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Posted on by Jennifer Corn Posted in Marketing & Sales, Technology & Products
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Get a Darkroom Look with Sunset Fibre Elite

Most photographers today love the idea of creating the perfect image on an inkjet printer but miss the look and feel of images brought to life in the darkrooms of the past.

Some photographers may not know that they can have the best of both worlds with Sunset Fibre Elite 285g. You get the beautiful reminiscent of hours developing film, but without the worry of just the slightest bit of light ruining your perfect capture.

Sunset Fibre Elite 285g is a fiber-based paper with an extra smooth and glossy look designed for color and black-and-white photo reproductions of the highest caliber.

Dennis Hammon PhotographyProfessional photographer and PPA affiliate juror Dennis Hammon spent 35-years working in dark rooms. He loves the look and feel of Sunset Fibre Elite. “I’ve always had a darkroom, and the Fibre Elite mimics some of the papers I used way back when; that’s why I’m drawn to it,” he says. “The feel, the texture, the luster of it and how it holds the tooth of the image for me. We have other papers, but that’s the only thing I put my work on.”

Sunset Fibre Elite delivers the wide color gamut required for fine-art photography, photo restoration work, and more.

Dennis Hammon PhotographyHammon, who works closely with his wife, Cheri – also a professional photographer – says it’s what sets his images apart from others. “We’re selling a lot of the fine art, and the Fibre Elite is the look I want. It’s different from everybody else’s images they’re trying to sell. We’re trying to set ourselves apart with the quality and look of the paper.”

The next time you want that throwback darkroom look for your work, try printing with Sunset Fibre Elite 285g. Buy it online, or give one of our printing specialists a call at 800-453-9538, and they’ll be happy to help.

LexJet Essentials: Sunset Bright Velvet Rag
Posted on by Jennifer Corn Posted in Marketing & Sales, Technology & Products
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LexJet Essentials: Sunset Bright Velvet Rag

Wedding, graduation, and Mother’s Day photography season are upon us, and these life-changing moments deserve to be immortalized on a photo paper chosen by award-winning photographers. If you’re looking for a photo paper that balances dependability and durability, along with high-quality and reasonable pricing, look no further than Sunset Bright Velvet Rag 315g.

Sunset Bright Velvet Rage is a 100% cotton rag paper that’s a favorite among many photographers and print shop providers who specialize in photo restoration.

It features a velvet surface that offers a unique museum-quality feel, ensuring your images are classics for years to come.

Kimberly Smith PhotographyProfessional photographer and Sunset Print Award winner Kimberly Smith uses Sunset Bright Velvet Rag for her competition submissions. She loves how it perfectly complements her black and white prints. “The cottony feel and thickness caught my attention, and it prints beautifully every time,” she says.

Kimberly Smith PhotographySmith also loves to deckle the edges. “The 100% cotton rag paper rips smoothly and quickly compared to other photo papers,” she says. “The thickness means the tears on the edges are perfect for a soft multi-layered look.”

Sunset Bright Velvet Rag has the strength, durability, and high performance you want from a high-end photo paper. Contact a LexJet specialist at 800-453-9538 or visit LexJet.com for more information.

LexJet Experience

Posted on by Jennifer Corn Posted in Promotions & Rebates
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Our Gift to You – Nine Days of Savings with LexJet

This Black Friday, turn the alarm off and sleep in; we’ve already got your gift wrapped and waiting on you!

From Thursday, Nov. 25 through Friday, Dec. 3, Shop with us online and instantly save up to 30% off MSRP on some of your favorite LexJet and Sunset branded media*.

Stock up on products like Sunset Etching Greeting Cards, Sunset Cold Press, Sunset Hot Press, the new Elements Collection, and more and get up to 5X Edge Rewards.

Looking for something else? Save up to 30% on some of our most popular media:

  • Sunset Photo Satin SUV
  • Sunset Photo Gloss SUV
  • Sunset Textured Fine Art SUV
  • And more
If you’re not yet an Edge member, sign up today to get your Black Friday purchase rewards.

This promotion is valid online only, while supplies last. Also, LexJet will be closed on Thursday and Friday; therefore, any orders placed during those days will ship on the next available business day.

Your qualified savings and Edge Rewards will be automatically applied. Visit our Black Friday and Cyber Week Resource page to see how you can save up to 30% or get up to 5X Edge Rewards.

Happy Holidays from our family to yours.

*On select items. Discount applied; no coupon code needed.

Posted on by Jennifer Corn Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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Dennis and Cheri Hammon: In Pursuit of the Perfect Print

Dennis and Cheri Hammon are a successful photography team based in Idaho. Not only are they award-winning photographers, but Dennis is a PPA affiliate juror and Cheri is a qualified juror for state competitions.

Dennis and Cheri Hammon“I have a degree in Geology, but ended up teaching Photography at a university,” Dennis says. “I started working for a ski resort and doing photography for the ski circuit, back in the 70s, and here I am, 45 years later.”

Cheri took a little more of a longer route to the world of photography. She initially worked as a hairdresser, but due to allergies, she decided on a career change. Thanks to a family friend, she started working for a prominent photographer in Augusta, Ga. “The studio needed a retouch artist and I had an art background,” she says. “I learned all the behind-the-scenes stuff like negative retouching, print retouching, airbrushing for copy restoration, some printing, and matting and framing. As time progressed, digital came along, then Photoshop and Corel Painter. That’s a Reader’s Digest version of how I got started.”

The Hammons have a long list of awards, but both agree that the Sunset Print Award is among the top award to win. “We’ve both won several, and it’s one of our favorite awards to win. We’ve each won two or three of them” says Dennis. “The only awards that we have on our desks are the LexJet awards and the Canon awards.”

Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-Series 4100

The Hammons are known for their printing abilities and print their own fine artwork. From capture to print, they have complete control of how the final piece will look. To ensure that it meets their standards, they use the Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-4100.

This is a smart printer and it recognizes all of my papers and canvases, it agitates its own inks, and if a head goes out, I pop it out and pop a new one in. It’s so easy, as opposed to the maintenance issues I had with other brands,” says Cheri. “I love my Canon.”

Dennis agrees, “The speed of it! The first image we printed with it, the print came off so fast, we thought something was wrong because of how long the other printer took to print the same size image. That was a big factor. And the inks, we’d barely replaced our first cartridges after a year.”

It takes more than a great capture and a reliable, easy-to-use printer to create an award-winning photograph. It also takes the right media. Cheri paints the canvas, so she relies on the consistency of Sunset Reserve Matte Canvas. After 35 years in the darkroom, Dennis loves the throwback look of Sunset Fibre Elite 285g paper.

“I’ve always had a darkroom, and the Fibre Elite mimics some of the papers I used way back when, that’s why I’m drawn to it,” he says. “The feel, the texture, the luster of it and how it holds the tooth of the image for me. We have other papers, but that’s the only thing I put my work on.”

Whether it’s talking through printer questions or looking to get their favorite Sunset media, Dennis and Cheri rely on the support of their LexJet specialist to be there, if needed. “I first heard of LexJet when I moved from Georgia to Florida,” says Cheri. “A friend, Don Emmerich, told us about LexJet and I’ve been with them ever since.”

So, what is it about LexJet that keeps the Hammons coming back? The service.

“The service is great and whenever I call, I always get somebody, and on the rare occasion that I don’t, they call me back pretty quickly,” says Cheri. “They have always taken care of issues, which I haven’t had many. The customer service is really good.”

For Dennis and Cheri, it’s not just about taking great pictures and sharing them digitally, it’s about creating a unique piece of art starting with a keen eye and finishing with a printed masterpiece. With her usual artistic flair,
Cheri sums up how important it is for photographers to take that final step and print an image.

“The ultimate realization of an exquisitely created image is to become a will-crafted print, where life is finally breathed into the artist’s creation.”

We are excited to have the Hammons back to serve as judges for the Sunset Image Awards in September. Submit your photo today for a chance to win. For more information on Canon, Sunset media, or LexJet, give us a call at 800-453-9538.

Posted on by Jennifer Corn Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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The Front Porch Sessions – Photographers Get Creative in the Wake of COVID-19

Photographers by nature, are “people” people, and when sheltering in place and social distancing guidelines went into effect in March, they were among the many who were temporarily out of business. It was no different for Elise Wicklund, and her husband Tracy, of Wicklund Photography in Parrish, Fla. “It virtually stopped our business,” Wicklund says. “In an instant, we had to clear our calendars.”

With so many cancellations – and they were cancellations and not reschedules – the Wicklunds had to get creative and come up with something different to capture this historic moment of the worldwide pandemic. “We considered education, but we know we aren’t teachers,” she says. “We are photographers, so our reaction was to come up with different types of sessions.”

That’s when Wicklund got the idea for the “Front Porch Sessions”. She reached out to neighbors and clients to see if they were interested in doing family portraits on their porches. The popularity of the sessions exploded, and they booked all the sessions they had available. “We decided to let families document this part of their lives, just like they would any other – birthday parties, graduations, pandemics – if we don’t take photographs of these times, we won’t have anything but memories, and memories fade with time,” Wicklund says. “That’s why we photograph, so we figured this is just another memory to photograph.”

The sessions proved to be a great outlet for many of the families and some of them proved it with their sessions. While some families took a serious approach, Wicklund says others had fun with it. “Everyone had been cooped up inside their homes,” she says. “The sessions were whatever the families needed – some took them very seriously; others had a ton of fun.  We didn’t care or direct that part.  We were there to document and serve our families.”

While they enjoyed chronicling the pandemic through these sessions, the Wicklunds did not charge their clients for these sittings. “We still weren’t officially allowed to operate, so in lieu of session fees, we took donations for the food bank,” she says. “Our brand is all about servicing our clients and we believe if we have a servant’s heart, our brand will succeed.” Photographers who are doing charitable work, like Elise and Tracy, may consider printing on LexJet 8 Mil Production Satin Photo Paper, an economic solution that offers a wide color gamut and gives photos a natural look with minimal glare.

As the state of Florida has slowly begun reopening, Wicklund says they are starting to see more interest in regular sessions. They’ve also reached out to past clients, especially wedding clients, about design services for albums or videos that were not purchased at the time of the event. “We’ve reached out to see if people want to pre-book their sessions once isolation orders are lifted,” she says.

Looking at the future, Wicklund says she’s not opposed to scheduling more porch sessions, even after things return to normal, but it comes down to helping their clients get the most out of the sessions. “If this hits again, we will probably offer them again,” she says. “There’s no real reason to only offer those sessions, but it might be fun to see how things have changed in a year.”

As with most “people” people, photographers will certainly be happy to get back to weddings, graduation, and newborn sessions, but in the meantime, they are looking to get creative like Elise and Tracy Wicklund. However, as we approach the second half of the year, Wicklund is cautious about what’s on the horizon. “Based on how 2020 has gone so far, there’s no telling what we will be photographing this time next year!”

Posted on by Jennifer Corn Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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Prints that Win: Stubborn Determination

Sacramento, Calif., photographer James Trapp decided to follow his heart and leave the safety of a corporate job to pursue something different about 20 years ago. “At some point, I said things have got to change, and I need to follow my heart rather than my head,” he says. “I found a small photography company that was looking for a studio manager, but at the time, I’d only ever had Photography 101.”

One day, the lead photographer was sick and no back-up photographers were available to shoot the customer sessions booked for the day. Trapp was surprised when he learned he would be the one behind the camera that day.

“The manager told me to pick up the camera and start taking pictures,” Trapp says. “I thought he’d lost his mind. I was so nervous, it felt like my stomach was going to leave my body, but I got through that day. About mid-way through, I realized I was having fun, so I relaxed and enjoyed the moment.”

Nowadays, Trapp is obviously more at ease behind the camera and recently won his first Sunset Print Award with “Stubborn Determination,” a piece that was captured when he was doing a Facebook Live lighting demonstration to promote the Georgia PPA State Conference. Working within a 10-foot square show booth, Trapp began taking pictures of the model and discussing the importance of lighting. Once he got home and looked through the images, one stood out. “There was something about it. I didn’t have a grab on it, but that’s what happens, sometimes,” he says. “I really liked it, but I didn’t know why. It [the image] just grabbed me and pulled me in.”

Once he converted the image to black and white, he entered it into a local Sacramento affiliate show. The image was well-received, so he submitted a printed version to the Professional Photographers of California competition. “I firmly believe in submitting images in a print format rather than a digital format, especially for competitions,” Trapp says. “If it is a digital file, anything can alter how it’s viewed on the other end. It’s a lesson I learned the hard way. I made the conscious decision to only submit prints because when it leaves my home, I absolutely know what the judges will view on the other end.”

The importance of print isn’t the only lesson that Trapp has learned from competing. He believes education is one of the most important reasons any photographer should enter a competition, even if it’s just a local camera club. “The things I’ve learned along this road and how I’ve improved compared to where I was during my first competition in 2013, I’m a totally different photographer,” he says. “I attribute that 100% to competitions.”

Trapp believes going under the microscope at a competition can only benefit a photographer when it comes to working with clients. “What you used to think was difficult is now done at the snap of your fingers,” he says. “You learn techniques to improve an image for competition, and then you start using for your clients’ images. It separates you from other photographers in your local area. That, to me, is the biggest benefit of competition.”

The friendships that Trapp has developed with other photographers is another reason he continues to enter competitions. “You have this little camaraderie, which helps with confidence to go to the next level. Next, you enter a state competition, then your pool of friends starts increasing a little bit,” he says. “Then you really get brave and enter a national competition and you realize your friendships are spreading from east coast to west.”

Having friends who understand the intricacies of photography is almost as important as taking classes. For Trapp, one of those friends is Reno, Nev., photographer Pete Rezac. He has influenced Trapp’s love of black and white photography as well as continued use of film. “I called him about five or six years ago to see what he was doing with film cameras,” he says. “I started in film before digital was a thing. It’s always held a special place in my heart. When you’re in a dark room and see that image appear out of nowhere, you realize that is something that you created.”

From the early days in film and watching an image appear before his very eyes to printing award-winning images on his Canon PRO-1000, Jim Trapp has come a long way from the nervous photographer he once was. One piece of advice he offers is photographers should never quit competing.

“I don’t need to keep putting images in [competitions], I already have my Master of Photography degree,” he says. “I do it because it still surprises me and I’m still growing.”