Aztec Stills And Photography
Specializing in Super High Resolution Digital Action and Still Photography
Aztec Stills And Photography was established in September of 1997 as the first fully digital photography company in Central Alberta. At the time, there was only one other digital photographer in Western Canada, so Aztec was one of the original pioneers of this photography process. In fact, Aztec provided other photographic companies with working information to help improve their digital techniques.

Aztec’s founder, Doug Kujala, entered the photography industry in 1991 after being hired by Jostens Canada as a photo rep. Doug soon supplied the photography services for over 60 schools in Central Alberta. He did over a million dollars in sales in seven years with Jostens and is still highly regarded in the school photo realm 10 years after leaving the industry. In fact, Doug has been asked to contract his services to Smart Photography starting in the fall of 2007 and will be taking care of at least 20 schools at that time. It was during Doug’s tenure with Jostens when he was provided an opportunity by Kodak Canada to start his own company. Kodak introduced to Doug a working prototype of a digital event system and over 10 years later Aztec is considered one of the Premier event photo companies in Canada.

Aztec helped revolutionize mall Santa photography by offering customers the option of a choice of photos and custom border viewed on a computer screen before printing. Customers could actually see if the photo turned out before paying for it. What a concept! Once customers were satisfied with how the photo would look we printed them on the spot. This new technology brought droves of customers to Bower Place mall and rendered polaroid obsolete.

Since 1997, Aztec has built a tremendous resume bringing their digital system to various local, national, and international sporting events. We currently shoot the two largest volleyball tournaments in Canada held every May. The U16 Nationals are held at the Olympic Oval at the University of Calgary and will boast over 300 teams this year. The U17 nationals are held in Abbotsford B.C. and will break the 200 team mark this year. We shoot team and action photos at these events. Aztec was also the official photographer for the 2006 Alberta Summer Games held in Red Deer.

What you get when you work with Aztec is experience, professionalism, and a passion to continue to set the industry standard. The bottom line is that we aren’t happy unless the customer is happy. This is why we only use experienced staff with proper people skills. Let’s face it, when we do a job for someone, we are representing that person or company. Our reputations are on the line and we don’t want to do anything to tarnish them. You already have an idea about the wealth of experience Doug provides but he can’t do it alone. The core of Aztec’s success is based on the work ethic of two other individuals.

Colleen Kujala, Doug’s wife of 15 years, has worked in the service industry for over 17 years before becoming a full time photographer for Aztec. She has amazing people skills and has taken thousands of Santa, Easter Bunny, family, portrait, graduation, action and team photos.

Rayne Hack was originally Doug and Colleen’s boss at the Elk’s Club in Red Deer in the late 80’s. He has excellent people, management, and computer skills. Rayne is usually the last face people see when purchasing photos. He shows the customer the images, customizes, and prints them out. The amazing part is that he is incredibly efficient. With all of the options we provide, Rayne is able to deal with the customers as fast as the photographers can shoot, so there is rarely a huge line up. Rayne also creates our custom borders so our customers always get unique, personalized prints.

Aztec takes pride in the job they do and they are also very proud to be on the leading edge of technology. In 1997 we had the latest greatest camera, lighting, computers, software and printers. In 2007 we continue to have the ultimate in Cameras: Fuji S3 SLR 18 megapixal (highest resolution in the digital industry), Nikon D200 (5 frames per second and the best ISO in the industry). Lighting: Pro Acute 24 strobes imported from Switzerland, green screen flood lights with soft boxes developed for the movie industry. Computers: we had two “shuttles” made especially to handle event photography. Propriatary software used by less than 10,000 photographers in the world. 2 Olympus and 2 Kodak dye sublimation printers used only by event photographers. If we have any mechanical problems we have back up equipment so there is little down time an always happy customers.

Aztec Photo is committed to bringing fresh new ideas to the consumer. Chroma key or green screen photography is a newer technology rarely offered in the world of digital event photography. It is an involved process that few Photography Companies are capable of reliably performing. We at Aztec are proud to state that we are one of those few, and in 2006 introduced this process for the Easter season. This gave the customer the opportunity to choose a unique background for their treasured memory.