Meet J Miguel Hernandez of JMiguel Photography in Roswell

Today we’d like to introduce you to J Miguel Hernandez.

J Miguel, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I realized I had a passion for photography when I picked up a camera for the first time to take pictures of my friend’s wedding. I started working on my Masters in Photography while working for pennies and starting a business. I received my Master of Photography from Professional Photographers of America in 1993. I received numerous awards on the way, taught classes, and later judged other photographer’s work. My first business location was only open for a few years till the business boomed and moved to the most known location, which was on a major road in Miami, Fl. The business started during a time when there was only film. I went and did weddings and events with heavy Hasselblads and later on developed the photos in my lab. Those were the days when you really had to know what you were doing in order to get good pictures, because of course, you couldn’t see how they were turning out. My business focused on quality, we specialized (and still do) in portrait photography and were considered the “it” photography studio in Miami. We lived through the transition over to digital photography which was a whole new world for photography. I didn’t hesitate to jump right into that world and start providing my clients with the new digitally designed albums, still always producing the best, archival quality. After over 30 years of having a booming business in Miami, I decided to move to Georgia and open up a business in Roswell. My wife and I, after having raised four daughters, decided to adopt our three grandchildren and moved our entire lives and business to Georgia to give them a better life. Our business in Roswell opened about 5 years ago. We purchased the house, putting a lot of work and money into it to create the beautiful building we have today up on a hill with a gazebo in the front.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It has been a hard and bumpy road because being an entrepreneur is always a challenge. With how many years I have been in the same business, I have experienced very low times and very high, prosperous times; I have even experienced an economical depression, and made it through. In all, the business has been a success. The only thing smooth about my journey, however, is that I love what I do; I love every minute of it.

Please tell us about JMiguel Photography.
We are a family business. We are a photography studio for basic portrait and event needs, but also a photo gallery that displays our fine art landscape photography. We have always specialized in portrait photography and have been known for our superior quality. Everything we produce at our studio is archival. Our prints are mounted onto hard cardboard and then sprayed with a lacquer coating to preserve the image and be displayed without any glass for years to come. Our images are adjusted to perfect color and density and usually retouched to create a perfect, spotless image. Our albums are adjusted about three times before printing and undergo a similar process to our prints. We also do portraits or even portrait paintings on canvas which are printed using special materials, the canvas is later mounted onto a frame with stretchers to create the perfect fine art signature canvas. Even our invitations and Christmas cards are photographic quality.

We are definitely most proud of our high quality. We put a lot of work into our images, prints, albums, canvases, etc. and we enjoy creating such a fine and high quality product. We love to know that we can offer our clients the best possible quality in portraiture.

What sets us apart is not only our quality; our studio is incredibly diverse, offering portrait photography for any occasion such a business portraits, maternity, newborn, family portraits, senior portraits. Then of course, we can take care of photography and cinematography for all of life’s events such as weddings, bar mitzvah, birthdays, debutante parties, and corporate events. With our retouching skills we also do many restorations, taking almost any old image and restoring it back to its original condition or better. Recently we have also become an art gallery displaying our landscape photography which can be purchased for home decor.

However, I believe what has set us apart the most in Roswell is our Santa Experience. People have come to know that we are the photography business that does very classic fine art photo paintings of children/families with Santa Claus. We have a Santa’s workshop in our studio in which the children come in to see Santa and spend time with him while we take their portraits. They have milk and cookies with Santa and even receive a little gift from him during their time at JMiguel studio; it is a once in a lifetime experience for the children and the parents get to take home a fine art piece of their own children/family to keep the memory forever.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I wouldn’t have done anything differently. Of course, there are things you learn along the way. With over 5,000 clients in over 35 years, you learn a lot about how you should and should not do things, however, they are things you would have never learned if you had not lived them.

Contact Info:

• Address: JMiguel Photography
  420 West Crossville Rd.
  Roswell, GA 30075
• Website: jmiguel.com
• Phone: 7705870555
• Email: jmiguelstudio@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jmiguelphotography/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JmiguelPhotography/

Image Credit:
JMiguel Photography

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