By Harvey J. Sorum
Correspondent
Tell us about your occupation prior to starting Fluvanna Sports Photography.
I began my career with the Department of Defense in 1984 as a communications engineer for the Air Force at Griffiss AFB, NY. In 1991, we moved to Fluvanna County and I started work with the Army. I retired from that career in December 2018.
When did you start this unique business?
Fluvanna Sports Photography started in 2006 and was initially focused solely on action sports photography. We are now the premier choice in the area for small leagues, clubs, and travel teams for individual photos, team photos, and banners.
Why photography?
I’ve always had an interest in photography and when my son began playing travel soccer, I started taking action photos during the games. After a couple of years, it turned into a business.
Tell us about why you specialized with sporting activity.
I enjoy the challenge of capturing peak action and my technical background helped me to understand the mechanics of photography and the equipment. As I moved more into team photos, I found it very enjoyable to try and capture the pure joy of being on a sports team.
With cell phones today, nearly everyone takes their own pictures. So, why should they consider the pictures you provide?
Cell phones have definitely affected the industry. That’s one of the main reasons that I moved away from action photography and turned my focus to team and individual (T&I) photography. The T&I photos that we produce use dynamic lighting that a mom or dad with a cell phone can’t reproduce. We also incorporate cutting edge graphics and we produce a composite team photo. This makes our photos unique from anything that you’ll get using your cell phone.
As a professional photographer, is it costly to have the equipment needed to provide your customers with quality pictures which are far better than they can do themselves?
To put it simply, yes. We use professional grade cameras, lenes, lights, and support equipment. None of these are what I would call inexpensive.
When cell phones became almost the norm for taking pictures, many camera stores closed their doors. Did this also effect Fluvanna Sports Photography?
Not at all. We purchase our equipment online through camera stores and servicing is always done by the manufacturer’s service center. All of our customer ordering is done online and once paid, the order is immediately transferred to a professional photo lab. Completed orders are shipped directly to the customer in just a couple of days.
Please explain how you take group pictures.
Back in the day, we posed the groups kneeling, sitting on benches, and standing and prayed that we could get them all looking at the camera when we took the shot. Now we use Enhanced Composite Photography to produce a team image using individual images. This ensures that each athlete is properly lit and properly posed. It also allows us to easily produce dynamically posed team images that would be very difficult to reproduce traditionally. Parents also love this because it means that if their child is late for photos or sick that day, we can still get them into the team photo just as if they were there with the rest of the team.
Do you advertise in order to gain new clients or do you just rely on your web site?
Most of my business growth has been based on customer referrals and targeted business outreach. We do get a lot of traffic on the web page too. (www.fluvannaphotos.com).
Is your business a 9 to 5 job, five days a week?
Due to the sports focus of the business, most of our photo sessions are on Saturdays and weekday evenings. Other than that, I strive to keep standard 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. hours, but, as a small business owner focused on customer service, I’m almost always available to answer customer inquiries.
Does your business offer products other than photography? If yes, what are they?
Just about everything we offer is photography based, but we also do a lot of senior recognitions…yard signs, banners, and garden flags that don’t necessarily involve photography.
Would you recommend to high school graduates to seriously consider photography as a profession?
It can be tough to make a living doing it. Newspapers have really cut their staffs and everyone with a cell phone or basic camera is photographing weddings, babies, and seniors. You have to find some aspect of photography and set yourself apart from everyone else. That’s what we’ve done with Fluvanna Sports Photography.
Anything else?
One of the things I’m most proud of is the work we do with travel teams…mostly baseball and softball. We setup extended photo sessions and get lots of different poses for the parents to choose from. We also work with them to produce cutting edge vinyl banners that showcase the team and often their sponsors. Teams take these banners with them to tournaments and hang them on the fence. It’s a great way to show off the team!
