Winifred media<\/p>\n
Women In Business<\/p>\n
Photographer Winifred Whitfield: Successful fusion of\u00a0art\u00a0and\u00a0business<\/p>\n
February 1, 2011 @ 11:11am | Rodika Tollefson<\/a><\/p>\n Winifred Whitfield<\/a>Winifred Whitfield has no trouble reinventing herself. The Poulsbo-based photo artist has followed several paths before finding her current niche \u2014 creating fine art photo portraits of women \u2014 but they all have one thing in common: complete\u00a0dedication.<\/p>\n \u201cI want mastery. I want to do it really well. I\u2019m not a dabbler, that\u2019s for sure,\u201d she\u00a0says.<\/p>\n Whitfield launched her boutique studio gallery, Intimate Portraits for Women (www.bigvalleyphotoart.com<\/a>), when she discovered she enjoyed creating soulful, sensual portraits of women using the disappearing art of classic portraiture. She was doing wedding photography and when she found the possibilities of digital photography, she saw it as a way of returning to a childhood passion:\u00a0painting.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople want to do work fast, put a tag on it and get it out the door. My niche requires time intensity to develop these products,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s not fast at\u00a0all.\u201d<\/p>\n The product starts with a photo session where Whitfield uses techniques such as lighting and the subject\u2019s own feelings. She says a good photograph needs a context, a person\u2019s emotions, whether that\u2019s sadness or\u00a0joy.<\/p>\n \u201cI tell women to concentrate on their thoughts and what they project. I need content because it will come through the camera,\u201d she says. \u201cThere\u2019s a feeling to the images, a calmness, and that\u2019s the difference. When people are \u2018not there,\u2019 there\u2019s no\u00a0feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n With the photos complete, Whitfield\u2019s work is only beginning. She will take the raw image and digitally turn it into fine art, brushstroke by brushstroke, using two different software programs. \u201cIt\u2019s very engaging and it\u2019s a lot of work but it\u2019s not boring or tedious,\u201d she\u00a0says.<\/p>\n To achieve her level of mastery, Whitfield studies constantly \u2014 everything from composition to lighting in other artists\u2019 good work \u2014 as well as dissecting her own work to see how she can improve it. She also focuses efforts on the technical aspects, such as experimenting with her digital brush strokes in order to build up her toolkit. \u201cYou have to work at it, it\u2019s not intuitive at all,\u201d she\u00a0says.<\/p>\n Her work has become renowned around the country and abroad. Whitfield, who also does photography in New York on location, has won various awards for her work and has been in demand for classes \u2014 as recently as January she went to London for a week to teach workshops. She also was recently invited to do beta product testing and be a spokesperson for X-Rite, a global leader in color science and\u00a0technology.<\/p>\n Whitfield enjoys sharing her knowledge with other photographers, and she\u2019s even conducted a tutoring session for a renowned photographer friend via Skype: As he worked on a photoshoot in Australia, she guided him in using her\u00a0techniques.<\/p>\n The business aspects are generally challenging for the artsy types, but Whitfield says she has disciplined herself to do the work that comes with being self-employed. \u201cIf you don\u2019t do it, you perish,\u201d she\u00a0says.<\/p>\n Using that side of the brain, of course, is not new to her. In her former career in New York City, she was in charge of bond ratings at Standard & Poor\u2019s. But one day she decided she was done with Wall Street and with life in the big city, so she set off for the Pacific Northwest to start a new life. She had been to Bremerton before and liked it, so the Kitsap Peninsula became her\u00a0destination.<\/p>\n As she continued in the financial sector for a while, assisting colleges and other entities to structure their financing, she had acquired lamas and turned her focus to breeding. After she landscaped her six-acre farm and designed beautiful gardens, she found her property in demand for weddings, which, in turn, brought her into photography. (She has since put the farm on the market and moved to a much smaller home in Port\u00a0Ludlow.)<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not tough to reinvent myself. I\u2019ve been told I have the gift of fearlessness. I know I will land on my feet and do well,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s because of the mastery. It\u2019s an inner thing \u2014 not having to overcome fear and the drive to learn new things, be creative and do\u00a0well.\u201d<\/p>\n She says if she had to change careers again, she could easily do it, but she\u2019s content with the niche she has found, especially in an industry that continues to grow. \u201cThe best part is the satisfaction, the tears that come when I deliver the final product. Women like to see themselves expressed\u00a0beautifully.\u201d<\/p>\n Working for herself has worked out well for Whitfield, who likes to do things her way, and she doesn\u2019t see going back. \u201cI\u2019m very happy on my own,\u201d she says,\u201d as complex as it gets\u00a0sometime.\u201d<\/p>\n Women In Business Photographer Winifred Whitfield: Successful fusion of\u00a0art\u00a0and\u00a0business February 1, 2011 @ 11:11am | Rodika Tollefson Winifred media Women In Business Photographer Winifred Whitfield: Successful fusion of\u00a0art\u00a0and\u00a0business February 1, 2011 @ 11:11am | Rodika Tollefson Winifred WhitfieldWinifred Whitfield has … Continue reading Related Images:<\/h3>
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