Below are some resources and useful web pages that we commend to the attention of portrait photographers. Many of them use our portrait props in innovative and creative fashions and can attest to the fact that Wicker By Design props build studio profits and bring in customers. We invite your suggestions about other useful portrait photography resources. Click here to contact us at Wicker By Design with your suggestion. Or email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

• Cindy Baxter Set Series
• Frank Donnino Baby Plan Kit
• Lisa Jane's DVD Set "The Secrets of Eden"
• The 7 Ages of Childhood

Cindy Baxter Set Series

According to Cindy, she opened Studio C Creative Images in 1989.  In 1994 after only 5 years in business, she joined millions of other business owners and became a statistic... she was bankrupt!  From that forward she vowed to become a savvy business person and learn the skills needed to own and operate a successful portrait studio.

Then, in 1998 Cindy discovered a way to turn her struggling rural West Virginia portrait studio into a super-profitable business.  That year in only 17 days she earned a whopping $54,000 by creating children's "theme" portraits.  In just 5 short years her annual sales grew from $125,000 to over a half-million dollars!  All this in a small town of only 4,800 people!

Cindy's success is direct result of her innovative children's theme portrait set designs.  These set designs make up 49% of her total studio business.  Cindy believes that a successful studio is like a recipe; leave just one of the ingredients and you may not like the results!  Let Cindy share the 10 ingredients that catapulted her studio from Rags to Riches.

Her exciting journey from a low end photography studio to a high end portrait studio will inspire and excite every level of photography.  Check out Cindy's New Turnkey Program for Success with Children's Portraiture Cindy Baxter's Children's Set Design Series or her website Studio C Creative Images.

Frank Donnino Baby Plan Kit

The Frank Donnino Baby Plan Kit is a system of building sales around photographing newborns and babies. Frank says the following about his system:

“My Baby Plan Kit is a turn key system explaining how we obtain and photograph newborn babies at the stages of 3 months, 6 months, 9 months and 12 months. You can copy what I have given you word for word changing as little as possible except your studio name and phone number etc. I give you step by step instructions. For example I will answer questions such as...'Where do you get the names for the new babies to mail to?' or 'What day of the week do you mail out the mailing?'.”

“The kit includes the actual 'mailing piece' we use in 'hard copy'. We also include a hard copy of my color brochure that gets the mom's heart pumping. The CD I provide you has InDesign CS and PDF files of the other items we use in our 'system'. The 'Baby Plan Kit' comes InDesign CS files so you don't have to re-type my documents. A HUGE time saver! We also include our "1st Year Guide Book" for our new moms explaining what they can expect with us for the coming year. You also get our pricing guide that is given to the client AFTER you have photographed the baby.”

Lisa Jane's DVD Set "The Secrets of Eden"

"Lisa Jane's new instructional DVD series "The Secrets of Eden" has captured over 20 years of children's images, ideas and digital techniques.  With a collection of over five hundred images, this DVD series is not only entertaining and informative, it also captures the essence of childhood in a way that only Lisa Jane can.  This is a "must have" for the professional and novice photographer."  Tony Corbell

According to Lisa Jane, "My goal in producing this DVD series is to help you catch the artistic vision to take your work to a new level, and provide you with hundreds of new ideas for your photography." 

To learn more about Lisa Jane, visit her website Lisa Jane: Award Winning Children's Photography.

The 7 Ages of Childhood

The 7 Ages of Childhood from Marathon Press is a resource guide for child portraiture. The guide contains the following sections: Marketing and Promotion, Preparing for the Session, Photographing the Child and Sales Presentations. The opening welcome to “The 7 Ages of Childhood” provides the following introduction:

“Created for independent studio photographers who wish to provide their clients with quality portrait images that are not available from mass-market studios, the 'The 7 Ages of Childhood' was inspired and created by members of Professional Photographers of America. The program teaches parents to recognize the most important time to have their children photographed. These seven ages mark the most significant physical and social changes along the path from infancy to young adulthood.”

“The business benefit of this program for photographers lies in its ability to educate parents about the importance of creating portraits of their children at significant intervals as they grow. The '7 Ages' concept is one that is easily understood by parents. When promoted by independent studios throughout the country, they buying habits of parents can be influenced. Just think much your business will grown when parents recognize and appreciate the value of telling the story of their child’s growing up through portraits captured each of the 7 Ages.”

You can see a preview of the “The 7 Stages of Childhood."  This 98 page resource guide can be purchased from Marathon Press for $54.95 at The 7 Ages of Childhood.

Other web sources that we find to be useful guides:

Michael Meissner's digital photography related pages
Bookfinder.com photography related books
Portrait photographer Leslie O'Shaughnessy photography resources
Bestsearchers.com's directory of general photography tips, techniques and styles
Chiff.com's directory of photography tips and links
School of Photography online courses
Marathon Press Guide to Making Portraits

Click here for portrait photography tips from Susan Day Moore of Wicker By Design.