User Profile - Kevin
Ellis:
Kevin Ellis Dance groups, social events and portraiture Kevin Ellis, based at
his home in Laughton, near Lewes, East Sussex,began his working life as a freelance
in the art departments of independent TV commercial production companies. After
ten years he went to the London College of Printing to study black & white
photography. He then returned to the world of TV commercials, but as a stills
photographer.
Kevin has been a professional photographer for the past ten years. Most of his
early work involved still life and pack shots, but recently most of his work
has been for Paperlink Ltd., which specialises in greetings cards.
Kevin told
us: “I work to very specific briefs to produce the fine art images for
each particular series of cards. Recently, for instance, I had to photograph
flowers so they had a dreamy, ethereal look, not a true botanical representation.
“ All my work is now done digitally, shooting with my Canon EOS-1Ds. I
haven't used my darkroom for two years. As a sideline, I started photographing
dance and ballet groups in my area. I take free dancing and other informal shots
of the children, but it is the group shots where the children are looking straight
into the camera which are the most popular.
I have covered six or seven stage
productions each year and generally shoot 1200 images per production. These are
taken at the dress rehearsal and I produce contact sheets of the best pictures
on my Epson 1290 and display them on boards at the venues for parents and children
to buy. I sell on average 400-500 prints per production. The majority of the
demand is for colour, but I also do black & white when asked.
“
In the past I have sent the dance group images down the line to a Guernsey prolab
and had to wait two days for the prints.
“ Six
months ago I bought a Mitsubishi CP9500DW printer and since
then
I have used it to print all my 6"x9" dance group and social event images
at home or on location (the new upgrade, CP9550DW, can print up to 10 seconds faster than the CP9550DW with no comprimise on image quality!).
“
Before I bought the CP9500DW, I took some of my digital files to John Read at
Marrutt, to have test prints run out using the Mitsubishi demo machine he has.
I was very impressed with the quality and speed, and the fact that you get a
waterproof print with no drying time needed. You can handle the prints immediately.
Another thing that impresses me about the machine is that it produces excellent
black & white prints, with a very good tonal range, as well as superb colour
work. It is also very solidly built, which is so important when
working on location.
“
I started dealing with John about a year ago, when I bought the Lyson Continuous
Ink System for use with my two Epson 1290s – one for colour and one for
black & white – which I use to produce larger portraits, final proofs
of the images for my wife's greetings cards company and also fine art prints
for sale. My website address is printed on the back of the greetings cards, so
people can order enlarged prints direct from me.
“
Since I have had the machine and understood its staggering potential, I have
started to cover more functions and events locally and sell the prints on location.
I also use it to produce final prints from my family portraiture work, all of
which I do on location. I generally shoot an average of 120 images, posed and
unposed, in a session.
“ I was recently invited to a friend's
company golf day to take pictures and sell prints at the
evening dinner. Having the Mitsubishi machine on site,
I can get the people to buy when they are relaxed and in
a good mood. The sales take-up is so much higher this way.
The ability to give a customer a professional print in
under a minute is just fantastic. There's nothing like
striking while
the iron is hot!“ The work I do using the Mitsubishi machine is a sideline
to my main photographic work, but I see it opening up many more doors for me
for profitable business. It is a machine with a great profit potential, even
though the 6"x9" prints
cost 41p. “ Up until knwo I have only been producing 6"x9" prints
with the Mitsubishi dye sub, but I am shortly going to start doing 6"x4" prints,
but still using the 6" width paper.
“
I print at 180dpi using the Super Fine setting on the CP9500DW for all the work
I print at home and each print takes between 130-140 seconds, because the time
factor is not so important.
On location,
when speed is important, I use the Fine setting and prints
take just over 50 seconds. The print quality
is still remarkably good at this setting and people really like the results. “
Demand for my services using the Mitsubishi machine is growing as more
people see what can be done with it.
You get a waterproof print with no drying time needed. You can handle
the prints immediately.
The ability to give a customer a professional print in under a minute
is just fantastic.” www.ellisimages.co.uk
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