I used to own and operate a full service high volume 1 hour portrait studio business with a friend in San Jose, CA back in 1998. We rented a retail space, close to 1000 sq. ft., and built everything from scratch. Our business mainly targeted the teenage students and seniors from middle schools and high schools. We were situated in a great location with amazing traffic exposure. Our studio was within walking distance from most of the major schools there. We started having customers immediately after our grand opening. Business was going really well! We had customers flocking to our door almost regularly throughout the year. There were days where we were shooting all day nonstop with back-to-back sessions, without even a break for lunch- especially proms season. It's crazy!
We became quite popular within such a short period of time. We were passionate and highly motivated in creating edgy fashion magazine-style images that flaunt our subjects' attitudes and exude their characters. We experimented with limitless variation of funky poses, lightings (soft, harsh, dappled, bounced, reflected, filtered...), film types, extreme wide camera angle lenses, painted backgrounds, props, printing colors (black & white, sepia, cross-process (color boost), chemical developing and printing tricks, printing paper brands and textures... anything to pack a lot of punch, creativity and impact to our images. Our customers were head over heels over the special effects of our custom portrait packages! They purchased tons of portraits and passed them out to their friends and relatives everywhere. It didn’t take long before everybody started raving about us all over town.
It was the best experience I’ve ever had! I had the opportunity to hone my photographic skills, photograph all kinds of people (multi-ethnic backgrounds, from infants to elderly and everything in between) day in and day out; stretch my imagination, produce flattering results consistently every time regardless of my subjects, even with a limited amount of poses consisted in the smallest package...
I have since moved on from the days of high volume, slam-bam, in & out type of photography business. It was a stepping stone for me. Today I operate my portrait photography business under my own name, Minh Ha Photography. Since the company bears my name, I'm obligated to do my very best. I want to keep my clients service personable and highly customized. I do fewer sessions so I can devote more time and create something really artistic, meaningful and unique for you, rather than rushing you through like a factory. I spend time with you and help you plan and coordinate everything, so your portraits will have a lot of emotional impact and sentimental value, and every one of your portraits will be beautifully enhanced for perfection.
www.minhhaphoto.com
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