Venture puts new spin on family portrait

Stiff, posed, run-of-the-mill family portraits are out, and vibrant, modern, candid captured moments are in.

That’s according to Pete Westlake and Johnny Foster of the newly opened Venture Photography studio in Hannibal Square.

“We ask people what they’re trying to say with their photos,” Westlake said, “then we do our best to take pictures of who they are, not what they look like.”

The Winter Park location, which held its grand opening Saturday, Sept. 10, is the British photography company’s fifth to open in the United States, and the first in Florida. The business is committed to modernizing America’s family portraits.

“We’re trying to convince people to see their pictures as pieces of art, not just family portraits,” Foster said.

All about you

At the Venture studio you’re not going to be given any fake plants to pose next to, faux-marble pillars to lean on in posed thought, or duct tape X’s to stand on.

Instead, for your session, Westlake said, the photographer will ask you to bring your own props to fill the all-white background on which each shoot takes place.

“The limit is what you can fit through the door,” Westlake said. From your pet to your motorcycle, he said, Venture Photography encourages its customers to bring in whatever they feel captures who they are.

Gardeners bring soil, artists bring paint, and extreme sports fans bring their skateboards, bikes and motorcycles. “It helps them be natural,” he said.

But it takes more than that to get the candid “in the moment” shots they are after. Each of their three photographers spent 12 weeks training and learning the Venture way in the United Kingdom earlier this year.

“The biggest skill set they need to learn is to have people forget they’re in front of the camera,” Westlake said.

Anna Elias, of Orlando, visited Venture Photography after they initially opened in mid-August for pictures of herself, her husband and their 8-year-old daughter. Her daughter brought her favorite stuffed animals and pens, markers and paper to draw on, while she and her husband also decided to do a play on their artistic side, bringing their own cameras to play around with during the hour-long photo shoot.

“It made the pictures very real, and I loved that,” Elias said. “The smiles, even of my 8-year-old, are real and fun, and the joy that they captured on our faces together was just perfect.”

Want to spice up more than your family portraits? Check out these other newly opened spots in downtown Winter Park:

Bay Hill Jewelers

216 N. Park Ave. Suite J

321-442-0948

Cocina 214

151 E. Welbourne Ave.

407-790-7997

iLashWorks

290 N. Park Ave.

407-622-0226

Kilwins

122 N. Park Ave.

407-622-6292

La Belle Intimates

411 W. New England Ave.

407-790-7820

Making new business

Venture Photography isn’t the only new business in town. Dori Debord, director of Winter Park Economic Development, said new openings have bumped the downtown Park Avenue area of Winter Park to a vacancy rate of just less than 5 percent. The rest of Winter Park boasts a slightly higher vacancy rate, at 7-9 percent.

“Our downtown businesses have faired really well during these tough economic times,” she said.

Jay Rupert, the sales representative for the Park Avenue Area Association, said he’s noticed downtown restaurants doing particularly well, while businesses like the area’s high-end art galleries aren’t fairing quite as well.

But he said, “People are still going out and going to enjoy the few luxury things that they can.”

Foster and Westlake with Venture Photography feel that their modern portraits will fall into one of those luxuries still afforded.

“We want people to feel like with our pictures they’re investing in a piece of art with them in it,” Westlake said.

Learn more

For more information on Venture Photography, to book a session or see samples of their work, call 321-397-9460 or visit http://www.venturephotography.com/uk/studios/orlando