I get this call out of the blue "We can offer you top 3 google search results for "Tampa Wedding Photographer" (my area) $170.00 per month. hmmm "I'm not sure" I say, I'll think about it. Two days later they call again, ok I give it a try no minimum, I said I will try it for one month. Within a few hours I am there... top three and have been. No SEO, no adwords, no adjustment to my site code at all. My question is how do they do this? With SEO and flash vs html pages I thought this was a reasonable price. Any experience or knowledge to share would be appreciated.

That's in the paid advertisement area of the search results. If you're not paying per click for that (directly to google), then they are. And They're betting the traffic will cost less than what you're paying them monthly.

The man speaks the truth.
They are betting that the ad they bought for you cost them less than the $170 you are paying them. Which probably means that you could buy it for less if you went direct to Google...which would only help if you thought that many people in your target demographic shopped for a wedding photographer by clicking on paid ads.

I know it is kind of early, but are you noticing any difference in calls from prospective clients?