Avalon Arts Studio is the combined creative venture of Jon and Charlene McNally. Jon is a photographer with more than thirty years of experience. He has recently retired from a long career in photojournalism and is throwing himself into the love of his art - portrait photography.

Charlene is a graphic artist and web designer. You can view her work here. She has dabbled (and plunged!) creatively into many areas of art and design including textiles and clothing design, porcelain art dolls, paper art, painting, printmaking...and so on. She has a love of fantasy, especially the fairy realm and fairy tales.

Jon is the photographer for all of our portraits and Charlene is the studio stylist. She creates the costumes and the sets for the fairy portraits. They both enhance the images to create a blend of photography and art. Charlene uses her graphic arts skills to create our storybooks, cards and other graphic applications.

Avalon Arts is located in Benicia, California, about 30 minutes northeast of San Francisco. Our studio is in our home. Clients, please call 707-751-0190 for directions.

Fairy Portraits are by far our most popular request. But we are a full service photography studio. We also photograph families, adults, senior photos, and formal portraits. Visit out Gallery Page for samples.

Much of our work occurs in our computer stations after the studio session. We collect the images and create a slide show of the proofs for each client. We then meet with the client for a viewing session and discuss the creative possibilities of each proof. Once the order is placed each image is enhanced to perfect the color and composition. Special effects are employed to create the look of a fantasy painting.For more about the process of working with Avalon Arts Studio click here.

Let us capture that elusive magical essence of your child. Whether for yourself or as a gift our portraits are archival quality heirlooms that will be enjoyed for a lifetime.