Portraits Make Very Good Gifts

Do you remember giving your grandparents a framed copy of your school photo?  As you grow older, do you feel a difference in how you relive that memory, becoming more understanding of how much they appreciated the gift?

Portraits make very good gifts.

With today’s technology, the ways in which you can share a special photograph are almost endless.

There is the traditional gift of a framed photograph, of course.  Although, you can add a special photo to a digital frame and include multiple poses from a professional portrait session.  If your portrait is a family shoot, then your digital frame can scroll through images of the whole family, the kids, mom and dad, the girls, the guys, etc.

Maybe your gift recipient has a favorite pastime or habit.  Tea or coffee lovers would appreciate a mug with the portrait, stuffed with a favorite blend and ready to brew.  The making of the beverage is a ritual, made the more special and personal by the image on the mug.  A break in the day to enjoy a relaxing “cuppa” becomes a quick journey to a happy moment in time.

Would you like to reflect what’s happening in your gift recipient’s life now?  Is he or she getting married?  This might be a great time to gather your candids and get help from a professional photographer in compiling a special coffee table book for the young couple.

For family and friends who are restarting life after a significant change in marital status, now might be a good time to get some old photos professionally repaired.  Breathing new life into a face from the past might be just the inspirational message someone needs in a season when there is so much pressure to be cheerful.

Gift certificates are always a good way to present someone with the message that you care about them and want them to be able to express their own taste and individuality in life.  What better gift certificate than a professional portrait sitting?  Tell your friend how special he or she is and that you want that person to celebrate life with a photo that can be shared and enjoyed for years to come.

So, if you need reprints or repairs of old photographs, new portraits, nifty items or a gift certificate, talk to Premier Portraits and let us help you celebrate the holidays memorably!

PremierPortraits Studio is locally owned and operated at 260 East St in Plainville, CT and is committed to supporting the community with quality service and portraits. 860.410.4303

Using E-Cards for Business

You’ve probably received an e-card to celebrate your birthday or a holiday.

Did you know that these digital versions of printed greeting cards are gaining popularity with small businesses, large corporations, and non-profit organizations?  And we don’t mean employees sending e-cards to each other, “Roses are red, violets are blue, hope your birthday is as special as you.” Click here for an example.

There is a wide range of professional uses for e-cards – from internal announcements to expressions of gratitude to customers, thanking them for their business.

E-cards are effective and innovative communications tools and competitively priced.

What’s so effective?  The way that e-cards convey a company’s branding and marketing.  The medium is ripe with possibilities for imagery and words that accomplish the goals of branding and marketing – reinforcing a trustworthy impression.

Premier Portraits can help your business or organization select the content of your imagery and then recommend effective ways to structure that content.  

• Do you want to announce a new product or reward loyal customers?  
• Are you asking donors for a contribution and would you like to portray the people already helped by past gifts?  

Your message can be an effective mix of your successful history and a great call to action that inspires responses.

Colors and graphics are just as important and must be balanced with the words you choose for your e-card.  Premier Portraits can help you with inspiration and proven case studies.

Recipients like e-cards because they’re visually stimulating; it takes seconds to read them.  Your message is more likely to receive attention in an e-card format but, bad news, attention spans are short.  We can craft that message to say everything in a few short words… without mentioning roses or violets.

Call Premier Portraits to get your message or holiday greeting out in an effective and budget-friendly manner that also happens to be very environmentally kind.

PremierPortraits Studio is locally owned and operated at 260 East St in Plainville, CT and is committed to supporting the community with quality service and portraits. 860.410.4303

Where does the time go? A Look Into Child Portraits

If you’ve recently thought that the summer has flown by, then we want you to think about how fast your new baby’s life will zip along.  In just weeks, the little guy or gal will grow significantly and change in appearance.  A baby born on Memorial Day will be three times older by Labor Day.

You’ll want to remember how your child looked at every moment and we strongly recommend still pictures and video.

Premier Portraits also recommends a regular schedule of portraits, at three months, six months, nine months, 12 and 18 months.  We call it the Watch Me Grow Baby Plan and offer this package to not only provide professional quality images but remind busy parents.

It’s easy to miss the passage of time between moments of sheer wonder as your child grows.  Those moments are accompanied by lots of trips to the store for diapers and we won’t mention the sleepless nights.  Parents have their hands full.

Everyone forgets to stop and a take a moment.  The advice to smell the flowers didn’t come along because any of us do something so simple on a regular basis.

In fact, too many parents think of a portrait as a chore.  They admit they love the result and cherish the image but they, too, have heard another bit of advice, “Never work with animals or children.”

Not so at Premier Portraits.  Some of our customers have told us they actually look forward to our reminders for the next portrait.  Our sittings are stress free – we know that someone’s expression in a picture is literally an expression of their emotions at that moment in time.  It’s important to enjoy a portrait session to capture the real joy inside a heart, rather than the dread of a camera lens.

A portrait sitting can be a family outing to pause and reflect on what’s happened in the months since the last picture, the changes and the joys ahead.

Let Premier Portraits help you remember those precious moments and create new ones in our studio.

PremierPortraits Studio is locally owned and operated at 260 East St in Plainville, CT and is committed to supporting the community with quality service and portraits. 860.410.4303

Spruce Up Your Website

Summer is a good time to update portraits and product photos on a website because the pressure is off.

While a few businesses are busy now, many slow down as employees take time off and some workplaces even close.  Given that the population is not in high gear, there is an opportunity to develop new web content and roll it out with a bit of fanfare when the weather cools and people get back into a productive mode.

Why include staff portraits on your website?  Websites are virtual storefronts and pictures tell stories formerly communicated in person.  A portrait can convey subtle messages of trust, dependability, and confidence.  Customers will want to receive your product or service because they’ll anticipate satisfaction… all based on the non-verbal communication expressed on a face.

Those pictures can also describe quality of service – an important component of every business.  There are enough messages in the media and in classrooms telling business owners how to delight customers and meet expectations that customers know they can expect a rich experience when they conduct business.  Or, they can take that business elsewhere.

What are the important aspects of a web portrait?  A good one should capture the subject’s confidence in his or her job skills.  Premier Portraits knows that’s not easy because most people will forget just about everything, including their names, when facing a camera lens.  All too often, the people most comfortable in their job will be very, very uncomfortable when photographed.  We learned how to relax people and get them to be themselves.

Product photos may seem less involved but don’t be fooled.  There are subtleties that make it difficult to capture inanimate objects at their most appealing.

Which brings up the idea of post processing.  There are often little details that ruin an otherwise perfect portrait or product photo.  A professional photographer has the tools and skills to quickly fix the problem.

So, consider using the summer productively to boost your business and elevate your web presence.

PremierPortraits Studio is locally owned and operated at 260 East St in Plainville, CT and is committed to supporting the community with quality service and portraits. 860.410.4303

Finding the Right Wedding Photographer

Marriage.  That moment in time when it is absolutely critical that a woman asks the right – although tough – questions to ensure the success of her relationship with that oh-so-important person… her wedding photographer.

Yeah, there is a groom but those are a bunch of different questions.

Choosing the right photographer for your wedding day makes everything go much smoother. It can mean the difference between a warm, gushy feeling as she looks on those pictures or a cringe of regret for years to come.

It is our philosophy that wedding photographers should create beautiful portraits with minimum distraction on your wedding day. Guests and others in the wedding will not even notice our presence. We believe in photographing a wedding in a manner and style that captures the events of the day. We want to show people in a relaxed and happy environment.

The first question you should ask yourself when choosing a photographer is, professional photographer or amateur?  We’ll come back to that one, it’s one that a lot of couple start with but isn’t a good starting point.

Best start with who you are and what you want.  Do you want a photographer to be posing you throughout the day or one that can get great candids?  Remember, you’ll be busy on your big day.  If your photographer is counting on you to remind him or her that there needs to be a shot with Great Uncle George and another with all of your female cousins, you had best have a lot of energy, organization, or an easy going spirit if some of the shots are missed.

What photographic style do you like?  Take the time to see samples.  Do faces look happy or is there a theme of impatience, which indicates people felt they were away from the fun too long and frustrated with the photographer?  You’ll also get fresh ideas for your photos.  Is the photographer willing to do something other than the cookie-cutter poses?

That said, some traditional poses are really worth having… the walk down the aisle, the first kiss… does the photographer do these well?

What do you get for your money?  Do you get the photographer you’ve interviewed and decided is a good person or is there going to be a surprise?  You’ll be spending at least as much time with that person as your wedding party so don’t pick someone you can’t stand.  Will you be able to get digital images or must you and family members buy reprints from the photographer?  What is the cost and quality of those?

Now, back to the first question… you can’t take your own photographs so you have to find someone you trust.  If you’re thinking of having a friend do the photography to keep costs down, ask these same questions of the friend.  While you may save some dollars, hiring a professional like Premier Portraits may save you much more in terms of lost images that can never be recreated or an ugly argument with a soon to be ex-friend.

Wedding & Engagement Information 

– We have over thirty years experience creating memories that will last a lifetime!

·      Engagement Sessions:
Take place at our studio or on location.
Several different poses and background to choose from.
Background replacement capabilities, which allows us to use almost any background you can imagine.
To compliment your session we have “Save the Date” cards available.

·      Photography Services:
Proof book with all your images.
DVD slideshow with images and music of your choosing.
Private online gallery for easy ordering.
Photographers full attention for the day.

·      Video Services:
1-2 hours of fully edited video.
One manned and one stationary camera.
Wireless microphones used during the ceremony.

·      Albums:
Based on cover, number of pages, photos and size of album, we work with you in selecting the album that is right for you. We will even design the album to beautifully showcase your special day.

Prices vary, please call for details.

PremierPortraits Studio is locally owned and operated at 260 East St in Plainville, CT and is committed to supporting the community with quality service and portraits. 860.410.4303