Fall photoshoot with the beautiful Inga at the University of Michigan Law Quad

A color guard made up of Air Force, Navy, and Army ROTC students presents the colors at the U of M football game in November 2011

I have a few limited dates left for 2011 holiday events

Services available include:

• Watermarking with your event/clubs logo
• Facebook and other social networking page management and photo  publishing
• Club/event fliers
• Promo mailings
• On site photo printing

CLICK HERE TO VIEW NIGHTCLUB PHOTOS

Farmington, North Farmington and Harrison HS marching band students enjoy a special discount on your sitting fees, use the contact us link on the site for more details. Everyone can take advantage of free double wallets on all senior photo sessions booked before 12 August 2011. You can get 18 free wallets if you book between the 13^th and 1^st of September 2011. Tell a friend about us and get $10 off your photo session once they book their session.

I currently have less than 4 openings during the last week of August, and limited openings in the first week of September.  All you need to do to reserve your session is to decide how long you want your one of a kind senior photo session to last and place a $100 deposit which can be paid via: check, cash or PayPal.

I have been getting a few questions about the difference between my packages and sessions (sitting fees). Print packages: bronze, silver, gold, and platinum are print packages. You will receive your prints approximately 4-6 weeks after your session.  Every package includes a free online proof album that is password protected.  Printed proofs can be purchased after you have reviewed your photos online.  If your print package included 8-4×6 and 3-8×10, you can choose up to 8 different photos to have fully edited for printing, your 3 8×10 prints would have to come from that same 8 you already chose. Additional photos can be edited for a small fee of $20 per photo.

Sitting fees/ Photo Session is how long your photo session lasts for and is in addition to your print package.  The basic session is for 90 minutes and includes one location, studio or outdoor with unlimited clothing changes, props and friends.  Please note that the time it takes for you to change clothes or switch props is part of your 90 minute session. The cost for the basic session is $45. Each additional 30 minutes is $25, additional outdoor locations are $20 in addition to the extra time costs. Both studio and outdoors starting at only $145 (1.5 hour session fee included).

What you DO NOT pay for- Color Modifications: black and white, sepia, and basic selective color,  Name and Year on wallets, Online proofs and reordering 24 hours a day though our fast, safe and secure website, Clothing changes, props, jackets or instruments, and you are never charged a different price for a headshot vs. full body.

Please note some schools require you to use their recommended photographer for your yearbook or composite photograph. Please review your schools yearbook requirements and bring a copy to your appointment.

If you already have had your senior photos taken by another company I would welcome you to inquire about our sports and event photography services.

The Groupon is for the session fee only at this point and gives you a $160 session for only $115 a 28% savings for you. You have two choices with this session, and Indoor or outdoor session.

The outdoor session includes  3 locations and a 2.5 hours session.  The locations must be within 5 miles of each other and in the Farmington/Livonia/West Bloomfield area, if you have questions if your location is within our service area please give me a call or use the email form in the contact us link. This session does not include indoor studio photography.  Please be aware that driving time is part of your session so please plan your locations accordingly.

The Indoor session lasts 3.5 hours and includes multiple backgrounds including our most requested background- reflective white. This is the best session when you have props, friends, or lots of outfits you want to be photographed wearing.  With this choice you would come to my studio location in West Bloomfield for your portraits.

If you want to have both studio and outdoor photos, a longer session or more locations, I recommend not buying this Groupon and take advantage of my flexible build your own sessions. You just pick how many locations and the length of the session and pay one low price.  Unfortunately because this Groupon is such a great value other discounts cannot be used in conjunction with this offer, this includes discounts on print packages and free wallets.

As always if you have any questions or would like more information please feel free to call us at 248-429-7218 or email using the contact us link.

Hey Class of 2012 have you booked your senior photos yet? If you’re a member of the Farmington, North Farmington or Harrison High School Marching Band you get up to 50% off your sitting fees just for being in band. If you’re not in band enjoy FREE double wallets until June 10th.

Remember to go “like” my new fan page www.facebook.com/robertbowdenphoto April and May weekend photo sessions are almost gone, use the contact us tab at the top today to schedule your session.

You can now use paypal to send your deposit. This is a fast safe way of sending money and allows you to put the deposit on your credit or debit card. Deposits are credited towards your sitting fee on the day of your session.
Class of 2012 this is going to be a great year for you, why not start it off right by getting some great photos that will leave everyone wishing theirs were as good as yours.

After a two hour break, that was spent mopping water up out of my basement, it was on to MHSAA Regionals for Hockey. Luckily it was held in Livonia as well only 2 miles away from my house.  On the way to the ice arena, I got to “enjoy” the freezing standing water and snow covered roads and almost slid though the Farmington/5 Mile intersection. Im sure the new snow tires and the age of my car saved me big time cause if I had not been able to stop I would have gotten hit by a truck and car coming down Farmington Road.   Orchard Lake St Mary’s vs. Northville. What started out to be a very even game turned into a 9-3 blowout for OLSM who will now advance on to the next round of the playoffs.

After the hockey game I went back to my Livonia house to get up some more water and visit for a few minutes with my mom who was doing laundry. Another 2 gallons of water mopped up and I was off to Clutch Cargos to do photography for Picture This City.com. By now the roads were really bad and Wayne County never plows so they were completely snow covered. I was doing 25 max for 7 miles until I was able to get onto Telegraph which was a little better because of the amount of traffic but it looked like it had been plowed earlier in the night and was covered back over and very slushy but at least I was able to get up to 35 MPH in spots.  Over an hour later the 24 mile drive was complete, The guy doing parking for the club insisted that I had to pay the $6 and I would get reimbursed inside later from the owner or manager.   This is where the annoying part of the night really starts.

Once I got into the club everything was starting to look up until I saw how many people where there.  There was a good group of people on the main dance floor but very slow for a major party and a Saturday night.  The advantage is that I get to spend more time with the club patrons and get more photos of each person, so it works out well for the people there.  I go upstairs to the balcony overlooking the dance floor and take my 12^th photo of the night of two girls, right as I snap the photo a group of 3 or 4 guys run up and jump into the photo. Ok it’s a club and guys and weird no big deal  they leave after a few seconds. I retake the photo and move on taking a few more of other people upstairs.  About 5 minutes later the manager comes over to me and asks if I took a photo of the two girls and if he could see it. Apparently one of the girls set her cellphone down on the railing during the photo and someone stole it and they though it was the guys who jumped into the photo.  Luckily I still had that photo and was able to show the manager who took me down to the office to show the owner.  Using the time stamp on the photo he was able to pull up the security camera footage however it was just out of reach of the camera and the other camera from the opposite side didn’t see it cause of the camera flash.  Now the manager and I head back upstairs 10 munities have passed by now to find the head of security who looks at the photo and recognizes one of the guys from earlier in the night.  6 big security guys all come over to look at the photo and then go out to find the kids who were suspected of stealing the phone.  After the girls confront the suspects who are drunk or pretending, and calming they don’t have the phone they agree to be searched.  Security takes them to a back room and comes back out about 2 minutes later and escorts the guys to the front door and out of our view.  The head of security comes back over and gives the girl her phone back which one of the guys had hidden in his pants and he tried to kick it in a corner of the back room right before they got searched.   I was happy to help the girl get her phone back but it took around 25 minutes from start to finish and it was about 1230 and I had 15 photos taken.

I kick into high gear and start to put together a good album, and the club has a dance contest which gave me a chance to get some great photos of the girls in the contest. After the contest I keep shooting  around the club and when I got to around 300 photos I decided it was getting near calling it a night and I better find the manager again to get my parking refunded.  After waiting for a manager to come up, he said only the owner can give me the refund so back downstairs to the office I go where the owner has a huge stack of money, from the parking lot attendant no less and is counting it.  When I ask him about getting the refund the guy in the lot told me about the owner just laughs and says no.  I tell him what the guy in the lot said and the owner replies “You have to find your own parking” I thank the owner for his time (the security guy who was helping the girls with the phone shaking his head at this point in disbelief, cause after all I am shooting for the club not myself and I helped them recover the phone)

While $6 for parking may seem like nothing, when you add that to my millage for the night it comes out to $31.  I won’t say publically what I get paid when shoot for PTC but I will say that I will go hungry fast  if I do many more gigs like this.  I see this as the last time I will do photography at Clutch Cargos. Please don’t get me wrong I love working for PTC and the owner is one of the coolest guys I know, it is just tonight things did not line up right and made for a a long day going bad and becoming very frustrating.

Driving home was uneventful, most of the roads were plowed or juts had a little slush and there was no ice outside. Once I got home to Farmington I became worried because my mom’s car was not in the driveway and she was going to be leaving right after I did when I went to the club. My dad is home so I’m assuming she is just staying at the Livonia house tonight because of the road conditions.  I will be sure to call over first thing in the morning to check up on her.

This has been my longest blog post by far and for those of you who actually read the whole thing thank you.

Time to retouch the photos from Clutch Cargos tonight.

–Robert