PUBLICATION CENTER

Panoramic window display celebrates the reason for the season

Potthast Studios in Winter Haven, FL provides a mix of commercial and portrait photography services as well as motion film and video production services. Every fall they try to come up with a fresh way to promote their studio for the busy holiday season. When the brainstorming began this year, Mike Potthast asked the creative team: “What are we going to do better than last year?”

Although the creative concept they came up with isn’t at all commercial, it is attracting a lot of attention and community support while demonstrating the visual storytelling power of well-crafted professional photography.

It was the studio’s portrait stylist and designer Lisa Anne Kleine who came up with the idea of staging a photo-centric nativity scene. Originally, they planned to use just one of the windows for the seasonal promotion. But once they agreed on the Christmas-story concept, the question became: “How can we make this display better than normal?” So they decided to make each figure life size, and devote all four windows to the display.

The panoramic Nativity scene in the windows of Potthast Studios includes 9 life-size prints of area residents posing as Biblical figures and 3 smaller images of animals (www.potthaststudios.com)

“It was magical how the pieces all seemed to come together,” says Potthast. “Everyone was very receptive to helping out with the project.” Over the next eight weeks, Potthast managed hundreds of details. They recruited community members to pose; procured costumes, animals, and props; and scheduled a series of shoots. Then they edited and printed the images, designed and built the wooden frames and twinkling blue-sky backdrops, and artfully arranged all the pieces in the windows.

Mike Potthast output the 12 big images in the window display on the Canon imagePROGRAF iPF8100 printer that he had recently purchased as the recommendation of LexJet account specialist Bill Weiser. Although the studio had been using a wide-format printer for several years to print proofs and enlargements, the window display was one of the first projects for which they used the new Canon printer. According to Potthast, “The Canon printer is just incredible. These were fairly large prints and the new printer didn't miss a beat. I am amazed by how fast it is. I was getting perfect 8-foot prints in under 30 minutes”

Mark Potthast printed the portraits on his new Canon iPF8100 printer and Sunset Photo eSatin paper. The 11-mil photo paper didn’t require mounting because it was heavy enough to hang flat for “stretching” onto the hand-built wooden frames

Potthast printed the images on LexJet Sunset Photo eSatin paper. Originally, he considered mounting each print to foamboard. But he decided to see how the unmounted prints would look if the paper was pulled taut and stapled to the back of the wooden frames. Because the 11-mil Sunset paper is heavier than most photo papers and hangs straight, the print stretching worked like a charm. The frames are built from 1 x 4-in. lumber and finished to look like weathered planks from a barn.

The 12 images in the Nativity Scene display include life-size portraits of Joseph, Mary, Baby Jesus, two shepherds, three wise men, and an angel. The holy family was played by a real-life family. The angel was an angelic-looking eighth-grader. The shepherds were friends of the Potthast Studio staff, and the three wise men were priests from area churches. The other three prints in the collection depict donkeys, a Brahma bull, and camels.

Because it’s difficult to find camels in central Florida, the “camels” were actually llamas that Potthast brought into the studio, photographed, then retouched to have a camel-like silhouette.

Most of the prints are 6 to 8 ft. high and 36 in. wide depending on the height of each model. “We actually measured each person as we set up the shot,” explains Potthast. “We had to make the prints of the animals smaller because we were running out of room in the windows.”

Designer Lisa Anne Kleine fabricated the blue-sky background from 4 x 8 ft. sheets of foamcore purchased from a hardware store. Using a hot-iron hole-punch she melted holes in the foam through which she could poke twinkling Christmas lights. The foamboard itself is painted blue and gold for a glimmery look. 

For the angel, Potthast originally thought about rigging some sort of suspension system or shooting with a glass table. Instead, he climbed up on a ladder, and asked the angel to face the other direction. After a wind machine was turned on to gently blow her hair and robes, Potthast asked the model to look up at him so he could take the shot of her face. When he printed the image and inverted the print, it looks as if the angel is descending from the heavens.

The livestock for the Nativity scene was supplied by a local businessman. In the studio the animals behaved surprisingly well, says Potthast. He spent about two hours shooting the animal portraits and said, “I had an assistant on standby, ready to clean up any gifts. But luckily, there weren’t any.”

Although placed on hay under constant hot lights, the infant swaddled as Baby Jesus didn’t cry or fuss. “When photographing kids, things have to happen on their own. I’m no longer in charge, the children are,” says Potthast. Fortunately, the perfect moment to get the shot came really quickly because the baby’s hands and legs were moving just right. Potthast got the shot in about 10 minutes.

So far, the community response to the display has been overwhelmingly positive. When the Winter Haven Chamber of Commerce featured the display on their website’s blog, residents posted comments such as this one: “Thank you for taking the time and energy to remind us of the real story of Christmas.”

Michael Potthast is a fourth-generation photographer who had taken over the family business in 2001 that was founded by his father William Potthast in 1964. He started dabbling in the darkroom at age 5, grew up learning about posing and lighting, then studied commercial photography at the Southeast Center for Photographic Studies in Daytona Beach. He worked as a freelance photographer for the Orlando Magic and a film producer for Time Warner. He also earned a B.A. in business management from Warner University.

Potthast likes being able to offer both still photography and video production services, noting that video uses many of the same principles of composition and lighting that photography does. However video requires a bigger crew and more planning because of the motion and audio involved. And although video can be quite technical, Potthast says the end product should be something that is artistic and creative (just like a photograph).

Now that the Nativity display is up and attracting attention, Potthast is too busy to think ahead to next year. Considering how much time and effort went into this year’s promotion and how enthusiastic the community response has been, Potthast says he may consider updating the artwork perhaps with some new pieces.

According to the Winter Haven Chamber of Commerce blog post, “The display is already creating traffic slowdowns on Central Avenue and a bit of ‘horn-blowing.’” For more information, visit Potthast Studios' website: www.potthaststudios.com