In Focus Vol. 3 No. 5

Sketch Artist

James Geddes offers unique products with his wide-format inkjet printers that grow his business and set his photography apart from the crowd.

James Geddes’ studio – Take Your Best Shot in Oak Harbor, Wash. – is alive with the humming sounds of the digital age, interspersed with the analog sketch-sketch of color pencils and pastels on paper as he enhances prints rolling off his Canon iPF5100.

But Geddes has been creating his unique photographic sketches since long before digital cameras, printers, and software hit the market. He discovered that he could sketch over an image on fibre paper in the darkroom and run the developed paper through a bleach solution, which would leave his pen-and-ink sketch on the paper.

When digital came along a few years later, Geddes naturally turned to Photoshop and Corel to digitally sketch his photography. He labored for hours to create the perfect automated action in Photoshop, only to find that the action was essentially null and void when he used a file from a camera other than a Canon D30.

So Geddes went back to hand sketching, but with the digital component and combination of a Wacom tablet and Photoshop brushes. Now he’s almost gone full circle, enhancing his digitally-sketched print on an art table with pencils and pastels.

Printing Value

While he enjoys the sketching process and adding artistic flair to photographs for his customers, there’s also a practical benefit in increased business and profit margin. Geddes sells value, and finds ways to offer customers unique prints that create repeat and word-of-mouth business.

Since his primary business, at least over the past five years or so, has been sports action photography, Geddes created a website called sportsketch.com. Geddes says his sketch work was a natural fit and provided another avenue for revenue.

However, most of the sketch-print business through sportsketch.com and at his studio is not for sports action, but family and senior portraits, pets, and other portrait-type work. Plus, Geddes sketches for other photographers, and offers graphic design services.

Today, Geddes’ sports photography has largely transitioned from action to team-and-individual work. But when Geddes shoots sports action at a tournament or other sporting event he bucks the trend and doesn’t post any of the photos on the Internet until all on-site orders have been shipped.

When the orders are fulfilled, Geddes sends a coupon and a sticker on the print mailer letting the customer know that they can pick more photos and buy more prints from him on the Web. The discounted pricing is only available for 30 days, and customers are encouraged to let others know the photos are available, but the discount is only for those who ordered at the tournament.

“I’ve found that the Web is just another way to procrastinate. We shoot on Friday night and Saturday morning and do not print at the event. Instead, by Saturday afternoon we have examples of everything we offer displayed at the event, such as posters, cards, and sketches. There’s a greater sense of urgency when I let them know the photos won’t be available on the Internet,” says Geddes. “This approach may not work for everyone, but it works best for me. When I walk out of a tournament that nets $3,000, I know it’s working. I’m not making that kind of money on the Internet; I can guarantee you that. Plus, I don’t want to do all the cataloguing involved. I’d rather just get the event done and move on.”

With his printing capabilities, Geddes makes an impression with the types of prints and posters the consumer doesn’t see very often, or even knew was possible at a relatively economical price point. With sports collage posters, for instance, Geddes provides a means for the customer to customize their posters as much as possible, which increases their ownership in the product.

In order to further differentiate his services, Geddes is exploring printing on fabric, as well as a concept for cut-out action shots of athletes they can stick on the walls of their room. Each different type of photography product sold tends to lead to sales in other areas of the business as well.

“I really got excited after reading the In Focus article about the photographer in Anacortes (Tim Dussault, The Color I, featured in the February 2008 issue of In Focus) who used fabric for window shades, as well as the articles in past issues about using fabric for banner applications,” says Geddes. “We have an annual tulip festival that would be perfect for colorful fabric banners, particularly here in the Northwest where it can be gray quite a bit and people like to see some color. And, I’ve been talking to my account specialist at LexJet, Cody, about printing on adhesive-back fabric for action shots that can be cut out and applied to a wall.”

For printing, Geddes has a new Canon iPF5100 and an Epson 7600. Geddes says his new Canon has been an efficient workhorse that has been frugal with the ink and the papers he runs through it. “It’s fast and it’s clean,” he says.

“I have printed hundreds of 8x10s and have only replaced one introductory ink tank, so it’s saved me quite a bit on ink,” adds Geddes. “It really works well with the Sunset eSatin, and the images look just like they do on my monitor. The ICC profile I got from LexJet is perfect, the paper reproduces my images beautifully, and it doesn’t scratch. I love the eSatin.”

Thanks to his diverse and quality product offering, Geddes has established himself in the Puget Sound area after moving there about four years ago from California. Before Geddes went full-time into photography some ten years ago, he had been a stone mason, a coach, and a teacher.

As with many photographers, Geddes had been pursuing passion on the side as much as possible. Though he liked the work he was doing, Geddes was hopeful that he would be able to turn his artistic talent and desire into something commercially viable. He was obviously successful in that endeavor, and attributes much of his success to his grandfather, who introduced him to photography when he was about ten years old.

His grandfather would take him out along the San Francisco bay to take extended-exposure shots of the Bay Bridge at night. “I was amazed by what could be done with photography, and that was probably my first exposure to it,” says Geddes. “I just used the camera and tried to push it to its limits.”