About the photographer...
I'm a dad who finally got fed up with the quality of the portraits
that my wife and I were getting of our children. Like a lot of
people, the only time we ever got portraits of our children was
when we had their school portraits taken. 
From year to year, the portraits never seemed to get
better. In fact, the last year we had them done, they were down-
right nasty looking. I didn't even want to put them up on the
wall, they looked so bad.
Photography has been an interest of mine for many years. If
you've been shopping for a photographer, I'm sure you've seen many
sites where the photographer got interested at a young age, and
with an old film camera of some kind. I'd have to say that can
relate to that story 100%--I remember having one of those little
Kodak
Instamatic cameras (that took a 126 film
cartridge) when I was, oh, around 12 years old. I also
thought that the Kodak Disc
camera (from the early 1980's) was the best camera ever
because it had a built-in flash (BTW, I've learned some since
then...)
However, I'd felt held back because of these cameras and the
nature of film. These cameras had a fixed focus, maybe had a
flash, and if you took too many pictures, you'd get the camera
taken away because film and developing weren't "free" (and
difficult to pay for on a meager allowance, especially when this
was in competition with the ice cream man). Later, point-n-shoot
35mm cameras were the "best camera ever" because they could zoom,
but still, there was the cost of film and developing, and most of
the pictures looked, well, like the snapshots they were.
This changed when I got my wife a digital point-n-shoot camera,
and she was nice enough to share. My wrestling match with the
camera finally began in earnest. When we outgrew the needs of that
little camera, I moved up to a nicer point-n- shoot, which opened
up the world of photography even more. After outgrowing this
camera, we made the decision to go with a digital SLR (a Canon
20D) and some nice lenses. Finally, I had the equipment that would
let me get the types of photos I'd always wanted to take (and
rarely managed to with a point-n- shoot).
I started with taking portraits of my kids. I had a number of
people tell me "These are really good, you know..." After our
final bout of lousy school portraits, and since we home-school our
children, I transitioned to taking the school photos for our
support group. The families loved-loved-loved them. The year
after, strobes and more backdrops (and a portable backdrop holder,
yesssss!) made their appearance, and the school photos were better
than ever.
Many people are not comfortable with having their portraits taken.
I vividly recall how uncomfortable it was having my high school
senior pictures taken (not to mention other family portraits).
The sessions always seemed to go like this: "Sit here, put your
hand here, twist around this un-natural way, try to smile, and
keep your eyes open." Click-Flash! Click-Flash! "Okay, we're
finished, thanks for coming in. You'll need to buy your prints
today, because if you don't the price is going to double..."
My approach is to be as relaxed and low-key about the portraits as
possible, and to keep thing fun and stress-free. And to make
ordering as easy and pressure- free as possible. While I'd like
you to buy lots of portraits (hey, I've gotta finance that Taylor guitar somehow), I'm not going to
rush you into ordering something you might not like. I take
plenty of photos during a session: some silly, some serious, some
posed and some with natural expressions, so you'll have plenty
from which to choose.
You'll be able to browse through your password protected gallery,
and see the photos beforehand (keep in mind that I might not
retouch these photos, but if someone has a glowing pimple, that
will somehow magically disappear in the final print, so don't
worry about it), and you'll be able to order what you want. And I
won't double the prices if you don't order today :-)
My aim is to provide quality portraits that will hang over your
fireplace for years to come; to capture memories that last a
lifetime.
-- John Solie