Photographer Spotlight: Nancy Poole

Tell us your name. Nancy Poole

Where do you live? Broken Arrow, Oklahoma which is a suburb of Tulsa

Please link us to your website. http://www.nancypoole.com

Describe your area of expertise: high school seniors

How long have you been a photographer? 5 years

What made you decide to leave your teaching career to pursue  photography? I actually retired from being an elementary principal after 31 years in education.  After I retired, I decided I wanted to pursue becoming a photographer.  I studied, took classes and workshops, and gathered my equipment for 2 years before I put up my website.

How would you describe your style? Classic, colorful, stylish

Do you prefer to work in the studio, on-location, or both and why? Both!  I love the great lighting for portraits in the studio and like to do traditional to fashion type headshots.  But I also love the variety of ideas that can be drawn from a location shoot.

What is your standby pose (the one that everyone tends to want from you)? I have a pose that I got from a Sarah Jessica Parker perfume ad in a magazine that everyone wants.  They sit on the edge of a chair and lean over on their knees.  Their knees are together and their feet wide apart with their toes pointing inward.  They love the fashion look of the pose.

What gear is in your bag? Canon 5d Mark II, 70-200L Lens, 24-70L lens, 16-35 wide angle lens, fisheye 100-400 Lens, two Canon 580ex flashes, Radio Poppers, op tech hand grip

If you could only use one lens what would it be? 70-200L-2.8—I keep it on my camera almost all the time.

What is your go-to camera shop? I have a local camera shop, B&H, and Dury’s

Which album company do you recommend? I use WHCC for my 10×10 press printed books.

How do you stay motivated? I LOVE what I do.  I love being around the seniors and the session.  I get excited when I’m photoshopping their session.  It’s emotional to watch them see their pictures for the first time.  It’s a thrill when they get the prints in their hands.  Compared to my former job as a principal, it is no stress.  How could anyone not be motivated by a job that has all of that?

Have you attended any workshops that you found to be helpful in your work?  If so, which ones? I may just be the queen of workshops.   I should be better than I am–LOL!  Kirk Voclain–posing and photoshop for Seniors, Brad Veraska–posing and photoshop and lighting for Seniors, Jen Hillenga–posing and photoshop for Seniors, Kevin Jairaj–bridals and couple posing, Julie Klaasmeyer–babies, Lori Nordstrom–babies, Tim Babin–Senior posing and business, Mike Fulton–lighting, to name a few.

Which professional organizations do you belong to? Indian Nations Guild–Tulsa PPA local, Oklahoma Photographers Association

What makes your job easy? No Stress

How do you achieve the rich, vibrant colors in your images? I think a combination between my Canon 5d Mark II and using Lightroom

Do you fully process all the proofs you show to clients or do you show soft-proofs and then finalize once you know which images they will be ordering? I used to fully process all the files before the client would see them, but I’m way too busy now to spend time on a file that they may not purchase, so I fully photoshop about 5 or maybe at least one from different lighting situations.  Then they look at all the others straight out of Lightroom.

What sets you and your work apart from other photographers in your area? We have some amazing photographers in this area.  It seems I’m getting to be known for my white on white high-key look and my location shoots with my off-camera flash, such as my outdoor field pictures.

If you could choose anyone to do a photo session of you and your family, who would your choose? Brad Veraska

If you were not a photographer, then…I’d do something artistically.  I once had a small business where I sewed arts and crafts projects and sold them.

What does photography mean to you? It is such a artistic release for me.

Best advice for new photographers breaking into the business? Learn the craft, understand business and pricing structures in order to make a profit, before hanging out your shingle and saying you are a professional.

Magazine must have? I love catalogs for poses

What’s your guilty pleasure? Merlot and my black corvette but not together!  LOL!

My weakness is… spreading myself to thin

My strength is… creativity

What do you do when you first wake up? I lay in bed with my laptop and watch the morning shows on tv and try to wake up!

Finish this quote: When it rains…just don’t let it do it on my parade!

Who do you love? My husband David.  We’ve been married for 18 years.  And our 3 children:  Casey-33, Garrett-29, and Aubrey-27

Do you read your horoscope? I read it—but I don’t pay attention to it unless it is a good one!

Tattoos…Nope—and so glad—they would look horrible on my skin at this age

MAC or PC…Desktop Mac and a MacBook Pro Laptop

Music…I love all kinds of music—I just LOVE music, but I mostly listen to Country

What’s on your iPod? Country, and then walking/running music like Justin Timberlake and Madonna—they have a great beat

Morning or night? Definitely night.  I can’t do anything in the morning and start really getting the creative ideas flowing about 3:00pm to 2:00am

My friends say…I’m sweet

Travel dreams…Traveling all the places I’ve never been.  I’ve been to all but Alaska and Wisconsin in the US, several places in Mexico and the Carribean, and I got to take a trip not too long ago to Italy.  We would love to go to more places in Europe and go to Australia.

On my day off… Compared to my education career—I feel like I’m always on a day off.

One of your top 100 to do before you die? I don’t know.  I really believe in living everyday fully.  I’m living many of my dreams right now.  I LOVE my family and job, I get to travel, I have my sports car, and my daughter just got engaged so we are planning her wedding.  Life Is So Good!

What isn’t on your top list? Bungee Jumping—-I’m deathly afraid of heights —those where you look over an edge.

Thanks so much, Nancy, for taking the time to share your inspirational work with us.