Why Choose Housden?

It's simple - ask around! We have a strong presence in the community as we have maintained a professional business for more than forty years and have created countless relationships within the community.  Every day we strive to better our craft and creativity.  We keep up with the trends, but we aren't "trendy," that is, our portraits will stand the test of time and your portraits will not go out of style.

In the era of digital, new photographers come and go and have little to no education or experience in photography.  We are well established, professionally trained and internationally recognized portrait artists who will be here to continue capturing your memories for years to come.  We push ourselves to ensure you receive the highest level of service and quality at Housden Photography.  You can come to our studio with confidence that we will create a portrait that you will love!  We guarantee you will be more than pleased with both your experience with our artists and the quality of your portraits.


Your Consultation

You are not alone; everyone has questions.  To get the most out of your portrait experience, we highly recommend a consultation to discuss the creation of your portrait. 

The portrait consultation is complimentary and is the best way to answer your questions.  We typically schedule a consultation a week before your sitting, or you may come in for a consultation if you are looking at various options.  This is your opportunity to meet the portrait artist, tour our studio and discuss creating your portrait.

Clothing is important!  We also take time to discuss with you clothing options for your sitting.  If you are planning a child or family portrait and your child tends to be shy, we also invite you to bring your child or children in so they get to meet us before the big day!

Would you like to have portraits at your home?  Please discuss this with us during your consultation.  We travel all over for portraits.  We prefer your location of choice to be at your home; however, if you have a specific place in mind other than your home, we just need permission from the land owner to photograph you there.  Please note we do NOT photograph on railroad tracks, as it is highly dangerous and highly illegal.

Last but not least, we will spend time with you to discuss your investment and how you wish to decorate your home with your portraits.  We show you various sizes, collages, cluster options, mounting substrates, and other factors important in choosing the perfect portrait.  This is a great time to look over our pricing menu to plan your investment and budget.


Investment

We offer a very wide variety of products and services at Housden Photography.  In addition to portraits and albums, we offer indoor/outdoor signage, metals, acrylics, customized table clothes for businesses or parties, laser-etched or photographic clothing, dinnerware and more.  We can produce indoor vinyl banners up to 44" wide and unlimited length in our studio, rapidly increasing turnaround for last minute business or event needs.

Our portrait sitting fees range from 45-250 depending on your wishes and needs and if you require us to travel.  Our portrait orders range from 145 to life size.  We are proud to be a full service professional portrait studio.  We oversee the creation and quality of our portraits from start to finish in order to provide you with the finest quality portraits available. 

With more than forty years experience, we understand files do not last.  Digital media corrupts; cloud services can lose data.  Prints stand the test of time.  You have photos of your parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and ancestors because a print was made.  We want your children and grandchildren to have that same experience!

With that said, you'll get the files for free!  Every portrait you order comes with a digital file suitable for social media sharing at no extra cost. 

We are more than happy to provide you with an accurate quote for your specific needs, just give us a call at 540-432-3686 and we'll get together to discuss your portrait!


Your Portrait Sitting

We schedule only one appointment at a time so we can give you our undivided attention during your portrait sitting.  For families and children, we schedule thirty minutes for your portrait session, longer for large groups.  It typically takes under thirty minutes to complete your portrait sitting and we find, especially with younger children and toddlers, that is the most time we have until they are tired of us!

We are not over shooters!  With our experience in film photography, we learned to make every image count and every image different.  You will have approximately 20-30 portraits to choose from so that you are not overwhelmed.  Each portrait is presented to you straight out of camera after being carefully color calibrated to consistently display your natural skin tones.  We do not "edit" portraits with trendy filters that distract from the person we are photographing!

Aside from the many settings we have inside our studio, we also have beautiful settings in our outdoor park.  We are located in the woods which gives you beautiful portraits in the beauty of nature.  We also have open fields with tall grass for amazing portraits in the wide open  For a more rustic feel we also have authentic railroad tracks, an old rusty truck and an old country store complete with gas pumps.  We also have an open field that we own nearby that not only has tall grass but hay bales if you prefer a more country setting.

There is no need to bring anything with you!  Since we have already discussed clothing with you at your consultation, you're good to go!  We have dressing rooms so everyone can check themselves over prior to the sitting.  For a child's sitting, it is not uncommon for parents to bring a family heirloom, teddy bears, or other props to personalize the portrait.  We encourage you to bring any ideas if you wish!

Do you have a location that is special to you?  We travel all over for portraits, so tell us about your special location!  There is an additional, reasonable fee for location portraits.  We prefer to photograph at your home; however, if you have a specific place in mind that is not yours, we ask that you get written permission from the property owner for us to photograph you at that location.  Please note that we do not photograph on railroad tracks as it is both highly dangerous and highly illegal.  Besides, we have our own tracks here!


The Ordering Process

This is the easy part!  After your portrait sitting, we will schedule a time for you to return to our studio to view and choose.  This is the time when all major decision makers should be present. 

When you return to view and choose, we invite you into our show room and present your portraits to you projected onto our wall.  We carefully help you narrow down your portraits to your favorites to make the process very simple and easy.  Would you like to make it easier?  You can take a photo of the room where you plan to hang your portrait and email or bring it to us, and we can show you your portrait hanging in that room!  We can project every size from 40x60 down to 4x5, collages, clusters and anything else you can think of.

As a full service portrait studio, we offer custom framing and can assist you in choosing the perfect frame to compliment your portraits.  If you don't like framed portraits, we also offer gallery wrapped canvas portraits, metals, acrylics and even portraits beautifully bonded to bamboo for an exquisite, very high end appeal.


Payment

We accept cash, check and all major credit cards.  We also offer no-interest payment plans.  We ask that you pay half down to begin processing of your order, and the balance is due upon pick up or delivery.


Delivery

We allow approximately six weeks processing time for your portraits, occasionally longer for select albums.  If you are working toward a specific deadline, please let us know.  During the holiday season, our delivery time is greatly accelerated to guarantee delivery. 

Once your order is complete and ready for pickup, we will call you to schedule an appointment to pick up your order.  We photograph a lot of families from out of state or long distances from our studio - in such circumstances we can ship to your home via FedEx upon request.  We also deliver and install large, framed wall portraits to homes within a specific distance from our studio free of charge!