Photography studios are a dime a dozen in Louisville, Ky. The market is very competitive and there is no short of talented photographers in the metro area. One of the city’s newest photography studios has taken a new approach to the industry and is literally turning its clients into stars.
Echilann Images, located in the Professional Building at 3934 Dixie Hwy suite #440, hosted its Grand Opening on Saturday May 21, 2016 and has already taken custom photography to new heights. Their unique combination of photography and graphic design is like photography on STEROIDS!
Owners – Milann Miles, Michelle-Lock Miles, and Shantel Wright have created customized imagery professionally for a little over a year and have now officially opened their first photography studio.
The team decided that instead of photographing their clients in front of traditional style backgrounds – they would custom create memorable moments that cater to the personalities of those being captured on film.
The imaging process entails conducting a photoshoot with a client (in or out of studio) and then the team uses composite photography to add a detailed custom background.
Composite photography is the act of forming a single photograph by superimposing two or more separate photographs. Shooting a composite image is a skilled technique which requires shooting multiple shots from multiple angles.
“I am a self-taught photographer but I kind of went from a backwards standpoint. I actually got the compositing part down first and then I started focusing more and more on actual photography.” – Milann Miles
At Echilann Images, an in-studio photoshoot can be given the appearance that it was taken in front of the Eiffel Tower in France or anywhere else in the world. The process is so detailed that birds, clouds, sunsets or any other imaginable object can be incorporated into the image. Once complete, the images are so life-like that it’s impossible to determine what objects in the background were added.
“What separates Echilann Images is that we concentrate on creative photography. We like to do things that are a little bit unorthodox… We like to do things that incorporate a little bit of imagery with the actual photography background.” – Milann Miles
Custom imagery takes on an entirely new meaning at Echilann. For example; Echilann Images has created a group of sessions entitled the “Love In Hip Hop” series. The concept of these sessions is to recreate memorable scenes from some of hip-hop’s most celebrated classic photos and videos.
The infamous “drop top” image of The Notorious B.I.G. & Faith Evans was recreated by Echilann with a twist. The photoshoot took place in the parking lot of a Louisville, Ky bowling alley, in the backseat of a blue convertible.
Graphic designing allowed Echilann Images to change the color of the vehicle, add a lakefront scene in the background and change the hair color on the female in the photo to match that of Faith Evans at the time. The original photo with B.I.G. & Faith is the upper image and Echilann’s recreation is the image on the bottom.
Other recreations from the “Love In Hip-Hop” series include Common & Erykah Badu’s “Love of My Life” video as well as Method Man & Mary J. Blige’s, “All I Need”. Legendary Louisville rapper Father Jah, portrays Method Man in the “All I Need” image.
In just over a year, Echilann Images has created custom work for high school students who wanted something out of the ordinary for their Senior Pictures – as well as provided composite photography for the Kentucky State University Dance Team and the choir of St. Stephen Church.
Over the past year, the team has been essentially working out of their vehicles and conducting photoshoots in the homes or on the property of their clients. The team was reluctant about acquiring a photography studio after only being in business for a year but Michelle-Locke Miles convinced her two partners that based on her husband’s skill set – it was the best move.
“The fact that nobody else is doing this… He’s [Milann Miles] like Louisville’s Derek Blanks when you think about…Doing composites, alter egos and we haven’t seen that here until now. I think that there’s a huge market for our work” – Michelle-Locke Miles
Milann Miles handles most of the photography and graphic designing while Wright handles the PR/Marketing for the company. Michelle-Locke Miles and Wright also assist with the concepts and ideas for the images.
It is not uncommon for Michelle-Locke Miles and Wright to be on the location of a photoshoot and alter the concept of the session based on the personalities of the clients or due to a new vibe that they feel from the experience.
“We always ask people to give us about two-and-a-half to three hours… We never need all of that but we always ask for you to give us that window to shoot the photos so that we don’t feel rushed – you don’t feel rushed – and we can give you good quality work.” – Shantel Wright
Pricing is reasonable but varies depending on the concept and detail involved in creating the images. All packages come with the images installed on a 8gb usb flash drive as well as the printed images that are included with the specific package.
All shots from the photoshoot that do not make the cut of printed images will be installed on the usb and all the rights are released to the client in case they want to have them printed elsewhere at a later date.
Contact Echillann Images at EchilannImages.com… Echilann Images on Facebook, and @echilannimages on Instagram.
Brad Harrison is a journalist/motivational speaker/entrepreneur and on-air personality. He earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications with cum laude honors from the University of Louisville. In October 2015, he started UrbanMaxx Magazine to provide positive role models for Urban residents that reside in at-risk-communities and lack positive leadership in their lives.
For booking or advertising – contact Brad Harrison at bradharrison@urbanmaxx.com