Not the Least Bit Concerned about the Perfect Storm!
“Amateurs…how can they be as good as me? There is no way they can get photographs that look as good as mine. I may sound overconfident but it is the truth. I have filters. I have professional lighting. I have real cool backgrounds with the Virtual Backgrounds system. I have my professional posing. I have makeup and hair services. What amateur can do that? Amateurs are no problem. They are amateurs. I am a professional,” says Colorado photographer, Shirlee Robinson. She is absolutely right. Amateurs can’t begin to compete with Shirlee.
Shirlee has been a professional photographer since 1985. She began as a makeup artist and had the idea of opening a studio to makeover and photograph women. She hired a photographer for her new venture, but when he didn’t show up for work one day, Shirlee stepped behind the camera and has been the photographer ever since.
Shirlee reports that she has as much business as she desires. She works with her long time associate, Patty, in a residential studio. Her session fee is $99 and includes four changes of clothing and takes about two hours. Her typical order is between $500 and $750. She does two or three sessions per day. One of her special sellers is a 12 month photo calendar that is included with any sale over $500.
After Shirlee began her operation, glamour photography became popular. Competitors, including Glamour Shots, opened up everywhere. Most of these competitors have now disappeared, because they offered such a limited variety of photographs.
Shirlee discovered the Scene Machine the first year she opened. She has not used any other form of generating backgrounds since. Every image that she creates is done with the Scene Machine.
Currently film based, Shirlee is in the process of converting to digital and is currently expanding the business into families and seniors. Her new studio name will be Leading Lady Photography and Makeover Center. Shirlee’s website is www.leadingladyphoto.com. It’s clear that what many photographers are calling the Digital Disaster isn’t going to affect Shirlee Robinson.
Re-creating History is Possible
with Virtual Backgrounds!
Shirlee Robinson’s most treasured print was taken on the Titanic in the Garden Room using Virtual Backgrounds (see b&w image on the left). Her client was in the tourist industry and was enthralled with the steamships of the early twentieth century.
She brought in authentic era clothing and an actual black and white slide of the Titanic’s Garden Room. Shirley inserted the slide into her Scene Machine and positioned the subject as if she were standing in the center of the room with her right hand perched on the rim of a wicker chair…a chair that now sits at the bottom of the North Atlantic ocean. The results are phenomenally realistic!