Marissa Zando photographed by John Ricard at Unique Photo

I’ve presented photography workshops at Matt Sweetwood‘s Unique Photo in NJ, many times.  It’s an interesting shop that is modern in its approach to stocking all the latest and greatest gear, but old school in its customer centered approach to doing business. My first ever visit to the store came many years ago when I was staying overnight at a Newark hotel as a judge for a beauty contest.  The Fuji XE1 had just came out and I hadn’t had a chance to see the camera in person.  I was close to the store -(well closer than I am when I’m at home in Brooklyn, at least), so I called to see if it was in stock.

When I arrived in the store I told the salesman that I wasn’t buying today but I did want to see the camera.  I told him that if I bought it, I’d be using it with my Leica lenses.  I asked if he had an adaptor for me to try that out.  After some digging, he ultimately produced an adaptor that I could try out.  He knew I wasn’t buying anything this day, but he still made sure I could try the camera out in the configuration that I needed.

That’s a pretty big contrast to say, BH Photo in NYC. I’ve been shopping there since I was in college but somehow not one person in the entire store knows me today.  It’s great that they have every single item you need in stock, but there are times its a bit frustrating at times to have to wait on line for several minutes to be seen by a salesman who receives my order and then prints a slip of paper for me to give another salesman who will actually go on to retrieve the item.

In a few weeks Unique is presenting their 3 day photo expo.  This is always a lot of fun.  I love the large working space with ability to tether to a LCD projector.  I love how helpful the staff is when it turns out I’ve forgotten gaff tape or a tether cord.  I love how people certain familiar faces show up every single time I present at Unique -even though they force me to keep coming up with new jokes and new lighting techniques so as not to bore them 😉

Unique brings out some really strong talent to give presentations on everything from social media to lighting to posing to running a photography business. I’ll be presenting on 2 days:

Friday June 26, 3:15pm-4:15pm “Lighting for Beauty”

Saturday June 27, 4pm-5:30pm “Advanced Studio Lighting Techniques”

It’s something that I really look forward to.  Not just giving my presentations, but also attending the presentations of people like Natalie Kita and Rick Gerrity which I’ve attended in the past, and will attend this time as well.  Below is clip from one of my recent presentations at Unique. Hope to see you in a few weeks!