Article published Monday, March 20, 2006
Pros personalize photo sessions
Couple buy house with yard for indoor-outdoor studio
By ON CHAVEZ
BLADE BUSINESS WRITER
Digital imaging has changed photography so much that anyone can use a camera or cell phone to create images for printing, computers, or Web sites, said photographer Stevie Grand Lubell.
But that simplicity has diminished image quality so much that many people can no longer tell good photos from bad, said Ms. Grand Lubell.
She and her husband, Bob Lubell, own Grand Lubell Photography in Sylvania.
"The average person has become visually illiterate," she said. And since photo darkroom skills no longer are necessary, lots of amateurs are rushing into the business of photographing people and events, often with mediocre to poor results, she said.
Grand Lubell, which the couple began in 2002, specializes in wedding photos, family portraits, and high school senior photos, but with a twist. The couple make it a point to know and understand their clients before picture-taking begins.
"What we do are personalized photo sessions," she said. "We try to understand what persona a client wants to be and shoot it on their terms.
"You want your horse? Bring your horse. … Each session is different and unique."
Their studio plays a huge role in their work.
Before starting Grand Lubell, the husband-wife photography team considered opening a typical photo studio in a shopping center. But Mr. Lubell said photo-art needs outdoor settings, like parks, but they are uncontrollable.
So in 2001 the couple bought a 5,000-square-foot house with a garage that became a studio. Even better, the house, at 5101 Harroun Rd., had a three-acre wooded estate perfect for outdoor photos.
Kim McBroom, vice president of marketing and communications at Bowling Green State University, said the outdoor site led to beautiful high school senior photos for her daughter, Claire.
"They even let us take our dog," Ms. McBroom said.
With Grand Lubell, " … you get quality, you get creativity, you get locations, which, if you go to other studios, you don't really get that on-site aspect, the willingness to search out locations for you," she said.
The company promotes its high school senior photo business through students who are photographed who show the photos at their schools. "They tell their friends and the next thing you know, it goes from there," Mr. Lubell said.
The couple's photo talent stems from diverse experience in photographic and visual arts.
Mr. Lubell began as a wedding photographer at age 15 in Toledo. He later moved to trade show photography, studio, and advertising agency work before becoming head of photo and, later, of operations at the former Lauerer Markin Gibbs, which at one time was Toledo's largest ad agency.
When the agency downsized in the late 1980s, he returned to shooting weddings, and to repairing computers and doing video editing work.
Ms. Grand Lubell's career began in commercial photography out of college. She became an expert in science and underwater photos, then came to Toledo in the mid-1980s where she was in charge of photography for St. Charles Hospital. The couple married in 1988 and settled in Sylvania.
In 1999, she was laid off.
"Bob and I looked at each other and I said, 'I'm not going to shoot weddings,' " Ms. Grand Lubell said. But Mr. Lubell said he talked her into trying it, and her first job produced magazine quality work.
The couple decided they would start a professional photo studio, but first took two years to buy digital equipment and learn to use it properly.
"We still do commercial work. But we love this (studio and weddings). This is a Toledo thing. Toledo is about individuals," Mr. Lubell said.
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