Barry Stahl
Photographer

What attracted you to Ovation?

First it was Ovation’s location. My family and I wanted to move back home closer to our parents so our children will know their grandparents. La Crosse to me was the ideal location because it was close to St. Paul where my wife’s family lives. But it was also not a big city, it was nestled in a beautiful area along the river surrounded with bluffs that reminded me more of the Pennsylvania area where I grew up. Then, I was attracted to the philosophy of the company – employee-owned, an emphasis on fitness and an appeal to new and cutting-edge ideas and technology.

What got you started in advertising?

It was the realization early in college that I wanted to be a photographer, but I didn’t want to be a starving artist. So I started taking classes on product lighting and building up my portfolio as a commercial photographer.

Who was a big influence in your career?

One of my college instructors, Tim Bradley, who took an interest in my work, encouraged me and taught me to be a better photographer.

If you had to live on a desert island, what would you miss most?

My alarm clock, because I would just really hate having to sleep in all the time.

What advertising/catalogs do you most admire?

I love the Neiman Marcus catalogs. They spend money on their ads and you can tell. Another is the Absolut Vodka ads, which have remained true to a theme for over a decade now. And finally, I love Apple’s clean, effective ads. The product design emulates the look and feel of the ads.

What was “your finest moment,” the thing you’re most proud of?

It would have to be the moment when I looked around the table at the representatives from a new client and realized that I had had a major role in landing them for Ovation. In a strange sort of way, I was the one who had to be there. They needed excellent photography and they knew they could get it from Ovation’s Photography department. I was from Pennsylvania (where the client is located); I understood that caustic Eastern sense of humor; they even looked like me. I had brought a client home for Ovation.

What was your most embarrassing moment in this business?

Promise you won’t tell anybody, OK? This was before my days with Ovation. A film crew was shooting the disaster film “Armageddon” and I was assigned to shoot the set, the cast and crew. It was during a week of shooting at Edwards Air Force Base. I’d been on the set since about 5:00 a.m. with no food, and it was around 2:00 in the afternoon and I was starved. One of the other photographers said, “Barry, go grab something to eat, we’ve got a few minutes.” I took off and grabbed a sandwich. A few minutes later I came back to find out that the entire crew had finally convinced Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Owen Wilson, Steve Buscemi and the other stars to pose for a giant crew portrait, and I was supposed to have taken it. But I was off somewhere eating my lunch. Oh yeah. Me and Bruce, we’re just like that.

Is there a great client story you’d care to share?

We had a catalog manager call to say he was sorry, but he wasn’t going to be around for an important shoot. There was this family reunion thing in Hawaii. (Yeah, right.) He simply had to be there. He challenged us to find some way that he could be involved in the shoot, even from his beach in Hawaii.
We had a few brainstorming sessions with our IT guys and our Web guys. We thought that since we were already shooting digitally, we could probably stream video from the camera monitors. And that’s exactly what we ended up doing. Every shot, the client could view it from his hotel balcony while working on his tan. And what we did for that shoot eventually became StudioPass. And StudioPass became ClientNet. ClientNet is now a trademarked property of Ovation and is one of our premier client services. All because a client came to us with a problem. And we were able to solve it.

What was growing up like for you?

I grew up in the Appalachian Mountains of Pennsylvania. It was a rural area and my childhood was Mayberry-like, filled with fishing, hiking and camping.
At nine years of age I had decided that I was going to be a professional photographer. I started shooting for the school newspaper and yearbook. I entered every photo contest I could find and started making a little extra cash from the photo contest prizes.

How do you come up with ideas and solutions for clients?

As a photographer, much of it comes with studying and playing with our customers’ products, constantly trying new things. It probably sounds corny, but my best ideas come in those first minutes in the morning, as I’m transitioning between a dream-like state and waking. Many times I will have been concentrating on a problem all day long, I’ll go to sleep that night and I’ll wake up the next morning having dreamed the solution.

What’s your biggest pet peeve?

It bugs me when kids aren’t properly seat belted in a car. If they are not, the kids are bouncing around and one eventually knocks over my half-finished beer, which rolls under my brake pedal and I end up rolling into the double-wide trailer. Or something like that. See, there’s that caustic Eastern sense of humor coming through again.

What’s the most important thing you’ve learned about advertising?

People buy out of desire. It doesn’t have to be a good product or affordable. If you can create the desire through advertising, people will buy it.

What talent do you wish you had?

Financial management. I hate dealing with money and budgets. It’s the last job I’ll tackle. I’ll put it off till the very last moment and even then I’ll procrastinate. Maybe if I at least had a talent for it I could stand it.

What can’t you live without?

Air.

What are your plans for after advertising?

I want to do fine art photography. I want to capture the area where I live, the northeast corner of Iowa, and open a little gallery.

Is there any food that helps you think more creatively?

Beer. I brew my own and I find that creative in itself. Planning the recipe; choosing the malts and hops to give it character; painstakingly following through the process; and then enjoying the results.

What’s your favorite sports team?

Whoever the US sends to The Americas Cup.

What driving career goals do you still have?

I never want to abandon art in my photography. It’s easy when in a catalog shoot, shooting hundreds of shots, to focus on the production and not the art of the craft. Someday I’d love to have a little art gallery, to get away from the commercial side of photography and back to fine art.

If you could spend a day with any person, living or dead, who would it be and what would you do?

That’d have to be Jesus Christ, because He is God and Man, and I would love to ask Him exactly what He expects of Christianity in this age.

What’s your point of view about politics?

My point of view is that politics doesn’t belong in the workplace. But since you asked, I take the cynical viewpoint that politics is just like advertising. It’s all in the spin.

Do you have any pets?

Yes, too many. If it were up to me we would have only a dog. But, my wife and kids are constantly bringing home another rescued animal. We have and have had dogs, cats, fish, rabbits, guinea pigs, chickens, ducks and even a piglet.

What do you do for a good time when you’re not working?

I love to sail. Sailing is a recent hobby that I took up seriously three years ago. I have two sailboats, a daysailer and a small racing boat called a Laser. I enjoy my Laser the most. I can sail it by myself and when the water isn’t frozen over I race weekly. I love sailboat racing because it combines the mental challenge of strategy and tactics with the physical challenge of handling the boat.

Do you have any kids?

Yes. I have two daughters, one a brand-new teenager and one a preschooler, and in the middle, a son who is a preteen.

What are your favorite Internet sites?

From an advertising viewpoint I enjoy Woot.com. It is a unique e-marketing concept. Woot sells only one item each day until it sells out. Its copy is clever and funny, and the products, although liquidations, are pretty good selections, variety and price. Woot, which stands for “Wow! Loot!,” also creates a community culture with a community board where people can share comments about the products they bought or photo contests of the products with cash prizes.

What makes a great brand?

This is a “duh” answer, but it’s true: Uniqueness. I look at the example of Woot.com. It’s this quirky little website where they sell just one thing a day. One thing. You go there and find out what they are selling for the day, and if you like it, you buy it. If you think about it too long, somebody else may take the last one, and then you’re kicking yourself for the rest of the day. “I shoulda taken the Woot. Why didn’t I take the Woot? I NEEDED that Woot!” you’re telling yourself. Until the next day, when a whole new thing is sold on Woot. It’s unique. I’ve never seen a website like this before. It’s weird, yes. But it’s unique.

If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?

New Zealand. I’ve wanted to live there since I studied the country in high school geography. In a small area you have every kind of typography; beaches, mountains, wetlands and desert. And since it is in the opposite hemisphere I could actually photograph client photos in season.