Colored Contact Lenses is a boutique East Nashville portrait photo studio. We shoot musicians, brands, families, and editorial fashion in vibrant, lush color — using a deep cabinet of camera lenses and colored gel filters. Reach out, pick a vibe, walk away with images you'll frame for the next thirty years.
Every session is built around the subject. We talk through wardrobe, the color story, the lenses we want to pull, and the gels we'll burn. The shoot itself is calm — the work shows up later when you scroll your camera roll and pause on a frame that feels like you, but louder.
Most booked
Two-hour studio session with a fully-lit color set, two outfit changes, and 30+ retouched final images. Great for artists, founders, and anyone who hasn't sat for a real portrait in a decade. We bring three prime lenses and pick the one that flatters you, not us.
Editorial
Half-day shoots for designers, stylists, and small fashion houses. Mood-boards, color stories, location scouting, and a four-light gel rig pulled from our wall of filters. Lookbook-grade output. We've shot for Nashville Fashion Week and a handful of brands you'd recognize.
Music
Album covers, press kits, single artwork, and tour posters. We light bands the way bands actually want to be lit — punchy, weird, full of color. Layla Brookings shot her whole album cycle here. We bring an 85mm prime, a 35mm, and a haze machine.
Family
One-hour family sessions that don't feel staged. We light it warm, shoot on a 50mm, let the kids run, and capture the in-between. You get a curated set of 25 images plus a printed photo book. These are the frames your kids will inherit.
Brand
Campaign-ready brand imagery for ecom and DTC. We've shot beauty, beverage, jewelry, and apparel. Studio days run flat-lay → on-model → lifestyle in a single bookable block. Files are delivered web-ready in three crops with full color profiles.
Rentals
The same camera lenses and colored gel filters we use are available to rent by the day, three-day, or week. Sony, Canon, Sigma, and a vintage Helios cabinet for the moody crowd. Drop in for a fitting; pickup is contactless if you'd rather.
Sage Whitlock opened Colored Contact Lenses in 2017 after fifteen years freelancing for fashion editorial — Nashville Fashion Week, a few national magazines, and the occasional album sleeve. The brief from day one was simple: shoot in color the way most photographers shoot in black-and-white. Mean it. Use the gels. Use the saturated walls. Don't desaturate in post to make it "tasteful." If a piece of clothing is hot pink, it should look hot pink in the frame.
The studio sits on Forrest Avenue in East Nashville, a two-room shotgun space with a north-facing window for natural-light work and a fully blackened second room for gelled flash. Sage built the lighting cabinet over the first three years — eighty-seven camera lenses (primes mostly, a few specialty zooms) and forty-two colored gel filters from Rosco, Lee, and a small Japanese maker that hand-cuts to order. That cabinet is the actual differentiator. It's also where the rental side of the business grew from.
We shoot in vibrant color, with a deep collection of camera lenses and colored gel filters. The "lens" in our name is the camera kind. Contact = get in touch. The pun is the most honest summary of what we do: color, lenses, contact.
Today the studio runs on three principles: shoot tethered (so the client sees the frame in real time), light intentionally (a colored gel is a deliberate choice, not a Hail Mary), and deliver fast (most galleries are turned around inside ten business days). Sage is the lead shooter on every booking. Our second-shooter Mira Calloway runs assist on editorial days and handles the rental cabinet during studio hours.
We've shot over 1,400 sessions since opening. We've had work picked up by Vinyl Me Please, Nashville Lifestyles, and the city tourism board. We don't chase celebrity work — most of our clients are working musicians, small-business founders, and families who want a frame on the wall that feels like them.
Four steps. No surprises. We answer fast and we shoot faster.
Drop us a line via the booking form below or email studio@coloredcontactlenses.org. Tell us what kind of session you're imagining, your rough timeline, and any reference photos. We reply within one business day.
Thirty-minute call to lock the vibe. We talk wardrobe, color palette, music, location, and which lenses or gels we'll pull from the cabinet. You get a written shot list before the day arrives.
Studio sessions run between 60 minutes and a full day depending on package. We shoot tethered so you can pick favorites in real time. Coffee, water, and a Bluetooth speaker are included.
You get an online gallery within ten business days, with high-res downloads, web-sized previews, and an order form for prints if you want them. Heirloom sessions include a printed photo book.
Working photographer? Music-video crew? Ad agency on a tight day? Our rental cabinet is open to outside shooters Tuesday through Saturday. Pickup at the studio, return inspection while you wait. Add a piece below to the rental cart, pick a window, and check out.
A snapshot of three recent bookings — one band album cover, one newborn family session, one fashion editorial. Different niches, same studio.
Sage shot the cover of our second record and we ended up using nine of her frames across the press kit. The gel work she pulled in the live room was the exact color story we'd been describing badly for six months. Came in under budget, stayed late, and the gallery was up the next Tuesday.
My wife and I drove in from Franklin for our newborn shoot expecting the usual stiff studio thing. Sage put us in front of a butter-yellow wall, lit it warm, told us to sit down and ignore the camera. Forty minutes later we had thirty frames I'm going to print huge. The photo book she shipped a week later made my mother-in-law cry.
I styled a six-look fashion editorial here and Sage was the only photographer in town who said yes to the magenta-on-magenta brief without trying to talk me out of it. The color saturation in the final files is unreal. We pulled four shots into Nashville Lifestyles' fall issue.
Fill out the brief on the right and we'll write back within one business day. If you'd rather, email studio@coloredcontactlenses.org or call (615) 555-0188 directly. The studio answers Tuesday through Saturday during business hours.
Studio: 1100 Forrest Ave, Nashville TN 37206
Hours: Tue–Sat · 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM CST · By appointment
Reg. # TN-LLC-22938716
All fields marked * are required.
Booking, lens rentals, file delivery — the things we answer most over email.
East Nashville, ground-floor walk-in. The block is full of small studios and a coffee bar two doors down. Call ahead — we lock the door during sessions so we can shoot in peace.
1100 Forrest Ave
Nashville, TN 37206
Ground-floor walk-in, signage at the curb
Email is the fastest path to Sage. Phones go to a shared inbox that's answered between shoots.
(615) 555-0188No payment captured here — this confirms your hold. We'll email a final invoice within 24 hours.
We'll email a pickup confirmation within an hour and a final invoice within 24 hours.
This Privacy Policy describes how Colored Contact Lenses Studio LLC ("we," "us," "the studio") collects, uses, and protects information when you visit coloredcontactlenses.org, request a session, rent equipment from our cabinet, or otherwise interact with our business. Our principal address is 1100 Forrest Ave, Nashville, TN 37206. We are a portrait photography studio and camera-lens rental house.
We collect information you provide directly when filling out the booking form, the rental checkout form, or when you email or call the studio. This typically includes your full name, email address, phone number, the type of session you're inquiring about, your preferred date, location preference, and any vibe or palette notes you share with us.
We also automatically collect limited technical information when you load this site — your IP address, browser type, the pages you visit, and the time spent on each. This is standard server-log data and is used for security monitoring and to improve the site.
We use a small number of cookies and browser-storage entries:
You can clear these at any time from your browser settings. Declining the cookie banner blocks the optional analytics cookies but preserves the strictly-necessary cart and consent cookies.
We use the information you provide to: respond to your booking inquiry, schedule your session, fulfill rental orders, send invoices, deliver your final gallery, and answer follow-up emails. We never sell or rent your contact information. We do not use your information for behavioral advertising on third-party platforms.
Photographs taken during a paid session belong to you for personal use under the license issued at delivery. The studio retains copyright unless explicitly transferred in writing. We may use a small number of frames from your session for portfolio purposes (website, Instagram, lookbook) unless you opt out in writing on or before the shoot day. Editorial and brand sessions carry separate, negotiated usage terms documented in your contract.
We share information only with the vendors required to run the studio: our email host, our gallery delivery platform, our scanning lab (for film sessions), our print-on-demand provider, and our payment processor for rental holds. Each of these vendors operates under their own privacy commitments and is contractually bound to handle your data appropriately.
If you are a resident of the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, you have the right to: access the personal data we hold on you, correct it, request deletion, restrict processing, request data portability, object to processing, and withdraw consent at any time. To exercise these rights, email privacy@coloredcontactlenses.org.
California residents have the right to know what personal information we collect, the right to delete personal information, the right to opt out of any sale (we do not sell personal information), the right to correct inaccurate information, and the right to non-discrimination for exercising any of these rights. To exercise California rights, email privacy@coloredcontactlenses.org.
Booking inquiries are retained for 24 months for follow-up. Completed-session records (contract, invoice, gallery link) are retained for seven years for tax and licensing purposes. Final image files are retained for two years on our delivery platform — after that they may be archived to cold storage or deleted at our discretion. We use industry-standard encryption in transit (TLS 1.2+) and at rest where applicable.
This site is intended for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. Family sessions involving minor children are booked through a parent or legal guardian, who consents to the photography and any portfolio use under our standard release.
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The "Last updated" date at the top reflects the current version. Material changes will be communicated to active clients via email.
For privacy questions, data-rights requests, or to opt out of portfolio use of your images, email privacy@coloredcontactlenses.org or write to us at 1100 Forrest Ave, Nashville, TN 37206.
By using coloredcontactlenses.org, booking a portrait session, or renting equipment from Colored Contact Lenses Studio LLC, you agree to these Terms of Service. If you do not agree, please do not use the site or our services. The studio operates as a Tennessee limited-liability company under registration number TN-LLC-22938716.
The studio provides: portrait photography sessions (including portrait, family, musician, brand, editorial, and headshot formats), and camera-lens and colored-gel-filter rentals to working photographers and production companies. The brand name "Colored Contact Lenses" is a deliberate pun referring to camera lenses and colored gel filters used in our craft.
All sessions are booked by mutual written confirmation following submission of the inquiry form. A 30% retainer secures the session date and is non-refundable inside 72 hours of the shoot. The remaining balance is due on the day of the shoot. Reschedules requested more than 72 hours out are accommodated free of charge subject to studio availability. No-shows forfeit the retainer.
Camera lenses, gel filters, and lighting modifiers are available for rent by the day, three-day, or week. Renters must be 18+ and present a valid government-issued ID at pickup. A card-on-file hold is placed for the stated value of any item exceeding $1,500. Items returned damaged, late, or in unacceptable condition are billed against the hold per the rate sheet provided at pickup. Renters are responsible for insurance on items above $2,500 stated value.
Unless explicitly transferred in writing, the studio retains copyright on all photographs produced. Clients receive a personal-use license at delivery, covering printing, framing, and personal social-media use. Commercial usage rights for editorial, brand, and product sessions are negotiated separately and documented in the contract. The studio retains the right to use a representative selection of frames for portfolio purposes (website, Instagram, lookbook) unless the client opts out in writing on or before shoot day.
All content on this site — text, photographs, graphics, logos, the studio name and pun, layout, and code — is owned by or licensed to Colored Contact Lenses Studio LLC and is protected by U.S. copyright and trademark law. You may not reproduce, redistribute, or create derivative works without written permission. The pun on "lens" and "contact" is the studio's brand expression and is used in commerce.
You agree not to: misuse the site, attempt to gain unauthorized access, scrape content for redistribution, impersonate another individual on the booking form, or submit false information for the purpose of obtaining services or rentals fraudulently.
To the fullest extent permitted by law, Colored Contact Lenses Studio LLC, its owners, employees, and contractors are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages arising from your use of the site or our services. Our total aggregate liability for any claim is limited to the amount you paid the studio for the session or rental in question. We make no warranty that the site will be error-free or uninterrupted.
You agree to indemnify and hold harmless the studio from any claim, loss, or expense (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from your breach of these terms, your misuse of rented equipment, or your infringement of any third-party right in content you supply or that is captured at your request.
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Tennessee, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. Any dispute arising under these Terms shall be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Davidson County, Tennessee, and you consent to personal jurisdiction in those courts.
Before filing any claim, both parties agree to a good-faith 30-day informal resolution period beginning with written notice to studio@coloredcontactlenses.org. If that fails, claims under $10,000 may be brought in Tennessee small-claims court. Larger claims proceed in Davidson County state or federal court as set out above.
We may update these Terms at any time. The "Last updated" date reflects the current version. Continued use of the site or services after a change constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms. Material changes will be emailed to active clients.
If any provision of these Terms is held invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in full force.
For questions about these Terms or to give written notice of any kind, email studio@coloredcontactlenses.org or write to: Colored Contact Lenses Studio LLC, 1100 Forrest Ave, Nashville, TN 37206.