Jim takes top award at state convention
Jim wins best of show
At the 2007 Indiana State Fair Jim won best wedding image in the professional photography competition. Congratulations Jim, we are so proud of you!!
In the news
Wyant Photography was featured in the Noblesville Daily TImes on February 19, 2008, article by Rebecca L Sandlin.
Local Photographer Brings Home Several Top Awards
"Jim Wyant, founder of Wyant Photography located at 240 E. Main St. in Carmel, ended his term as president of the Professional Photographers of INdiana in style this month by sweeping the organization's annual photography competition in awards. Wyant's list of awards is impressive.
- Gold Award- for highest scoring wedding image
- Kodak Gallery Award- for wedding album and illustrative division
- Silver Award- for illustrative category
- H&H Color Lab Award- for highest scoring wedding album
- Bill Stockwell Memorial Award- for best album of the convention
- Top Ten Award- presented to the 10 photographers of the highest accumulative scores
Wyant was also honored with two "judges choice" ribbons, eight state merits, two third-place bronze awards, and a Best Outdoor Portrait ribbon, for which he also recieved $100. About 300 people attended the convention in Indianapolis in which the contest awards were presented.
For Wyant, who just celebrated 25 years in business, it was a sweet way to be recognized. "I actually did better last year than I did this year, believe it or not. I recieved two '100' scores, which are perfect scores, and it just so happens that it's never been done in the state before," he said. "But his year I actually won more awards, and this was the year that was my year of presidency, and I had all my family there at the banquet." Jim's wife, Lois, said she was very proud of her husband's acolades at the convention. "He puts a huge amount of passion into his work and into creating the photographes so that they're just perfect for competition," she said. "It was a special honor, since it was her presidnetial year, to do so well."
Jennifer Connolly of Noblesville has had Wyant Photography chronicleh er family in portraits for the past 10 years. She found them at a bridal fair when she was looking for a photographer for her wedding. She's not surprised that Jim Wyant is an award-winning photographer. "The Wyants stood out from everyone in photography," she said. "What they do- their concept is so diferent. And you can see people who try to imitate waht they do, but nobodoy does it like Wyant does it."
Wyant Photography was featured in the Indy Star, article by Tania E. Lopez.
First of Couple's Five Photography Books Spotlights 83 of the County's Business Owners
"A Carmel business couple will pay tribute to Hamilton County female entrepreneurs through a self-published book sceduled to hit the independent circuit in a couple of weeks. Jim and Lois Wyant, owners of Wyant Photography and The Ami Gallery and Photography Studioes in the Arts & Design District, plan to publish a series of five photography books titled, 'Legacies of Hamilton County.' The first book in the series, 'Women of Entrepreneurial Spirit,' features 83 female business owners in the county. 'It was really Lois' idea,' said Jim. 'She wanted more acknowledgement of small business owners, specifially women in business.' Lois, a business owner and mother of three said women are expected to adhere to traditional roles- such as raising children, organizing schedules and feeding their families- in addition to running successful businesses. 'She coordinated the school schedules, private lessions, then goes home to fix dinner,' she said. 'I'm not saying that men don't help out, but we have to be a little more focused on our family's desires.'
Among those highlighted in the book are Carmel business owners Jessica Deetz of Trichology Salon, Melanie Harper of CTPM, Kay Krober of Krober Invitations and Alice O'Brian of Alice's Catering. O'Brian said she was pleasantly surprised when Jim approached her for the project. 'It's always nice when women are singled out for accomplishing amazing things,' she said. Corporate giants and big-box stores are two more reasons the Wyants created the book, they said. 'It's difficult to compete in the worlf of corporate business,' said Jim. 'The corporations can aford to do a lot of things the small business owner can't.' The photographs of women entrepreneurs will be shown at a gallery opening from 5 to 8 Nov. 29 at The Ami Gallery and Photography Studios, 240 E Main St."
Wyant Photography was featured in the Carmel Star on Wednesday, December 26 2007.
Carmel High Student is Photo Studio Contest Winner
"Carmel HIgh School senior Ashley Steele emerged with top honrs in a Carmel photography studio's 2008 Senior Surivivor contest. Wyant Photography, 240 E Main St., sponsors the event annually to pit high school seniors' pictures against each other. For the competition, photographs of participating seniors who had their pictures taken by Wyant were posted on the business's Senior Survival Web site in August. The site asked viewers to select their favorite picutre each week, and each week's winner was set aside for a final, two-week competition this month. More than 80 high school seniors from Hamilton County and one from Fort Wayne participated. Steele won the final round by getting more than 1200 votes and recieved a $500 gift card from Best Buy. Steele, who was photographed with her horse, Victory Moon, is the daughter of Scott and Tami Steele, Carmel."
Wyant Photography was featured in Carmel Topics on Wednesday, February 28, 2007
2 Perfect 100s: Wyant Photo Set State Record
"CARMEL- Master Photographer James Wyant of Carmel was awarded Best of Show at the Professional Photographers of Indiana (PPI) state convention Feb. 1-5 in Indianapolis. Wyant's image, "Symphony of LIght" scored a perfect 100, a score seldom seen in professional competition, according to a PPI news release. It also was awarded Best of Show, the Fuji Masterpiece trophy, Judges Choice, and a Court of Gold. Wyant, the incoming president of PPI, earned a second perfect score on an album titled, 'India', telling his story of a mission trip. Perfect scores during one competition set a state record. He has three of the state's five recorded 100 scores. He also recieved a Court of Gold for the highest-scoring event album. He and Lois Wyant of Wyant Photography, own and operate The Ami Gallery in the Carmel Arts and Design District."
Wyant Photography was featured in the Indy Star, article by Bruce Smith on Wednesday, August 9, 2006.
Photo Gallery Joins Art District
"Amazing things can hapen when a skilled photographer looks through the eyepiece. And, sometimes, the photographer can be just as amazed and affected by the images that are captured. James N. and Lois Seafoss Wyant, a husband and wife team, opened the Ami Art Gallery and Photography Studio recently in Carmel's emerging Arts and Design District, to showcase some of their photos. "This gallery is a dream for us, and a chance to display our work," Lois Wyant said. "We already have some people coming in the gallery. And I hope this Arts and Design District continues to take off, so we'll have even more people walking up and down Main Street and stopping into the stops to see the art, " Jim Wyant added. The Wyants, longtime leaders in the state Professional Photographers Association and other organizations are well known as portrait photographer of families, high school and college seniors, and weddings.
They're also known as teachers of photo classes for groups and the occasional understudy who joins their studio to practice skills. The new Ami Gallery, at 240 E. Main St., Carmel, a renovated historic house, is a chance to exhibitthat portrait work and to display their fine art photographs. It's the fine art photos- some in bold and abstract colors, others in inspirational landscapes such as a waterfall at the bottom of the Grand Canyon- that can highlight a home decor. The gallery provide a place for interior designers to see their full-sized, framed pictures as they would hangon a wall rather than the miniature versions that can be shown on the internet.
The Wyants have long done much of their portrait work at their 10-acre Clay Township mini-farm in western Carmel that they named Country Harmony. The settings of trees, streams, nature and old barn wood fives warm and relazed texture to the surroundings of the people in their pictures. Portrait photos, typically taken with a landmark occasion, "are for both this generation, but also for the future generations of a family," Jim Wyant said. "When pictures are rediscovered by a family member 100 years from now, they can be a valuabel link to the past. The pictures are on of the fist things the next generation will want to see of us and preserve," he added. So a professional photographer, who cares about the art and craft, not only works on the lighting and technique but finds ways to make a face come alive or tell a story. "Our approach is to talk with the individual and get to know them so we can put them at ease and have a little fun with it," Jim Wyant said, about a prortrait photo session. Walking through the gallery, he point to a large framedpicture of several laughing boys in a family portrait, and he said "I Took that one several yeas ago, and it's still one of my favorites."
The Wyants have been in the picture=taking trade over two decades. Jim, who grew up on the southside of the Indianapolis metro area, started in the business in 1982. A couple years later, Lois had graduated from Ball State University and landed a summer job as a photo assistant to Jim, and their partnership blossomed. Both have earned professional credentials as craftsman and master photographers. Both have studied and been inspired by some of the national names in professional photography and, in turn, taught the skills of the trade to a new generation.
They've made the transition in photo technology from fildm to digital cameras, believing that corerect and carefully crafted lighting in still the key that separates average from exceptional, eye-grabbing pictures. The widespread use of digital cameras and computers to touch up the pictures has caused an explosion in the number of wedding and portrait photographers trying to cash in on a fairly lucrative business. Photographer often charge between $1,000 and $5,000 for a wedding. 'I'd encourage anyone hiring a photographer to go to their studio, see their work in person and not just rely on what you can see on the Internet,' Jim Wyant said.
And then ther are times that the view through the lens can have a soul-searching impact on the photographer. It can be a deep contrast to the happy and fun sessions shooting a wedding party or a graduating senior filled with hope and future prospects. Jim Wyant returned recently from a trip to central India with a mission group from Central Christian Church in Carmel and a related group on a medical mission to treat people who rarely have access to a physician. 'It was my objective to photograph the people, the faces of the people in India," he said. "And I guess what I noticed what emptiness.'"