Hold the 'Cheese!'

Long before Alicia Ryan Loos became a professional photographer, she knew what she liked when she looked at a photo.

Just as important, she also knew what she didn’t like.

It’s those personal preferences and high standards that she brings to , a business she started 3 ½ years ago out of her home after 11 years in advertising.

“I would look at a lot of good photographs and head shots of actors and models and I thought, ‘I could take pictures like that of my own kids,’” Loos said.

That’s exactly what she did, first posting photos she took of her own children on Facebook, then posting pictures of her girlfriend’s children. It didn’t take long to get the feedback she was seeking.

“The response was immediate,” Loos said. “People started asking who that photographer was and where they could call. I started booking things on the weekends."

Within a year, she had become too busy to just work out of her house. It was while she and her family were on an outing to in downtown Wyandotte that Loos noticed a “For Lease” sign hanging in the window of the former Owl’s Corner gift shop. Despite the fact that it was “a little scary,” Loos took the jump, thanks to the encouragement of her husband. From that, Purple Frog Photography opened for business on June 1, 2010.

Now, just a little more than a year since it opened, the frog is on the move again.

While maintaining the office she has had for 14 months, Loos is now using a 1,200-foot loft studio above the businesses next to her office, as well.

“It’s label-free and really just a blank canvas,” Loos said, adding that in addition to using it herself, she also rents the space to other photographers and artists who need a place to work. “There’s so much natural light. I’m a natural light photographer, and this is just wonderful.”

The studio space also means she will be working throughout the winter months to keep up with demand, especially as her business grows, thanks to more people seeing her work.

While she shoots family portraits and weddings, she admits . And by newborns, she doesn’t mean infants. She means newborns.

“When I photograph a newborn, I try to shoot them within the first seven days,” Loos said, adding one new mom called Loos “the baby whisperer” because she was able to put the newborn to sleep so quickly.

And if the path Loos took to becoming a photographer is a little unorthodox, so is her approach to her work.

Parents and families who come in expecting to be told to sit still, smile and say “cheese” are in for a surprise.

“I don’t put a time on my sessions," Loos said, adding that some of her sessions have gone four hours or more. "I work until I get what I think I need."

Similarly, it’s often during the “downtime,” when kids are allowed to roll around on the floor, play with their toys and just relax, that Loos gets the best shots and captures the true spirit of that child.

“I don’t want kids to perform," she said. "I want kids to be kids. I’ll chase them around and play cars with them. Whatever it takes.

“Then, when the parents come back and see the photos, they say: 'Oh my God, that’s my child. You captured my child.' When a parent cries, I know I did my job.”

She uses the same approach to photographing weddings, understanding that what is important to the bride often isn’t what’s important to other family members. (And she intends to shoot what is important to the bride.)

With that in mind, the traditional pictures–a couple cutting a wedding cake, an entire family lined up at the altar, etc.–aren’t what she shoots.

“Brides are breaking the mold when it comes to weddings, and that includes photography,” Loos said, who, when she herself was getting married, wasn’t happy with the type of work other photographers were doing, so much so that she opted not to have a wedding photographer. “Brides spend a year working on the smallest details. That’s what I photograph. A pair of shoes or a little favor. I want to capture those moments”

Despite the fact that Loos has moved from working out of her house to having her first office to having a full studio within two years, she said she has no intentions of slowing down. She would love to franchise her business and expand even more. More than that, though, she wants to be known for the quality of work she does.

“I want to be known as the baby photographer,” Loos said. “I know other photographers who won’t work with kids, but I love it. They’re so uninhibited. It’s my passion.”

(To see some of the work done at Purple Frog Photography, .)