A Decade of Rules

Upon opening the studio in 1996 I had a goal to do only the things that I truly enjoyed doing. 13 years ago, I thought that High School Seniors were the last category I would add to my subjects-of-choice. I loved to work one-on-one, but was too introverted in high school to desire interacting with teens again - or so I thought...

In 1998, I booked four Tualatin High senior girls that requested to have their sessions done at the same time. Having survived it, I vowed to never do it again (tad overwhelming for my slowly evolving quite side) I had a great deal of fun, but felt socially exhausted. It did, however, clarify that this career change was the best decision I'd ever made. The experience of four teen girls, enthusiastic about the session and results, made working with all teens a less intimidating task - especially since I do mostly one at a time.

It was then, that I recall desiring to work on my interactive skills and bust out of my reclusive side to discover the potential of a voice. I joined POWERtalk International to work on my speaking skills, and discovered it to be a better payoff than most gear in my camera bags. I became more interactive, put my clients more at ease and continued to attract awards to my portrait work and business grew rapidly from that day.

I knew that I was in this for the long haul, and became jazzed about the potential of shooting more and more seniors and eventually sharing my then-preferred wedding photography with them as well. For years I was better as a journalistic fly-on-the-wall, photog. since I could just do what I did with minimal interaction.

I stopped advertising for weddings, and decided that I would take my chances on seeing them all come back in 5+ years. Since then, many have including one of those four Tualatin girls, Kati Rule.




It blew me away to think that 10 years had passed between Kati's senior portraits and her wedding, but it was an honor to see this cycle go full loop. In that "decade of Rules" came a chance to provide a vast number of services to her whole family.

Senior session, family portraits, brother Jacob (and Katherine) Rule's wedding, baby portraits of their daughter Lily (who we sold cover photo rights to McGraw Hill for the book Baby Signs), the engagement session of Kati and Jordan and alas - their wedding.

Thank you for more than 10 years of trust, and we hope to see you again for other studio services in the future. (Jordan, that's not a hint to become a father - we'll still be around when it's time...)

Cheers!
Brian

Heirlooms in the Binary Attic

Many of you have already discovered, but for those who have not... We moved the studio from a 5 acre property in West Linn, back to the roots of it's existence!

The very home that we opened the studio in 13+ years ago, has now been consumed by the studio, only it's graduated to the upper level.

What used to be a large living room, has lent itself quite well to a very modern camera room, complete with wood floors, white (yet textured) walls to set off the gallery of images, and new rooms being redone for editing. (photos to come after we get more done...)

Besides being at close access to any destination in Portland now, the best part is that I've been able to really thin out on the excess of "things" that have occupied my prop closets, junk drawers and outdated gear.

Better yet, I might add, is that it has created an organizational binge that feels AMAZING to work within. It has driven us to COMPLETELY revamp our AMAZING new price lists and to focus more on our web site. As a byproduct to that process, I've been discovering some great, timeless images that I cannot believe that I've not used for promotional reasons.

While redesigning my business card I uncovered this image that I'd forgotten I even took. In the early 2000's I was honored with a Kodak Gallery Award for a the image "Love Becomes Life".

That image generated a great number of clients seeking us for similar work. One of them - Delany, the levity Queen seen in today's photo above.

I am not sure how I passed up every using or displaying it more, but it brought a smile to my face the instant I saw it. I hope it does the same for you, because you'll likely be seeing more of it on our new card and web site (being revised DAILY in November).

Please check back with us often, and let us know what you think. We appreciate your feedback about keeping this site user-friendly.

Prints Charming Photography - Bona Fide

Funny it is, how often we are asked if we have other locations than our Portland Oregon Studio. In 1995, when I arrived at this playfully creative name, the only other evidence that I could find in my searches, was a fabric business that was now gone, and a poster company in Canada.

Naturally, my creativity was mildly disappointed when I realized that the matching domain was being used in a country that generally used .ca vs. .com. The infancy of the web made it easy to find others, however and "www.yourprints.com" made sense to how the name was derived as relative and easy to remember.

Securing all of Oregon may have prevented the use of it locally, but my lack of an extra $2,000 to register it nationally, has allowed for many same-named studios to open in other states. On that note, if you've just moved here from one of those locations, we hope that your experience was great with our unknown cousins, but the Prints Charming of Oregon is Brian Geraths.
(pronounced "Garretts" - the obvious reason that I came up with another business name...)

Our studio is represented by our crown logo, and NOT by the frog logos we've discovered at others. Some are cute, but we wanted the crown to be as distinguishable as our award-winning service, and Brian's award-winning portraiture and scenic photography.

We hope that you will SMS or bookmark our blog, because we will be posting our specials here, as well as our latest updates to new images that we are especially fond of. Our clients are the source of our growth, so we like to showcase them as a way of saying THANK YOU for over 13 years as the bona fide Prints Charming Photography.