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deal on 110 Instamatic cartridge-based cameras. Wanting more control over his images, Bartsch bought a 35mm Vivitar system and took it with him on vacation to California. While in San Francisco, he snapped an image of seagulls flying behind a boat. It later won a company photography contest, and then won an Honorable Mention in Kodak’s international competition. “That spurred me,” he recalls. “We had two staff photographers at the plant, and both had gone to the Brooks Institute for their training.” He moved to Santa Barbara and began his studies there in 1985. At that time, there were no courses at Brooks on architectural photography, but he took a one-week seminar on interiors. An ad in the Santa Barbara News-Press set him on his current course. “A Carlsbadbased company needed a photographer in Santa Barbara to do high-end real estate brochures. I built my business from that.” New digital technologies have added more control, Bartsch reports. He made the transition from film in steps, initially by scanning his film transparencies and manipulating digitally. That prepared him for the 70
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eventual switch to digital cameras; he currently uses Canon cameras in his work. He typically takes anywhere from two to ten photos of an interior, for example, and more if there are more windows. At the computer later, it takes an average of 12 minutes to composite and put final touches on each image. “Many people don’t understand the importance of a strong photo to capture the attention of potential buyers,” he says. “It’s critical.” He recalls a client reporting that an ad featuring his photo of a Padero
“I strive for the details. If I’m going to do it, I want it to be perfect. No chair is pulled out of place. It takes longer, as we have to do a lot of tweaking, but it looks better.” w w w. f o o d – h o m e . c o m