Your experience begins with a complimentary portrait design consultation which allows us to customize your portrait session to match your style and interests. You will see samples from different types of sessions and products that range from traditional to contemporary. Together we will discuss locations and select the clothing, backgrounds and props that best meet our creative vision for your portraits. This preparation is the key to making your session go smoothly. There is absolutely no obligation to schedule a session during your consultation, it's just a great way to help you decide if I am the right photographer for you and your family.

Your portrait session can take place in the Wilmette studio, at a local outdoor location, or in your own backyard.  Because I work with a limited number of clients each week, you will never be rushed.  There is no cookie cutter approach to our shoots - every session is unique.  I'll do my best to get to know your family and do whatever is necessary to make the experience a positive one and create portraits that you'll cherish.
 
During you customized ordering appointment I will help you determine how to use your family's unique images in products that best showcase your personal style and space. We meet in the studio to review the best images from your session on a large projection screen. If you are interested in wall art, we can even project your portraits onto photographs of your walls, so you can see exactly what they will look like in your home. In addition to traditional prints, we offer many ways to use your favorite images, including albums, framed collections, memory boxes, showcase easels, and of course holiday cards and birth announcements. For many of our clients, this ordering appointment is every bit as fun as the session itself!

The final product: We believe you hire a professional photographer because you want professional looking results. All of our images are individually optimized and retouched before they leave the studio in any form. We work with the finest professional labs and other suppliers to ensure that your portraits will remain family treasures for generations.

Basic Business Portrait - one image, delivered in both color and B&W - $175

Social Media Package - allows for clothing changes and includes 3 image files - $295

Group Business Portraits - please ask

Family Portrait Sessions can include individual as well as group portraits.
We do not charge for additional family members unless you have a large, extended family.

Daytime Experience - $195
Evening or Weekend Experience - $295
Extended Family Experience - please ask

Come back for more and get $100 off of your sitting - returning families receive a discounted sitting fee on their sessions

High School Graduation is one of life's big milestones. Mark your child's graduation with portraits that go above and beyond the typical yearbook pose. Our Senior Session can incorporate both studio and outdoor shots to capture your graduate's multi-faceted personality and interests. Clothing changes are encouraged to represent their "best-dressed" as well as their "everyday" look. Hobbies, collections and favorite articles of clothing are included to make these portraits personal and unique. Perfectly displayed in a memory box or custom album.
Senior Session - $295

Whether you're a realtor, author, fitness trainer or executive, we make updating your Business Portrait quick and easy. Clothing and makeup suggestions are emailed prior to your appointment, and you select your favorite image during your session. Your retouched digital file is typically delivered within 48 hours. 

Basic Business Portrait - one image, delivered in both color and B&W - $175

Social Media Package - allows for clothing changes and includes 3 image files - $295

Group Business Portraits - please ask

All of our Portrait Products are available a la carte.  There is no minimum purchase required.

We specialize in creating fine wall art, custom albums and other portrait collections because we believe that your family memories deserve to live somewhere outside of a computer. However, we also understand the importance of social media, screen savers, and digital picture frames in lives today, so we will provide you with a complimentary screen-resolution digital file of every image that you purchase. If you need full-resolution files, please let us know. We will do our best to provide what you need.

Winnetka resident opens photography studio in Wilmette

April Dahlquist, Editor, Winnetka Current/Wilmette Beacon

6:37 am CDT October 16, 2014

Comfortable for years in the dark room in her Winnetka home, photographer Lisa Neild decided to take the next step and shed light on her business.

Neild moved her equipment to a sunny storefront on Green Bay Road in Wilmette and opened “Lisa Neild Photography” in February 2014, replacing Diane Hamilton Photography, which closed after Hamilton moved out of state. 

Neild has been taking photos along the North Shore for years, processing them in her house. When the space specifically designed for a photographer opened up, she knew she had to seize the opportunity. 

“I feel like I’m cheating because I’m just walking in,” joked Neild, who was grateful for the opportunity and the mentoring of Hamilton before she left. 

The studio has a front meeting space, with large windows flooding the area with natural light, which shows off some featured pieces Neild took, including a cheerful family photo and a sleeping newborn in a colorful, knitted cap.

Behind the comfortable meeting area is Neild’s studio, where she’ll shoot all sessions that aren’t on location. The room is equipped with moveable lights, backdrops, props and just about any tool to transform the space into somewhere other than a photography studio. 

Clients also can choose to be outside, which is typical when the weather is nice, Neild said.

Neild has always enjoyed photography, describing it as glorified hobby that turned into her passion. 

In high school, she took her camera everywhere, always taking pictures of her friends and surroundings. 

“I just have always loved photography,” she said. “I love capturing and telling stories with that. I love looking back and revisiting all those milestones.”

Neild received her bachelor’s of fine arts with a concentration in photography from the University of Michigan. 

After moving to Chicago, Neild worked for a photographer and then at an art gallery. She went back to school to get her master’s in art therapy and then worked at the World Young Women’s Christian Association, and incorporated photography there with the women she worked with. 

“It’s always been woven into my life, even when I wasn’t per say taking pictures,” she said. 

Once Neild moved to Winnetka and became a stay at home mom, she put a dark room in her house where she could process her own pictures. 

She also started taking pictures for family and friends and a small business started to blossom. 

“It grew at a very manageable pace for me,” Neild said, as word of mouth spread about her photography. 

She would often have repeat clients, having Neild take pictures of their family throughout the years. 

“Thanks to Lisa, I have these monumentally important memories that she’s been able to capture through the years, that are so precious to us as a family,” client and friend Roni Neumann said. “I think that’s really the gift that Lisa has given us, and so many families.”

About seven years ago, Neild made the complete switch to digital photography, which came with positive and negative effects, she said. She enjoys how forgiving digital photography can be, and the amount of photos she can take, but laments the purity in developing her own black and white photos. 

“It makes me sad to see my dark room, which is more like a closet in the basement of my house,” she said. 

When the studio space became available so close to home, coupled with her aging kids, Neild decided to work full-time on her business. 

“This was really a huge step,” Neild said. 

Typically, Neild photographs newborn babies and families.

“It’s capturing the real essence of people, their authentic selves,” Neumann said.  

Neild described her photography style as comfortable and casual, and not totally candid, as she will pose and arrange her subjects. While keeping an eye out for the overall composition, Neild also likes to connect and engage her subjects, so she is capturing a real moment, she said. 

One area she wants to expand into is high school seniors. 

“I think this is such an untapped market in our area,” Neild said. 

While photographing newborns is important, so is capturing the end of childhood, before the big step of college, she said.  

“This I feel, is the book end and doesn’t get the attention it deserves,” she said. 

For her own son Owen, Neild did an album showcasing different aspects of his high school career. Not only portrait shots, but shots of him in his band uniform and goofing off. 

“There’s the fun ones, where he’s on his phone or drinking Mountain Dew and it’s more that ‘slice of life,’ which is really who he is,” Neild said. “I think that
will be more and more meaningful to us as time goes by.”  

After soliciting feedback for her website, www.lisaneildphotography.com, Neild found out that many of her clients find her comfortable to work with, a compliment she covets.