When Tom Raffelt, New England Studio, LLC of Keene, New Hampshire was asked what differentiates his studio from others, his response was simply, "We do what the other studios never get around to." Tom's philosophy is that to survive in this economic climate, it is imperative to have a public face and "be active in the community, doing and giving." With the majority of the studio's business coming from senior portraits, Tom puts a lot of emphasis on reinforcing the studio name with the high school community. They hold classes for the local high schools on digital photography and give two $1,000 scholarships each year to deserving high school seniors. Everyone who visits New England Studio leaves with promotional material; there are also monthly give-aways to increase their e-mail list. Tom even includes his personal cell phone number on his business card and web site.                                                                  
 
Tom is also very active with the local Chamber of Commerce, again keeping the name of the studio in front of the business public, who have family portrait needs (families, babies, high school seniors, weddings) in addition to publicity photographs. Tom knows that a Chamber of Commerce is a great place to network with other business owners and professionals.
 
A believer in location-location-location, Tom moved his studio a few years ago from Brattleboro, Vermont to Keene and a corner location on a busy street - with a stop light. The red lights are great for Tom and New England Studio; the thousands who are "stuck" everyday at the light have the opportunity to view his work through the large display windows.
 
Tom's photographic education stemmed from multiple workshops, books and tapes, but he is always looking for new photographic opportunities and places to work. He recently walked to the studio a different way after parking his car and found an alley that was perfect for photographing high school seniors (which he used just an hour later). His continuing education has been with html, code writing, web design and Photoshop. "These classes are invaluable to my business. I have the ability to update my own site, write the code, optimize photos and work intelligently with business clients. In this day of the internet, all of the computer knowledge one can get is very helpful."
 
Marketing is very important; his billboard studio on the corner of a busy downtown street with his website and telephone number displayed prominently with the portraits in the window has prompted telephone calls from people sitting at the red light. His greatest forms of marketing are from referrals and through his website. "We post new items every day and people know this and visit it regularly. We started a slick newsletter with Constant Contact which goes out every two weeks. We always feature local people, especially local high school students, who LOVE to sit at the computer and look at their photos as well as their friends', so we put as many as possible on our website. We put new photos on our blog every few days and combine the photos with a personal message to the student such as good luck Johnny at Harvard."
 
Tom attributes his success with core values. "I think too many businesses do not concentrate on their strengths and try anything and everything. They are shooting at a moving target and never hitting it. One of the best set of business books I have utilized is Good to Great by Jim Collins. He has made a "Hedgehog Concept", which are three overlapping business ideals.  First, know what you are passionate about, then know what you are the best at in the world, and finally, what drives your economic engine. We stand out because we are good at what we do, we know what we are the best at, and our economic engine is driven by a maximum profit from each individual client. Although we have many branches of business, we do not concentrate on just Babies by Tom, since that is not enough these days, but we keep our core of what we are good at, while always trying new things; we do NOT waiver from our core. We have a framed saying, 'Preserve the core, Stimulate progress' that says it all."
  
Tom uses Fuji equipment, primarily the Fuji S5 and S3. He learned from Will Crockett that a great white balance and a perfect exposure are most critical. He always views a quick preview on the back of his camera to be sure that his lights are doing what he wants them to be doing. The outdoor portraits are created with reflectors, blockers and fill flash. "Since we do so many high school seniors, the most important piece of outdoor equipment is the light blocker over their head so as not to blow out the highlights on their foreheads." Because he uses ROES Ready to Print with Natural Color, Tom is the one responsible for making all of the last minute adjustments. The images are color corrected and tones are adjusted in Lightroom before going into Photoshop for retouching and improving the general look.        

                                                                                                      

With so many labs in the country, his lab of choice is Natural Color, "We use Natural Color Lab because they are all real people. They truly care about your progress because that is their progress as well. Many times they have gladly rushed orders out to meet my deadlines. NCL has held special mini learning sessions for our entire studio and Frank Shelley has offered to visit the studio and help with anything I need and Charlie has such a calm demeanor that when you call all frazzled, you hang up nice and calm with your issue resolved."
 
New England Studio, LLC and Natural Color Lab - a great marriage! It takes teamwork to be successful and Tom Raffelt has found it with his philosophy, work ethic and his lab partner. 
 

Susan Baez is Natural's Employee of the Month. Susan works in our quality control department making sure your orders are complete and the quality of the work is up to Natural Color Lab's standards.  Susan has worked for Natural for almost twelve years. She is extremely dependable and comes to work everyday with a great attitude. Susan has one daughter, Jenna, who is a high school senior this year.  As employee of the Month, Susan receives a free tank of gasoline each week in August.