Hey there and thank you for joining me for another episode of YQG In Bloom.
My name is Tracy Martens and today I am here with Michelle Jemade and she is the owner
and operator of Moonlight Self-Portrait Studio which is brand new in downtown Windsor.
How are you doing?
I'm good.
How are you?
I'm good.
Now what the heck is a self-portrait studio?
Okay.
So, it's a way to get professional headshots and professional portraits of families, even
pets without having a photographer and like the pressure of somebody telling you how to
pose or like looking at you while you're taking pictures.
You're a little bit more free to do as you please in a way.
So how many rooms do you have in the studio?
So we have currently we have two rooms.
One of them is a little bit smaller than the other one and then the smaller one has like
more colorful backgrounds and it's a little more playful and then the bigger room is like
a white and black kind of theme.
So white background, black background and it's full body.
The smaller room is only like maybe half thigh up.
Yeah.
So it's like good for headshots and like just more closer up images.
That's really interesting.
So the cameras are in there and the backdrops are in there and now is there a photographer
in there or I know it's a self-portrait.
Who takes pictures?
So with a with so we have two screens.
One of them is a live feed and then the other one is the last picture taken.
So with a click of a button, you set the camera off to take your picture and you can review
it on one of the screens and then the other one will show you like what you're doing at
the moment.
So you can pose and see if it looks good and then take the picture.
So when did you open this?
We've had the location since November but due to like a few different things plus we
had to renovate and actually create the rooms because it was just one open space and we
had like a floor plan of how we wanted the room set up and all that.
We actually started to actually be able to operate a month ago.
Oh okay.
So in March of 2024.
Yes.
What gave you this idea?
I love taking pictures like I think a lot of us do.
Oh yeah.
And like taking your pictures with your phone.
Usually iPhones are pretty good quality but it's always like a different angle like when
you're taking pictures of yourself or if somebody takes your picture.
Usually you have to take like 10,000 shots because you don't like this or you don't like
that.
Yep.
And so for my birthday, me and my cousin like almost share a birthday and she lives in Toronto.
So I went to go visit her and we did a self-portrait like studio session in Toronto because they
have a few in Toronto.
Oh okay.
And I just loved it.
Like it was a fun like experience and I really like loved the idea so I just toyed with it
for a while.
Yeah.
And I talked to my boyfriend.
I was like you know what like this would be a really good idea.
Like I really like it.
And then he also toyed with it and then we just decided like let's do it.
There's not one in Detroit.
There's not one in London.
There's not one in Windsor.
So it would be kind of like a new niche.
Yeah.
Because you said what?
Asia, the Philippines, Toronto.
Yes.
That's really popular in like the Philippines and in Asia.
They have a lot there.
But when like when we were doing research we found that their studios are like basically
the same as here.
But they're very like you know how they have like a lot of small things and all that.
And they're really cute.
Yeah.
They're really cute.
So I just I fell in love with the idea even more.
So yeah.
Now do you guys have any of that or is it just right now it's just plain?
No.
We do have like little knickknacks like necklaces.
We even have like a little board that you could write a message on.
We have like flowers.
Right now we actually have because Mother's Day is coming up.
We have like a big peacock chair decorated with like flowers and like things.
And we have a little setup for that.
I think for holidays what we're planning to do is like continuing to like Canada Day.
We'll set up something for Canada Day.
For different holidays so different themes.
That's a really great idea.
Come to me for Christmas stuff because our studio when we close it down I kept a lot
of the Christmas stuff because I mean you always need that.
And we had a beautiful whole setup and then we got shut down for COVID.
So we literally couldn't even roll it out.
I think we used it maybe four times.
Oh so it's brand new.
Yeah exactly.
And a lot of the little thrift stores and antique stores in Essex County I went around
to them and got a lot of really cute things to make it actually they weren't even really
Christmassy more homey.
Okay.
So it almost looked like a like a setup for like a living room.
Oh like Christmas shots.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah it was really cute.
So but you're not a photographer.
So not I didn't I didn't go to school for it or anything more like self-taught like
I said I do like taking pictures.
But my camera wasn't as high tech as the ones that we use in the studio.
So yeah.
But you know what we learned it was almost self-taught I think we did about four classes
and then the college went on strike.
So we just found some online courses from well-known reputable photographers who were
doing classes and figured it out from there and you just gradually get better and better
and better.
Yeah.
So do you have a photographer somebody there that if there's anything that needs to be
set up.
So my boyfriend actually he's really into it.
So he's taken some online courses and he does know photography.
We also have a videographer that we partnered with.
Oh that's awesome.
So how do you rent out the spaces.
So for the renting out part it depends on what your project consists of right.
If you need a smaller area we could rent you the small room bigger area the bigger room
or if you want like a whole the whole studio we also rent the whole studio because it's
set up with like the office has like a picture worthy I guess side to it.
And yeah so the whole studio is for rent.
So you can do anything from headshots on up to just fun.
Now how many people can fit in each room.
So in the small room we don't want to go more than four people.
We had when we were first doing like test shots and all that we had a family come in
with four people and it was good but we don't want to make it too tight so people are like
cramming in to get into the shot right.
Unless they're taking turns but we don't want to do more than four people in the small
room and then the big room because it's a little bit of a wider like length from the
camera to the backdrop we can do six people.
Oh that's good.
And you said it's in 30 minute increments.
Yes so we do 30 minute sessions.
Obviously you can book as many 30 minute sessions to equal up the time that you'd like and you
get like all the pictures like you can click the whole 30 minutes right and you'll get
all the pictures from that and then three prints.
Oh three prints that's wonderful.
Now how do they get the error is it on Dropbox.
No on Google Drive.
Oh okay Google Drive.
That's just like a link it's like super easy.
You just I send you the email and you click the link and everything's right there for
you.
Right while they're there they can pick the three that'll be printed out.
Yes so we have a review station with two iPads and we upload the pictures to the iPad and
then you just write down the numbers of the three prints that you'd like.
One of the prints is a four square collage so technically you get six prints because
too big for small and yeah so you can see that you're all your pictures from your session
and you can pick from there.
Now how is it being received so far in the last month?
Has it been really busy?
Because people don't know what a self-portrait studio is a lot of people are very curious
so like we've had a lot of walk-ins that are like oh what what are you guys so we walk
them through we tell them what it is and then usually people come back or they book online.
So we've had a few bookings this month and like kind of since we've opened but mostly.
Do you have any walk-ins?
Yes yes we've had walk-ins because downtown has a lot of foot traffic now that it's getting
warmer right because a lot of people like didn't really want to walk around when it
was cold but yeah we've had a few walk-ins.
That's awesome that you're doing that.
Now this is going to air after your opening which is April 28th and April 27th which is
tomorrow is the second day of the NFL draft it's going to be insane downtown what do you
have prepared for that?
So actually we have a little bit of a special because usually like we said it's 30 minute
sessions so we're having a five picture burst special for 15 bucks and you get the prints
as if you were in a photo booth so like the four prints on a strip.
Oh so you offer that as well.
So is it something that doing something like that can you take that on the road or is that
just in the studio?
So we are actually taking it on the road on May 4th we're going to the mama expo and that's
the same concept that we're going to do there.
We're going to be offering five picture bursts and then those five pictures will be printed
on a strip as if you were in a photo booth and then you also get them digitally.
Oh that's great I like that you get them digitally as well because everybody wants them for social.
Exactly.
That's great.
Now how much does something like that cost the five bursts?
The five bursts because we're doing them mostly for events it's probably going to range from
15 to 20 bucks but also it includes like two people so it's essentially pretty cost effective.
That's really good because I mean those photo booths can be really expensive and you can't
fit too much more than two in them so it's just two people?
Yeah if you want an extra person we're just going to do it at five dollars a person for
that but usually for the 30 minute sessions it's 20 dollars an extra person.
That's great I really really like this idea.
I can't believe that well me as a photographer didn't figure this out but that we are getting
something like this in Windsor and this is right downtown and it's 41 Park Street West
in Windsor Ontario and I mean we're right across the border from Detroit and you should
get a lot of traffic in here hopefully the summer will just go crazy.
Yeah I really hope so because I mean like I know I'm a walker in the downtown area like
even bar hopping or just even going to the river you walk up Ouellette right and it's
always fun to see like new things and like new things to do.
Yeah and it'll be nice if there's pop-ins available and on top of the regular.
If they wanted to book though they would go online to your website and what is that?
So it's Moonlight SP Studios the SP is for self-portrait it's just easier like the small
the last words.
.com.
Yes.com.
.com and you are on Instagram as well if people want to take a look because I know like my
friend Nina has been in there a few times and you've hired quite a few people and so
you get an idea and my friend Josie it was her birthday now did they bring in all those
balloons?
No we actually offer because we want to have kids parties in there we actually offer the
decorations for the birthday parties and for birthdays for even adults obviously.
Now is that extra?
Yes.
Okay.
It's not actually that expensive I wouldn't say.
No.
Now it is really inexpensive it's $48 for two people for the small room for 30 minutes
and $58 for the large room for 30 minutes for two people and then the small room is
a max of four people the large is a max of six and it's an extra $20 per person.
That is incredibly reasonable so I mean tacking on a little bit extra to have the balloon
really go on her Instagram and see it because that balloon collage was really beautiful
even the plain stuff with the pink backdrop and that it was really really nice.
Yeah the pink backdrop is like a crowd favorite.
It was at our studio as well the red one for Christmas yes it's hard to get and the green
one's really nice too but yeah the pink was our favorite we in fact I think we went through
a roll a large roll and a small roll because everybody likes it.
Like it makes your like your outfits pop a lot too right?
And your skin looks a little rosier as well you don't you don't think about that unless
you until you see the picture.
Yeah exactly.
Now and you have lighting as well.
Yes both rooms have lighting and it's so one room has a flash the other room has a large
strobe just to like you know make you look more beautiful.
Hide those imperfections.
Yeah the lighting really was really nice.
I did love the pictures and I couldn't believe it when you told me that you're sitting there
doing it yourself.
Yeah.
So that's pretty great and so you're going to be at the Mama Expo that's coming up in
May.
Yeah.
Do you have any other events booked yet?
Not yet.
Okay that's cool.
We're basically getting out there now.
So contact her if you want a book for an event because that's great for weddings and birthday
parties and going out there with the little five shot.
Little photo booth.
Why not?
Hey now how much does that cost?
Do you have that set up yet for what it would cost for a rental?
I think that we're working on that.
Okay so that's to be determined.
Yes.
No worries.
I mean your price lists are already reasonable so I'm sure it's going to it's going to be
really good and I really love this idea.
I'm excited I got to get in there myself.
Yes.
So if you guys want to get your pictures done have a few selfies you don't have to worry
about a photographer sitting there looking at you and telling you to pose a certain way.
You can be silly without having the cell phone.
Make sure you go to Moonlight Self-Portrait Studios and that's again Moonlight SP Studios
dot com and Instagram it's Moonlight SP Studio.
Yeah Studio.
We put the studios at the end of the website because eventually we want to have more than
one studio.
Exactly and Michelle I really do appreciate you coming in here and tell me about this
fabulous business that you've had.
Thank you for having me.
This is really exciting.
It is exciting.
I'm well I'm excited to see all these pictures and I definitely will catch you at the Mama
Expo and the Mama Expo is coming up in May in Windsor and where is that held at?
May 4th at the Capoto Club.
At the Capoto Club.
So and I know there's a lot of really good vendors that are going to be there as well
but if you want some pictures get in there and take a look with Michelle.
Will you be there?
Yes we'll be there.
Awesome.
Well thank you so much for being here today.
I really do appreciate it.
Thank you for having me.
Really appreciate that too.
And again my name is Tracy Martens and thank you again for joining me for another episode
of YQG in Bloom.
You guys have a great day.