Robert Gary Mihalko – Portrait Artist
A Different kind of Photographer

I would like to give you a little background about my photographic experience and let you know how I do business.

You can say that portrait photography has been in my blood all of my life. My father was a portrait photographer since the mid 1950’s and all of his life. When most kids had plastic toys to play with I had old cameras as childhood toys. By age 6 I had learned how to develop black and white photographs in my father’s dark room and spent many nights “helping him” to print yearbook and publicity photographs in the darkroom of his studio on North Court Street. Of course this passion carried into school where I served as the Yearbook Photography Editor and had a great time photographing all the many school events at Medina High School in the 1980’s. By 1986 I was working full time in the studio and specialized in family, children, high school seniors & publicity portraits, a few years later I added weddings and school underclass photography. After 20 years of working with my father it was decided it was time to breakout on my own and I started Robert Gary Photography in the spring of 2007. Once my father retired from the business later that year I was able to bring back the Contemporary Photography Studio trade name that has served Medina Ohio for more than 37 years, (and nearly all of my life) in the spring of 2008. This fresh change has given us the opportunity to invest in new technology in the portrait industry to even better our product. I belong to and attend many different professional photography organizations. We along with other portrait photographers all over the country work to constantly better our trade and our personal skills along the way. I love what I do for a living, it is an art not a science and I feel that is what makes it so great! You never know if the baby will be happy or sad on picture day, and every client has different needs. I really enjoy working with people and I hope to have to opportunity to serve you and your family.
 

Patrick Mitchell – Portrait Artist, Event Photographer

I graduated from Bowling Green State University in December 2003. During my senior year I started to get serious in photography. After college I really got into photography when my brother asked me to cover college paintball. I covered the Ohio State University and Ohio University for a year and then was asked to start covering national events. For the last 3 years I have been traveling the country covering both pro and amateur paintball players. I have been featured in paintball magazines such as Facefull and Paintball 2 Xtreme.

In 2006 I started helping Bob as being his Webmaster and also photographing high school boys soccer. After the soccer season he asked me how I felt about shooting weddings. For a year I trained under Bob going to different weddings as he taught me art of wedding photography. Starting in 2008 I started shooting weddings for Bob. I enjoy taking photos and love covering both sports and events.
  A fresh business Model

First and foremost, our client’s best interest comes first. When you commission Contemporary Photography Studio, by Robert Gary Photography to create your family, children or wedding portraits you get more than a guy with a camera. You get a professional portrait photographer that listens to what is most important to you about your event, not just the photography. We desire to create something that you will cherish for a lifetime. A portrait or wedding album that you will be proud of, one you will share with your friends and relatives. For this reason we meet with every client we’re going to photograph before the session. Many times even before they choose to hire us to create any images. I call this meeting a “CHAT”, we just get together and discuss your upcoming event or portrait session and see if we’re the right fit for your needs. If you feel comfortable with us then we book an appointment. If not, that is okay too. We don’t believe in the hard sell. Word of mouth is our best advertising; We always lookout for what is best for you as our client and we Guarantee our work. Not very many photographers will do that, but we do. I have lived in Medina County my entire life, after your session I will likely run into you at stores and other events. I would much rather look forward to these meetings and enjoy a quick visit than dodge behind the movie cart so we don’t see each other. All portraits we create are fully retouched and printed on the finest photographic papers in the industry. We don’t use short cuts to save a dollar. In most cases you will find our pricing to be very competitive, but rest assured quality is never sacrificed.

We look forward to meeting you soon. Remember there is no obligation to just meet and “chat” about an upcoming event or opportunity to have us create your next portrait.
Feel free to call anytime at 330-591-4243.