Portrait sessions are more organic than headshots. Typically they take place somewhere outdoors in an area where we can walk around and find varying backgrounds nearby. Business Portrait sessions are a more personalized experience and allow for outfit changes and different looks. At the end of the session, you should expect to have a couple hundred or more proofs (potential photos) to choose from. Headshots are geared towards offices that need one good photo of each employee with the same background and lighting set-up for everyone. These are static photos where we set up lighting and take everyone's photos the same way. With Business Portraits we take many different photos of you, in a variety of different poses, backgrounds, and outfits.

Each package comes with a pre-allotted number of final edited images. If you end up wanting more images from the session, they are priced at $25 per image.

Business Portrait sessions are up to 90 minutes. If you require additional time, we charge a flat fee of $95 per hour. Keep in mind that most Business Portrait sessions are shot towards the end of the day outdoors - so additional time may not be feasible depending on the area we are shooting in. Once the sun goes down we can keep shooting, but the look of the images will be dramatically different than daylight photos. If you're anticipating needing additional time, it's best to discuss it before the day of the shoot!

One outfit change per 30 minutes in our experience is the realistic maximum we suggest to have enough time to photograph you comfortably. Outfit changes are a great way to get added variety out of a session, and we recommend having at least one change. That said, each change slows down the process, and if we're outdoors it means we have to carry around the clothing and find places to change. For those who wish to do more, we recommend consulting with us first so we can make sure enough time is allotted, and whether or not it will be feasible to change in the locations we've selected.

We limit our Business Portraits to one walkable location. What that entails is picking a meeting spot, and then walking around that area and photographing you in a variety of different backgrounds. Of course - different areas offer different looks. If it's imperative to have a second location added to your session, then we require that an additional hour is added to the time allotment ($95 fee). If you have more than two locations in mind, either need a separate second Business Portrait session or a Personal Brand Story.

We believe strongly in having a well planned out experience with specific intent. The goal is to create photos that help you get noticed and remembered by people who pay you to do what you do. If your business is based on more than one person, and/or you need photos of another employee or business partner we do allow people to "share" sessions with one other person for an additional fee ($95). Please tell us before booking if you need another person to be included in the shoot.

Yep. Retouching is the final stage of our editing process, and all of our final delivered images will be edited. We treat each image as if you were having a fantastic skin day. Meaning we’re going to enhance you to look your best, but you’re still going to look like you. Retouching is something we’ll discuss with you in detail - it’s our goal to hit your comfort levels with retouching without exceeding our capabilities. On average we spend a minimum of 30 minutes (sometimes a lot more) carefully retouching each photo. Given the nature of shooting outdoors, there may be images where you might want a distracting element removed. We consider retouching and photo manipulation to be two different requests. We make no guarantees that photo manipulation requests can be accommodated, but if we encounter a circumstance outside of our skill set we can discuss outsourcing to a dedicated image editor (additional charges will apply).

Every photographer has different policies in regard to this question. We believe firmly in quality over quantity. It is not our policy to release unedited work. We deliver high-resolution JPEG files that have been edited and retouched in our signature style. Viable RAW files that were not selected for editing are stored for 6 months after your session in case you decide you would like to purchase more.

We photograph a large number of outdoor sessions yearly and are relatively familiar with core San Diego neighborhoods. We do not get many requests for areas north of La Jolla, and while we have no problem traveling further north than La Jolla for your session we will have better suggestions for areas we are most familiar with. We'll send you a PDF with a few sample images of some of our more popular spots. Keep in mind the photography permit fees may be required in areas that are on private property. We are not responsible for permit fees.

Both the city of San Diego and the State of California have permits that are a formality for video and still photography in certain spots. Most of them are geared towards the motion picture industry and have very valid reasons for existing. Unfortunately, these permit fees often do not reflect the scope or nature of individualized still photography sessions and are often not priced realistically in relation to the individual session fees. Generally outdoor still photography goes under the radar in most spots, as we are nowhere near as disruptive as a film crew. That said - we can attract attention, and some spots are more notorious than others for permit enforcement. If you pick a spot we have not photographed anyone in before, we may need to research whether there are fees in that area. Also worth mentioning - not all businesses will agree to allow people to be photographed on their premises. If any specific location is critical to your session, we must ensure we have permission to photograph you there.

To bring you the sort of results you’ve seen in our sample galleries – we photograph you when the light is at it’s best. With that in mind, outdoor sessions typically start two hours before sunset. This does not necessarily mean it's impossible to be photographed outdoors at other times during the day - but the results may be very different and require different lighting approaches or time constraints.

As a general rule, you want to avoid wearing intensely saturated colors and/or busy patterns. For more specific advice on styling, we highly recommend consulting with our stylist (additional charge). Our stylist is highly beneficial in helping people achieve specific styles and picking the most flattering outfits in your current wardrobe.

Our stylist can be super fancy, but she's also very down to earth and can help you answer the age-old question - "what should I wear to my photoshoot?" Of course, you don't necessarily need to have consulted with a stylist, but we are photographers and not fashion experts. You will get much better advice from experts, and she's an expert!

We love indoor photography, but we rarely offer it for Business Portrait sessions due to the additional time it requires to properly light scenes indoors. If you require photographs of yourself in an indoor session we'll need to discuss how feasible it will be to accomplish what you're after in the allotted 90 minutes.

Ultimately, it’s up to you, but we’ve been doing this a long time so most of our clients want our take on things. Once we know what you’ll be using the images for, we’ll give you customized location suggestions.

In order to bring you the sort of results you’ve seen on the site – it’s important that we photograph you when the light is at it’s best. With that in mind, outdoor sessions typically start two hours before sunset.

As a general rule, you want to avoid wearing intensely saturated colors and/or busy patterns. For more specific advice on styling, we highly recommend consulting with our stylist (additional charge). Our stylist is highly beneficial in helping people achieve specific styles and picking the most flattering outfits in your current wardrobe.

Our stylist can be super fancy, but she's also very down to earth and can help you answer the age old question - "what should I wear to my photo shoot?" Of course, you don't necessarily need to have consulted with a stylist, but we are photographers and not fashion experts. You will get much better advice from experts, and she's an expert!

As artists, we retain the copyright to all of the images we take. Copyright tends to confuse people, as you do not need to own the images we take to use them as you wish. That is covered under licensing.

Licensing is permission from a copyright holder to use their intellectual property. Our clients are granted a license to use the images for whatever marketing purposes they wish (i.e. company website, social media sites, and in print). The main thing our license does not grant would be transferring usage permissions to a third party, or selling the images to a third party.

A model release is a statement of permission to use someone's likeness for commercial purposes. Our contract includes a model release so that we may use the images we are commissioned to take on our website and social media accounts. We do not sell our images to third parties without obtaining permission from our subjects.

Your satisfaction is of utmost importance to us, and we'll do everything we can to create the images that you need. That said, commissioning art is not an exact science, and we consider all sales to be final for the services we have rendered. Once your session is booked we will turn down other inquiries for your date. For that reason our retainer fee is non-refundable. We do allow retainers to be transferred to another date within 3 months of the original session. We do not refund any services that have been performed.

We understand that things come up where you may need to reschedule your shoot. We ask that you inform us as soon as you can if a need to cancel or reschedule arises. Although our retainer is non-refundable, we will transfer it to another mutually agreed upon day and time as long as it falls within 3 months of the original session date.

Depending on the circumstances we may reschedule outdoor photoshoots due to the following weather conditions: * If temperatures are forecasted to be below 55˚F or above 90˚F. * If forecasts call for a 50% or greater chance of precipitation. * If wind gusts are in excess of 10mph * If humidity levels are 75% or higher and are combined with temperatures of 80˚F or higher. * We do not cancel shoots if conditions are overcast. If having a blue sky in the background is critical to the photos you need, we will allow for 1 reschedule without penalty for overcast days.