Home > Culture > Mentor Showcase > The 2006 Best-of Series: John Loy
The 2006 'Best Of' Series
For the second annual Best Of issue of the ASMP Bulletin, we selected twenty projects from a field of nearly sixty candidates. It was a tough decision and we thank all those who submitted their work. We hope you will enjoy reading about the projects featured in print and here on the ASMP Web site.
Medical close-ups for Nemours 2006 enterprise-wide calendar
For John Loy, an assignment to shoot closeups of hospital staff and patients at the A. I. DuPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Delaware, for the 2006 calendar of its parent institution, Nemours, was an opportunity to expand on past work for an existing client. Thanks to smooth planning and expert on-site support, Loy’s one-day shoot yielded seven of his images in the 2006 calendar, as well as new contacts within the broader organization.
Self-portrait of John Loy
All images in this article © John Loy
ASMP: How long have you been in business?
JL: Since 1981, about 25 years.
ASMP: How long have you been an ASMP member?
JL: Although I attended several meetings in the past, I became a general member of ASMP in June 2005.
ASMP: What are your photographic specialties?
JL: People, location, industrial, scientific, travel, products, public relations, corporate, industrial, digital, advertising, and nature — relatively close shots of flowers, leaves, etc.
ASMP: Please summarize the equipment used in this work.
JL: For the work at Nemours, I used a Dynalite M1000 XR with up to four heads, usually with umbrellas to light the various scenes. One Dynalite head in a softbox lit the infant’s hand. I used a Fujifilm S2 Pro, shooting only RAW files for the entire assignment. The next day I processed the files in Photoshop CS2 Camera RAW, burned them to CDs and distributed them to the agency, On Ideas, and the PR department at Nemours in Wilmington. In most cases I adjusted the files, but On Ideas made the final image selection. We had a comp of the calendar and were given instructions to be as faithful to this as possible.
ASMP: How were you selected for this assignment?
JL: Actually, Susan Masucci, account manager at On Ideas in Jacksonville, Fla., sent me an e-mail asking if I would be free for such and such dates. They were familiar with my work from 2004 when I contributed to the Nemours 2005 calendar.
The first contact in 2004 was by recommendation from my colleague and friend, Jim Peirce, a staff photographer at the Nemours hospital. Cindy Brodoway, chief photographer there, added positive referral information as well. After a conversation with Jim Lardear of Nemours PR in Wilmington and a review of my Web site, Masucci, awarded the assignment for the 2006 calendar to me.
ASMP: Was there an estimating process and set usage agreement for this assignment?
JL: Of course On Ideas asked about the price, then agreed to my figure. When the work increased by 20 percent, the agency agreed to boost the fee by the same factor. There was no formal agreement for usage, except that my images will be used at other times in Nemours’ publications.
ASMP: Did you do advance research or preparation for this shoot? What kind?
JL: I am generally familiar with the hospital, so scouting it in person wasn’t necessary. Jim Lardear and I discussed some of the more difficult shots, such as the baby’s hand, and he scheduled these for the shoot. On Ideas sent me a PDF of the calendar comp so I knew in detail what they were looking for.
ASMP: What kind of logistics were involved in hospital access?
JL: Official access was easily arranged by Jim Lardear, head of PR at the hospital. Informal logistics involved fitting into normal, hospital routines as well accommodating moods and personalities of subjects, who actually helped us achieve our goals in many ways. Only two situations were close enough to shoot without tear-down and set-up for the shot. Often the next shot was on a different floor.
ASMP: Did you have technical or creative limitations when shooting in these situations?
JL: The most significant limitation was time! We were photographing “real life” of several staff and clients of the hospital, so we didn’t have the luxury of extra time to test and try variations of views, etc. We went, we saw and we shot what we could set up in a reasonable amount of time. Of course we chose the best spot in a general area, but there wasn’t much else available in terms of being creative with the environment. I enjoy location photography because making the most of any particular situation makes my work a game that’s fun to play.
ASMP: Was the close-up, macro point of view of this image important to this story?
JL: Very much so! The focus of the calendar was contact between health-care professionals and clients. On each image in the calendar, the point of contact between client and caregiver was highlighted with a boundary box. This photograph illustrates the importance of touch between a pediatrician and a premature, neonatal infant. Here, the closer the point of interest, the stronger the image.
ASMP: Were you involved in obtaining model releases or interactions with parents of the subjects you photographed?
JL: No, that was all handled by the PR department.
ASMP: Please describe how you market yourself and whether you have used this work in current marketing efforts?
JL: At present I use my Web site, Verizon Yellow Pages, printed and on-line direct mail pieces, as well as the ASMP web site, as marketing tools. This image is not presently available on any of these vehicles, but I plan to change this in the very near future. Needless to say, images like this one make excellent portfolio pieces.
ASMP: Has this assignment impacted or influenced your future work?
JL: Two calendars in a row for such a prestigious organization as Nemours adds a significant amount of confidence and credibility about my work, perhaps in a wider market. I think I’ll promote tighter images more than before, although with larger format and digital I’ve always shot in a looser style, leaving room for creative cropping at any later time. There can be many images locked inside a single exposure.
ASMP: Has this assignment brought you other new projects or do you foresee this happening in the future?
JL: Well yes, I have a message from On Ideas in Florida saying they appreciate this exposure of our work in the ASMP Bulletin and that they’ll contact me about next year’s calendar. Further, I just received a call from another Nemours office here in Delaware, interested in ongoing photography for a new print publication. I now have two distant agencies that call me for significant assignments. One in Minneapolis found me on our ASMP Philly web site. Baby’s Hand and this publicity in ASMP Bulletin certainly should be helpful during interviews with other art and photography buyers.
