Blog

Gift Card Specials!

Mon, 14 May 2012 22:35:00 GMT

These special offers are only available when purchased with Designer Studio Gift Cards. For details on where to buy gift cards, please contact Designer Studio.

How to create the Best Possible Senior Pictures

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 05:12:00 GMT

As some of you I'm sure are finding out, Senior Pictures can really be a fun experience.

We have put together a list some helpful hints to get the absolute Best Senior Pictures.

1) Bring music that you like to listen to.

- We have found that when you are enjoying your favorite mixed playlist, you can relax yourself and enjoy.

2) Bring plenty of fun outfits.

- The more types of clothing options you have, the better. We want to give you as many options as possible. The session is also more fun to shoot, as personalized props can give the photo session a fun "pop"!

3) Don't bring your friends that like to give you a hard time.

- Friends are great to have, however sometimes they can make you feel uncomfortable when shooting your Senior Pictures. If you decide to bring a friend, make sure they're the nice ones.. at least for the shoot.

4) Let yourself be a model

- You might feel kinda goofy posing for the camera, but it's totally normal. Just about everyone who graduates high school, has their senior pictures done.

5) Listen to the photographer

- The photographer is there to create awesome pictures. Let them show you poses that will look good in pictures. Trust them, they usually know what they're doing.. at least at Designer Studio we do.

6) Look through some magazines before your session

-find some cool photos that you'd like to emulate. This will give the photographer an idea of your style. At Designer Studio, we'll take this information and stylize your session around that type of photography.

How to prepare for a family photo shoot

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 19:08:00 GMT

This time of year we run into a common question from families large or small.

"What do we need to do, to get ready for our photos?"

To answer this question, you must decide on a few things.

A) Do I want my pictures indoors or outdoors

B) How many people are going to be in the picture?

C) Are we going to have the family pet in the picture?

D) Do we want to match, or should we all just wear nice clothes?

In my opinion, the last question is really the most important one. I feel that the family photos with matching khakis and white shirts, or blue jeans with matching colored sweaters can be very nice. Some families go a totally different route, and just wear nice clothes for pictures. For me, this is the way to go. In my home, I just want a nice portrait.

I have found when photographing families, the most important thing for people to remember is, just look nice for pictures. Whether you're matching, or just dressing up, look nice.

When choosing the matching style, remember there are such things as "GOOD Matching" and "BAD Matching. Below are samples of both.

GOOD

BAD

VERY BAD

Things to avoid before pictures:

A) Going out the night before

B) Getting a haircut too close to your picture date

C) Wearing something super trendy

D) Wearing patterns, that will obviously not be in style in 10 years

E) Eating before pictures (nothing worse than being self-conscious of that soup stain on your shirt)

F) Tanning too much before pictures.

Feel free to leave a comment, and let us know how you prepare, or what your favorite clothing combo is.

School Pictures - great gifts...always!

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 04:39:00 GMT

School pictures are one of the last traditions in school that hasn't gone by the wayside.

School pictures are a way to document the journey from Kindergarten to Graduation. We are proud to be a part of that tradition, and help document the lives of so many young people.

Designer Studio has one of the most refined school portrait packages in the business. Designer Studio not only offers Green Screen technology for personalized background selection, but we offer unique posing options for families that want more than the standard head and shoulders portrait.

Designer Studio not only offers the best prices to our customers, but we also take part of our proceeds and donate that to the school district. Most photography companies will donate part of the proceeds to the school district, but Designer Studio offers this donation without raising prices.

Santa Photos in Frontier Village, Lake Stevens

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 04:49:00 GMT

Hey everyone,

We'd like to announce that we will be doing Santa Photos again in Frontier Village. We will be in a space next to Safeway.

We are super excited about pictures this year, We will be printing pictures while you wait! You will no longer have to come back and pick up pictures. We hope to be busier than ever this year, so we are amping up our efficiency.

Bring in your newborns, toddlers, large families.. and even pets! We have no limits on what you can do. If you are sick of long lines at the mall, come have a cup of hot cider with us, and enjoy our santa house!

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Family Portraits during the Holidays, there´s no better time!

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 20:15:00 GMT

One thing that families with kids have in common, is that when the kids go away to college or move out after high school, is that the holidays always bring them back. Between Thanksgiving and New Year´s is the best time to get everyone together, and get those family pictures.

Great photo opportunities are available in the winter months.. sure it may not be a nice sunny sky with green trees and flowers.. BUT there are only a few times a year when the entire family is able to get together.

Take charge this month and schedule pictures for the holiday season. Get your family together while everyone is in town, and schedule pictures. You WONT regret it.

Best time for family pictures are as follows:

Weddings
Holidays
Family Reunions
Vacation
Graduation

Pictures are great holiday presents!

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 06:51:00 GMT

As you may or may not know, pictures are a great present for family!

Treat your loved ones to a truly personal gift. As the holidays come around each year gift giving can become difficult. It´s hard to shop for family as everyone is getting older. Grandparents don´t want clothes, pots and pans, or golf clubs.. Grandparents want pictures. It´s their pride and joy that they want to have on display, so what can be better than the gift of a photograph?

Or add a bit of life to your home, and decorate with family portraits. Move your art aside, and put your family on display. Show off your loved ones. Family portraits bring a certain warmth to your home, that welcome guests and bring family closer together. Pride is a beautiful thing to display!

With specials through the month of October, November and December.. you can take advantage box-store prices with high end studio photographers.

Designer Studio employs several photographers on a yearly basis, so during our slow season (anything that isn´t dealing with senior portraits) we offer great family specials. You can come into the studio and have a full indoor & Outdoor photo session done for the low price of $29.99. This price comes with 1 - 8x10 portrait.

Give us a call to setup an appointment! Contact Us

Senior Portraits and Lake Stevens High School - Designer Studio is a LSHS Tradition

Sat, 15 Oct 2011 16:29:00 GMT

If you are a senior at Lake Stevens High School, you have certainly heard of Designer Studio. Since 1988 Designer Studio has been photographing high school seniors. Designer Studio is proud to have photographed over 10,000 LSHS seniors over the past 22 years. Ask any one of your teachers that graduated from LSHS... possibly a wrestling coach, or a football coach?? .. and ask them where they went for Senior Pictures..

When you have your senior pictures done at Designer Studio you are not only getting the most established senior portrait company in the area, but you are getting a Lake Stevens tradition.

Senior Pictures Granite Falls High School

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 02:06:00 GMT

Designer Studio is just a short drive from Granite Falls Wa. That's right, in less than 10 minutes drive, you have the area's most established Senior Portrait Photographer. Designer Studio is a full service indoor/outdoor photography company. We are located on 2 acres of private property, making us a very unique photography source. Being that we own our land, we are able to set up photography sets, and areas with your dressing room just steps away. That's right, you don't have to meet a photographer in the park, and limit yourself to one outfit.

Designer Studio will photograph you for an hour long session. During this session you will have 1/2 indoor photographs and 1/2 outdoor photographs. If you are a more dressy person, bring more dressy clothes, if you are a casual person, bring more causal clothes. If you have sports props, band instruments, animals... large or small (horses are welcome).

Designer Studio is the source for your indoor/outdoor photography session!

The world has lost a visionary - Steve Jobs

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 23:18:00 GMT

We would like to take a moment to honor a visionary in the world of technology. Most of our design work is done with products that Steve Jobs invented. He will be missed.

Designer Studio Dance Photography

Sat, 01 Oct 2011 16:41:00 GMT

DANCES

Let our dance specialist assist you in making this the best event of the school year. You can select from one of hundreds of backgrounds or we can custom design a set for your dance. Photographing hundreds of dances annually gives us the experience needed to make your event successful.

More than just Backdrops

Let our group of graphic artists design your tickets and posters to enhance and coordinate with your overall theme. We can even custom design and produce invitations for your event.

Before the Dance

Designer Studio has a revolutionary addition to the dance photography business. We are now allowing online sales before the dance. That's right, you don't have to wait at the cashier's table any more! The Designer Fast Pass is our latest addition to the Designer Studio dance experience. Pay online, and skip the line!

At the Dance

Our order specialist will assist couples in picking out the perfect package. We offer a full line of digital products including retouching and image CDs. Our photographers are professionally trained to show off each couples outfit and make them look their best.

After the Dance

Our turn-around times are the fastest in the industry, pictures come back to the school the following Monday! .

Designer Studio on Evening Magazine

Sat, 01 Oct 2011 16:11:00 GMT

Designer Studio featured on Evening Magazine.

This was certainly a fun experience!

How to take great vacation pictures

Sat, 01 Oct 2011 05:34:00 GMT

How to take great vacation pictures...This is a topic that I love!

We all have at least one friend who takes the most amazing pictures. It seems like they must have a ton of talent, and must have been taking pictures for years.. in some cases this is probably true.. BUT

I'm here to tell you that it can be much easier than that. All you have to do is get the right equipment, motivation and drive. The truly great vacation photographer, photographs everything! Not just a nice sunset, or a cool looking building.. Everything!

To really capture a place that you are visiting, you must take candid photos of people and surroundings of your vacation spot. It's these very pictures, that will yield gold for you. These candid photos of outdoor markets, taxi cabs, beach goers, flowers etc.. are what make the best vacation pictures.

It is my opinion that vacation photos should have a mix of both, "Family" and "Scenic/Candid" photos. It's no fun to look through pictures, if you never get a chance to see yourself, your family or friends in them.. and It's also not that much fun for your friends to look through a million pictures of you and your family doing all these fun things. As much as you want your friends to see you standing in front of every possible tourist attraction, believe me, your friends are over it, after about 10 images. The ratio is important.

Now, how to actually capture the image.

I think it's best to carry a camera with you that is very versatile. I never like to carry around a big DSLR because it's just too heavy, and depending on where you are, it could make you a target for robbery. Don't worry though, there are solutions. There are many cameras on the market today that take fantastic photos, and fit inside your pant pocket. There are even cameras out there that allow the photographer to adjust manual settings, of shutter speed and aperture. Check out this Canon HERE.. it's the same camera I have for my vacation photos.. and I've totally fallen in love with it's features and size.

Things to photograph while on vacation:

Family
City at Night
Sunset
Local People
Local Shops
Nightlife
Tourist Attractions from a distance and up close
Food

These are just my two cents, and would love to hear what you think. Maybe lend some good tips too!

Printing Pictures, or Posting Pictures Pros and Cons

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 05:12:00 GMT

Over the past decade, we have all become immersed in digital images. We have instant gratification with a nice little LCD on the back of our cameras or cell phones. Everyday we see pictures of people that they've posted to Facebook. Before that, it was MySpace. Before that maybe some of you cutting edge internet gurus were into Friendster or some other site that never made the big time. But now, it's Facebook.. and we are all so lucky to have all of our friend's images at our finger tips.

What ever happened to the good ole days of printing pictures and creating photo albums? Does anyone still do that? What will the kid's who were born in the 2K's look back on when they are 20 - 30 years old? What will this generation do? Are we going to be stuck with our online photo albums, and nothing tangible that you can hold or pass down?

In my opinion, here are the pros of printing pictures or Posting Digital Pictures... and the Cons of each.

Pros of Printing

You have something tangible
You will have a photo album, or box of pictures that you can stumble onto one day, and reminisce.
You will have something to pass down through generations, like every generation before us has, since the advent of photography.
Real pictures will hang on your walls, and not be stuck inside of your computer

Pros of Posting Digital

It costs nothing
You have instant access from anywhere in the world
You can share images with people for free
Instant gratification and a clear mind, that you have the picture you thought you were taking
You will never lose your images

Cons of Printing

Cost
Space

Cons of Posting and not printing

You have no tangible image
You have nothing to stumble upon, and enjoy randomly
You will have no image to pass down through generations
Reliant on the internet for your pictures, or a website that could lose them in a freak accident
Not posting, and only having them on your computer, then getting a cpu virus.

In closing, I guess I just kinda worry about people's habits changing. I worry that this generation that is being raised now, isn't going to have those old pictures to look through. I feel like the wholesome family album is steadily becoming the Digital Family Album, with much less meaning. I personally cherish my pictures, and print out nearly everything. Even if it's going in a drawer somewhere, I don't want to my family to miss out on the treasures and family time that can be had while looking through family pictures together.

How do you feel?

High School Dance Pictures and Candid Fun!

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 14:52:00 GMT

If you are in high school, you know that some of the most fun times are had at the dances. A time to get together and be with your friends.. get dressed up, have dinner, take a limousine ride.. and get your picture done.

Designer Studio dances is well aware of the tradition, and has evolved the way dances are photographed over the past 23 years. Now it's not uncommon for our photography team to send out 4 photographers for a dance of 500 students. Why do we send out so many people? Because we want to capture the dance as it's happening.. we want to post candid photos online for your viewing pleasure. We want you to be able to leave your camera at home, and not miss anything!

Designer Studio photographs over 100 high school dances per year. We are in a small group of companies that can say that. We photograph so many dances, because our product is thorough, and complete. We don't miss a thing.

If you are on the dance committee, and are interested in hearing more about our program, please contact us for a presentation.