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Clients come in with their own ideas, which makes designing even more fun. I give the client a “beginning at” figure to allow room to add on for things we might include later, or for extra time I need. Storybooks from one event begin at $2,400. The First-Year Collection begins at $4,400.

The latest book we commissioned was for a family with five children. I photographed them playing in the yard, on the gym set, and with the water hose. They also painted an old tree stump. The mother’s vision for the book was to show her children as she sees them every day. We included some of their artwork, as well as closeups of hands, feet, ears, and eyes.

The storybooks are becoming more profitable as I get faster designing them; outsourcing is always an option. Workflow is a photographer’s biggest challenge. While digital allows us so many more options and possibilities, it is a drain on our time. My time is best spent behind the camera, so I always factor in my PC time into our costs.

Because of the hours it takes to create one of these, this year we templated our Baby, First-Year Collection, Play Time, and Day in the Life books. Clients can choose one of these or select a custom-designed book, which, of course, takes longer and costs more.

One of the main considerations when designing a book: Keep it clean and simple. Stay away from digital effects and too many images on a page, especially when including text.

Lori Nordstrom (www.nordstromphoto.com) of Winterset, Iowa, is a portrait photographer with a home studio. Her specialties include portraiture of babies and children, as well as mothers-to-be. Seven of her storybooks are part of PPA’s traveling Loan Collection.

Clients Pay Well to Feel and Look Amazing Selling Is Easiest Part of the Process

by Suzanne Kammerer

Our studio provides the best in portraiture in an industry filled with mediocrity. We specialize in offering humor and fun combined with making everyone feel and look as though they are the most glamorous, beautiful, graceful, photographic, tough, handsome, amazing, and exciting people on the planet during the time they spend in my studio. Bottom-line profitability averages 400 percent of cost.

We started this approach around 1973, while I was teaching elementary school. I used praise and positive reinforcement to motivate students, to sell students on their own unique abilities and perfection.

The seeds from this way of relating to the positive aspects of human nature and of everyone’s desire to be seen in a positive light translated into profits of another kind when I opened my commercial color and B&W lab and studio in 1978. Whether it was printing the photography of others or printing my own work, I continued to focus on what was working in each image. Again, I used these observations to praise and relate to the positive aspects of each person’s work and each subject in the work I shot in the studio.

We use this approach in the studio setting by: (1) observing each person in his or her “native nature” before standing in front of the camera; (2) acknowledging those natural expressions, ease of movement, lightness, and beauty as subjects move to being in front of the camera; and (3) using direct eye contact, smiles, humor, positive conversation, and whatever else is necessary to create an environment in which subjects once again relax into their “native natures.”

Then it’s time for me to capture these moments as images. My inspiration comes from the joy on people’s faces when they see themselves as the beautiful and inspiring human beings they are, and also from family and friends as they look at images that mirror their relationships with each other in such positive ways. The approach creates such positive feelings that selling those images becomes the easiest part of the whole process.

It costs no more to shoot memorable, exciting, flattering, vibrant portraits. Since I am now shooting old-time portraits, actual props from the different time periods start the imaginations of my subjects. Elaborating on the themes as I shoot, puts my clients at ease and into their “native natures.”

The bottom line is to have fun, creating an abundant income for the studio, while providing an experience that each client remembers with a smile.