Jody G.: Hey Beth, their site looks ok but " best in anything?" no way. I would be very wary of a photographer who has been in business for as many years as they say yet only has a handful of different people/shoots. That is like one weeks worth of images for an established studio and that is their best work? Being very connected to the Chicago photographic community as I am, I have never heard of them. Definitely sounds and looks like a brand new person entering the market with relatively high prices for their work. These days everyone is buying DSLRs and new people are popping up as "Pros" everyday. MHO.....buyer beware. I can give you the names of 5 well established artsy kid photographers in that price range beside myself. It is a pretty close knit community and the real pros know each other. heck, we shoot each others kids. FYI most photographers who say they only work with "natural light" usually don't know how to use strobe/flash effectively.
Hey Jody - this is Gen, the photographer over at Precious Things Photography. One of my clients told me today about this thread, so I figured that I'd come on over and check it out. I read your post above and totally agree with you regarding the commonality of consumer-grade DSLR's and how incredibly irritating it is as a professional photographer that so many hobbyists suddenly turn into professionals overnight! I, too, talk with my clients about this all of the time. I started out in the fashion/commercial sect of photography in Chicago 12 years ago, and a few years ago made the decision to focus solely on children's photography - I'm assuming that starting out in fashion/commerical work may be the reason as to why we've never crossed paths. Anyways, I just wanted to introduce myself and assure you that I'm not one of those amateur photographers who you have to worry about. =)
Hopefully our paths will cross soon. Are you going to be at WPPI in March? We should grab a drink!