strategy for photography web sites.
Games and contests keep high school seniors motivated to check the Wackers’ web
site regularly. 
Number Two: “S” is for Service
All three of the Wackers endorse education as a road to a quality studio.
J.D., Dave and Jean all hold multiple degrees from PPA and the Wacker
family learns from each other. Jean studies with J.D., her own son. “He
has the patience of his father. Can you imagine teaching your mother
Photoshop? I was so thrilled to think that all the artist techniques
I had been doing for so many years could now be done on a little digital
tablet. I put down my brushes and never looked back.” All three
teach digital imaging programs and senior portrait techniques to other
photographers from coast to coast and are approved portrait jurors. It
is a fact that education enhances credibility. 
J.D. expounds on the importance
of technical quality, “Digital
has proven to be a double-edged sword. It bleeds creativity, but unfortunately
many exciting images fall short on technical issues—detail, contrast,
color, etc.” He cautions, “Rem-ember our clients will be
hanging their new digital images right next to their film-based images.
They’ll see the difference. Digital images are capable of exceeding
film quality. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, especially your
lab.” He also warns, “Whether we’re digital or not
won’t matter as much as the quality and consistency of the images
clients receive from us. A restaurant menu said it best, ‘Good
food isn’t cheap, cheap food isn’t good.’ So it goes
for professional photography.” J.D is a member of Kodak’s
Digital Focus Group, an advisory panel of digital imaging experts. 
All
the education and fine lab products in the world won’t help
us, however, if we do not sharpen our image-creating techniques. And
if we are photographing high school seniors, we’d better be updated
and stylish in our approach. So, in addition to seminars and workshops,
how can we enhance our vision and sharpen our creative abilities?
The Wackers’ studio sports more awards than
there is room to list, but they treasure each of them. J.D. states, “The
Kodak Gallery Elite Grand Award was overwhelming. I strive to win whenever
I compete, but having my image selected above thousands of others was
truthfully something I hadn’t even imagined.” Also, J.D.
is very proud of being the current Wisconsin Senior Photographer of the
Year. Not only did he receive the combined award, but he also swept all
of the awards given by the photographer, parent and senior judges. Dave
not only has Kodak Gallery Awards, but also 27 loan prints. “These
are all individual awards that resulted from our united family effort.”
All
three of the Wackers predict a digital future for photography, although
they feel some jobs will always require film. 
So, with ambience grounded
in an historic past and with an eye on an optimistic future, what is
this photo-threesome up to in the near present?
Home cooking! They’re cooking up a program to be served family
style at the 2004 WPPI Convention, of course! Dave says, “‘Turn
Pixels into Profits’ is our current theme, and our program will
be oriented toward digital techniques.” J.D. adds, “Our programs
are all based upon honesty and a no-nonsense approach. We stress the
how-to, not just theories or autobiographies.” At their 2004 program,
the Wackers have pledged to “show you how to get your life back
after switching to digital.” Jean says, “Through trial and
error, we know what it takes to profit from digital, maintain high quality,
and still have weekends to spend with the family.”