Making Connections

In 2022, Cindy Karchner retired from a long career in human resources to focus on her passion: fine art photography. She’s found success and improved her skills by enthusiastically seeking out the help of others, joining photography and artist groups, connecting with others online and in person, and offering her services to artists in need of photography. We learned more about her journey.

Amanda Arnold: How did you get into fine art photography?

Cindy Karchner: I was an art major in college … I shot film in black-and-white and learned how to develop in the darkroom. After college, I put my camera down to raise my daughter and start a career [in human resources]. I didn’t do anything with photography for a good 20 years. Then in the 1990s, my husband and I went together to a local associates degree program for multimedia design, and that’s where I learned to use Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. Because of my art background, I look at photography as a way to capture art.

I really like finding unique angles and perspectives on everything, and capturing emotion in my images. In the last couple of years, I’ve really delved into nature, birds, seascapes, farms, horses, and dogs, and I’m loving it. But my biggest passion lately is water.

I have this series called “Ethereal Ripples.” It was inspired by an article that I read in Professional Photographer magazine [“Mirrored Abstraction,” April 2024, page 10]. I was so inspired by [photographer Mike Curry’s work]. He shot at 1/8,000 of a second to capture moments that you cannot see with your eyes. My friend and I went to the Philadelphia Zoo. While she was photographing the penguins in the penguin tank, I was photographing the water and the movement they were creating when they swam around in the tank.

AA: Can you tell me about the techniques behind these photos?

CK: I’ve used both slow and fast shutter speeds. At the Mid-Atlantic Regional School of Professional Photography in Delaware, I had a [class with] Kah-Wai Lin [who] taught us to slow your shutter speed down when we’re capturing waves. He also told us to wait, have patience, and walk right into the surf and wait for the water to recede to capture dramatic effects.

I just took a workshop in California with National Geographic photographer Frans Lanting on seascapes on the Monterey Peninsula, and what an exceptional experience that was. They had us hiking out on beaches and a cliff’s edge a few times. I hate heights, and I probably never would’ve done it on my own, but because I was with a group, I faced my fears and got some amazing images.

Kah-Wai Lin taught us to get ourselves into the surf. With Frans, he was pointing out slower shutter speeds, between an eighth and a half second exposure for seascapes to get that smooth, creamy water feel. He also taught us to find a focal point of interest and zoom in on that.

AA: What inspired your flower series?

CK: My daughter and I both love flowers. She lives in Delaware and I live in Pennsylvania, and we meet halfway in Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. They’ve got every flower under the sun, but the ones I love the most, that they only have two weeks out of the year, are the Himalayan blue poppies. They’re just so sensual. I get so many cool reactions from them.

AA: What equipment do you use?

CK: I started shooting with Olympus cameras back in the early 2000s. Now I have two Olympus cameras: the OM-1 Mark II, with built-in HD filters, and the OM-D E-M1X. I love them both. When I retired from my human resources job in 2022, the very first thing I did was read my camera manual from cover to cover—all 800 pages of it. You think you know your camera until you start reading that manual and figure out all these other cool things you could be doing.

I also belong to the local Lehigh Valley Photography Club, which has an Olympus camera group. [We] talk about different styles of photography and how we do it and tricks we’ve learned. I have five lenses. My go-tos are the 12-40mm and the 40-150mm. They are almost always on my camera. I also have a fisheye 8mm, a wide-angle 9-18mm, and a 100-400mm.

AA: What inspired your hummingbird photo series?

CK: My aunt and uncle live in Santa Cruz, California. Their house feels like a treehouse because the treetops are right at patio level. They have thousands of hummingbirds there. The hummingbirds literally are three feet away from me in the treetops. They sit there and pose for me. That’s been such a blessing for me. Every time I go, my camera is with me. My uncle has dementia, and up until a year ago, he could still play cards. I go to visit my aunt to give her some relief and spend some time with my uncle. I asked my aunt what I could bring. She said, “I would love to have a deck of playing cards with hummingbirds on them.” So, I developed this deck of playing cards just for them.

AA: How did you start collaborating with artists?

CK: In 2023, two artist friends hired me to photograph them blowing glass. They loved the pictures and they both make exquisite work, so I offered to help them build their brands. I met with each of them to understand their work and their processes, their style, their voice, and I helped them by designing business cards, artist bios, and marketing materials, and photographing their work. One of those friends and I will be having an exhibition together in January next year. I’ll be taking photographs of her work and kind of dissecting them to make my own abstract works in Photoshop. My work will be framed and hung behind her pieces.

I [recently] wrote up a proposal for the Lehigh Art Alliance offering to take photographs [for artists]. I was thinking they might need nice headshots and even offered to capture some behind-the-scenes photographs of them working. But [the president] said, “You know what they really need? They need photographs of their work” to promote it. So, I’ll be doing that, too.

AA: What kind of marketing do you do for your work? 

CK: I’ve always loved famous quotes, and am a fan of supporting women and women artists. I spent one whole day collecting famous quotes from women. Then I set up a template using Canva and started going through my images, sorting them in Lightroom by water or ocean. I collected 218 images and figured out I would need 21 for the month of March and put together a set of 21 pages of quotes and images. I got them all scheduled to post on Facebook and Instagram. I use an automated system, so they’re all lined up for the whole month. Then I will post them separately on LinkedIn, Bluesky, and Substack.

My website is hosted by Art Storefronts, and through Art Storefronts I subscribe to Art Marketing Hub. It automatically generates posts based on what images are on my website. But I can also go in and schedule separate posts.

AA: What is your goal with social media right now?

CK: I’ve only been doing this for two years, so my goal is to get my work in front of people and make connections. I have more than 20 years in customer service and more than 30 in human resources. Frankly I need to be around people. So, in the last two years, I’ve set up my work at farmers markets. The area I live in is very artsy. There are so many people, so many visitors, and it’s such an artsy town that I decided, You know what, it’s worth my time to go talk to people even if I don’t sell much. On my first couple visits there, I did pretty well. And then it gets too hot or too cold and people aren’t stopping by, so I’m trying to be a little more strategic with when I go. I only do those about once a month. I also sell my work at the ArtBeat Studio and Café down the street from my house. The owner loves my photography, so she lets me put my lower-priced items there, like my greeting cards, magnets, tote bags, calendars, and stickers. And I get a check every month.

She takes a 30% commission, which is a nice arrangement for me. I stop in every week and rearrange the merchandise. I try to keep up with the seasons. The last two weeks, I’ve been down there refreshing the space with my flower photography for spring.

AA: What has worked for you as far as selling your work?

CK: In-person selling has been the most successful for me. I have a website, but I’ve only sold two or three things off the website. I love the farmers markets and watching people’s reactions to my work. They ask, “Where was this taken? How did you do this?” I end up telling the story, and that sells things.

This year I got accepted into my first art fair in Allentown, Pennsylvania, so I’m very excited about that because I’ll be among other artists. I’ll bring a wide range of items and price points, everything from $5 magnets to stickers, greeting cards, and matted and framed prints. The more I do this, the more I see that it’s the smaller things that really get people’s attention.

AA: What advice do you have for other photographers?

CK: When I worked in human resources, everything was about collaboration. That’s how you keep people happy. You have to find ways to connect with other artists who inspire you—not just photographers. Art is everywhere. Just keep making connections. That’s the key. Every day, something incredible happens. 

Amanda Arnold is a senior editor.