PUBLICATION CENTER

T&J Studios is a collaborative blend of three outstanding and complementary talents that have created a thriving photography and printing studio.

T&J Studios in Valley Center, Kan., near Wichita, is a far cry the basement studio Jeff and Tyffany Wendling started shortly after graduating from Friends University.

The resulting studio is an excellent case study in maximizing the talents and personalities of each person involved, while managing the growth and evolution of the business through a step-by-step, focused process.

T&J Studios was founded in 2001 by Jeff and Tyffany. In January 2007, Brett Schauf Photography merged with T&J Studios to become the high-end, high-octane studio it is today.

Schauf explains that they were both shooting independently while working cooperatively before the merger, and decided they could be more effective as a single unit.

“We really started in wedding photography. Through that experience we’ve expanded into family, seniors, children, and pets. We have also expanded our corporate and commercial lines. Tyffany is wonderful with kids, pets and brides. She takes care of all of our accounting, editing and design work. Jeff heads up almost every project we’ve had come through here and he’s the lead photographer, graphic designer, and IT. I do most of the networking, some of the marketing, and a lot of the commercial and corporate work,” Schauf explains. “It’s been a natural extension of our skills and what we do best. One of the appealing things about the merger is that we have complementary skill sets, which blend well when you bring them all together. It’s been a unique and effective business model.”

All for One

The merger that created T&J Studios happened about two years ago. The personal ingredients provided by each principle in the business have developed rather quickly into a potent and rich blend that has placed the studio in an enviable position in its market.

The photography is extremely consistent. Regardless of who’s photographing or what they’re photographing a classic and timeless style has emerged. Each has their own individual style, but the differences are subtle and do not detract from the others.

“It’s gotten to the point where Tyff and I can’t tell the difference between much of our photography. We take a designer’s approach at angles, color and contrast and elements that are in the color palette. After the merger we collaborated on several wedding shoots and cultivated a style to go forward with and one that was achievable as a group. We developed guidelines for what makes an acceptable edit, and a consistent look to represent the company with,” says Jeff Wendling. “Ultimately, the images need to be timeless. It’s easy to over-edit with all of the software available now, but it needs to work 50 years from now and viewed the same way as it was originally. You really don’t want someone years from now to say that it was obviously shot during a certain era.”

Jeff Wendling adds the studio’s photography is largely dependent on appropriate lighting and composition. The studio’s approach to capture is extremely disciplined, which cuts down significantly on post-capture editing.

“We’ve really started to shoot manual Kelvin, and we pay close attention to light temperatures and how those reflect at capture. If it’s a corporate shot and they want a warmer look, we can make those Kelvin adjustments at capture rather than spending extra time in post-capture hoping to get the right temperature,” says Jeff.

This is especially important given the studio’s incorporation of wide-format in-house printing.

About a year ago, T&J Studios purchased an Epson 9880 and the ImagePrint RIP and started rolling out its in-house printing capabilities.

“The more big prints we show, the more we’ll sell. Whether it’s a senior or wedding consultation, we build the expectation in the customer’s mind that we really want them to walk away with a very nice fine-art piece from the session,” says Schauf. “Our clients tend to be more high-end. We’re not a studio that does 200 weddings or 500 seniors a year. While we think diversity is a great asset, we still want each session to be unique. We’re striving in every shoot, edit, and print to let the creativity come through.”

Print Profile

T&J Studios’ in-house printing has followed the same basic pacing as the rest of its growth areas. It’s a slow but steady progression as the studio gets a handle on all the variables to ensure the highest quality possible. Still, Jeff relates that they were thrown into the printing fire shortly after receiving the printer, software, and media.

“We had just set up the printer, and we had a walk-in who needed a copy of an image for a funeral later that day. We had nothing set up and hadn’t printed anything, so we called LexJet and they helped us get everything up and running, from the profiles and software to the printer itself, and we were able to get it turned around. You don’t get that customer service support from other companies,” says Jeff.

In addition to its Signature line of large-format wedding and portrait work, printed on LexJet Sunset Fibre Elite, T&J Studios is launching its Esque Prints division to serve other photographers and fine artists who are looking for true reproductions of their work, produced with a fellow craftsman’s eye for detail.

“In many cases, when you send out for prints, the service provider may gang up the color and black-and-white work, so you get a print that’s Cyan and not true black-and-white,” says Jeff. “Plus, you’re not likely to have access to things like Sunset Fibre Elite and a range of canvas and fine-art papers. We’ve created an entire system that allows the photographer to pick the paper and measurement and handle files over 2 GB. It’s a pretty seamless process.”

T&J Studios plans to begin offering this service around the time of the Wedding & Portrait Photographers International Show in Las Vegas in February. Also in the works is a proof book division. Jeff explains, “We shoot a lot of images and we want our customers to see all of them in one professional and custom book. We’ve partnered with a manufacturer to create up to 450-page hard-bound proof books, templates and scripts that will allow photographers to show their images however they’d like to, so they could have six images up on one page, a full bleed image on the next, four-up on the following page, and so forth. We’ll also give them leather, leatherette and linen cover options they can’t get anywhere else. It’s a neat product that can change the wedding and senior markets and baby books.”

This steady expansion in services through a marketing program built on communication and networking with current clients and prospects has provided the studio with the means to operate a high-end, 6,000 square-foot facility.

The studio houses two consultation rooms – one of which is a movie theater with a 106-in. HD projection screen – a framing room, a small photography room with a rail lighting system for constant light, a gallery, a 2,500 square-foot area for sets with a 30-foot garage door to bring in vehicles for commercial shoots, offices, and a space for printing production. The studio’s growth is based not only on the unique and complementary talents of Brett, Jeff, and Tyffany, but their dedication to simple customer communication.

“Communication is the most important thing for us,” says Tyffany. “It’s the personal touch each of our clients gets from us, as well as letting them know how important it is to us for them to have those memories for a lifetime they will always cherish.”

For instance, T&J Studios keeps brides connected after the wedding through a summary they write up of the wedding day. They post slide shows with the summary while the photos are being processed and edited. This simple touch brings the brides and their families to the studio’s site and they get used to checking it regularly.

Moreover, the studio’s philosophy is as much about anticipation as it is on-the-spot communication. “In our commercial photography I know from past experience that certain clients are going to use the image for different media than what the original photo was intended,” explains Schauf. “You shoot what they request, but understand that they’ll have other needs down the road they might not know yet. So when they come back and are looking for an image that tells a different story, being able to anticipate their needs builds a good working relationship with our clients. They know that we’re paying as much attention to what’s going on as they do. In a lot of cases we know the inner workings of the company and that facilitates the entire experience.”

“The customer needs to know that they’re special and important. They don’t want their session to look like the one their friend got. Combine communication, service, quality and creativity and people will talk about you,” adds Schauf. “On the commercial and corporate side, it’s all networking. Most of my biggest clients came from someone I was working with at a smaller company who went to work for a big company who then brought us along with them. As people I work with move up the corporate ladder it opens doors for us.”