About Joel Simpson

Thanks for visiting our site. Our photography comes out of over forty years experience in Fine Art, “inner self” portraiture, and quick-reflex photojournalism. In 2006, we opened our doors as a professional photography studio, right when digital photography had come of age, opening many new possibilities. Since then we have won awards, delighted our clients, and broken new ground in wedding coverage and albums, as our clients enthusiastically attest.

We are a high quality mid-range priced boutique studio, that guarantees much more than satisfaction. Our images communicate clear emotions—whatever the occasion : portraiture, weddings, Bar Mitzvahs, parties, anything. Our wedding clients are excited about receiving a dynamically new kind of wedding album that transcends the limitations of time and frame. Our portrait clients recognize that their images become iconic representations of them and their loved ones. You’ll see this reflected in our testimonials.

We’re located in Union, New Jersey, and mostly serve clients within a fifty-mile radius, but we are very comfortable with travel. I’m a New Jersey native and speak four languages. I’m not only comfortable with people of different ethnicities, but I pride myself in dealing with ethnic groups on their own terms, which is to say, I’m completely at home in any human milieu, and love to be in cultures different from my own.


WEDDINGS

We limit the number of weddings we do each year in order to give each client superior service and support. I love doing weddings. Every one is different, presenting different challenges. Although we’re not the least expensive studio, the value we offer can only be found elsewhere for considerably more out of pocket. And we offer a money back guarantee: you must be THRILLED (not just satisfied) or we refund you all your payments, if we can’t fix it.

Please read our testimonials to see why this has never happened.

In our gallery section you will see samples not only of individual photographs, but of  two types of wedding albums: the cinematic art book or storybook album, and the glamor art book album. The first kind contains more images, typically 4 or 5 to a page on average, including panoramas, where one image spreads out over two pages. The second features larger images, with greater visual impact, but less detailed story-telling and is usually a minimum of 50 pages with an average of two images per page. They’re about the same price. The two styles may be combined, according to your taste, as I can show you in person. Of course, it’s always possible to have a multi-volume wedding album.

You’ll notice that every photograph has a specific emotional content. My goal is to capture the emotion of your wedding day and preserve it for all time in your album. To this end, we use a judicious selection of special effects, including black and white, toned monochrome, soft focus, vignetting and desaturation. Each of these imparts a different emotional tone to the image. For example, it is better to render highly emotional images in black and white or other monochrome, in order not to distract the eye with color.   Please see the section on our services for more about how we do this.


PORTRAITS

The portraits we create are designed to beautify your home as serious works of art. They look absolutely stunning on canvas in carved wooden frames. They will honor your family, and say something about who you are, in addition to serving as an heirloom for future generations.

Our portraits seek to bring out the inner person. We utilize a palette of special effects to bring the photographic image closer to painting and water color. These include a wide inventory of framing effects within the photographic image that sets off the image in very powerful ways. Add to this the texture of canvas and its textured coatings, and you approach the power of painting.


EVENTS, PARTIES, BAR & BAT MITZVAHS, SWEET 16s, BAPTISMS,  etc.

It is very exciting to capture the drama, the ritual and the love at these events. Many people order coffee table albums, which are much less elaborate (and expensive) than wedding albums, while still providing a very special memento of the event. We’ve included sample spreads from two coffee-table albums in the gallery section.