What makes Carroll Studio’s senior portraits the best?

Well, besides having the best photographic artist, Jim Schoonover, doing the session design and shooting, our work doesn’t stop with the photography like it does with a lot of  the so called “professional photographers”, many whom don’t even have a studio.

We take extreme pride our Carroll Studio’s senior pictures and want only the finest quality we can create going home with our clients. Check out some of the work below that we consider our “Carroll Studios Standard”.

We consider that a “standard” for not only the high school seniors we photograph, but also for all of our family portraits, children’s photography, business and executive portraits, newborn portraits, maternity portraits, glamour and boudoir portraits, as well as wedding photography.

Give us a call today and see how great you can look!

414-445-2220

Jim Schoonover, Carroll Studios director of photography and top high school senior photographer has just returned with honors from the Senior Photographers International convention held at the Lake Buena Vista Wyndam Resort in Orlando Florida. His competition entries of 2 senior portrait composites received Merit Awards for excellence in creativity and technical expertise. One of the composites was of Nate Maier from Nathan Hale High School in West Allis and the other was of Bianca Hey from Brookfield East High School.  As we mentioned in the previous post, he shared ideas and techniques with some of the finest high school senior photographers in the world. Well, he’s energized and excited to put all the great concepts he shared with everyone into practice as he gets started with our senior portraits for the class of 2013.

Watch our website, carrollstudios.com/seniors and our Face Book page  in the coming days for the incredible specials we’ll be offering for those class of 2013 high school seniors.

This season is going to rock and you won’t want to miss it!

]]> http://carrollstudios.com/wp-blog/?feed=rss2&p=303 0 http://carrollstudios.com/wp-blog/?p=297 http://carrollstudios.com/wp-blog/?p=297#comments Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:54:07 +0000 Jim http://carrollstudios.com/wp-blog/?p=297

With the cooperation and compliance of daring brides,Carroll Studios in Milwaukee, along with Banff wedding photographers and many other studios are stretching their photojournalism skills while simultaneously creating art. In a quickly spreading new craze known as “Trash the Dress,” or TTD, wedding photographers take post-wedding pictures in unconventional settings, creating uniquely memorable entries into wedding albums and photo contests everywhere.

Numerous professional wedding photographers now offer both conventional and TTD sittings, the latter of which have been taken in some fascinating settings. Couples participate in their most loved activities while dressed in their wedding finery and the resulting photographs are both unexpected and beautiful. A bride wearing her wedding dress under water looks like an exquisite mermaid, while another in a strobe-lighted cave is framed by flying bats and appears as a charming enchantress. Whimsically coupling hiking boots with a voluminous white dress and stomping through the forest with her new spouse is yet another favorite way for a bride to join the Trash The Dress brigade and to add a wonderful twist to her wedding album.

Trash The Dress photography sessions often happen the day after the wedding, when the strain of the big day has melted away and the couple is looking for a fun way to begin their new life together. If you prefer, you can book your session for a few weeks following the wedding, upon your return from your honeymoon. This tactic minimizes stress and allows for more time to visit different settings and to try more innovative twists on Trash The Dress photography.

One may well wonder what becomes of the gown after the Trash. Well, if it isn’t irrevocably tarnished or tattered, it can likely be returned to its pristine condition by a good dry cleaner. However, if it has been soaked in wine or paint, or burnt by a campfire, it will become a cherished relic of an unforgettable event and just as priceless as the basis for family legend.

TTD sessions can be as elaborately staged as the wedding ceremony itself, with the addition of story lines and props. They can replicate historic events or become period pieces complete with costumes from their era of choice. From caveman animal skins to futuristic space suits, costumes and activities are limited only by a couple’s imagination and passions. Edmonton wedding photographers who have participated in Trash The Dress photo shoots can show an interested couple their portfolios and possibly help them decide how and when to engage in this newest and most exhilarating photo-op.

A TTD session is guaranteed to keep any wedding album from turning into the stale assortment of posed participants our relatives bored us with. Rather, it can be a real record of “the way we were,” a photographic narrative that future generations will be fascinated to see and hear about. With the guidance of one of the trend-setting wedding photographers in your area, your dress trashing photos can become some of the most interesting pictures in the family. Contact award winning Carroll Studios for more information or to plan a TTD session you’ll never forget.

Our Director of Photography, Jim Schoonover will be attending the Senior Photographers International 20th anniversary winter conference in Orlando next week. Senior Photographers International is an elite group of 200 of the finest senior portrait photographers in the world.

We’re very excited to be sending Jim to this week long, very special, one of a kind event for the senior portrait photographers industry. Jim will return with new ideas, a renewed passion, and ways to make the award winning senior portraits that he creates for Carroll Studios and our high school senior friends even more exciting and current.

Keep an eye on this blog for news when he returns. The class of 2013 is in for an incredible treat when they see all the off the hook  images he’s going to create for them this year. You can see Jim’s senior photography from the class of 2012 by clicking HERE.

Your wedding day is an extraordinary, life-marking event. It is also something your family will talk about for years to come, a treasured memory. So, making sure you hire the right photographer is one of the most important parts of your wedding planning.

Your selection process should begin with asking your recently married friends or relatives if they were thrilled by their wedding pictures. Look at the images – do you like them? Do they evoke the feeling you want to feel years from now? If yes, go ahead and call the photographer. Of course, your first question is whether they’re available for your date. By the way – start early. The best photographers are booked early and often. If the photographer is available on your big day, set up an appointment to go meet them. It is important that you meet face to face to get a feel for whether you can work together. Here are some questions to ask:

• How many hours before the ceremony do they usually arrive? This is important, since it bears on what kinds of images they’ll take and how much time they’ll have to become familiar with your venue.

• Will you be expected to feed them? Pay for their mileage?

• Who will actually take your pictures? You want to be sure that the person you interview will be the one to do the wedding shoot.

• What packages are available and what are the costs? Quality wedding photography can range in price from $1,000 to $10,000 or more. Prices depend on the number of prints you order, whether you want an album or albums for your coffee table or your parents, any special effects, a video, etc.

• Who will own the masters and what future usage rights will you have at what price? Most photographers retain the copyright and require permission and more money for any use beyond your original package.

That pretty much covers the technical stuff. Your conversation shouldn’t end there, though. Think about the feeling you want your pictures to convey. Are you into formal poses, candids or some melding of the two? Different wedding photographers have different styles and backgrounds. Make sure the one you choose shares your preferences and feelings about how you want your special day documented. Also, do you want the rehearsal dinner professionally photographed? Perhaps you even want your bridal shower shot. Be very clear on your desires and expectations and put them on the table during your interviews.

Of course, get a contract and be sure to ask whether your photographer has liability insurance. Stuff does indeed happen. Will you be covered? A good contract will document your expected deliverables, their prices, and your reproduction rights.

So, do your homework, get a contract and relax – it’s your day!

Our newest set for our Me and My Pet Theme Date Event is finished.

This next exciting event is happening January 19-21. As we talked about in the previous post, it’s going to be the “Out Back By The Fence” pet wash theme. Imagine your child and pet in this whimsical take on the relationship between your two legged and four legged family members.There are so many fun ways we can create these images! Whether your pet is “in the tub”, or being held by your child, or getting it’s hair styled or any number of different scenarios, you’re going to be thrilled with what we create for you. It doesn’t matter if you have dogs, cats, bunnies or any other kind of pet. We can work with a whole menagerie if you like. This set is ideally suited for either a single child and pet or any grouping. “The more the merrier” as they say. There is no cost for our Theme Date photo sessions. We simply have you put down a pre order deposit of $49 per child/pet, all of which applies to your portraits. And of course as with all of our Theme Dates events, numerous, affordable, discount packages are available.

We still have openings left but the schedule is filling fast. Give us a call at 414-445-2220 and we can answer any questions and get you all set.

We are planning a whimsical “out in the back by the fence” Theme Dates Event for January 19th to the 21st.

Remember when we were kids at home and decided to go into business for ourselves. Maybe we set up a bike repair shop in the driveway for all the neighborhood friends, messing up with all of Dad’s best tools, or possibly you remember the lemonade stand you created. There was no sugar left in the house for anything and Mom’s favorite pitcher was missing from the china cabinet, but did we ever have a great time!

Fast forward and imagine the fun as your children set up their own little business in our studio, washing pets for a nickel a piece. This whimsical Theme Dates Event will feature a brand new, never built yet set inside our camera room that will magically transport the kids “out back by the fence”. In addition to the rustic wall of fencing with the words Pet Wash, 5 cents whitewashed on it, there will be a tub made out of a half whiskey barrel where the pets “supposedly” will get their baths. Other props and set pieces used to round out the scene and theme will be of course, a garden hose, Mom’s best bath towels from the linen closet, expensive designer shampoos and conditioners from Mom and Dad’s bathroom as well as various soaps and sponges and a hair dryer plugged in with Dad’s extension cord from the garage. When you see it all you want to “kill” them for the mess they’re making with your good things but you can only love them more than ever and laugh till it hurts.

While we won’t really have the tub filled with water, we’ve found that if we just take little tufts of the artificial snow we used in our Winter Wonderland set last month, that placed on the pet and around the edges of the tub, it looks exactly like soap suds.

We love photographing pets but you’ll have to use your imagination as to what your kids and pet will look like in your portraits since, as I mentioned, the set as never been constructed before so we have no examples until we start shooting.

There are still openings left for this predicted to be very popular event so if you’re interested, give us a call at 414-445-2220 and we can go over the details and get you scheduled.

As another year (our 42nd) comes to a close, We’d like to take a moment and thank everyone for all their business and support. Obviously without you there would be no reason for us to exist.

From a business standpoint, our mission is to provide our clients with the very finest portraiture available anywhere and to make sure that through our dealings with you, that you feel comfortable referring your closest friends and families to us.

I recently came across an article by Rick Brewer, a guru of sorts in marketing. The elements of success that he talks about in the following article really hit home with us here. In some measure, our studio’s success can be validated by what he has to say.

If any of you are in business, whether it be in corporate banking or auto body work, in health care or a corner floral business, I think you’ll find this interesting. Here’s to a great New Year and great success in whatever we endeavor.

J Paul Getty once said that you only need three things to be rich:
1. Work Hard
2. Work Smart
3. Strike Oil

There are many of us who have set new goals or intentions for this coming year and we have the hope that the economic winds are too our back. I have thought and thought about the subject of what fundamental elements does one require to be successful. I have narrowed it down to these three (I call them the Triple A)

1. Actions
2. Abilities
3. Attitudes

Actions.

Without Action, you are dead in the water. Let me compare our work in our businesses with an analogy of growing a garden. If we have the intention of growing a garden, we first need to act. We need to prepare the ground as well as plant the seeds. Further, we need to keep on acting. We need to continue to water those seeds, as well as tend to the soil and fertilize. Acting at the beginning, while necessary, is not enough.

Abilities.

Our abilities in our business life are necessary to make our actions effective. Without effective actions, we will overwork and burn the ground to where nothing will grow. Going back to the gardening analogy; if we over water, or underwater, our crop does not benefit near as well as if we give the right amount of watering. If we do not use the proper fertilizer, the proper methods in airing the soil, etc… we can “act” all day long and not have near the results of the two elements of action and ability combined.

Attitude.

Many times, it is our own head games which keep us from playing. We have the attitude that we will never be able to grow in that soil, or the weather will ruin our crops or… (excuse, excuse , excuse) . What ends up happening is we never even plant the seeds, or we excuse our behavior from acting (and from improving our abilities) so we never even get started or if we get started, we slow/stutter our progress.

You can see how Actions and Abilities without the proper Attitudes can give us less than stellar results. You can further see the obvious of lacking in Actions or lacking in Abilities (even with a great Attitude) will leave you short on your end product. Having all three elements is necessary and crucial towards finding the success that you not only strive for, but deserve.

Use these three critical elements and explode who you are meant to be in the coming year!

Until We Talk Again, Here’s to your Success!

]]> http://carrollstudios.com/wp-blog/?feed=rss2&p=193 11 http://carrollstudios.com/wp-blog/?p=178 http://carrollstudios.com/wp-blog/?p=178#comments Fri, 16 Dec 2011 22:41:35 +0000 Jim http://carrollstudios.com/wp-blog/?p=178

This season has really been fun with our new Winter Wonderland set. It was originally scheduled to be a 2 day only event, but it’s been so popular and in demand that we’ve decided to keep it up right through Christmas. As you see it’s been working great with children as well as adults and pets.

There are still some openings left before Christmas and also the next week up until New Years. Give us a call at 414-445-2220 or email us at info@carrollstudios.com to book your session. We have a number of extremely great deals for packages as well.