Working with Small Miracles

Laura Cantrell’s father, Lawrence Cantrell, learned about posing and lighting by working for the late, great William Mortensen. Laura and her sister, Lisa, literally grew up in the studio, and Laura’s first photography was shooting passport photos with a 4 x 5 camera and processing them in one hour. “There was hardly a time when I didn’t work in the studio,” she says. “I was in high school when I was first paid for shooting a train wreck, also on 4 x 5. I covered the scene as I had watched my dad do it. Later I studied at two colleges in Alabama, but I’m a classic dropout.”

Shortly after her college experiences Laura decided to try shooting weddings, and her dad dutifully tagged along, showing her the ropes and encouraging her photojournalistic style. “At weddings I was always intrigued by the antics of children,” Laura recalls, “and I soon had a good time photographing kids in the studio. Parents began calling for appointments and my reputation as a children’s photographer grew.”

As she matured, Laura enjoyed listening to artists in various fields who visited her folks. “I’ve also been fortunate,” she explains, “to have attended many programs over the years where I learned from people like Don Blair, Frank Cricchio, David Ziser and others. I read books by old masters like William Mortensen and art historians such as Aaron Scharf.”

In 1979 her father relocated to a building in midtown Mobile, AL, where the Cantrell studio did portraits, children, weddings and commercial work. In 1984 Hurricane Frederick forced the family out of the studio, and Lawrence finally built another one by the pool in the backyard of their home. Laura worked with him until he died in 1993. “We shot a job together for a local shipyard that June; he died in August,” she recalls.

Lisa (who handles a lot of their current business) and Laura modernized their father’s studio after his death. Business grew and soon they found another building, which remains, albeit enlarged, their present Mobile location. The business was incorporated as Laura Cantrell Photography and Laura observes, “We switched from aerial, architecture and advertising of my father’s time to portraits of children and grownups and weddings. Lisa came aboard full-time in 2000 after a career in sales at Standard Register, a Fortune 500 company. A few years ago Lisa’s daughter, Laura Elizabeth, began working with us part time.”

Laura photographed her last wedding in 2001. “I tapered back on what had been a pretty demanding weekend schedule,” she says. “My portrait business had taken off, and I wanted a break from a six-day work week. Children’s portraits became a higher percentage of my sessions as my reputation grew in the community. The Denny Manufacturing Company is one of our clients, and their backgrounds are often included in our pictures. Today, studio sessions are 47 percent Baby Plan, 15 percent promotions and 38 percent portraits. The Baby Plan is four sittings over a period of two years.”
The Cantrell studio is roughly 3000 square feet in a two-story building that has evolved to fit Laura’s photographic style. At first she used Fujicolor Pro 160 S film and moved from one electronic flash shooting area to three natural light areas for portraits. She explains, “I like strong southern light regulated by curtains or large sheets of Fome-Cor fastened up with tape. Or we hang rolls of white paper towels that are wonderfully translucent. We now have two stories of floor-to-ceiling windows facing south, but for variety we also converted a parking lot behind the studio into a courtyard that receives softer north light most of the day. It’s a comfortable location for family pictures, especially larger groups, and it’s our most requested setting.”

Laura says, “I work with an assistant, and we have a receptionist and a sales person extraordinaire, my sister Lisa.” Lisa chimes in, “My forte has always been sales. I came from an industry where I thrived on the thrill of the hunt. I loved cold calling and travel and corporate rewards. Now I value being in photography where soft selling is the better fit. After 10 years, sales and production of fine portraiture have become my passion. We provide the highest quality and selection of products with a level of service second to none.”

Laura and Lisa considered several studio management software systems in 1998 and eventually chose SuccessWare. They began a direct-mail campaign, targeting existing clients and saw an immediate increase in session appointments. They had always displayed samples of Laura’s work in bridal shops and began to contact local children’s clothing stores in an effort to attract new business. They also rented display space in a local shopping mall to increase their visibility. Their website was launched in 2005 and they also use regular email and postcard campaigns. “The phone rings off the hook after one of our mail-outs hits,” Laura declares. The studio also donates complimentary portrait sittings to several silent auctions yearly, and they sell Christmas ornaments for a local charity.

Within a 25-mile radius of Mobile, yellowpages.com lists 101 photography studios. Laura says there are several very talented photographers in their vicinity, but she believes some of their largest competitors are mothers themselves, armed with sophisticated digital cameras. She adds, “Some mothers discover that our technical proficiency, consistent quality and excellent customer service, plus new products, can be very attractive.” For the record, Mobile’s population as of 2000 was close to 200,000; there are now twice as many people in the county.

That said, Hurricane Katrina dealt a terrible blow to the Gulf coast—including the Cantrell studio. Laura says, “We usually have a day’s notice when we are in a hurricane’s path, but are never sure who’s going to take the direct hit. We boarded windows, moved computers, equipment and negatives upstairs. I took my cameras home and hoped for the best. But Katrina blew the roof and an air-conditioning unit off our two-story building and everything was wet. We lost computers, printers, props, office furniture and fixtures. The wood floors buckled, Sheetrock fell and we had no power for a week.

“Through a small miracle, we found a roofer, called an air-conditioner friend (an angel), my husband un-boarded the windows (divine intervention) and hooked up the generator (heaven). Sissy [Lisa] and I then went to work and with the help of our wonderful staff, began the process of putting the studio back together. Sissy resumed sales appointments immediately. With the air conditioner mounted on a new roof and power restored, a construction crew replaced ceilings, walls and floors. New cabinets and office furniture were delivered; computers were back online with data and images intact. We rescheduled missed appointments six weeks after the storm, and never missed a payroll. Since then we bought custom reinforced metal storm shutters as a talisman against future hurricanes.”

The sisters felt that the aftermath of a hurricane was something like having a death in the family. They share, “You repair the damage and people pull together in amazing ways. You give help to complete strangers. There is a commonality in the expression on everyone’s face. On neighbor’s porches we drank camp-style coffee and cooked thawing food from freezers. Our customers were in the same boat as we were, and pretty soon it was time to begin planning for the holiday season!”

They had adequate insurance coverage, but Laura admits, “I always keep cash in reserve. We had to prove all losses, endure inspectors and document replacement costs. We also had business interruption coverage (a must if you have employees that depend on salaries) but it took six weeks to kick in. I supplement with a disaster savings account. My insurance premiums have doubled since Katrina, though I would rather be adding to my own disaster fund.”

Having been through numerous film cameras, Laura Cantrell says she is “totally in love” with her Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III used almost exclusively with a 24–105mm zoom. Her older Canon EOS-1D Mark II is her backup and she may also “whip out” a Fuji Finepix S3 Pro on vacations. Studio images are downloaded in house, tweaked in Adobe Camera Raw, backed up to DVD and prepared for presentation. They also backup to an image sever where images can be accessed in the presentation and sales theater and sent to the lab for processing. Some Photoshop retouching is done in house but the studio relies on labs as well.

Shares Laura, “Work is great! I am happy when shooting, Sissy is happy when selling. We are a formidable team.” View her work at lauracantrell
photography.com.

Lou Jacobs Jr. is the author of 30 how-to photography books, the latest of which is Professional Wedding Photography Techniques and Images from Master Photographers (Amherst Media). He has taught at UCLA and Brooks, is a former president of ASMP national, and has also written and illustrated numerous books for children. He enjoys shooting stock during his travels in the U.S. and abroad.