I am happy to offer custom family photography. Let me create unique images you will be proud to display.

Let's take an afternoon outside and get some great images of your family and/or pets! I am flexible and will meet either weekday evenings or weekends to give you an opportunity to work within your schedule.

All sessions are done on location at either your home or local park.
Suggested locations:
- Sculpture Park
- Forest Park
- Tower Grove
- Citygarden (downtown St. Louis)
- Shaw Nature Reserve (Gray Summit)

Sessions start at $100 for a one hour session.

Included with price:
- All images creatively edited (30-50 images/ hour)
- Private gallery for sharing and ordering professional prints
- CD of low resolution digital proofs (no watermarks)
- Copyright release

*Groups of eight or more add $50 to session
*$100 per additional hour
*Pricing applies to short events such as birthday parties, baptism, etc.
*Full resolution images on CD additional $100 (easily prints up to 24x36)

Please click the link below and contact me to set up a session.
Thanks for looking!
http://markcillo.smugmug.com/Other/Contact

Charity and Fundraising

I regularly participate in charitable donations and auction services for fundraiser events. If you are head of private fundraising for a school or charitable organization I might be able to help. Feel free to contact me to discuss having one of my services as part of you fundraising event.

What should we wear?
First you should wear something that makes you feel comfortable. If everyone is wearing something that makes them feel good it will show in the pictures.
Typically long sleeves/ pants (in adults) are preferred as bare arms can sometimes be distracting. Avoid wearing excessive jewelry, especially large watches that can give reflections or draw the attention in the picture.

Colors:
Most of my shoots are outdoors so neutral colors are usually very appropriate. Typically I find that solid colors photograph better and that detailed patterns on shirts or dresses can become distracting. Primary colors can also work great as seen in the adjacent image. The red complements her blue eyes and the green background makes the image "pop."

Group Matching:
It is important for people in a group to wear something that fits into a common color theme (fall colors, bright colors ect.). At the same time it is equally important that everyone not match too closely as this tends to look odd.

The single most important rule is no purple polka dots!

Print Packages:

Prints can be ordered separately from the online gallery for a very reasonable price. Anyone that purchases full resolution images from with their photography service will have the ability to print enlargements anywhere with full copyright release. The following packages are available for hand checked prints delivered with your disk of digital images.

$40- full set of 4x6 prints

$75- Full set 4x6 prints
- 4 5x7 prints (your choice)
- 2 8x10 prints (your choice)

$125 - Full set of 4x6 prints
- 6 5x7 prints (your choice)
- 6 8x10 (your choice)
- 1 12x18 (your choice)

There are many other print options available on the online galleries including canvas and hard to find size options for printing. Custom coffee table book design available for any session.

Why Does Custom Photography Cost More?


The digital revolution has brought amazing flexibility and ability to control various factors during the image taking and making process. Photographers, the hobbyist, the professional, the amateur all benefit from this ability to manipulate pixels. However, with flexibility comes a price. Digital camera equipment is still considerably more expensive when you factor in its' lifespan, the need for additional resources for processing those images, the time it takes to get a usable image and the effort that goes into creating a work of photographic art. We all know that you can go to the local Walgreen's and pay a $1.99 for a print – as a client you may wonder why you may pay upwards of $10, $20, $50 for a custom photography print. Photographers hear this statement every once in awhile:
"How in the world can you charge $20 for an 8×10 if it costs me less than $2 to print at x store?"
The truth of the matter is the answer to this question is multifaceted. Much of the cost of a photographic print produced by a professional photographer has a lot to do with the time, equipment costs, artistic vision and reputation of the photographer not to mention expertise and the usual costs of running a legitimate business. The cost of TIME Approaching it from a time standpoint, let's imagine that you have hired a photographer who has work that you love. This photographer is traveling an hour to your destination to photograph your session. Here is an example of a time break down:
booking time: 30 minutes to one hour (client contact time + paperwork)
pre-session prep time (30 mins – 1 hour, includes equipment and back up equipment checks + vehicle checks)
one hour travel time TO session
15-30 minutes prep time at client's home
90 minutes-2 hours with client photographing subject
one hour travel time FROM session
30-45 minutes uploading time from digital cards from camera to computer
30-45 minutes time spent backing up the original images
2-5 hours editing time to present you with a diverse gallery of edited images
1 hour prep time getting ready for ordering
2-3 hours time with client for ordering images
1 hour sorting through and checking order
30 minutes-1 hour prep time for delivery
30 minutes-1 hour getting order shipped
any additional phone time or time needed for add on ordering, shipment issues, quality issues
In this example, the time spent per client can range from just under 13 hours to 19 hours – dependent on the photographer's level of service. This is time dedicated only to ONE session. When the photographer charges $100-$300 for the photo shoot (aka SESSION FEE) you are not just paying for the two hours of session time, you are paying the photographer for 12-19 hours complete time for your session.

The COSTS of Maintaining a Custom Photography Business:
Regarding equipment costs, a good quality professional camera with a selection of good optical quality lenses and digital storage mediums and computer set up can run from $10,000-$30,000 costs dependent on the photographer. Even though you can purchase a really good quality digital SLR for about $2100 there are still other costs related to photography. A good lens for portrait photography can run from $900 to $2500. A dependable computer system with software loaded for business and creative usage can run $2500 to $8000 dependent on the photographer. Then come lab costs for specialty products. A good photographer knows their professional lab is an integral part of their success. These labs often cost more and offer a range of products that allows the custom photographer to continually offer new, innovative products for the discerning client.