Documentary portrait & wedding work
Lucid Works is a one-photographer studio. I shoot quietly, in the light a room already has, and I deliver a small edit you will actually look at twice.
Frame index · 01–04
Rather than a wall of thumbnails, here is one representative frame per commission type with the format, lens and light it was made in — so you can tell whether it is the look you want before you write to me.
01 Portrait sitting
Made twenty minutes after sunrise with the subject facing a north window. No reflector, no retouching beyond dust and exposure. This is the plainest version of what a sitting looks like.
02 Wedding day
I shoot the room while it is still quiet, then stay on the edges once it fills. Candlelit receptions are shot wide open at high ISO and finished warm — I do not flatten a dim room with flash unless you ask me to.
03 Brand & editorial
A half day in the studio covers headshots, a seated editorial set and a few workspace frames. Shot on a controlled grey so the files drop straight into a website or a press kit without re-cropping.
04 Location scouting
Every outdoor commission starts with a scout like this one. Overcast is the easiest light to work in, which is why I will happily book a grey afternoon and will tell you when a location only works for one hour of the day.
Commissions
Figures below are starting rates for a single photographer. Travel beyond the metro area, a second shooter and additional licensed usage are quoted on top and always written down before anything is confirmed.
One person or a pair, one location, no wardrobe changes needed.
from $420per sitting
Documentary coverage from preparations through to the first hour of dancing.
from $2,850per day
For founders, studios and small teams who need usable files, not art.
from $1,150per half day
Outdoors, short, and built around how long small children last.
from $340per session
Not sure which one fits? Describe the occasion in the form and I will tell you plainly which commission it is — or that you do not need one.
Start an enquiryHow a shoot runs
Nothing here is a surprise, and you can stop after step one at no cost.
You send the date and the occasion. I hold it for seven days and reply with a written figure. No deposit is taken to hold a date.
A twenty-minute call: the light at your location, who matters in the frames, what you would rather I did not photograph.
I arrive early, work from the edges of the room and keep direction to a minimum. You will barely be asked to do anything.
A first set of previews within four days, then the full edit in your private gallery with downloads that stay open for a year.
Studio note
I started in reportage and never really left it. That means I work slowly, I do not run a shot-by-shot checklist through your day, and the pictures you get back will look like the room you were standing in rather than a set.
Practical things worth knowing: I shoot digital, I keep two bodies on every paid job, and I back files up twice before I leave. I edit for colour and exposure, not for faces — if you want skin smoothed or people removed from a frame, I am the wrong photographer and will say so early.
One commission a day, never two. It is the only way I know to stay useful by hour nine of a wedding.
Working since 2014 · one photographer, no assistants on sittings
Questions
If what you need is not here, put it in the form and you will get a straight answer rather than a brochure.
Weddings are usually reserved four to eleven months out, and the summer and early-autumn weekends go first. Portrait and family sittings are much easier: two to three weeks is normally enough, and I keep a few short-notice slots each month for sittings that cannot wait.
For outdoor sittings and family sessions we move the date at no cost, as many times as the weather requires. Overcast and light rain are not a problem and often better than full sun, so I will only call it off for heavy rain, wind or anything unsafe. Weddings go ahead regardless, and I will have scouted a covered option during the venue visit.
No, and here is the reasoning rather than a policy: the raw set contains blinks, test exposures and duplicates that do not represent the work, and the colour is only decided in the edit. You receive every frame I would stand behind, at full resolution. If there is a specific moment you remember and cannot find in the gallery, ask and I will go back and look for it.
Previews land within four days for every commission. The full edit takes ten days for a sitting, two weeks for brand and editorial work, and four weeks for a wedding. During the busiest weeks of the year a wedding can run to five, and I will tell you that before you book rather than after.
Yes. Anything within roughly two hours by road is covered by the standard rate. Beyond that I add travel at cost and, for anything requiring an overnight stay, one night of accommodation. All of it is itemised in the written quote — there are no mileage surprises afterwards.
Brand and editorial commissions include a two-year licence for your own website, social accounts, print collateral and press use. Resale, stock licensing and paid advertising placements are quoted separately because they change what the images are worth. Portrait and wedding clients can print, share and reproduce their pictures freely for personal use.
Sittings can move with three days’ notice at no charge. Weddings can be moved once to any available date within twelve months; if no date works, the booking fee covers the time already held. Cancellations more than sixty days out are refunded in full apart from that booking fee.
Reserve a date
One short form, one reply from me — usually the same evening, always with a figure in it.