GA_041218

16 | April 12, 2018 | The glencoe anchor News
glencoeanchor.com
Classic Kids Photography to celebrate 20-year anniversary
Glencoe resident is
head photographer
Alan P. Henry
Freelance Reporter
“A true
photograph
need not be
explained,”
said the
master 20th
century photographer
Hartung
Ansel Adams,
“nor can it be contained
in words.”
For 20 years, Julie Floyd
and her team of professionals
at Classic Kids
Photography in Winnetka
have captured the spirit of
Adams’ words, creating
images that silently tell
ever-evolving and deeply
personal stories.
Classic Kids will be celebrating
the anniversary
with champagne and a
ribbon-cutting ceremony
at its newly renovated and
reimagined studio from
6-9 p.m. Thursday, April
19, in the Laundry Mall,
566 Chestnut St. in Winnetka.
Past clients are encouraged
to bring their
Classic Kids photographs
to display at the party or to
email pictures of their photographs
to Classic Kids to
be posted to social media
leading up to the event.
Floyd, who owns 11
Classic Kids photography
studios nationwide, said
her firm’s success is all
about “passion.”
“I am still crazy in love
with what I do,” she said.
“Children are the most
beautiful things in the
world and I am crazy passionate
about capturing
their beauty.”
Together with Glencoe’s
Natalie Hartung, who has
been the lead photographer
in the Winnetka studio for
the last 12 years, Floyd has
seen children of all ages
photographed periodically
over the years grow into
adulthood.
“We get to know our clients
very well, and over
time they become like family,”
said Floyd, a longtime
resident of Wilmette, now
Winnetka. “At least monthly
I get stopped in the aisles
at The Grand by a mom who
wants to reminisce about
their past photography sessions.
... It is so touching
to hear how important our
photographs have been in
their families’ lives.”
“It’s hard to believe we’ve
been a staple for families on
the North Shore and in Chicago
for so many years,”
Hartung said in an email.
Floyd’s journey to professional
photographer
and photo studio owner
was a circuitous one. After
graduating from law school
at Northwestern University,
the Wisconsin native
worked for six years in
Chicago for Baker McKenzie
and Jenner & Block.
When the first of their
four sons was born, “I just
completely fell in love,
and I wanted to capture every
little piece of him and
preserve it,” she said.
After going to a professional
photographer to have
pictures taken of him when
he was 1, “bells and whistles
went off in my head.
Why am I in tax law when I
could be doing this?”
Always a camera hobbyist,
she took it to the
next level. While working
part-time in law, she apprenticed
for free with a
photographer for roughly a
year and learned the trade.
Shortly after she and her
husband Chuck moved
to San Francisco for his
work, she opened her first
Classic Kids studio.
“After switching professions,
I never looked back,
Classic Kids will be celebrating the anniversary with a champagne and a ribbon-cutting ceremony from 6-9 p.m.
Thursday, April 19, in the Laundry Mall, 566 Chestnut St., Winnetka. Glencoe resident Natalie Hartung has been the
lead photographer in the studio for the last 12 years. Photos Submitted
and it has been an awesome
ride,” she said.
After the family moved
to Winnetka, Floyd opened
Classic Kids locally. Other
studios followed, including
in Manhattan and Los
Angeles, but the Laundry
Mall serves as her primary
studio, all of them specializing
in fine art child and
family portraiture.
“My mantra has always
been to make sure what you
are doing is classic, that is
it going to stand the test of
time, that there is no gimmicky
anything, and that it
be fresh,” Floyd said.
Products include handedged
prints, hand-soldered
photo art, custom
framed canvas, photo
greeting cards and albums.
Maintaining quality
control and staying abreast
of technological advances
have also been keys to
success, she said. Unlike
The Winnetka studio space was recently renovated and remodeled.
many photo studios, Classic
Kids has its own lab, located
in Evanston, and all
digital images from every
studio are processed there
under Floyd’s watchful
eye. Photos are shot with a
Nikon D850 camera.
Floyd has filled her own
home with framed images
of her sons growing up,
and wouldn’t have it any
other way.
“When I look at my
pictures now I can almost
smell that sweet baby
smell and almost feel them
in a way that I would have
long forgotten,” she said.
That is what she wants
for her clients, as well: “to
capture those little special
moments and those special
details about your family
that will mean everything
to you when you are older,
and are going to be everything
to your children, and
they will show them to
their children.”