The Family Portrait - what else will you purchase this year that will increase in value the longer you own it?

In these crazy economic times, many of us are being much more careful with how we spend our money. We want value in exchange for our hard earned money.

Yet most things we purchase will decrease in value the minute they leave the store. Buy a new car, and it's worth 25% less the minute you drive it off the lot. That furniture you just bought- try to sell it tomorrow, and you'll get 50% of what you paid for it. 10 years from now, you'll have to donate it to the Goodwill simply to get it out of your house.

But that family portrait you had created this year, before your kids were grown and gone, will become a treasure of increasing value every year you own it. Nothing else you could purchase will bring you this degree of emotional value five, or ten or especially twenty years down the road.

Think about it. Capture all that's special about your family at this point in your lives, and long after the kids are grown and gone and have children of your own, you'll have a beautiful portrait hanging in your home that will bring you warmth and joy every time you look at it and remember this time in your lives.

Yet most people put it off, because there's always time to "do it later". But later never comes, and before you know it the opportunity is gone.

Don't let this happen to you. Pick up the phone right now, while you're thinking about it, and call us - 661-775-0898 - to schedule your consultation. Together, we'll design the perfect portrait for you, and create something that you'll love twenty years from now, long after that flat screen television you could have purchased instead has been sent to the recyclers.

At Santa Clarita Photographic Studio, nothing pleases us more than exceeding our customers’ expectations.

Except perhaps hearing kind words about us and our work such as the following...

HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR PORTRAIT - April 2009

I took my son to the photography studio recommended by his high school for his senior pictures.

The pictures were not taken by a professional photographer but just a young girl who seemed moderately trained.

The whole process took about two minutes and we had 20 pictures to choose from all of which looked the same.

I was so disappointed. I wanted a picture that captured my son and his unique personality.

I happened into Santa Clarita Photography Studio and met Yoti. He could not have been nicer. He took the time to get to know me and what I was looking for in a senior picture.

He then met with my son and got to know him, helping to make him feel comfortable. But, the best part were the pictures he took! I could not have been more pleased and my son (who hates to have his picture taken) loved them too. They were not hammy or cookie cutter.

They perfectly captured my son.

Yoti is an artist and a very nice person. He took his time and his work is outstanding. I would recommend him to anyone in need of a photographer.

Amy S.

Valencia, California

Working with Yoti has been AMAZING!  
He captured moments we probably wouldn't even have thought about.

We received a portrait package for our baby with Yoti as a shower gift, and a gift it truly has been.  We walked in thinking there is some guy who will take our daughters picture a few times, when Yoti actually became a part of our first year experience with our daughter.

Working with Yoti has been AMAZING!   He captured moments we probably wouldn't even have thought about.

From making sure we captured her tiny little feet and hands to seeing her sit up, to stand up, to becoming the little toddler she is now.

Yoti is a true artist and genuine person.  He helped in every aspect from picking out pictures (because they were all SO cute), to putting the montage together, to sharing with us his knowledge in how to take pictures at home that capture each wonderful stage she goes through and each season.

This experience has been incredible.  My husband and I will absolutely recommend Yoti to each and every person we possibly can.  He didn't just give us pictures, he captured moments that will forever bring smiles to our hearts and faces.

Sincerely,

Dan and Katrina Schmidt
Castaic, California

Yoti,


From the first time we saw your work, we have been amazed at your ability to capture the essence of life around you – it doesn’t matter what you shoot, whether they are landscapes, portraits or a family gathering at a wedding or reunion – part of the experience is how you capture the emotion of the moment.


When our daughters wanted “nontraditional” senior portraits, you packed up and took us to the beach – not just any beach, but one with special rock formations (Rocks on the rocks, how clever!).


For our older daughter, who hadn’t wanted her picture taken at all near graduation, we went to a lake, where the park setting freed her to be silly and relaxed – things we hadn’t seen for a long, long time. She wants those pictures up on the wall of the house because you saw beyond the defensive exterior she put up while dealing with her illness and brought out the beautiful young woman within. We can’t thank you enough for that.

Fast forward to now – when you captured our reunited three children after our son returned from Iraq. They look happy not just because they’re thick as thieves, but because the man behind the camera is a genuine article – someone who makes them feel good and they know the pictures will be something to treasure for years. For our 30th anniversary, you made memories of “Carol and Frank: The Musical” that we’ll never forget and treasure always.

When Casey got engaged, you were her first call. She didn’t want anyone else there and knew everything you did would be priceless. She wasn’t wrong. Your sense of timing, humor, professionalism and love of your craft come through in every shot. We are truly blessed to have you as a friend and our family’s photographer. Here’s to many more years of working together.


With our family’s love,

Carol and Frank Rock
Canyon Country, California

Dear Yoti-

We just wanted to say thank you for the amazing pictures you've taken of us over the last 2 years.

Choosing a photographer is one of the most important decisions you can make surrounding your wedding. When the music has died down and the food has been taken away, you're left only with your memories.

And the photos you took for us will be the cornerstone of those memories. To us, they're more than pictures, they're family heirlooms to be treasured. There's no one else we could have chosen to go on our destination wedding with us. You captured every moment of that trip, and the album is absolutely fantastic.

You cannot believe the number of compliments we get on our engagement, wedding, reception, family portraits and now baby photos.  No one believes that there's one single photographer talented  to take pictures of any event, that you have to specialize.

We have no hesitancy to recommend you at every turn, no matter the event.

We truly feel that we've found our 'family photographer', and we know that we'll keep coming back as long as you're taking pictures.

Derek & Jennifer Dutilly

Valencia, California

"What can I say?  WOW!

What an amazing experience Michael, our son Noah, and I had with you.

You’ve taken family photography to a whole new level.

We were extremely impressed with how much time you take to find the “Perfect Shot.”

Actually going to a location to take the pictures was more than we could have imagined.  That makes the whole experience our own.

Michael and I loved how great you were with Noah and how you made him feel like he was involved the whole time.  Most importantly the pictures are priceless and we just can't thank you enough.

We were also very impressed by your professionalism, you don't miss a beat.

" We can’t wait for the next time you capture a moment for us that we will never forget. "

Claire Cullen Middleton
Saugus California

Claire's Flowers - Valencia

Castaic, California

A MUST READ COLUMN IF YOU ARE A PARENT BY A
Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and bestselling author

On Being Mom

by Anna Quindlen

If not for the photographs, I might have a hard time believing they ever existed. The pensive infant with the swipe of dark bangs and the blackbutton eyes of a Raggedy Andy doll. The placid baby with the yellow ringlets and the high piping voice. The sturdy toddler with the lower lip that curled into an apostrophe above her chin.

ALL MY BABIES are gone now. I say this not in sorrow but in disbelief. I take great satisfaction in what I have today: three almost-adults, two taller than I am, one closing in fast. Three people who read the same books I do and have learned not to be afraid of disagreeing with me in their opinion of them, who sometimes tell vulgar jokes that make me laugh until I choke and cry, who need razor blades and shower gel and privacy, who want to keep their doors closed more than I like. Who, miraculously, go to the bathroom, zip up their jackets and move food from plate to mouth all by themselves. Like the trick soap I bought for the bathroom with a rubber ducky at its center, the baby is buried deep within each, barely discernible except through the unreliable haze of the past.

Everything in all the books I once pored over is finished for me now.  Penelope Leach., T. Berry Brazelton., Dr. Spock. The ones on sibling rivalry and sleeping through the night and early-childhood education, all grown obsolete. Along with Goodnight Moon and Where the Wild Things Are, they are battered, spotted, well used. But I suspect that if you flipped the pages dust would rise like memories.

What those books taught me, finally, and what the women on the playground taught me, and the well-meaning relations --what they taught me was that they couldn't really teach me very much at all.

Raising children is presented at first as a true-false test, then becomes multiple choice, until finally, far along, you realize that it is an endless essay. No one knows anything. One child responds well to positive reinforcement, another can be managed only with a stern voice and a timeout.

One boy is toilet trained at 3, his brother at 2. When my first child was born, parents were told to put baby to bed on his belly so that he would not choke on his own spit-up. By the time my last arrived, babies were put down on their backs because of research on sudden infant death syndrome. To a new parent this ever-shifting certainty is terrifying, and then soothing. Eventually you must learn to trust yourself. Eventually the research will follow.

I remember 15 years ago poring over one of Dr. Brazelton's wonderful books on child development, in which he describes three different sorts of infants: average, quiet, and active. I was looking for a sub-quiet codicil for an 18-month-old who did not walk. Was there something wrong with his fat little legs? Was there something wrong with his tiny little mind? Was he developmentally delayed, physically challenged? Was I insane? Last year he went to China.  Next year he goes to college. He can talk just fine. He can walk,too.

Every part of raising children is humbling, too. Believe me, mistakes were made. They have all been enshrined in the Remember-When-Mom-Did-Hall-of-Fame. The outbursts, the temper tantrums, the bad language, mine, not theirs. The times the baby fell off the bed.  The times I arrived late for preschool pickup. The nightmare sleepover. The horrible summer camp. The day when the youngest came barreling out of the classroom with a 98 on her geography test, and I responded, "What did you get wrong?"   (She insisted I included that.) The time I ordered food at the McDonald's drive-through speaker and then drove away without picking it up from the window.  (They all insisted I included that.) I did not allow them to watch the Simpsons for the first two seasons. What was I thinking?

But the biggest mistake I made is the one that most of us make while doing this. I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of the three of them sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages 6, 4 and 1. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed.  I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less.

Even today I'm not sure what worked and what didn't, what was me and what was simply life. When they were very small, I suppose I thought someday they would become who they were because of what I'd done.  Now I suspect they simply grew into their true selves because they demanded in a thousand ways that I back off and let them be.

The books said to be relaxed and I was often tense, matter-of-fact and I was sometimes over the top. And look how it all turned out.  I wound up with the three people I like best in the world, who have done more than anyone to excavate my essential humanity. That's what the books never told me.

I was bound and determined to learn from the experts.

It just took me a while to figure out who the experts were.

This site is best VIEWED with Firefox

LATEST NEWS:

YOTI WINS STATE & NATIONAL RECOGNITION

BY THE

• STUDIO PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR 2007
  
  
• FUJI MASTERPIECE FOR PORTRAITURE
  
  
• 2007 Photo Expo JUDGES TROPHY AWARD
  
  
• TOP 10 PHOTOGRAPHERS IN CALIFORNIA

Los Angeles children's photographer Yoti Telio is a timeless heirloom portrait photographer based out of the Santa Clarita Valley.

---

Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites