Professional Services in Sherman Oaks

High-impact colors and dynamic composition dominate portraits and headshots captured at Aqiyl Photography. Subjects are free to strike beguiling poses and conspiratorial smirks as photographers snap away within their versatile studio or on location in fields, on city streets, or in recently renovated doghouses. A choice of studio or natural lighting creates high-fashion and casual shots that are edited in-house.

In 1998, 8-year-old Brandon was staying home from school with a cold. His mom took him to a board of directors meeting at the Hollygrove children’s home, where people were discussing how to build a library for the 60 youths who lived there. Once he got back to school, he started telling his friends that kids at the orphanage needed books, and asked them to donate the ones they had outgrown. On the last day of school before winter break, Brandon surprised his mom as she drove to pick him up—he was standing on the sidewalk surrounded by hundreds of books for the kids. Because they had more books than the children’s home needed, Brandon’s mom started knocking on doors to give the extra books away to children without books. Their combined efforts started BookEnds to help all children experience the joy of reading.

Today, Bookends gathers recycled children’s books and distributes them through student-run book drives at local schools. The students select only high-quality books that will inspire youth to read, then sort and personally deliver the donations. Since its inception, more than 220,000 students have been involved in organizing drives, delivering more than 2.1 million books to 520,000 underserved children.

A wedding is a treasure trove of memories: the first kiss between newlyweds, the toss of the bouquet, the moment when the groom jumps out of the wedding cake. Since 1981, Moonlight Video Productions' videographers have stood silently in the background of these events, video camera in hand, to capture each priceless moment. From weddings to bar mitzvahs, they shoot special events with professional quality—multiple cameras, wireless microphones, and the option to replace distant uncles with a wisecrackin' CGI uncle. Afterward, they create DVDs with custom menus and special effects. When not shooting video, the technicians can be found in the lab restoring photos and transferring old VHS tapes to DVD.

Los Angeles Universal Preschool (LAUP) aims to make high-quality preschool education accessible to all children in Los Angeles. LAUP supports more than 320 preschools across the county with grants used to cover the costs of student tuition and supplement teachers' salaries and educational materials. In addition to monetary support, LAUP's early-childhood educators work in classrooms to assist teachers in enhancing program quality and to ensure that preschools are engaging parents to be their children's primary teachers. These specialists also work with preschools on specific developmental needs of children and their families, such as obesity prevention and children with special needs.

Plaza Dry Cleaners's staff smartens up garments with dry-cleaning, laundering, and tailoring services. With same-day and 48-hour turnarounds, they evict germs and debris from an array of items, including comforters, rugs, formalwear, and blankets. Like learning to levitate, the facility's hanger-recycling program helps to limit eco-footprints.

City of Angels Headshots' Laria Saunders and James Allen Duffy both come from families of artists, and are therefore ideally suited to accurately capture the character and beauty of performers, celebrities, and models. Within their spacious and welcoming loft, the passionate duo creates family portraits, acting reels, and headshots for rising male and female stars or red dwarfs ready to make a comeback. The crew also offers graphic-design services for business cards, social media, and flyers.

Saunders combines her extensive experience in portraiture and abstract photography with Duffy's tech-savvy retouching. Celebrity artist Jeffrey Paul remains on-hand to style hair and makeup for a desired look of professionalism or an unmistakable resemblance to Einstein. As the crew works, they employ green practices, using energy-saving equipment and environmentally friendly cleaning products.