First remember that those that run these photo booths are not photographers, they are just regular people who have been shown how to push a button on a pre-defined setup. The offer is for "one pose, one backdrop" so you come in, plop yourself or your child down in the chair and the flash goes off. What you see is what you get.

For many people, this is just fine. But if you want photography, you need to understand that there is a world of difference.

What is a photographer?
A real photographer understands light, composition and, most importantly, they understand people. A photography session should be more than just snapping a picture. You can do that yourself with your digital camera. A fine portrait should bring out the best in a person. It should depict their character and portray them in the best light. Most professional photography sessions last from between one and four hours, have custom lighting and environments, involve dozens or even hundreds of frames, and utilize the services of a certified makeup artist, image retoucher and fine art print maker. The goal is to create an image that cannot be achieved in any other way. An image that goes beyond a mere snapshot and into the world of fine art reproduction. A photographer is a craftsman, an artist, a psychologist and a poet. The moment of capturing his subject by releasing the shutter is only the beginning of the image creation process.

The Consultation:
In order to achieve the above, a complete understanding of your desires and expectations are required. The photo session needs to be planned, just like you were going to shoot a movie or a music video. Costuming, hair, lighting and intent are all a part of the planning process. During the consultation, the makeup artist will meet with you so that she can appreciate your complexon and features so that she can also plan out her part of the image creation process. The consultation is an important step in ensuring that we will achieve the results you are hoping for. This process takes between 30 and 45 minutes and is an important part of your photography experience.

Make-up... an art unto itself.
Many studios offer "hair and make-up" along with their photo sessions, but unless the person doing the make-up is a certified make-up artist, the results will be quite disappointing. There is a vast difference between the make-up you buy in a drugstore to wear to work and the make-up used in professional photography. Photo lights put out a great deal of ultraviolet light in order to achieve proper colour balance. If you have ever watched the popular TV show CSI, you will know that ultraviolet light will show things that is normally invisible to the eye. The products we use in our photo sessions are very expensive make-up designed for photography and film production. The pigments in this make-up responds to the light in a way that will hide skin imperfections, not enhance them.

The human eye sees colour much different than film does. You might be able to apply street make-up to look good at work or for a night out, but sit under photo lights and the results can be surprisingly different. How many times have you heard people say that they "don't photograph well"? Well, now you know why.

Some photographers claim that they can give you either colour or B&W images with a touch of a button. These are photographers that do not really understand make-up. Your eye can distinguish between subtle shades of colour. But if these two shades, say a shade of green and red, were to be converted to B&W, they might look virtually the same. You cannot do make-up for a colour photo shoot and then just convert it to B&W on the computer. A real make-up artist knows that the shades she uses for a B&W photo session must be much stronger and give a tonal separation that will be seen in a B&W image.

Before you book with a photo studio that offers "hair and make-up", ask to see the certification certificate of their "make-up artist". If they cannot produce a certificate from a recognized college, then you would be well advised to go somewhere else.

The photo session.
Many photographers will advertise a certain number of frames that they will shoot for a certain price. We know that everyone is different and many people are nervous about getting their photos taken. Some people do not even begin to relax until ten or twenty shots have been taken. This discomfort will always show in the final results. We base our rates on time, not on the amount of frames we shoot. We will shoot as much as possible within the time frame allotted to ensure that you will have as many choices as possible. We want to capture the essence of who you are and find that magic moment where you will allow yourself to shine through.

Comfort is a huge part of a photo session, especially if the photo session is designed to create romantic images or intimate moments. I am blessed to have my wife as a partner in our business. In addition to being a certified make-up artist, Oleanna also helps in the studio during the photo session. Her presence goes a long way to making our female clients more comfortable and she is invaluable in keeping an eye on things like stray hairs, unsightly folds in the clothes or occasional adjustments to the make-up. Your comfort is of paramount importance to us, not only because we want your studio experience to be a fun and rewarding experience, but also because we want your final images to be the best possible.

Choosing your images.
Some photographers will require that you sit through their show to view the images from your photo session. Some even have a requirement that you must buy a certain number of images as part of the package.

We believe that you should want to buy prints because they are amazing images, not because you are forced to or because you have been pressured by a smoke and mirrors media presentation. Like our photo sessions, we place no pressure on our clients or require them to buy any particular quantity of prints. We are confident that you will buy them because you absolutely adore the images and want them for your wall or private album. Isn't that why you came into the photo session in the first place?

For this reason, we offer two ways for you to view the results of your photo shoot. You can either come back to the studio where we will go over the shots with you to help you choose and answer any questions you may have, or we will provide you with a special internet location where you can view the results of the shoot in the privacy and comfort of your home.

There is no pressure and no requirement to buy any particular number of prints. We rely on our results, not contracts or media shows, to convince you to buy prints.

The final prints.
Once your prints have been chosen, we go to work with the post-production phase. Every image is retouched for colour and tone. Any little flaws (don't we all have them?) such as scars, stretch marks, tattoos or other elements are carefully retouched by myself personally. We can even do a little tummy tucking or minor manipulations if you wish. Small test prints are made along the way to ensure quality control. Each print has up to an hour of honest work done on them before they are ready for you to pick up.

So what is all this really worth?
As you can see from the above, much more is put into your photo session than just sitting you in front of the camera and snapping a pic. There is a lot of time spent before and after the actual photo session in order to give you the results you are looking for. We base our billing on time. A one hour session is only $125, and that includes the hair and make-up which normally is billed out at between $50 and $75 for other venues such as make-overs, weddings and special occasions. Our print prices are also very reasonable, with 8"x10" computer retouched prints selling for under $75. For a complete list of our photo session and print prices, please CLICK HERE.

What about the studio name? Isn't that worth spending more?
There are some photographers that try to justify their exorbitant fees by using their accreditations or awards to give you the impression that they are the best. But at the end of the day, it's not their awards you are going to hang on your wall, it's the prints of yourself that will be the most important thing. If it gives you a sense of comfort or status to go to a particular studio because of the image they have created for themselves, then perhaps it's not so important to you to pay three or four times more money for the same results. We distinguish ourselves from other studios by our unique creative approach to our image creation. We guarantee our results and honestly feel that we can give you a better product than our competitors. But we will always charge a fair and reasonable price for our time and services.

What about the size of the studio? Isn't a large studio better?
A large studio is nice because you can build large sets for your clients to pose in front. The down side is that all of the images tend to look the same. If you have seen a photographers work and want the same, then maybe you should go there so that you can have the same set as their other clients. But if you want something unique and visually amazing, you might want to consider our exclusive CyberSets where you can be in any environment you can imagine or our artistic fine art techniques to make your images look like a painting from one of the great masters.

We may be a small studio, but we are confidant that our results will be superior to anyone else in this industry. CLICK HERE to view our studio!