Breakfast with Santa

Help us help the youth of St. Paul Catholic Church. Breakfast with Santa, and picture packages start at only $15.00. Can't wait to see you!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

Santa is here today and we have having a blast with him and the Children! They are so excited to get a present from Santa and to give Santa cookies and milk! It is amazing to see the reaction from different Children to Santa. Some can't wait to see him and even hang on and hug him time and time again.

While others stand back and look from afar.

And then there are the screamers!!!!! Wow some of our kids don't want to even be in the same room.

I watched Miss Lori work her magic today, time and time again. We had a couple of little ones who were terrified even standing next to Santa. Well, we all know Miss Lori's motto: "Children do not cry in the Studio. If they need to be fed, we will stop and eat. If they need to be changed, we will stop and change them, and if they need a hug, we will stop to give some cuddles". We had a little one that was just not happy one bit about being near Santa. Miss Lori put her camera to the side and gently held him and talked to him in her special "Miss Lori" way. Well in just a minute or two he was fine and let her put him on Santa's chair, while Santa walked in the other room. He opened his present and held his little brother and Miss Lori started taking pictures and the next thing we knew, Santa was back in the room, in the picture and all was good.

So now I know what Christmas Magic really is about!

BTW.....Santa will be here again next Saturday if you would like to come sit on his lap and tell him what you want for Christmas. I know he would love to see you! Call us at 812-282-2300 to reserve your "Santa" time!

Why Is Miss Lori Your Favorite Photographer?

We asked this very question on Facebook and got these wonderful responses!



...because she knows exactly what to do to get Peyton to smile. Emily Oliver-Jones


Because she is awesome and takes excellent care of me! Janna Reynolds-Ross


She is patient and willing to work for that perfect picture. As a mom of a special needs child, I can tell you that patience is a must if you are going to get a good picture!
Jennifer Cain Kennedy


She is CRAZY fun!...She gets the best shots! Karli Rae Davidson


She is a caring and beautiful person. She takes her time with all her customers.
Kimberly Reinhart

She's always been a wonderful person, the photographer part is a bonus! Tiffany Lynn

Because she is the bestest, most awsomeness, totally rad, beautiful, kind, caring photographer in the world...P.S. She truly loves her CLIENTS!!! Sharon Demarco-Rose

You can't help but smile when you are around Lori...always positive and happy. She's fun, fun, fun. Very creative and professional, works with your crazy schedule and always aims to please. You get more than you would expect from Lori...We LOVE Lori!!! Paula F. Gill

Plain and simple, you're CRAZY. And that makes taking pictures great and tons of fun! I've never had so much [fun] taking pictures like I have with you and you leave great memories with the people that you've worked with. Katelyn Allyna

So there you have it. Not our words, but our faithful customers' words.

And as much as they love Lori, she loves them twice right back!

'Cause that's just how she is!

Why Choose a Professional?

We just ran across this article and thought it was worth sharing with all of you. If you have any comments we would love to hear from you, because without you, our client, we would be nothing. So thanks for your support and we appreciate you for letting us be YOUR Photographer!

Why Choose Custom Photography?

Custom Photography is something "special".

Custom photography is more of a luxury than your entry level cookie cutter chain experience. Custom photography truly is not for everyone, it requires a level of commitment, investment in time and money, forethought and planning on the part of the subject/client and requires a larger time commitment for the photographer as well. Clients who enjoy taking a more active role in the creation of their families' memories have the desire to have portrait art that is truly personalized. These more discerning clients have been known to budget and allow time for a custom photography session.

Many clients opt for it to be a once a year special experience, some opt to have custom photography sessions done to record their child's stages in life. Having said this, it is clear that custom photography is not in every one's budget, it is something that most families save for to splurge on from time to time to memorialize their children as they really are (not posed and primped in the cookie cutter studio setting). There is a great deal of time involved in creating high end custom photography sessions for a client.

The luxury of great service, better choices and a superb end product.

The result of all this are heirloom quality images. The time invested at the session is only a small portion of time involved in this process. Custom photography has been likened to purchasing a fine vehicle. To get to point B from A, let's face it, even a bus ride would suffice. If you want to luxuriate in a finely appointed vehicle, customizing your own experience by listening to smooth jazz while sitting in a climate controlled setting adjusted purely for your comfort in a body hugging leather interior, perhaps that Lexus you so desire is your cup of tea.

Custom photography is much the same cup of tea. It is the Lexus of the photography world. It is where the intangibles make the experience truly wonderful and the images themselves make the investment of money and time truly worthwhile. Custom photography can be broken down into even more levels. There are on location, studio, mixed studio/on location, specialty location and destination type photographers. The beauty of custom photography is in the choices and in the luxury of those options.

The customized service level you are sure to experience will be amazing

The knowledge that your final images are the result of someone caring about those moments so much that they take extra time ensuring that the artwork you receive is good enough to stand by with their name on it. That level of quality and commitment is all but lost in the age of "mass produced," "mass marketed," corporate "everyone is a number". Custom photography is based on being unique to you. How great an experience would be, to be able to sit back and allow a photographer to do this highly custom work for images that you will most likely cherish for a lifetime?

Keep in mind more than anything that the Lexus will never appreciate in value the way your portraits will. The portrait art you become invested in from your custom photographer will no doubt increase in value and become more priceless as the years pass.

Why does Custom Photography cost more?

The digital revolution has brought amazing flexibility and ability to control various factors during the image taking and making process. Photographers, the hobbyist, the professional, the amateur all benefit from this ability to manipulate pixels. However, with flexibility comes a price. Digital camera equipment is still considerably more expensive when you factor in its' lifespan, the need for additional resources for processing those images, the time it takes to get a usable image and the effort that goes into creating a work of photographic art.

We all know that you can go to the local Walgreen's and pay a $1.99 for a print. As a client you may wonder why you may pay upwards of $50, $70, $90 for a custom photography print. Photographers hear this statement every once in awhile: "How in the world can you charge $60 for an 8x10 if it costs me less than $2 to print at x store?" The truth of the matter is the answer to this question is multifaceted. Much of the cost of a photographic print produced by a professional photographer has a lot to do with the time, equipment costs, artistic vision and reputation of the photographer not to mention expertise and the usual costs of running a legitimate business.

The cost of TIME

Approaching it from a time standpoint, let's imagine that you have hired a photographer who has work that you love. This photographer is traveling an hour to your destination to photograph your session. Here is an example of a time break down: booking time: 30 minutes to one hour (client contact time + paperwork) pre-session prep time (30 mins x 1 hour, includes equipment and back up equipment checks + vehicle checks) one hour travel time TO session 15-30 minutes prep time at client's home 90 minutes-2 hours with client photographing subject one hour travel time FROM session 30-45 minutes uploading time from digital cards from camera to computer 30-45 minutes time spent backing up the original images 2-5 hours editing time to present you with a diverse gallery of edited images 1 hour prep time getting ready for ordering 2-3 hours time with client for ordering images 1 hour sorting through and checking order 30 minutes-1 hour prep time for delivery 30 minutes-1 hour getting order shipped any additional phone time or time needed for add on ordering, shipment issues, quality issues

In this example, the time spent per client can range from just under 13 hours to 19 hours, dependent on the photographer's level of service. This is time dedicated only to ONE session. When the photographer charges $150-$300 for the photo shoot(aka SESSION FEE) you are not just paying for the two hours of session time, you are paying the photographer for 12-19 hours complete time for your session. The COSTS of Maintaining a Custom Photography Business: Regarding equipment costs, a good quality professional camera with a selection of good optical quality lenses and digital storage mediums and computer set up can run from $10,000-$30,000 costs dependent on the photographer.

Even though you can purchase a really good quality digital SLR for about $2100 there are still other costs related to photography. A good lens for portrait photography can run from $900 to $2500. A dependable computer system with software loaded for business and creative usage can run $2500 to $8000 dependent on the photographer. Then come lab costs for specialty products. A good photographer knows their professional lab is an integral part of their success. These labs often cost more and offer a range of products that allows the custom photographer to continually offer new, innovative products for the discerning client. Discussion on other costs of running a photography business could take awhile so we'll skip many of the intricate details. An overview: the costs of running the business, taxes, studio rental/mortgage if the photographer has ownership of a dedicated studio, vehicular costs, costs of advertising/marketing, costs of sample pieces that the photographer will likely bring to your session, etc.

Apples to Oranges to Bananas

Often times clients will mention to their photographer that X studio in the mall/department store only charges $19.99 for an 8x10 "sheet" or they may mention other things related to discount photography chains. The fact is those discount chains make their money on volume, not on customized 1:1 service. In February 2007 a company who has leased photography retail space in a rather well known discount retailer closed down 500 of their portrait studios across the nation. The reason it happened is simple, you cannot make money on 99 cent "professional" prints if you do not sell enough of them. Interestingly enough, those same studios that offer the loss leader packages often charge much much more for their a la cart pricing vs. many custom photographers (as high as $40-50 for an 8x10).



A little history: the whole reason the big department stores began offering portrait services in the first place was to get you, the savvy consumer, in through their door so that you could spend more money with them in other departments. Your "PORTRAITS" are considered the "loss leader". Your portraits that are meant to symbolize a once-in-a-lifetime stage in your child's life are part of what a store considers a way to get you in there door to spend more money on goods that you might not really want or need but because you're there "anyway" you buy. Also keep in mind that when you go to a chain studio, as a consumer, you don't have the benefit of 1:1 attention for 2 hours at your home where your child is allowed to explore, play and be comfortable in their home environment, nor do you get the experience that many custom photographers are known for as well as the lovely captures of natural expressions. You simply get a bare bones, "SAY CHEESE" experience.

REPUTATION/EXPERTISE of the PHOTOGRAPHER

There is an old story about a ship that cost a company millions of dollars. Something went wrong in the engine room and the ship was stuck in dock. They called various "experts" who spent weeks trying to fix the issue to no avail and at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars. Finally an older gentleman was called in who simply brought in his small tool bag and a hammer. He set about pinging on various parts of the vast engine with his hammer, finally settling on one area. He spent a few minutes pinging in that area, took out a few tools and fixed whatever what was wrong. After a few moments the man straightened up, looked at the captain and instructed him to "start her up." The captain disbelievingly went to get the engines started while the man sat in the engine room listening as the engine roared to life. The man tipped his hat as he exited the ship to the staff who sat dumbfounded because they had seen all the experts come on board for days with their expensive equipment only to have the ship not fixed. This man did it in a few minutes with a few pings of his hammer!

A few days passed and the man sent the shipping company a bill for $10,000. The accounting department contacted him immediately. Why all the rumors mentioned that this man had only spent "a few minutes" fixing the ship "with his hammer and a few other random tools". When questioned about why his bill was for $10,000? Did he accidentally leave an extra zero on the bill? The man confidently responded: "In fact the time was worth the $1,000. The other $9,000 was for the years of experience and the ability to discern the issue as quickly as possible for the company."



Now I'm not saying that photographers fix large ships but being in demand, being well known for quality work, having a good reputation often costs time on the photographer's part (years of practice, study, experience, etc). A photographer's expertise comes at a cost, their time learning their craft and learning the intricacies of lighting and the commitment put forth on their end to create a persona about their business that oozes professionalism. A great number of photographers go a very long time from the time that they purchase their first good camera to making money at the business of photography. Many photographers, when first starting out, rush in thinking that the business will be easily profitable in no time, how expensive could it be to get a camera and use it to create their dream?



These photographers often undervalue what they do because they have the realization that they do not have experience or expertise but are very adept at pushing the shutter on the camera. Many times these casual "professionals" neglect to factor in the cost of business, the cost of equipment, software, back ups, etc.. When you hire a photographer of sound reputation, you are hiring an expert, one that knows that they must always reinvest in their business to create the reputation of being top notch.


To create good work a photographer possesses not only sound knowledge in the technical and creative aspects of photography but also good, reliable equipment and back up equipment. The photographer who desires to be known as better/best/unparalleled reputation-wise knows that the most important thing they can do for their business is reliability and dependability. This is how reputations get built. Good work often is a wonderful side product of building that good reputation.


I hope this (lengthy) article helps shed some light on WHY a custom photographer is a better choice for your family's memories.The photographs that are produced as a result of the professionalism and dedication that your photographer has will be cherished for a lifetime (or more) and great thought and consideration should be placed into hiring who is right for your family's most precious investment.



Article reprinted from the Child Professional Photographer Consumer's Guide for Custom Photography. www.ProfessionalChildPhotographer.com

White and Bright Christmas

Woohooooooooo!

Christy has designed our very first Christmas set for the season.

Merry and Bright!

We so excited and already have a lot of bookings. This will be available until November 27th so call 282-2300 to save your spot! Also, don't forget to make your Christmas Card list. This would be a great set for your custom designed Christmas Cards! (And they are on sale right now too!)