MISSION STATEMENT ........how we view our ART.....you are our ART

As a senior portrait artist we strive to capture a moment in a young person's life.....who and what is important about in their lives now, and maybe a little of what is to come.  We feel blessed with each and every junior and senior to be chosen to capture this moment in time for them.

As a musician and having my own band in Milwaukee for years we are well aware of "musical standards".  Music that is not just a fad, but will be around for many years to come.  This is also how we view our portrait photography.  In this digital age there are may "fads" that come and go.  Yes they are fun.....but what will you think of them in 20 years from now.  My goal is to tell a real story about a real person.  We strive to provide these images, yes some with colorful filters, Instagram looks and such......but in the end we want to make available to the senior and their family portrait ART.

Art you can hang on a wall and view every time you pass by it each day.  An image of you or your senior that you will love to view yourself as.  We don't do much with digital files.....and don't want to get into the "....we give you a disk of all your edited images".   Hang those on the walls.......

One way we do this is with lighting.....we touched on in the previous blog post.  The second way is with our processing control standards.  We have color profiles entered and selected in our cameras....we color profile our processing software to our camera profiles.....our iMac monitor is color profiled with a device that monthly is color calibrated and matches the above.....this profile is then sent to our pro-printing labs that send us samples to ensure a color match, that what we see on our cameras, on our monitors, and is then printed is what we expect to see.  I have seen numerous independent tests done by fellow photographers.  They will take the same digital file to WallyMart, WallyGreens, as well as others and have the same file printed to compare.  Wow!  Color shifts all across the rainbow.  It's a crap shoot what you get!  Side note......we have not raised our print prices for over four years even though our labs have.  

Having said the above.....we have embraced the digital times as well!  We have accounts on Pinterest,  Twitter and Instagram where we can share your senior shoot images with friends on-line.  Any images you have bought prints for larger than 4"x6" we will post for you on your favorite site. And this is really cool......for a moderate fee we also make your own,  personalized app for your tablet or smart phone you are able to share with friends and relatives.  These apps stay on your home screen and you do not need to be connected to share!  I will say more about these in another post.  

In summing up this discussion......we feel our job is to provide ART.  Art you will love and cherish for decades to come.  

Our Company's Statement: "Professional Imaging by Design"

You might ask "what is design"?  Simply stated.....it does not "just happen".  We use the schooling and studying we have done over decades of photography to "design" and set up your portrait.  You hear a lot about "I am a natural light photographer".   Sure we use the great lighting our Creater has provided us, and we add it to our lighting control arsenal as needed.  We will use what it takes to make a great portrait, whether it be subtractive lighting, strobes for fill, studio lights to over power the sun, or reflective lighting,  all controlled with wireless radio controllers for balancing the lighting ratios.  This to provide you with portrait art of your senior or junior session.  

I use the term "art"......and not "provide you with a CD of all the images we shot".  Oops....that's another posting for later.  

NEW SHOOT AREA being added to PORTRAIT PARK

Quick update.......new shooting areas in our portrait park areas this summer! It began last summer with clearing another area and having 34 yards, (yea that's two of the big dump truck loads), brought in from Stibbe Excavating.

We wanted to expand our outdoor shooting area in response from all of you great seniors over the past 10 years who came to us for their senior pics. We will always do location shoots for senior pics, but having a large selection of shoot areas at our indoor studio location is a huge plus. More shooting time for you! Makeup area and dressing room for you! Indoor studio set up for the indoor, traditional portraits as well as some artistic crazy lighting stuff. As well as the river/get wet images we take as well as our river "rain wall"