TheBuzz

Industry Buzz

Congrats to the Mrs. Woods. This month Julia was featured in the Professional Photographers magazine and our image was choosen for the magazine cover. The article is a self-help for photographers to give them new ideas on marketing. PortraitLife is labeled as one of the premier boutique studios in our industry. What is a boutique studio? It is a studio that chooses to do something different and exclusive for a more decerning type of client base. Julia and I desire to make the ordinary - extra-ordinary. We take the time to sit down with each client and dream up new ideas to make their session unique to them.

"Everything about the Woodses' photography business, images, and marketing style shouts urban chic, a sophistication the captures the imagination of a fashion-conscious clients." Says Ann K. Monteith (past president of PPA and marketing guru)

The story behind the front cover image:

We were so excited to see this image make the front cover because we love the story behind it. We took this image last fall at the The Bachman Farm. Wendy and Jason Bachman were moving from their farm into the city with their three boys. They were saying good bye to a house and farm that had been a big part of their lives. Times like this is what makes this job so special. It's what Julia and I love to do and why we call the buisness PortraitLife. No background, no props just a loving family having fun with their kids. Thank you to the Bachman's for giving us this opportunity to capture a part of their families history. We are happy to call them a part of our PortraitLife Family.

Senior Life

Thinking about being a senior in high school brings back so many good memories. It was just so much fun, but sad to say it went by so fast. It's funny, you try and fight four years to get out of H.S. but fight the rest of your life trying to get back in. Life was just so easy during that time in our life.

We wish all of the Class of 07 the best of luck in joining the REAL WORLD! To the Class of 08 enjoy this tiime and take in every moment.

The PortraitLife Crew would like to thank all of our 08 Gals (Abbey, Randi-Jean, Erica, and Oliva) for being such great models and for all their hard work making Fab Friday a success. Your photo-booth and myspace images are on there way.

If your were not able to attend Fab Friday don't worry you can still take advantage of the session special, just get in contact with the studio for more details.

BTW-We also want to thank our Pizza Guys Dave and Craig (you two should open up your own pizza parlor)!!

See you this Summer!!

Fab Five Friday

Well with the Class of 07 having its final curtain call, it's time for the Class of 08 to take the lead. Julia and I love to photograph seniors. They are full of life and inspiration. May 11th and May 18th we will be hosting Fab Friday (seniors open house). With live music, food (pizza from the Brick Oven) and drinks. So grab your friends, get into the photo-booth, and get your free senior session booked. Where else could you have so much fun! You will be able to pick up our Senior 08 Magazine (if you don't have one already). It's full of ideas and inspiration to take your senior session to whole new expierence. Also hear about one of our seniors last year (Kait Hart from Dunlap High) who became "a model for a day". For more info about Fab Friday call the studio.
309.444.8514

Back in the Groove.

Julia and I always look forward to spring. For one, we hate winter. (but that's another story) However, spring means the start of a new wedding and high school senior season. I have been amazed this year at the amount of seniors we have been able to photograph already. We have also had more weddings than we normally have based on our beautiful midwest climate. So I thought i would show some of our recent faves from this spring.

Life is just fine and dandy!

Where does the time go. As I look back on this year, which is half over, all I can say is WOW! What a year it has been so far. We have met so many new friends with all the traveling that we have done. With that comes some new experiences that I would love to share. Where to start? First off is Boston, MA. What a great city! Julia and I spoke there recently and a couple of locals took us around to see the town. If you are ever in the area, a must go see place is Mikes Pastry. This place is busy at 2.00 a.m! I was amazed at the amount of food going out their door. The place was just packed! The best cannoli's ever! They say they will ship anywhere! (hint hint)

When we got back from Boston we hooked up at our studio with some good friends and fellow photographers Parker Pfister, Brianna Graham and Jesh DeRox. We had a great time just hanging out and talking about how to grow as artists. It was so meaningful! We were so happy that they took the time to come down and just hang out. On her own Brianna took some time to photograph our children (sad to say we don't do it very often). She did a great job of capturing their personalities and we can't wait to see the images. We had fun experimenting with some new toys, like my 90mm shift tilt lens. At the end of the trip we all up to Chicago (first time for Jesh). We shot a wedding and then surprised our kids the next day with an early wake up call! We took them to our newest Chi-town discovery Cereality! Yes, your right, a Cereal Bar. Who comes up with these things? I love their slogan! "Where every morning is Saturday morning." Such a cool concept, and a lot of fun. They told us, they get more adults than kids visiting their cafe. That does not surprise me. We all want to be a kid again.