For almost all of my adult life I have made my living in wedding/portrait photography, primarily children’s and family portraits. Under my two business names, Kolorkraft and Rich Osness, llc, I have produced and sold more than a million packages of pictures. For many years my business had ten to fifteen photographers working in about half of the United States. We operated our own photo lab processing our own work and the work of many photographers in the US and abroad for about ten years.
I received my photography training from a number of experienced photographers from across the country. The style I developed has been influenced by many of those photographers. It is similar to many and identical to none. None of the hundreds of people I have trained or worked with has copied me exactly. No one can copy anyone else.
Today I still photograph a few thousand sittings a year and the geographic area I cover is much smaller. I still have fans in several states including the first three states in which my new business was active in 1972. Frequently children I have photographed, now grown, bring their children to me. At least a few times I have photographed the grandchildren of someone who was photographed by me when they were a child.
My primary business is in preschools, child care centers and in-store portrait promotions. I specialize in younger children, newborn to kindergarten, and their families.
Preschools and child care centers are where I do my best work. It is just me and the children under the watchful eye of a teacher or child care provider who knows enough not to help or get in the way. The store promotions are under conditions that many photographers can not imagine. It is a good place to learn a little humility and remind me who is really important, the parents.
I have done a little bit of everything and I have tried almost every new fad or market that came down the pike. I always come back to a classic style, photographing children in stores, preschools and child care centers. I will cover some of those fads in future posts.
This blog is an opportunity to share some of what I have learned. I try to leave everything better than I found it. This is is my attempt to do that for the wedding/portrait business.
Please feel free to contact me directly at 800-631-6247 or RichOsness@earthink.net
Check out my YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuTaSun1drjo5JBsh989TYg
or my website at https://www.richosness.com/