May 16, 2017

Meet Michael Henry of Tiny Space Studio in Wrigleyville

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael henry.

Michael, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I am an advertising photographer that has recently relocated back to Chicago after spending a decade in LA. As an advertising photographer, I shoot for clients such as Adidas, Old Navy, Target, Xbox, Macys, Reebok and other, mostly apparel brands. I relocated back to Chicago after having my son, now age 3 and wanting to be closer to family and for him to grow up with the same experiences that I had as a kid.

Although I still shoot advertising and travel quite a bit for shoots, I also wanted to start a boutique portrait studio that catered to actors and business professionals, (and soon kids portraits and women’s beauty shots) that brings a commercial level of photography to consumers. My hope is that through great lighting, direction and expert retouching, we can provide editorial style, professional portraits, to anyone who wants to improve their image. Whether it be for their acting headshot, business or dating profile, we simply want to provide people with the best headshot or portrait they have ever had. So, I created Tiny Space Studio, a small portrait / headshot studio on the north side of Chicago.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Tiny Space Studio has been open for less than a year, but we have had much success and made many new friends since our doors opened in October of 2016. With little marketing and a lot of word of mouth, we have been booked solid most of the time. I always try and leave some open time slots for last minute clients, but so far it’s been a great experience and the best part is seeing how happy a great portrait can make people feel.

We will be working on a fine art beauty portrait and kids’ portfolio over the next few months, and that will take time and have its challenges, but we look forward to every minute of it.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
We are a small boutique portrait and headshot studio that brings commercial quality photography to consumers. We have taken our past experience shooting celebrities and advertising and applied those skills to shooting portraits of anyone who wants one.

For the most part, no one likes or wants to have their photo professionally taken. Many times people come in because they need a head shot for a speaking engagement or because their company requested one and they have very low expectations. I just love the looks on people’s faces when they see how good their photo really is. Sometimes it’s pure amazement and it’s the best part of my job.

What were you like growing up?
I grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan and was a fairly quiet kid. I rolled with a small, but tight group of friend and I think it’s possible that we partied and skipped more school than most. I was always more interested in my art classes than anything else academically, which eventually lead me to Columbia College here in Chicago, studying film, photography, theater and though I never officially studied it, always had an interest in business.

Pricing:

$200 for a half hour session – includes 1 look and 1 hi-res retouched image
$250 1-2 hour session that covers 3-4 looks, also including one hi-resolution retouched image.
After that it’s a la carte – $40 dollars per image or you can buy all the images from your session for $135 (which includes 2 additional retouched images)

Contact Info: