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From Buildings to Brides:
Joanne Bening
By Linda L. May
Professional photographer Joanne Bening of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, combines a
rare talent for storytelling with seven years experience in architectural work,
which makes her perfectly suited for one of her specialties--wedding photography.
In addition to maternity and engagement photography, Joanne also shoots portraits
of babies, children and families upon request. Most of her work is done in
Philadelphia, New York City and New Jersey; however, Joanne has also traveled to
exciting locations such as Los Angeles, Puerto Rico, London, Mexico and Rhode Island
to shoot destination weddings.
Background/History
Before the birth of her first child, Joanne had little interest in photography--let
alone making it a lifelong career. However, all of that changed when her kids came on
the scene. Documenting her offspring soon became an obsession. She built a darkroom
in her basement and began processing film and printing her own pictures. "My children
learned early on to honor that closed darkroom door," she recalls, smiling.
"I am not a formally trained photographer," Joanne says. "I taught myself through
trial and error, experimentation, and attending seminars and workshops. I could take
as long as I wanted printing and experimenting in the darkroom because I was not selling
my work at the time."
In 1989 Joanne graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a master's degree
in historic preservation and interior design. While in grad school, she was involved
in a group project that required her to photograph a historic building to provide
images for the report. After graduation, Joanne got a job at an architecture firm
that restored old, historic structures. She got the job based on her portfolio from
the group project. Her first assignment was to document a beautiful old hotel her
company was restoring.
"I was intrigued, so I purchased a Linhof 4x5 view camera and started exploring
large-format photography," Joanne recalls. "I learned about swings and tilts, sheet
film, perspective correction, and I slowly segued into full-time architectural
photography, which I did for seven years before opening Joanne Bening Photography.
The large-format work was precise, totally controllable, and the buildings I documented
were compelling, lavishly detailed and a pleasure to photograph. My work provided access
to incredible spaces that I'd never seen otherwise. I've been in every nook and cranny
of Independence Hall in the course of delivering 500 large-format images of that and
other related buildings to the National Park Service. I photographed the Tennis Hall
of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island, shot the giant sculptures by Alexander Milne Calder
on the exterior of Philadelphia's City Hall from a lift, captured Doris Duke's amazing
jewel collection at Rough Point in Newport, shot the National Gallery of Art in
Washington, D.C., plus many other landmark buildings in the course of my career."
The universe works in strange ways. We never know exactly what lies ahead to change
our life's path. Five years ago, Joanne's life changed drastically after she just
happened to sit in on a Denis Reggie wedding seminar at the Javits Center in New York
City. From that time on, she was hooked on wedding photography.
"Immediately after hearing Denis Reggie speak, I signed up for his four-day seminar
in Atlanta," Joanne says. "That was pivotal to my career. I liked Denis' style of being
the silent observer, combined with his generosity in sharing business details like
contracts, pricing and suppliers. After listening to Denis, wedding photography was
both interesting and possible for me. Although I had never contemplated it before,
wedding photography contained design elements that I'd been trained to observe in
my architectural work--the details, lighting issues, composed and thoughtful
decorations, architectural spaces and structures. On the other hand, it was also
the antithesis of the work I had been doing because it was spontaneous, uncontrollable,
emotional, alive and electric. The appeal was huge. So, I purchased my first digital
camera, a Nikon D1X and dove right in."
Studio
Joanne has no formal shooting space, although she has an office in her home where
she does the digital work. "Working from my home like this was made conceptually
possible for me by Denis Reggie, who spoke about meeting prospective clients in
their homes, in coffee shops and hotel lobbies in that first workshop I attended.
For many of my clients, offering to hold our initial meeting at their homes disarms
them because they are not accustomed to such specialized service. Because my
prospective clients are already pre-qualified, there is little risk in terms of
wasted time for me. I bring along my 17-inch Mac laptop loaded with slideshows
set to music and a few album samples, and we get to know each other where they
are most comfortable. From the beginning, people feel pampered and special, which
is rare these days," Joanne says.
Joanne also does all the editing, digital enhancements and album designs with
no employees to help. Joanne prefers maintaining control over her work as well
as the freedom of not having full-time employees to support. Pictage handles all
the online print orders from clients directly. Miller's Color Imaging Lab prints
all the images for her final Leather Craftsman and Cypress albums. However, Joanne
does hire freelancers as assistants/second shooters for weddings and large events
like the Philadelphia Charity Ball, a traditional charity event dating back to
1881, which she has photographed for the past two years.
Since she gave up film for digital three years ago, the Nikon D2X and D2H
cameras have been her favorites. For lighting, she uses Nikon SB-800s and Nikon's
CLS. She puts the master unit on-camera and scatters a number of slaves around to
fill in shadows and dark corners. She does some of her own printing on an Epson
2400 printer.
"For portraits and engagement sessions, my 'studio' is usually Rittenhouse Square,
a vibrant city park directly across the street from my office," Joanne explains.
"It's one of the original squares laid out by William Penn in the 1700s and it's
beautifully landscaped and immaculately maintained by The Friends of Rittenhouse
Square, an organization that I support. The park has great light--a good mix of
sun and shade--cobblestone walkways, stone benches, balustrades, iron railings,
statues, old growth shade trees and seasonal flowers. It's surrounded by outdoor
restaurants and wonderful old architecture, which provides interesting backgrounds
for photographing people simply being themselves. Clients are usually delighted
when I suggest Rittenhouse Square for their portraits because there is a sense of
activity and excitement in the park. Photographs taken there give an identifiable
Philadelphia presence to their story."
Marketing/Promoting
Joanne has built a successful business based on good working relationships with
both clients and other vendors in her area. Many of her clients come through
referrals from wedding coordinators, florists, venues, coachmen and caterers.
"I like and respect so many of the vendors with whom I work," she says. "It's so
great to go into a wedding knowing it's been planned by an artistic coordinator
who has real style. Knowing the flowers will be lush and fresh and beautiful and
the florist will be laughing as she supervises the complex setup makes my job
easier. I provide vendors with photographs from their weddings and they use my
pictures in their presentations and refer what are basically pre-qualified clients
to me."
Previous wedding clients are also a wonderful source of word-of-mouth advertising
and referrals. These satisfied clients are repeat customers who want Joanne to document
their ongoing lives photographing their pets, children, anniversary parties, parents,
events and vacations.
Her website is used mostly as a reference tool where potential clients can view
her work, not so much as a source of new business.
Joanne feels her science and architecture background is useful for wedding
photography. She says, "When I was doing architecture work with a large-format camera,
I showed up with a whole truckload of equipment: lights, props, cameras and tripods.
Setting up on-site was very challenging. I'd take 20 Polaroids to make sure every
detail was perfect. It took a whole crew of people to successfully pull it off. We
used hot lights and scrims. If I walked away at the end of the day with three good
interior shots, everyone was pleased. Now I walk into a wedding and everything is
already propped and staged for me. All I need to do is record it with my camera.
These days, I don't have to carry a truckload of equipment either."
WPPI Membership
Joanne joined WPPI as soon as she became interested in wedding photography--five
years ago--and is very glad she did because being a member has been a great asset to
her business.
"Initially, WPPI provided a window into the wedding photography world," Joanne explains.
"Through the years, WPPI has become even more relevant. The magic of this community is
the people and their generous sharing of information. Wedding photography involving
digital equipment is a highly technical, continually evolving moving target. Digital
requires time and research to stay ahead of the curve, even to keep up, really. The
work itself, while incredibly rewarding, is intense and a big responsibility. WPPI
provides so much support for its members--excellent articles on equipment and
technique, interesting and often inspiring profiles of photographers and the range
of work they are doing. The annual Las Vegas WPPI Convention presents amazing workshops
and lectures and the tradeshow is second to none."
Future Plans
Joanne plans to continue growing and expanding her operation by booking more newborns,
children and family sessions, as well as shooting more destination weddings. She also
plans to rebuild her website and increase her search engine listings to attract more
new clients.
"Last year, I followed a newborn, photographing her and her family every few weeks
throughout the first year of her life. We photographed at home right after she was born,
then at sites all around Philadelphia. First, she was in a backpack, then in a carriage,
then crawling and by the year's end, she was running away on her own two feet with her
mom in hot pursuit. The transformation that first year was amazing to witness and
record. That project resulted in a 100-page family album, a family heirloom that
everyone was thrilled to own. This year, I've got several more projects like that
one scheduled, so I'm definitely moving into that type of work now," Joanne concludes.
Visit www.joannebening.com.
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