Meet Your Host
Dan Frievalt M.Photog, M.Artist, Cr. is a photographer that enjoys blending creative light with graphic design to create artistic images that evoke drama and tell a story. Dan's formal education includes an Associate degree in Marketing Communications and has worked as a Graphic Artist for 12 years before changing his career path to photography in 2005. “I always enjoyed photography but ever since digital capture I have found a new voice in creating images by combining my design background with my eye for photography.”
Dan has been named Wisconsin Professional Photographer and Artist of the Year several times. His studio has also been named one of the Top 100 Studios in the Country by his photography peers. Dan has earned many awards including the Canon Par Excellence Award, Fuji Masterpiece Award, two ASP State Elite awards, PPA Platinum, Gold, and Silver awards, and three Kodak Gallery Awards and has been selected to represent Team USA in the Photographic World Cup.
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Meet Your Speakers
Marnie Clagett
Studio Principles for Success: Join Marnie to learn five things that successful photography studios do that you can incorporate into your own business THIS WEEK! These are simple steps you can take to make sure you are booked year-round and help your clients to become raving fans.
About Marnie: Marnie Clagett is a hot mess. She’s more than a little scatterbrained, is a complete geek, and her greatest nemesis is her google calendar.
In 2009, she started what was meant to be a part-time photography business. One year later, she was worn out and struggling, running a full-time studio with hundreds of clients, a ridiculous schedule, and only $10,000 in the bank to show for it. So she made big scary changes, took control of her business, and today runs a studio which not only supports her family of four, but also allows her to give back to her home town and her photography community in ways she never dreamed possible. She believes with every bit of her dorky little heart that if this hot mess can find success of all kinds in her studio, anyone can, and loves to prove that by helping other photographers achieve their own goals for improving their businesses and their lives.
Josh Hanna
Composition for Dramatic Wide Angle Portraits: Composition is a key element in creating dynamic and interesting imagery. In this video. we'll take a look at some sample photos and I'll describe how I like to use some simple-to-use compositional elements to create engaging, wide-angle portraits.
About Josh: Josh is a high school senior photographer based in Cross Lanes, WV, specialized in creating dramatic and moody images for senior guys. He loves the photography community and works to serve as educator and mentor in order to help see others succeed in their businesses. Josh's efforts also include creating digital background templates and workflow tools designed to help photographers increase their profitability and turnaround times. He is a Master of Photography, Master Artist and Certified Professional Photographer with the Professional Photographers of America. Josh simply summarizes himself as a "Christian. Husband. Father. Artist. Photographer. Photoshopper. Teacher. SciFi Geek. Wannabe Musician."
Annie Marie
10 Photoshop Tips & Tricks To Rock Your Editing: Sharing some tips & tricks to help you with your every day editing. Learn how to tackle some of the most common issues in images such as flyaways, unifying skin tones, whitening teeth, dodge & burning and other quick and easy fixes.
About Annie Marie: Annie Marie is a photographer in Minneapolis focusing on fun & natural portraits of seniors, families, children, beauty and fine art. She strives in creating authentic portraits and connections with her clients.. With over 30 years in the industry she has worked both in studio and on location and loves her job now more than ever.
She is always striving to perfect her craft and currently holds the 2022, 2021, 2020 and 2019 Photographer of the Year title in Minnesota as well awarded 2020 SYNC Photographer of the Year. Some of her images have won international awards & recognition. She also has attained her Fellow accreditation through The Portrait Masters. Annie has appeard in a couple Podcasts with The Portrait System speaking on senior photography and podcast ‘This Conversation’ with Jed Taufer as well as a webinar with WHCC's Bee Hive.. Annie has been a presenter at National Conferences such as SYNC (2022) and online with Senior’s Unlocked Peak Summit (2021/2022). She has also given programs locally for TCPPA and SMNPPA and Idaho PPA.
Annie also holds a graphic design degree and works with photographers creating logos, branding and templates. as well as mentoring photographers. This year, Annie will host her second Luxe Workshops teaching inspiration, styling, lighting, shooting & editing fine art images.
Bee Trofort-Wilson
Long Exposure Portraits: This program will cover each of the details needed to create amazing long exposure portraits. Topics will include selecting the right camera settings, how to direct your models, implementing color gels into your images, and creative techniques to capture movement in your portraits.
About Bee: Bee Trofort-Wilson is a sports and portrait photographer on a journey to motivate and inspire others through imagery and storytelling, showing that strong is beautiful in all forms, not only physical, but mental as well. She has had the opportunity to shoot commercial campaigns and editorial projects for the CDC, Under Armour, Adidas, AMC, New York Times, and more. While creating with people striving to be their best selves, she wants to encourage others to “Bee Fearless” along the way. She opened Bee Fearless Studios in 2020, a rental photography and video studio, to provide equipment and resources for young artist to fearlessly create.
Lisa Jones
A Polished Portrait: During this class I will demonstrate retouching techniques that I use to eliminate or minimize distractions within an image. I also demonstrate techniques I use to polish my portraits, giving them a finished look that can turn an ordinary image into a work of art.
About Lisa: Lisa Jones is an award-winning, certified professional portrait photographer in Cullman, Alabama.
A recent recipient of her Masters accreditation from PPA and Portrait Masters, she specializes in
studio portraiture with a goal of recreating a love of printed portraits and wall art among her clients.
Nate Peterson
The Grand Experience: During this class, you’ll hear the unique way in which Nate Peterson and his team raised their Senior sales averages with results that will blow you away. Nate shares the details of his studio’s Grand Experience all-inclusive package that includes a three-hour session, hair, makeup and a beautifully detailed Senior album. Nate will go over his approach with pre-qualiPed clients, boosted sales averages and a focus on products clients want to purchase. You will learn all about the different ways to make Senior Portraits engaging and exciting, telling each unique story and creating a milestone experience for your clients. Before the end of the program, you’ll also explore in-person sales projects and learn how you can use this approach to selling even more. Nate and his team have done the legwork so benefit from their experience and discover how you too can boost your Senior business in ways you never imagined!
About Nate: Nate Peterson, M.Photog, CR, CPP has been full-time in the photography industry since 2011. He has won many awards and has spoken on the national platform stages, educating fellow photographers on sustainable business practices. Along with his wife, and studio manager, Teresa, they own and operate NP Design & Photography, which specializes in story-telling high school Senior portraits, sentimental family portraits, professional business headshots and edgy sports images. Nate & Teresa live and work together in their 100-year-old historic commercial studio building, reversing the home-studio into the studio-home. Along with a small staff and their French bulldog, Curly, their business that was awarded one of the top 100 studios in the country by the Elite Mastermind group in 2017.
Make sure to grab the Peak Power Pack to have lifetime access to all of the 2023 presentations and over $1,600 in bonus items!
GET THE PEAK POWER PACK
Jennifer Denton
Dig Deep...Tell Their Story
About Jennifer: Jennifer Denton is an award-winning portrait photographer based in San Antonio, TX, with over 18 years of experience capturing timeless images for seniors, families, and business owners. Her recent expansion of her business to Denver, CO is a first step in her multi-city business plan.
Her heart for nurturing teens during the tumultuous high school years drew her to specialize in senior photography several years ago. Beyond simply producing beautiful images that reflect each senior’s unique personality, Jen strives to provide an unforgettable experience that makes each of her clients feel seen and celebrated.
Beyond her photography work, Jen is committed to helping people overcome obstacles to create a life and business they love. She is fluent in movie quotes, song lyrics, and sarcasm, and believes every day should be infused with laughter and gratitude.
Jaimy Ellis
Urban Senior Guys: Watch as I work with two senior guys in street wear clothing at an urban location. I'll go through some posing tips, general shooting tips and you can see the finished product as well.
About Jaimy: Believe it or not I’m a country girl at heart and learned of my love for photography through 4H. I started a full service portrait studio in 2006 after graduating from Hawkeye Comm. College with a degree in Professional Photography. It grew quick and I soon realized that my favorite subjects were seniors. I continue furthering my skills through conferences, workshops and competitions and became a Master of Photography through Professional Photographers of America in 2017 with nationally award winning images and albums. I am also passionate about uplifting and educating other photographers in the industry and became a Photographic Craftsman in 2022! I will never stop learning how to better my craft and I’m so excited to be able to teach other photographers how to create amazing experiences for their clients as well.
Sarah Lindsay
Hate Sales? Watch this. How to Sell Without Selling and Make More Money! In this class you'll learn how to tap into people’s emotions to make the sale easier, you'll learn how to use words to guide the sale in your favor, and how simple actions can all lead to increasing your sales without making you feel slimy. You’ll also learn psychological tactics to turn you into a ""sales ninja"" and help nudge your clients to a higher sale all while keeping your integrity intact, providing your client with an incredible level of service, and ultimately increasing your sales.
In addition to all of this if you've purchased the Peak Power Pack, you’ll gain access to some of the tools I personally use in my business every day that has helped me surpass 6 figures.
**A general understanding of what IPS is is recommended before watching this class.
About Sarah: Sarah has been a professional photographer for 8 years and specializes in high-end senior portrait experiences for senior girls. Sarah is entirely self taught and learned everything she knows either from trial and error, "Youtube University", or reading books. She is a self-titled "psychology nut" and loves taking the psychology hacks she's learned and applying them to sales, marketing, and business to make it all a bit easier.
Carla Lynn
Mission Imposebale: You will learn many simple tools that Carla Lynn uses for posing her clients. She will help you see things differently and think differently.
About Carla: Carla Lynn started her business in 2004 and had been a full- time photographer since 2009. She is a sponsored speaker for Millers Lab and has spoken at Imaging USA, SYNC and TN PPA. Her work has been featured in the PPA Magazine and the online publications of Glamour and Woman's Health. She specializes in High School Schools and does about 140 + a year. Her senior client chooses her because her expertise includes in helping them feel comfortable, posing to look their best and feel confident.
Curtiss Bryant
Creating Your Vision: This class will walk through how we take a vision in our head, photograph it and finish it in Photoshop. We will discuss shooting, lighting as well as photoshop work that will help us get what is in our head onto a final product for our clients.
About Curtiss: Curtiss graduated from college with a marketing degree and started his photography journey in 2005. He has since been published numerous times in national and international publications and has won numerous industry awards. He has built a thriving studio that focuses primarily on seniors and weddings. He specializes in destination portraits and travels the world with his clients to provide them with unique images and amazing experiences.
Make sure to grab the Peak Power Pack to have lifetime access to all of the 2023 presentations and over $1,600 in bonus items!
GET THE PEAK POWER PACK
Shannon Atchley
Sunset sessions that wow! Finding that perfect ambient and strobe balance for beautiful sunset images. Viewers will learn how to create dramatic, dynamic portraits using long, flowy dresses and a gorgeous natural backdrop.
About Shannon: Shannon Atchley has been a photographer for over 16 years specializing in high school seniors. Shannon has been mentoring and teaching lighting for over 10 years.
Latrice Gray Murphy
TikTok Unleashed: Exploring 5 Secrets to Supercharge Your Business: Let’s unlock the power of TikTok for businesses. Whether you’re an established photographer or just starting out, this program will equip you with the knowledge and strategies to use TikTok’s features for business growth. We will use real-world examples, and actionable tips, you’ll learn how to harness the platform’s creative potential to attract clients, build your brand, and stand out in a competitive market. I’ll even throw in some secret tips and the best editing options for creative TikTok quickly.
About Latrice: I am a portrait photographer specializing in senior portrait photography. Additionally, I have a deep passion for creative headshot and branding sessions. You can find me based in Aurora, IL, just a little over 30 minutes outside of Chicago. As a dedicated member of the Professional Photographers of America (PPA), I am actively working towards achieving my CPP certification. The journey to discovering my passion was quite unconventional, taking a unique and winding path unlike others. Alongside my degrees in Architecture and Design, I also hold a Masters Degree in Elementary Education. Utilizing design principles is an integral part of my daily photography work, and I take joy in teaching kids photography at my studio. Transparency is important to me, as I am an open book, willingly sharing my photography education, family fun, and travel adventures on my social media platforms. I occasionally showcase my dance skills on TikTok and offer glimpses into my health and fitness journey intertwined with my photography work on Instagram. There is nothing to hide; instead, I have an abundance of experiences and knowledge to share. Here's to a collective love for what we do!
Kristie Bradley
Canva Secrets! Did you know Canva can do that! Tools to simplify and streamline your social media and marketing tasks: Kristie will be sharing her favorite tools to simplify and streamline your social media and marketing tasks. Canva is a fantastic tool and platform to keep your portfolio of marketing and social media campaigns all in one place. Simplify designing with templates, brand hub and her favorite AI tool to create weeks of social media posts in minutes!
No design experience needed!
About Kristie: With over 10 years of experience as a senior portrait photographer, Kristie is known for creating community through her unique senior ambassador program. Kristie loves working with teens to showcase their unique personalities and natural beauty. Not only does she love to photograph, but Kristie has a passion for helping others succeed in business. She loves sparking light bulb moments with her students to create intentional and profitable businesses. She recently launched a course all about designing and implementing your own unique senior experience!
Bonnie Burton
Growing Your Senior Business Through Community Connections: Making real connections with your community will draw clients to your studio. This presentation will give you several actionable ideas to get you started on your journey of growing your senior business.
About Bonnie: Bonnie, and her husband, Jonathan, live and work in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Focusing on environmental portraits of seniors, families, and children, their full-service photography studio is celebrating 30 years in business. Bonnie joined the studio in 2010 and has 17 years of experience as a professional photographer.
In 2023, Bonnie and Jonathan were recognized at SYNC (Senior and Youth National Conference) as 2023 Photographers of the Year. Education is a top priority for Bonnie as she stays in tune with current trends, technological advancements, and seeks out opportunities to stretch her creativity.
In the last decade, Bonnie has nurtured the growth of the senior portrait genre at their studio, going from photographing a few seniors each year to now capturing dozens every season.
Bonnie is a graduate of Wake Forest University and loves to teach others, encouraging them in their growth as photographers and studio owners. She enjoys watching endless episodes of The Office, hiking, and of course, spending time with her precious family.
Isaac Coffy
The Irresistible Brand: A Recipe Branding: the oh so important topic that is also so vast and sometimes scary. In this talk, I'm going to walk you through the very recipe I have used to not only elevate my 6-figure photography studio, but also 3 other businesses that are thriving! Whether you're starting out or a veteran in the industry, I promise there will be at least one thing you take away.
About Isaac: Author of cringy bios and coffee connoisseur, Isaac reigns from land of cornfields and terrible weather - Ashland, OH. He dropped out of college at the age of 19 to pursue a life of entrepreneurship in the photography industry. Fast forward 10 years and he now operates a 6-figure studio along with DJ company and a fundraising organization. How does he do it? Lots of prayer...and Eagle Rare. Join Isaac in his class as he shares the very steps to building a successful business while skipping past all the failures he had to stubbornly manage through the years.
Fuzzy Duenkel
Garages are GRRREAT! Be surprised and inspired with the incredible variety of images that can be captured in one of the humblest locations... your clients' garages. Fuzzy will use pull-backs and voice-overs describing how most of the nearly 600 images were done to give YOU the confidence to make images that your clients will love and say.. "Wow! You did that in our GARAGE?"
About Fuzzy: In 1975, Fuzzy and Shirley Duenkel of West Bend, Wisconsin started their “mom and pop” business, as many photographers do, when a friend asked Fuzzy to photograph her wedding. In 1996, the Duenkels dropped weddings to concentrate solely on portraits.
Fuzzy’s business evolved into a specialty studio with under 100 total sessions per year. While he photographed babies, children, families, couples, glamour, and business portraits, high school seniors have always been his favorite. Seniors are his easiest subjects since they require little space (unlike families), hold still (unlike kids), do what they’re told (unlike babies), understand English (unlike pets), and will give him as much time as he needs (unlike weddings).
Fuzzy practically insists on working on location with each session. Fuzzy feels his specialty is his total comfort with creating portraits in clients’ homes, especially if he has never been there before. His goal is to make a variety of images that don’t necessarily look like they were done in the clients’ bedrooms, garages, or hallways… even though they were!
AWARDS / CREDENTIALS
Fuzzy started entering prints in Wisconsin PPA competition in 1993. In that and subsequent competitions he’s entered, Fuzzy was awarded four Fuji Masterpiece Awards, earned top awards for the Wisconsin PPA senior folio competition twelve times; was Wisconsin’s Photographer of the Year twice; won Senior Photographer's International folio competitions five times; Senior Portrait Artists’ Photographer of the Year, had 29 prints selected for National Traveling Loan Collection, two for Disney’s Epcot Center, one for Photokina in Germany, one for the International Hall of Fame and Museum in Oklahoma, in addition to other awards and accolades.
Fuzzy has earned the PPA Master and Craftsman Degrees (but is no longer a PPA member).
Katrina Jackson
All things natural light & Open shade: We will be deep diving into the kind of light photograph to get the images I produce with natural light photography & Open shade.
About Katrina: Katrina Jackson is a photographer that specializes in high school seniors and teens out of her home studio is in Rochester, Indiana. Katrina has been photographing teens since the very beginning of her photography career. She fell in love with seniors immediately and hasn't looked back. Katrina has created a senior portrait experience that she could only have dreamed of when she was a high school senior. She is very passionate about her client experience she has created and perfected her experience over the years. Katrina has recently realized that her true gift isn’t in the pictures she creates but the service she provides her clients and attention to details she provides to all of her clients, the pictures are the cherry on top. Katrina is best known for her bright vibrant photography and the way she has her clients standout from her locations.
Tammy Howell
Make More Money with Remote In-person Sales: Learn how to do in-person sales virtually without diminishing your sales. We will discuss the benefits, technology, and pitfalls of this process.
About Tammy: Tammy started her photography business in 2006 and has specialized almost exclusively in senior portraits since 2017. She has a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Louisville Speed Scientific School where she graduated summa cum laude. She worked as a design engineer and computer applications manager at GE Appliances before starting her photography business.
Tammy is known for her love of gadgets, spreadsheets, and cats. As a former art school student, Tammy's creative and technical background is the perfect blend for photography. Tammy is a member of the MoLight Pro Team and enjoys helping other photographers learn to use lighting gear and programs like Lightroom and Photoshop.
In her free time, she enjoys gardening and watching DIY videos that she will never get around to doing.
Tammy's senior portrait work is known for being crisp and vibrant as a result of her mastery of lighting techniques, and often is chosen by athletes to capture unique sports images.
Lori Nordstrom
Profit from your Seniors all year long!
About Lori: Lori Nordstrom M.Photog.Cr., CPP, ABI, John Maxwell Certified Coach and Speaker, Certified Christian Life Coach
Lori Nordstrom began her photography career photographing her own children in the backyard 25 years ago. She is known for her sweet, simple “real life” style, focused on families and children.
Soon after getting involved in print competition over twenty years ago, Lori was asked to speak at her own Iowa State Convention and has since gone on to present programs and workshops in all 50 states and around the world. Seen on CreativeLive and PhotoVision as well as many industry publications, Lori is now a sought-after business coach helping creative entrepreneurs reach their goals as multiple six-figure earners.
Lori is the author of “Maximizing Profits: A Practical Guide for Photographers”.
A note from Lori: “I am so grateful for the photographic industry and honored by the awards, recognition, and opportunities, but most importantly my fulfillment comes from God first, family second (including 3 grown children and 3 grandchildren!), and third, being a part of helping other creative entrepreneurs reach their goals and live a fulfilled life.”
Adam Hunter
Basic Photoshop for Photographers: This class is for Lightroom people who want to add some Photoshop to their workflow. This class is aimed at photographers who are new to Photoshop but every senior portrait photographer could use these techniques. Some of the topics covered are: the text tool, creative brushes, Photoshop's remove tool for retouch, changing backgrounds, sky replacement, generative fill to extend your background and more!
About Adam: My career in photography started a little different than most people. When I was 20, I got a job as a professional retoucher, compositer, and image editor for the local photographer across the street. Little did I know, that studio was one of the highest volume and most highly awarded studios in the country! My experience at a high-volume studio made me an expert in efficient, high-quality image editing in both RAW software and Photoshop. I started entering photo competitions and found great success with my edits winning SYNC Photographer of the Year twice, SPI Photographer of the year, SPA Photographer of the Year, and many PPA awards. A lot of other photographers stated asking me to edit their competition images, too. In one year of PPA competition my edits scored over 100 merits with 98% of the images scoring a merit or better. I also earned my Masters of Photography, Craftsman, and Certified Professional Photographer degrees from PPA. I began speaking at photography conventions, sharing the techniques I had learned along the way. This is where I found my passion for teaching. I left professional photography to become a photography instructor at the PPA accredited Hawkeye Community College Photography Program. Since then, I’ve watched my students open many successful studios and find careers from coast to coast. I look forward to bringing my passion for photography and photography education to the Peak Senior Summit!
Josh Petersen
Senior Girl Session
About Josh: A native of South East Idaho, Josh Petersen has grown up with some of the nation's most beautiful landscapes right in his own backyard. His summers were spent in Jackson Hole, Wyoming where the majority of his time he was on horseback, fishing, camping, and exploring.
His creativity began at a very young age, always drawing, building, painting, and eventually, picking up a camera and starting the journey that got him where he is today.
Over the years he has grown to become one of the most prominent Portrait Artists in the country. Highly specialized in working with large families and high school seniors, Josh creates world-class images that reflect his clients person style and designs custom curated wall galleries for his clients homes.
Working all over the United States and abroad, Josh is passionate about travel and using his talents to give back to local communities. Whether it be in the bustling cities of Ecuador, rural farmlands in Haiti, or deep in the jungles of the Dominican Republic, he loves connecting with his fellow humans over their local food and ice cold beer.
Gary Box
Wrapping Your Head Around Lighting: A better understanding of lighting principals can make your work better, more sellable and less corrections and post production. Learn lighting rules and when to break them. Proper light placement and light patterns are important to understand. Then dive into how to use your off camera flash properly for a more natural look and not so "flashy".
About Gary: Gary’s hobby was photography and he spent so much money on it, he decided he needed to start charging people. So in 1989, he opened his first storefront studio. Almost 35 years and 17K clients later it still blows his mind. Although mostly known for high school seniors, Gary’s studio covers the range of portrait offerings including families, children, boudoir and business headshots. He built up a pretty high volume studio with over 1100 sessions a year and realized he was working entirely too hard for what he was making and started refining the business aspects and now does 200-250 sessions a year, but at much higher averages. Working from a small town in Oklahoma, He currently averages $4300 per senior. Now that he doesn’t have to work as hard, he devotes more time to helping others see the light in this business.
David Beckham
Led Lighting For Crazy Color Photos: We learn how to use LED lighting to add color to your photographs. We'll also mix in some posing techniques and a great new way to edit!
About David: This will be my 3rd time here at the Peak Summit! God has given me three gifts that I get to use every day.
1) the ability to see a photograph through a lens.
2) the desire and people skills to teach effectively.
3) to be able to communicate and connect with young people.
These gifts allowed me to build a profitable senior photography business and to take advantage of speaking and teaching all over the country.
I have been honored to Speak at Imaging the last two years and they asked me back for 2024! This will be my 4th time teaching at SYNC next year and 8th time at Shutterfest.
Through PPA I've received a Masters of Photography and Craftsman degree. I've also done well in image competition but I'm most proud of the PPA National Award in 2021.