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ANNOUNCER: Welcome to No BS Photo Success Digital Photography Shop Talk brought to you by NO BS Photo Success Photography Forum. Dedicated to the portrait and wedding photographer who has the passion and desire to grow. Now here's your host, John Bentley.

JOHN: Today on the No BS Photo Success Digital Photography Shop Talk, we have Strabane, Pennsylvania, photographer, Maria Sauserman, of Studio M Photographic, joining us this morning. Welcome to the program, Maria.

MARIA: Thank you.

JOHN: You have quite a thriving photography business down there in Pittsburgh. Why don't you give us just a little overview of what you're up to.

MARIA: Well, our studio is mainly portraits. We do everything from babies to families to senior pictures and of course weddings, a little bit of commercial work on the side, but that's basically the bulk of our work.

JOHN: Now you have some very impressive photographs on your site. I browsed through some of them.

MARIA: Well thank you.

JOHN: Absolutely love babies, children. You have some great photos on your site. How is it working with children?

MARIA: Kids are the best, you know, because you get the best expressions out of them. They're not, you know, sometimes when you deal with family members and parents when you have adults they tend to be a little bit, you know, react differently to the camera than a baby or a small child does. So they are probably one of my favorite types of photography because they are just very true to how they feel and they never hold back either way. It's always fun to have them.

JOHN: Now that's why I always cry when I have my picture taken.

MARIA: I understand. I don't like to photograph myself, but I love being on the other side of the camera.

JOHN: Well there you go. Now, Maria, you also have some very nice maternity photographs on your site. Tell us a little bit about taking a session with a gal like that.

MARIA: Well the maternity sessions seem to become very popular in the last year especially here at our studio. As soon as we put them on the website, it seems like we started getting a lot of calls for those type of portraits to be done, and it's really neat because most of the women who come here to get their maternity portraits done almost always come back for their baby pictures, and they join our big day collection which is pretty nice because they bring their baby back several times in a year. So it really ties everything in together and builds a nice relationship with people as well. So maternity is a lot of fun and there's so much you can do with it and it's such an exciting time. It's really a pleasure to and an honor really to be part of somebody's life in that way.

JOHN: Now you take from the very beginning conception all the way through high school. You do seniors, right?

MARIA: We do a lot of seniors. That's probably what we do the most of and it's really a lot of fun to do, because most teenagers are into a lot of different things, you know, anywhere from sports to whatever activities they are interested in, and it's really neat to see their personalities and work with them in that sense. I always like to try to get them into the more edgy side of whatever it is that they are into. Just the other day, we had a kid come in with a skateboard and he said I just wanted an image on this white back ground with a skateboard, and I said, you want an image on a white background with a skateboard, you're crazy. We need to go outside and you need to skate. So I had him up on top of a hill skating down towards me, and it was just such an awesome, fun day to do that kind of stuff, and he just loved the portraits. It's just fun to deal with them, because again, a lot like children they're still pretty open to be photographed. Seniors are pretty neat.

JOHN: Now I would imagine that, especially this time of year, you are doing a lot of weddings.

MARIA: Oh yes, almost every weekend, but it's definitely a pleasure and nothing more fun and a bigger honor than being part of somebody's life on that day. The weddings that we do, most of them tend to be in the city of Pittsburgh so there's a lot of really great locations and venues that we go to and just a lot of fun.

JOHN: Now weddings pretty much a one shot opportunity with something like that isn't it?

MARIA: Oh, absolutely. You better get what you're going to get on that day and it's really neat to see the wedding progress, because most of the time we start before the actual wedding itself at the church so we'll get getting ready images of the bride and all the way through the reception so it's really nice to and plus we tend to build a really nice relationship with the brides and grooms, because we meet with them several times before the wedding including their engagement sessions that we do for them before the actual wedding day. It's really neat to get to the wedding part of it, because that's when everything comes together.

JOHN: Now we're talking about your photography business; let's talk a little bit about you, Maria Sauserman.

MARIA: Ok.

JOHN: Why did you decide to become a photographer?

MARIA: Photography kind of happened to me by accident. It's not what I went to school for initially. I worked for 8 years...I had a degree in mathematical sciences and really was very unhappy with my job, and my husband suggested that I purchase a nice camera, but he didn't specify how I could spend or what I should do with it so I came home not long after that, and I not only bought a camera and a few lenses and some lights and I racked up a credit card for almost $10,000 so it was kind of a fluke. He almost killed me, but it was the best thing I ever did. I promised him that I would have it paid off within a few months; he laughed, and I did within 5 months had it paid off, and I started the studio out of my home which at the time was not even called Studio M. It had a really lame name so I changed it later, but that's basically how I started in photography, and not long after I started, and I really needed some help, because I didn't quite know what I was doing, I ran into somebody who told me about No BS, and No BS was by far the best thing that ever happened to me. I owe a lot of people on that sight a lot for all their help and the things that they've done for me. And that's one of the big reasons I am where I am today. It's because of No BS Photo Success. It's a pretty amazing cool place to be.

JOHN: Well on that note, we're going to have to take a break, and when we come back, we're going to talk a little bit about No BS Photo Success.

MARIA: Ok.

JOHN: RIght now we are in the studio with Strabane, Pennsylvania, photographer, Maria Sauserman, of Studio M Photographic. Maria, before we take a break, would you kindly give your website address and contact information.

MARIA: Absolutely. Our website is www.studiom.ms and our phone number (724) 745-4405.

JOHN: And we will be right back.

MARIA: Ok.

ANNOUNCER: This program is sponsored by NO BS Photo Success Photography Forum. Visit them on the web at www.nobsphotosuccess.com. NO BS Photo Success dedicated to the portrait and wedding photographer who has the passion and desire to grow.

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ANNOUNCER: www.morephotos.com helps professional photographers manage their digital images online in over 20 countries. They can help you with domain names, websites, shopping carts, and online proofing solutions. Please visit them at www.morephotos.com. www.morephotos.com the online sales solution for professional photographers worldwide. We now return you to the NO BS Photo Success Digital Photography Shop Talk show with your host, John Bentley.

JOHN: Welcome back to the NO BS Photo Success Digital Photography Shop Talk. We are in th studio with Strabane, Pennsylvania, photographer, Maria Sauserman, of Studio M Photographic. Welcome back to the program, Maria.

MARIA: Thank you.

JOHN: Now we've been talking about your studio in Strabane and the types of photography you do. I did want to bring up the fact that after going to your website, I was able to see that you have quite a nice gallery in your studio. Tell us a little bit about that, and tell us a little bit about the origin of your studio too.

MARIA: Well initially when I started my business, I started out of my home, but it grew so quickly it became a real issue with my family and space and such so I started looking for a place to rent and found out quickly that that would have been a really big mistake considering the cost of renting in my area. Obviously Pittsburgh is not a cheap city so I started looking to buy, and after searching a little bit found an old bowling alley that had not been used since 1984. It had been closed and I put a bid on it and after a while we ended up purchasing this old bowling alley that needed a whole lot of renovations. About 11 months later we were done renovating it, and we turned the bowling alley into a 6300 square foot state of the art studio. It's very pretty. You walk in, everything is red. Our logo has a big red M so everything for us is the color red, and when you walk in there is just a very nice area where we have several portraits hung that we try to switch around often and then when you walk in past that there's a nice open studio. So it's rather large which is great, because it gives us a lot of room to do a lot of things, but it was a very good find for us.

JOHN: Well speaking of good finds, it looks like running across the No BS Photo Success website was a good find for you, wasn't it?

MARIA: Yes. It was a very good find and at the right time as well, because it just took my photography to a whole different level. I mean really, No BS served as two and still serves as two very important factors in my business. First and foremost is what I've learned from them. All the digital downloads and what they have available there, everything from actions to videos that they have that you can look at and see how to create something or how someone created something. There's a ton of vendors on there and any time I have a question if I don't know how to do something, I go on there and post something and minutes later there's like 5 answers and it's the best thing in the world, because I can ask all the questions in the world and always get some really good ideas and answers and the other side of it is the friendships I've created because of that. And having gone to the Inferno, and I've met Rob and I've met James, and I've talked to them, and they're just really amazing people and, I mean, everybody on the websise is pretty amazing. So it's a great place to be.

JOHN: Now do they help you with the marketing of your business?

MARIA: There is a section that does marketing, and yes, I have asked several questions and even posted ideas. A lot of time with brainstorm things together like if I throw something and ask for an opinion. Someone else throws something as well, and we kind of just come together and get ideas, because really we're in no competition with each considering there's photographers from everywhere. You know, I'm just a studio in Pennsylvania. So if I'm sharing ideas with somebody in Hawaii, what does it really matter.

JOHN: So it's quite a nice community, a family of photographers that you can toss some things out and get some response back on then, huh?

MARIA: Absolutely.

JOHN: Now do they actually help you with the actual design of your studio at all? Do you have any questions along those lines?

MARIA: Whenever I purchased the studio, like I said, it was an old bowling alley that had been closed since 1984, and it was actually in horrible shape. The roof had caved in and I mean everything was just disgusting. It needed redone from top to bottom. Basically there is only two things that I kept in my studio and that was the old maple floors from the bowling alley and they outer shell of the building which is brick. Everything else went from windows to flooring to 340 sheets of drywall. So when I purchased the studio in the bad shape that it was, I photographed every area in every room, and Photoshopped some text in there and I posted on No BS and said I just got this building, now what do I do with it, you know, and I did get a lot of great feedback including changing my name to Studio M, because I was not happy with my business name at the time. So we've only been Studio M for about a year and 2 or 3 months. But our clients know we used to be another studio and we sent out newsletters and stuff so it worked out pretty well. It was a great time to change the name considering I moved into a new studio.

JOHN: Well we certainly appreciate you for joining us today on the No BS Photo Success Digital Photography Shoptalk, Maria.

MARIA: Well thank you.

JOHN: We've been in the studio with Maria Sauserman, of Studio M Photographic, of Strabane, Pennsylvania, and before I say goodbye to you, Maria, why don't you give your website and contact information again please.

MARIA: Our website is www.studiom.ms and our number is (724) 745-4405.

JOHN: That's going to do it for the No BS Photo Success Digital Photography Shop Talk today.

MARIA: Ok.

JOHN: Everybody thank you for joining in. Have a great afternoon.

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