KIDS' PHOTOS BECOME WORKS OF ART.

Byline: Eric Leach Staff Writer

SIMI VALLEY - Monica Teurlings was a stay-at-home mother who liked taking pictures of her two children when her life was shaken by divorce in 1995.

``My house was being taken away. Seven years of my life was walking out the door. It was very frightening, with two kids to provide for,'' she said, recalling the turning point from which she evolved into a professional photographer known for dreamy, fairy-tale-like portraits of children.

``Divorce is a tragedy. You are at your lowest point, and you have to learn to rebuild yourself. It's very emotional and frightening,'' she said. ``I was someone who took the kids (boys ages 3 and 4) to the park and Chuck E. Cheese's, and they looked to me to make everything work out. I'm not a college graduate. I never had a photography class.''

Teurlings, then 26, decided to try to make a go as a freelance photographer, and found some of her first clients from neighbors and people who heard about her through word of mouth.

``I had a 35mm Canon camera with one lens, going out and working with natural light, learning from trial and error.''

But she also had a creative approach, dressing the children in her portraits in costume and placing them in theatrical settings - just as she had done with her own sons.

``That's how it all started,'' she said.

Teurlings said her creative eye drew attention and her work caught on in a really big way when she was invited to do a show at the Nordstrom department store in Woodland Hills.

``All of a sudden it was huge. There were people on their cell phones calling their friends to come up and see my photos. I went to another department store, then another, and pretty soon I had 56 locations (including Nordstrom and other high-end department stores) in 15 different states, and I became a kind of career person.

``I was flying to Utah doing sold-out events, from morning to night. I got to see all the different seasons,'' said Teurlings, who grew up in Thousand Oaks. ``I was flying to Washington state in the morning and back home by afternoon. Sometimes it meant flying through the middle of the night so I could set up in Atlanta, Georgia, by 7 a.m.

Teurlings eventually had so much business near her home that she reduced the number of stores she worked at and opened a studio in Simi Valley.

Some clients call her portraits works of art and come back year after year as their children grow.

``I saw her work in a magazine, looked at her Web site, and I decided I had to have her photograph my three children,'' said Julie Bowman of Camarillo. ``I use her photos on Christmas cards every year, and every year I get calls from friends saying, 'My gosh, where did you get these beautiful cards?' I used to have Thomas Kincade paintings on my walls, but now I have Monica's pictures of my kids.''

People often ask whether Teurlings' portraits are photos or paintings, and although some do involve painting, they vary and she won't say exactly how she produces her two-dimensional effects.

Anne Dickson said in a testimonial posted on Teurlings' tot-shots.com Web site that her daughter, Kennedy, enjoyed posing for the photos because the romantic costumes and sets made the child feel like she was in a different world. ``She thinks all the sets are like fairy tales that come true,'' said Dickson, who has been coming with her daughter from Whittier to Simi Valley for about five years for portraits.

She started with almost nothing, said photographer Blendi Reynolds, a member of Professional Photographers of America who once worked for her when Teurlings was traveling to department stores.

``She's an amazing business person. She really puts her heart and soul into it, and she's got a niche,'' said Reynolds, who now owns her own photography studio in Ventura specializing in weddings.

Teurlings lives in the Wood Ranch area of Simi Valley, where she has her studio, Tot Shots Photography Inc.

``Now I have clients who come to our studio here from different states where I used to photograph. I've had clients from Japan, from Singapore, from Germany, from England. People learn from word of mouth, from their family members; sometimes they find me on the Internet. It's exciting because when you are photographing children from different places, some don't really speak English.''

These days, she has three costume designers who make clothing for the children in her photos and two companies that make her sets, which she adds to each year.

``I wanted to create a complete atmosphere, so I wanted to provide the wardrobes as well, so parents wouldn't have to go out and buy outfits.''

Her success has come as a surprise to her.

``I think women sometimes underestimate their strength,'' Teurlings said. ``I didn't know how much strength I had until tragedy hit.''

Her standard photos, including wallet size sets, start at less than $50, but go up in price with size, and depending on whether they are done on canvas or whether hand-painting is added.

She offers what she calls her signature line portraits, which appear three-dimensional with brush strokes and other special effects, starting at $595 canvased, framed and signed. Some have sold for thousands of dollars.

Eric Leach, [phone]

eric.leach(at)dailynews.com

IF YOU GO:

A holiday preview open to the public will be held at Monica Teurlings' Tot Shots studio from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday at 543-F Country Club Drive in the Wood Ranch area of Simi Valley.

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Photo:

Monica Teurlings shows one of the elaborate sets she uses at her portrait photography business in Wood Ranch.

Evan Yee/Staff Photographer

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IF YOU GO (see text)