Casual, natural lightning photography
for children and families.
Portland, OR.

Session Fee: ................................... $120.00

Features:

• For me photography is a natural passion, I love taking portraits and specially children ones, I really enjoy catching tiny fragments of life that could bring a huge amount of memories and stories to share for years and generations to come.

• I love to catch the truly spirit and soul that show the real, amazing and beautiful personality that silently defines each human being through casual and spontaneous expressions... and I want you to experience this joy with me so if you are not delighted with your final images, I will gladly reshoot your session at no additional charge... I really want you to enjoy this experience and feel happy with the results, just like me!

• I will take as long as is necessary to get a nice sampling of portraits—there is no hurry for me— that is why my sessions vary from 1 hour up to 3 hours depending on the circumstances.

• My talent and post-production work, such as touch up, editing, and manipulation of digital images, is included in both, the session fee and in the prints costs.

• For ten days after the shoot, you can access a private online gallery of 25 to 30 finished portraits to choose from that you can share with family and friends to select your prints. The collection will be of all the people you ordered for your session, and you may have more copies of specific ones. If you need more portraits of one of the group or if there is a special technique you prefer, please let me know prior to your session.

• Each session is for up to 3 people. Please add $25 for each additional person. In order to capture the best shots and the essence of each individual, there is a limit of up to 6 people per session.

• Sessions are available in and around Portland, Oregon. They may be taken either in your home or outdoors in your garden, a local park or at any other scenic location within 15 miles from the Downtown Portland area, longer distances could be possible and negotiable with an additional travel fee. Natural lightning is a must and weather is also a consideration.

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Session plus prints packages:

• Basic Portrait Package: .......................................... $220.00
Includes session plus printing of:
2 - 8x10 enlargements
2 - 5x7 enlargements
4 - 4x6 prints

• Regular Portrait Package: ..................................... $290.00
Session plus printing of:
4 - 8x10 enlargements
4 - 5x7 enlargements
6 - 4x6 prints

• Special Portrait Package: ...................................... $380.00
Session plus printing of:
6 - 8x10 enlargements
6 - 5x7 enlargements
10 - 4x6 prints

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Any extra printing prices with the already purchase of a package:

• Print 4x6 matte professional photo paper - .......................... $5 each
• Print 5x7 matte professional photo paper - ........................................ $10 each
• Print 8x10 matte professional photo paper - .................................... $15 each

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Printing prices with just the purchase of a session:

• Print 4x6 matte professional photo paper - .......................... $10 each
• Print 5x7 matte professional photo paper - .......................... $15 each
• Print 8x10 matte professional photo paper - ...................... $20 each


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Enlargements and canvases**:

• Print 11"x14" matte professional photo paper - .............................................. $35 each
• Print 12"x18" matte professional photo paper - .............................................. $40 each
• Print Poster 16"x20" glossy professional photo paper - ................................... $50 each
• Print Poster 20x30 glossy professional photo paper - ..................................... $55 each
• High-quality canvas print stretched and wrapped around a 16"x20" frame - ........... $170 each
• High-quality canvas print stretch


** This sizes might not be available for all the final photographs due the special requirements they need.


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Photograph in digital High Resolution format and Copyright permit (for non-commercial use only) for printing as many copies as you want in any size up to 11x14 ........... $100.00 each individual photograph.

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CD with Low Resolution final images performed in a musical slide show

Is available upon request just for customers who buy
a package for an addditional cost of ......................... $150.

Additional CD copies: .............................................. $30
(each CD includes a printed CD label and envelope or case).
CD development takes around 4 weeks.


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Available products (with additional cost) for those customers who place a minimum of $150 order of printings:
Design and production of 25 5x7 custom designed folded holiday greeting / birth announcement / birthday card which will incorporate one or more images from your session with a message and artful design. For an addditional cost of $90. This service includes two design options of your greeting card to choose from, greeting card printed and clear envelope. Additional package of 25 extra greeting cards: $65

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Policies and important info:

• A non-refundable $50 retainer (applied toward total) is required to reserve session date. Please make appointments at least 15 days prior to the desired session date. If your plans change, just let me know with at least 48 hours prior to the session date so you do not lose your retainer fee. Sessions may be cancelled upon the weather conditions.

• Balance of payment for the booked session or package is due the day of the event. Any additional balance due or extra ordering of prints is payable upon requested before the final product is delivered to the customer.

• Payments are to be made in cash only or check.

• Your portraits will be ready for viewing approximately two weeks following your session. At that time, you will be able to view the private online gallery of 25 to 35 finished portraits for a period of 20 days. Once it is removed, there is a fee of $25 per extra 10 days for extended online viewing that you may request prior to the end of the 10 days regular term online.

• The number of images captured in the session is strictly up to my discretion. At least 20 portraits of the final collection will be unique and the remaining may be different variations in color, textures, or filters like: black and white, sepia, duotone, grain, glow, textured, acid or blured images.

• After booking your session, you will receive an agreement document via email for you to look over, print, sign up, and return the same day of your appointment prior to the session. These are forms that allow me to photograph and retain all copyrights of the resulting images of the people you're booking in the session (children and adults). All images will be copyrighted property of Luisa Vega and will be protected by International Copyright laws and may not be reproduced, re-printed, scanned or copied without my express written permission. I'm not going to do business with third parties using your portraits but I'm the only person who can show them and use them for personal and profesional portfolio or personal marketing purposes. I appreciate your kind understanding!



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IMPORTANT Copyright Information

• All images produced by Luisa Vega are copyrighted and protected by the Copyright Act. This Law give photographers exclusive rights to reproduce their images and show them in any way with self-promotion purposes.

• This makes scanning, downloading, uploading, copying, reprinting or any other form of reproduction illegal and can result in large fines. If you are in need of reprints or the use of a photo, please consult Luisa Vega before doing so. I take great pride in quality of the images you receive and reproductions take away from the beauty the original images hold.

Thank you for respecting this request! :)

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INTERESTING article:

Why are Professional Photographers so "expensive"?

"This article has been very well received by the photography community, and is now referred to by countless Photography websites, blogs and forums (such as LDPT, ILP and DWF) around the world."

In this digital age where everyone has digital cameras, scanners and home "photo printers", when people upload their photos to a local drug store website and pick them up a few hours later, we hear this all the time - How in the world do some Professional Photographers charge $55 for an 8x10 when they cost just $1.50 at the drug store?

Here's why:

Simply put, you're not just paying for the actual photograph, you're paying for time and expertise. First, let's look at the actual time involved. If you don't read this entire page, at least read this first part.

For a two hour portrait session:

- one hour of travel to and from the session
- two hours of shooting
- 30 minutes of setup, preparation, talking to the client etc.
- 30 minutes to load the photos onto a computer (2 - 4 Gb of data)
- 30 minutes to back up the files on an external drive
- 3 - 4 hours of Photoshop time including cropping, contrast, color, sharpening, saving a copy for print and a copy for the internet and backing up the edited photographs
- 2 - 3 hours to talk to the client, answer questions, receive their order and payment, order their prints, receive and verify prints, package prints, schedule shipment and drop package off at Fed Ex.
- For local customers, we also print a set of all of their photos, and meet them at our studio to review the photos and place their order. Meeting and travel time averages 2 hours.

You can see how one two hour session easily turns into more than ten hours of work from start to finish. So when you see a Photographer charging a $200 session fee for a two hour photo shoot, you are not paying them $100 / hour.

For an eight hour wedding:

- I won't bore you with the details, but an eight hour wedding typically amounts to at least two to three full 40 hour work weeks worth of time. Again, if they are charging you $4,000 for an eight hour wedding, you are not paying them $500 / hour.

Now for the expertise:

Shooting professional photography is a skill, acquired through years of experience. Even though a quality camera now costs under $2,000 taking professional portraits involves much more than a nice camera.

Most Professional Photographers take years to go from buying their first decent camera to making money with their photography. In addition to learning how to use the camera itself, there is a mountain of other equipment involved, as well as numerous software programs used to edit and print photographs, run a website, equipment maintenance, etc.

And let's not forget that you actually have to have people skills, be able to communicate, make people comfortable in front of the camera - and posing people to make them look their best in a photograph is a skill all by itself.

Think of it this way - the next time you pay $X to get your hair done, a pair of scissors only costs $1.50. But you gladly pay a lot more to hire a Professional.

What about the cheap studios at the mall?

Please don't compare us to the chain store studios. But if you must, consider all of the time and work that we put into our photographs, compared to what they do. Good luck getting a two hour photo shoot at a chain store. Not to mention they won't come to the beach! And of course, look at our work compared to theirs. You get what you pay for.

The truth is, most of the mall and chain store studios lose money. In fact, in 2007 Wal-Mart closed 500 of their portrait studios because of the financial drain they were putting on the company. What the chain stores bet on is that you'll come in for some quick and cheap photos, and while you're there, you'll also spend $200 on other things. They don't have to make money, they are just there to get you in the door.

Conclusion:

We hope that those who have taken the time to read this page will have a better understanding of why professional photographs cost so much more than the ones that you get from your local drug store.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Shawn, Pamela & Gavin Richter, professional photographers and authors of this article.