“I always say I was born into this business,” says Bert VanderVeen of VanderVeen Photographers, Inc. “I am the fifth generation of photographers in my family, starting with my great great uncle and grandfather in business in Tunbridge Wells, England.”
VanderVeen Photographers, Inc. is a husband and wife team. Bert tends to veer toward the commercial and business to business world and Becky captures more live events. They usually keep their clients separate, except for big events like the High Point and Las Vegas Furniture Markets. “Becky and I met in 1999 and her fine art background really elevated the photography and sparked us to another level, first in weddings and now in other areas,” says Bert.
Bert came to the University of North Carolina Greensboro (UNCG) to get out of the family photography business, but that didn’t quite work out. “My work-study job was with the campus photographer, Bob Cavin (Cavin and Stovall, Greensboro, NC) and he became one of my mentors as I just couldn’t quit photography,” Bert says. Another great influence on his career was commercial photographer, Kenton Robertson (Greensboro, NC), who taught him composition and lighting.
Bert got his first paid photography job at age 12, and it has been his formal occupation since 1997. It didn’t take long before he opened his business in 1999.
Bert describes his photography style as “loose.” “I’m at heart a photojournalist, documenting what I see; I move quickly and look for light and angle and figure the rest out. We look for the natural self, the unguarded moment. I engage everyone first before I even get the camera going, and before either of us really realize we are taking pictures it's over.” He says with commercial photography and still life, it’s a bit different. They try to “refine the light to be as natural and smooth as possible.”
“People are ever fascinating, ever-changing, dynamic, and a bit unstable,” says Bert about why he loves photographing people. “They challenge you to make them look how they perceive themselves, even in the short amount of time that you have known them.” Bert says part of his job is to photograph people as they “act natural,” which is a fun challenge “despite the looming presence of a large camera.”
Bert says he wishes he had known to relax when he first got started in photography. He thinks at the beginning of his career he “made everyone a bit crazy by just being too overbearing.”
For more than 10 years, VanderVeen Photography has partnered with PhotoBiz for its online presence. They previously had a website that was expensive and hard to update, stifling their growth. Finding PhotoBiz was a game changer!
“A friend of my sister went to work for PhotoBiz and after seeing what y’all do we were on board,” he says. “We can update the site, keep clients in the loop and take orders (and fulfill them) seamlessly.”
Becky handles the website updates, and she can make changes as needed, sometimes daily or weekly. “She runs special offers to certain clients during peak times.” Bert manages bookings through the site.
“We have been incredibly fortunate to keep and expand a great client base; we are now seeing client crossover from projects more and more; school photography leads to a family photo session to a business portrait to a commercial shoot. We appreciate this diversity of opportunity and want to keep that growing,” Bert says.
Give us a call at 866.463.7620 to talk about how we can support your photography business and try out our easy-to-use platform! We’ll help you grow your business.
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