Susan Linnet Cox

Lisa Golden Schroeder

Gregory Bertolini

Debbie Wahl

Beth Reiners

Kim Maxwell

Trisha Hassler

Pete Romfh

Susan Linnet Cox Susan, author of the first book about the whole career of photo styling, "Photo Styling, How to Build Your Career and Succeed," is the owner of Photo Styling Workshops. She has been involved in all areas of photo shoots for over two decades. Having specialized in catalog design and art directing photo shoots, she jumped hands-on into her real love, styling. Susan has cheerfully done everything from ironing to model agent to art direction! And having been “the client” as well as the crew, she understands the entire photo shoot as few do. Her book "Photo Styling" (available here) is published by Allworth Press and covers the field of photo styling in detail. This complete primer on photo styling includes dozens of pictures, illustrations, and wonderful anecdotes from those in the business. The author shows budding stylists what to do and how to do it. Starting with the fundamentals, she covers it all in her honest voice. Susan began teaching Weekend Workshops after training several interns and discovering the joy of mentoring the next generation of photo stylists. The workshops led to writing the book and sharing inside knowledge of the field of styling on a larger scale. She lives in San Diego but has produced, directed, and styled photo shoots throughout the US and internationally. Her clients have incuded Norm Thompson, Nike, The Territory Ahead, Road Runner Sports, and Callaway Golf. In addition to running the site and supervising the day-to-day workings of our online "school", Susan teaches Photo Styling 101, Producing Photo Shoots, and co-teaches Style It & Shoot It with Pete Romfh.

Lisa Golden Schroeder Instructor Lisa Golden Schroeder, a veteran food stylist with more than 26 years experience in the food business, teaches Food Styling 101, Everyday Food Styling and Marketing & Self-Promotion for Food Stylists. Lisa is Director of the Food Styling courses on Photo Styling Workshops and is currently developing advanced courses. Her newest course is Everyday Food Styling, a 4-week online course accompanied by video demonstrations of food styling techniques. A published cookbook author, culinary consultant, and educator, Lisa holds a degree in Nutrition and Food Science/Journalism from the University of Arizona and an advanced culinary diploma from La VarenneEcole de Cuisine in France. As one of the original organizers of the Food on Film® food photography seminars in Minneapolis, Minnesota, she’s been an avid and longtime supporter of food styling education. She currently co-chairs the programming for the innovative International Conference on Food Styling & Photography at Boston University, and is the former chair of the Food Photographers & Stylists special interest section of the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP). She also helped establish the new food photography special interest group within the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP). In addition to teaching her styling skills, Lisa still provides food styling for advertising, packaging, and cookbooks and magazines for a wide range of clients, including General Mills, Pillsbury, Target Corporation, Better Homes & Gardens, Reader’s Digest, Simplicious Corporation, Land O’ Lakes, Smucker’s, and Tyson Foods.

Lisa recognizes the need for an on-going forum for food stylists and food photographers to share information, get advice, learn about techniques, and generally have a place to go where the unique needs of food photography professionals are understood—as well as provide a much-needed source of information for those interested in the business. Visit Lisa's web site, Foodesigns.com, for the best, most accurate, and up-to-date information about the world of food styling. She also publishes The Tweezer Times™, an online blog (now free!) focused on relevant issues for professional food stylists and photographers.

Gregory Bertolini We are happy to have Greg as part of our team, teaching Food Styling and Photography Weekend Workshops and Master Classes. For over 29 consecutive years, Gregory Bertolini has been working as a professional photographer, in both Southern California and New York City. Gregory received his Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Photography from Rochester Institute of Technology. In addition to his formal education, Gregory has had the unique experience of studying fine art photography with with Ansel Adams and fashion photography with Horst P. Horst. In his early twenties Gregory worked as a photojournalist for the Associated Press. Residing in Hong-Kong and later Switzerland, Gregory traveled through Asia and Europe to capture breaking news stories through photographs. Gregory's focus for the last fifteen years has been in food and fashion photography. Greg's stunning credentials include work for Coca Cola, Anheuser Bush, Walt Disney, Hilton Hotels, the Marriott Corporation, McDonalds, Taco Bell, Del Monte, Ford Motor Company, Revlon, Volkswagon, Dell Computers, and Microsoft to name a few of his corporate clients. Currently he is spending much of his time on food photography and producing images for cookbooks. Some of his book clients include Random House, Hayhouse Publishing, and Harcourt Brace Publishing. He also owns and operates Cabin Fever Press, a Publishing House for large format Food and Art Books. Gregory has 4 cookbooks to his credit and has contributed to an additional 35 books. He has recently photographed all the images for upscale cookbooks including a new book with multi-award-winning chefs, Bernard Guillas and Ron Oliver.

Having had a number of influential mentors throughout his career, Gregory is magnanimous in sharing his knowledge about food photography. He is passionate about helping and mentoring both food stylists and food photographers, and he generously offers personal anecdotes, guidance, and helpful suggestions to his students. His relaxed demeanor and problem solving nature are reflected in his teaching style where he opens the door to anyone who wants to learn more. "Every picture tells a story. Before you begin shooting, ask yourself, 'What is the story behind this image?' Then decide on how to best to tell that story so you make an image that speaks to the viewer," is sage advice from Greg. "While shooting, get out the box and look at the image with new eyes to really 'see' what the image has to say."

Gregory also has a keen understanding of what it takes for a professional photographer to effectively market himself to potential clients, and he offers professional advice on the "how-to'" of self promotion. His proven marketing techniques and real life examples of his marketing methods inspire his students. To visit Gregory's site, go to www.gregorybertolini.com

Gregory resides in New York City, with his wife Jane, who is Director of Book Production for Barnes and Noble.

Debbie Wahl For more than 20 years, Debbie Wahl has been working as a food stylist, and now Photo Styling Workshops is pleased to have her on board as an instructor of our popular Food Styling 101 course. Debbie’s expertly styled food photographs have been featured in print advertising, food packaging, and on television and film, for clients including Campbell's Soups, Coca-Cola, Friendly’s Restaurants, Perdue, Pizza Hut, McCormick Spice Co., and Stouffer Foods. In addition to her proficiency in food preparation and her flair for food styling, Debbie brings other essential assets to the table. Her patience and persistence has ensured Debbie’s success from smoothly styling a picnic meal in midsummer in a stifling sailboat galley for Bon Appetit Magazine to preparing 600-pounds-worth of turkey dinners for the Barry Levinson film Avalon. And, certainly, it is Debbie’s energy, professionalism and great sense of humor that allows her to seamlessly blend with a myriad of photographers, art and set directors and even the occasional celebrity chef.

Along with her extensive experience in food styling, Debbie has provided a wide range of services, including media tour support, recipe development, recipe contest coordinating, focus group supervising and menu planning and implementation, to a full spectrum of clients, from food manufacturers and trade associations to cookbook publishers and restaurant-industry leaders.

Debbie's exquisite food styling can be seen on her website www.debbiewahl.com. Debbie was graduated cum laude from Ohio University with a Bachelor of Science degree in commercial foods and a minor in communications.

Beth Reiners Beth Reiners has developed the onine course, Prop Styling 101 teaching a skill that is relevant for all stylists, particularly our many food styling students! For over 18 years, Beth Reiners has been doing what she loves most: propping and styling beautiful tabletop food sets. Her wonderfully creative job is to find, rent, purchase, and execute the tabletop props that surround the products featured in print advertisements. With a background in Fine Arts & Photography, Beth has worked in Chicago as a freelance prop stylist, knowing early on what she wanted to pursue and has evolved her talents over the years. Beginning her career right out of college, she worked for an ad agency, whose main client was Kraft Foods in Glenview IL. Finding her niche in food, Beth takes every project on as a creative experience. Beth has been busy propping sets for Brownberry, Dove Bar, DiGiornio, Philadelphia Cream Cheese, Johnsonville, Georgia Nut Company, Entenmann's, Papa Murphy's Italian Beef, Nonni's, New York Style, and Ferrara Pan Candy. Her well-trained eye, strong work ethic, attention to detail and great sense of style combine to keep her at the top of her "propping" game. Beth's education, experiences and love of shopping have lead to a fabulous career and a strong passion for prop and photo styling. Join her as she begins teaching Prop Styling 101 and learn everything you wanted to know about the fabulous world of prop styling in the commercial food industry of today. Visit Beth's Website at BethReiners.com. And Lil' Bits of Beth is Beth Reiners' fun new blog.

Kim Maxwell Kim Maxwell, instructor of Fashion Styling 101, All You Need to Know About a Career in Fashion Styling, is the author of the book, “Career Diary of a Fashion Stylist: thirty days behind the scenes with a professional” (availalble here). The book is an intimate look at a month in the life of a freelance fashion stylist. As a stylist in the fashion and entertainment industry, Kim describes how she entered the field and details of her current journey to build a reputation as a respected and recognized fashion professional in a highly competitive field. This is a must-have reference guide for anyone wanting to pursue a career as a fashion stylist in the fashion and entertainment industry. Kim also teaches Business & Marketing for Fashion Stylists, a one-on-one course that is a neccessity for starting a career in the field of Fashion Styling. Kim’s drive, along with her passion, natural talent, and eye for style and trends come easy to this native of Tennessee who has studied fashion since high school and received a B.A. in Fashion, Marketing, and Advertising from Middle Tennessee State University. Kim now is based in Atlanta where she freelances and has opened her own fashion styling and image consulting company, STYLESbyMAXX. With boundless creative energy, STYLESbyMAXX continues to build relationships with designer showrooms, exclusive boutiques, photographers, record labels, modeling agencies, and the entertainment industry. With Kim’s professional, fresh, upbeat, down-to-earth and real personality, along with her creativity and knowledge of the fashion industry, STYLESbyMAXX is becoming the most sought after fashion styling and image consulting company in the industry.

Kim describes the styles she creates with one word “JAZZY.” Others describe her style as classic, diverse, and hip, while incorporating the latest trends with a slight edge. “I like to make my clients feel comfortable in what they wear and how they appear to the public, even if it’s out of the ordinary because Image is Everything, in this industry. I create styles that are innovative, creative, hip, and trendy which allow clients to feel and be themselves. It’s all about you having that swagger and you wearing the clothes, not the clothes wearing you,” Kim says.

Kim's fashion styling work can be viewed at her Dripbook site.

Trisha Hassler We are happy to welcome our newest instructor, Trisha Hassler. Trisha is developing the important addition to our cirriculum: Tabletop Styling, Techniques for Still Life and Product Shots, scheduled to launch in Fall 2010. With a self-taught background in graphics, industrial design, and fashion illustration, Trisha has a comprehensive overview of the creative arts field. She gained hands-on experience by working in retail in-store display for clothing and department stores. Having also done graphic design and production of catalogs and direct mail pieces, she is able to provide clients with an understanding of the entire creative process and production details. For the past two decades she has been a partner in a family-owned commercial photography business, along with her husband Tom Hassler (www.tomhassler.com). In addition to working as a photo stylist, she is responsible for conceptualizing photos, on-site art direction, scheduling client contact and meetings, and training and supervision of assistant stylists. Clients include Pendleton Woolen Mills, Nike Design, American Express, Bank of America, Robinson/May Co. and Norm Thompson. Trisha lives in downtown Portland, Ore. in an old industrial building which has been converted to live/work spaces. In addition to the commercial photography business Trisha and her husband Tom both have fine art careers.

Pete Romfh Co-instructor of Style It & Shoot It and technical consultant for our "Gallery" pages, Pete is a semi-retired Telecommunications Engineer living in Houston, Texas. He has been designing, creating, administering, and managing telecommunications systems for over 30 years. He’s also been married to Peggy for 39 years and one of their two children has blessed them with two wonderful grandchildren. Pete has been doing photography for over 50 years, starting around age 12 with a Brownie box camera. Along the way he has done commercial work and photojournalism, including being a “war correspondent” during the Vietnam era. The past 10 years he has taken an interest in food photography and has won a few awards in that field.

His interest in food started primarily from a consumption standpoint. He enjoyed trying dishes as he traveled around the globe both domestically and internationally. About 15 years ago he started taking a more serious interest in the preparation and presentation aspects as well. His kids recently memorialized some of the early learning experiences with an apron saying, “Dad’s cooking. Dinner will be ready when the smoke alarm sounds!” Things have gotten much better as he has attended numerous cooking classes and practiced better techniques.

Currently, Pete is working on a cookbook with the theme, “Diabetics Don’t Eat Boring Food!” Based on his learning experiences as a diabetic and gourmet cook, the book will feature recipes he has created, techniques and suggestions, and will be richly illustrated with his photos.

Pete is also a frequent contributor to the recipe site Big Oven. He’s been said to have a wicked sense of humor and an acerbic wit. But he’s really just an old Grandpa who chimes in with what he really thinks from time to time.