Customer Spotlight: Mark Garber Photography

January 5th, 2010

Our Customer Spotlight for the month is Mark and Jennifer Garber, owners of Mark Garber Photography in Springboro, OH. Mark and Jennifer are a husband and wife team and award winning photographers. You may have seen them speaking at a convention as they are active members of PPA and WPPI.

Speaking of being Award Winning Photographers, Mark Garber Photography was the 2005 and 2008 First Place Zook Award Winner. You will also see their beautiful album images frequently used in Zookbinders display albums, ads, on the web, and many of our graphics and promotional materials.

Read below to see what Zookbinders learned about Mark and Jennifer!

Studio: Mark Garber Photography
Name: Mark and Jennifer Garber
Location: Springboro, Ohio
Website: http://www.markgarber.com/

Where is your favorite location to photograph?
Definitely any place with great available light. We like finding new places, whether they are urban, environmental, or totally off the map. Our off the map locations include carnivals, shopping centers, and even dairy barns. New locations keep us creative and help to keep our work looking fresh.

What excites you about being a photographer?
Trying new things whether its a new marketing campaign or a new approach to shooting. Everyday is different! It’s also a rush to please your clients and surprise them with images that they couldn’t have imagined.

What turns you off about being a photographer?
Imitation is not the greatest form of flattery in our mind. I know its human nature to have mentors or admire certain styles of work, but hopefully you become inspired by that to create your own unique style and not just mimic others. Finding your own unique style is part of the journey of photography.

What is your favorite marketing tool?
NETWORKING!!! Social networking is more than just tweeting about a session you just did. Spend good quality face time with your clients and other like minded businesses. 80% of our business comes from referrals from past or current clients as well as other wedding vendors. Relationships are key!

What or who has inspired you?
That’s a tough question to answer since there are so many inspirational things out there in our world. From a business perspective, the author of the “Wizard of Ads,” Roy Williams. When Jennifer first started trying to develop a strong brand identity for the studio, Williams’ books were a critical and life changing guiding force in shaping our business.

What’s your favorite f-stop?
Frank’s Bar after a long wedding.

What is your favorite book?
Jennifer reads just about every business/marketing book that comes out. Here are her all time favorites:

1.) Secret Service by John Dijulius
2.) Selling the Invisible by Harry Beckwith
3.) Wizard of Ads by Roy H. Williams

All three are life changing marketing books with real information…not just fluff! All of these authors have multiple books to read as well.

What is the #1 reason client’s hire you?
We have worked hard to create a brand image that conveys service, quality, artistry and personability. To paraphrase Lexus, “We are a service company, that happens to sell great photographs.”

What do you do when you’re not photographing?
Retouching, marketing, retouching, marketing, retouching, marketing…..seriously!

If heaven exists, which photographer would you like to hang out with?
My top artist choice would be actually be Salvador Dali…I think he would be a trip to talk to, not to mention I really admire his work. When it comes to photographers, we’re very lucky to get to see many tremendous photographers/friends when we attend photography conventions like PPA or WPPI. Tradeshows and heaven, who’d a thought?

Where can you see more of Mark and Jennifer?
We are platform speakers at Imaging USA. You can attend our high-energy, information packed program Jan. 12th at 1pm. You can also find Jennifer at WPPI’s Business Institute March 6th.

Thanks Mark and Jennifer for sharing your information with us! Below you can find a slideshow of some samples of their work.