Ever since we began our business in 1988, we've accepted any and all portrait sessions.  As with any business, growth is a good thing... to a point.  The past few years were good financially, but very difficult personally.  The problem is that portrait photography is a very seasonal business.  Summer and Fall are the only seasons that occur to most  people for a family, children's, or senior portrait, even though many portraits are photographed indoors.  That means we get "swamped" in the summer!

Wendy and I look forward to summers as much as anyone.  But we work from 9 in the morning until at least midnight every weekday from May until late November.

We use high end digital cameras, rather than film.  Digital permits far better quality and control.  But... it is very "labor intensive" and requires much more time to work on each "file" (instead of negatives).  For example, after our average 2-3 hour senior session it takes us at least another 5 hours to artwork those digital images, file prep for the sales presentation, and preparing the ordered image files for the lab.  Yes, EVERY SINGLE IMAGE is art-worked to perfection!  And weddings? After spending the usual 11-12 hours photographing each wedding, it takes us roughly another 20 hours for the same artwork and DVD presentation just for the proofing stage, then another 40-60 hours for image retouching and album layout and design. That's right--that's 71 to 92 hours that goes into each wedding that we photograph! Add to that the retouched, sprayed, professionally printed prints, custom leather album cover, app. 24 pages, 48 custom mats, not to mention the $20,000.00 worth of equipment that your photographer needs to carry (on his/her WEEKEND also) and constantly upgrade in order to stay on the cutting edge, and you'll no longer wonder why Professional Wedding Photography commands the fee that it does--and we really don't get to pocket a whole lot of that fee--there are much easier ways to make money, but we do it because we still have a passion for creating great images! (If we did it only for the money, we would have closed the doors 15 years ago!)

That kind of attention (and obsession!) takes a lot of time.  Yet we feel we must give each and every client the best that we can give.  THAT'S why our clients choose us, and why we need to charge a little more than ordinary studios.

On a more serious note, and to complicate our workflow even more, about 3-4 years ago, I (Brian) came down with an illness that took our local doctors a very LONG time to correctly diagnose. The long list of daily medication was making me "like a zombie" (my words!) and slowed me down--to say the least, for about 2 full years. Well, finally I was correctly diagnosed with, to make it simple, a tumor on my right kidney, actually right on his adrenal gland for you anatomy buffs out there. The tumor (and right adrenal gland) was recently removed at the U of Penn Hospital in Philadelphia and I'm thrilled to say that it was completely cancer-free, and I'm on my way to what will most likely be a complete recovery. My chemistry is still a bit off and I "poop out" a little quicker than my normal "Energizer Bunny" self, and that's why Wendy is still shooting a larger share of our weddings. But thankfully, I do improve a little every day. So, we apologize to those who have been waiting a bit longer than usual for their finished portraits, and we thank you VERY MUCH for your patience. And I also thank those who sent cards and well wishes through the whole thing--it really lifts my spirits to learn that I don't only have clients--but I also have true friends that sincerely care. I thank God and all of you for that, from the bottom of my heart.

So, with all of the above in mind, during the summer, we can only schedule consultations, photo sessions, and image presentations during daytime hours (we usually close at 6:00PM) on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.  Evenings (after 6:00PM), Mondays* and Fridays must be kept open for both of us for office work and all of the behind-the-scenes work just mentioned above. (*The exception on Mondays is that we schedule all of our Senior Hot Shots Sessions on select Mondays because our make-up artist is only available on select Mondays.) All of our Saturdays are reserved for weddings which have been booked many times well over a year in advance. Because we need our undivided attention for that work, we cannot schedule any appointments after 6:00PM, or on Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays. Sundays are completely reserved for us to recharge out batteries and spend time with our two young children who need our attention.

We have very few good employees, and now after some very tough decisions and "cleaning house" a bit, we have even fewer employees. Yes, we could hire even more office help to handle some of the work.  But we've found that good help is extremely hard to find, and that would undoubtedly mean a reduction in quality.  We've learned the hard way over the past year that no employee could possibly care as deeply as Wendy and I do about the quality of the art we deliver to our clients, and the timeliness in which that art is delivered.  Besides, we'd have to do more sessions or raise the prices to pay the extra employees… It's an extremely vicious cycle.

Because of the increased demand for our shortened time, we highly recommend that you contact us at least a month in advance.  Our summer and fall calendar fills completely each year, and because we can only photograph a very limited number of sessions per week, it fills up very quickly.

I thank you for this bittersweet dilemma.  It is because of your patronage and satisfaction with our portrait art that we are forced to limit our availability.  We apologize for any inconvenience on your part.  But please understand that creativity, attitude, and performance rely on a fresh state of mind.  It is a proven, scientific that it is biologically impossible to work 100 hours per week AND be creative. It is certainly possible to work 100 hours per week OR be creative, but the human mind and body is just not capable of doing both at the same time. And since our clients expect the utmost in creativity from us, we must limit our hours in order to deliver. Make sense? We'd MUCH rather have to explain why we are a bit harder to book and why our prices are slightly higher than some other studios, than have to explain a lower or poor quality product. Wouldn't you? We thought so.

Even more importantly, life passes by all of us... unless we slow down to enjoy it.  We are only given a limited amount of time, and my young children deserve just a bit more of that limited time that I've been spending with them.

We look forward to slowing the pace a bit so that we can have more time to make every image as beautiful and special as possible, and to make them deserving of every bit of the reputation we have earned throughout the late '90's and early 2000's.