There's an age old question that a lot of people ask: "Why?" When it comes to photography, these questions are no strangers. Why are you so expensive? Why can't I get a disc of my images? Why can't I just print the photos myself? Why go through you when my friend has a camera too? (That last one kind of rhymes.)
I recently read an update on Facebook from fellow photographer Christopher Lee Photography (
Website and
Facebook) that they get asked these similar questions. I couldn't help but feel for him and be instantly put into his shoes.
A lot of people that didn't know I was going to get into portraiture photography would complain about the high prices and lack of "service" they were going to, or did, receive before going to a family friend "who used to do photography back in the day." I couldn't help but think to myself, "If others are charging so much for so little, I'll do the opposite." Then I started realizing something and I changed my whole mentality:
Photography is
art; a one time
masterpiece
Don Giannatti, a renowned photographer in Phoenix, AZ (
Website), couldn't have said it any better,
"We have one moment to capture a photograph forever." This has been my mantra for the past couple of years and believe in it with every inch of my soul. And I'm sure if you ask any other photographer, that's the exact same way they feel as well. It is our number one purpose to capture every moment possible, whether on purpose or accident, so that it will never be forgotten. Now some may think, "Well of course you can capture the same moment again. Especially if you posed it or if it's a reoccurring event ." Let me rattle your brain with some science.
If you think of time in a linear fashion that doesn't have the ability to go into reverse, every second we live will always be a second lost. If we say or do something that we regret, we have no way of going back and changing or preventing from that moment happening. If you do something that was a lot of fun for the first time, and you do it again, it won't be as fun as the first time since you've already experienced it. Now it might be MORE fun than last time, but if you didn't know that that particular situation was at your disposal, could you have done it within the same sequence of time? No, because we can't go back in time to recreate the first event to enjoy the second event, nor can we recreate the same event the exact same way, from each step you took down to each laugh you had.. We can only enjoy each event in a time sequential course. You can DUPLICATE the event, but you can't recreate EXACTLY the same event.
Now if you take that same mentality and put that into photography, we can't make the same exact mistake twice, we can't recreate the same exact pose twice...we can't recreate anything the same exact way as the first time. We can close, but when you look at the tiny details; strands of lose hair, angles, lighting, color, all the minute, microscopic details, it will never be the exact same. So when I say "a one time masterpiece," it literally IS a one time masterpiece.
Ok, let me take this down to a more manageable post now...
Now, let me go over the questions of "why" from earlier. I'll start on the ever deciding question: Cost. There's just no way to sugar coat this, photography isn't cheap for both parties. But for the client, it's an investment. You're investing in products and services of moments, you want from a trusted source, to be handed out to your friends and family and for your home. Do you pay your accountant to do your car repairs and expect your car to work like it should? Probably not. You take your car to a mechanic who can pinpoint the problem in record time, repair it, make a few phone calls, take a shower, take an extended lunch and have down time all before you go on your lunch break for the day. And I'll bet you my left pinky toe he charged you a lot of money. But you're going to pay it because you trust their expertise and their work. Photographer's are the same way, but with a way less, and possible reoccurring, cost. You pay a photographer for their expertise of capturing those masterpieces and creating art for your walls. And the photographer has chosen the absolute best vendor to print those masterpieces for you that will best fit their style and compliment your walls. Which brings me to the next question.
The question of, "why can't I just print the photos myself?" feels like having a piece of ourselves ripped from our body in the most torturous way possible. All photographer's value their craft and their art. If you take your photos to a one hour photo lab, provided you have been given a print release and the disc of the photos, you're basically telling us that you value our time but not our work. A lot of the one hour photo labs don't have the proper color correcting software or capabilities that a professional lab has AND when your photos get printed, the colors are more than likely going to be off and the person working behind the counter won't take the time, nor care, to correct it. So what you're paying for when you order prints from the photographer is professional quality color, the photographer's art and hi-resolution photos. (Maybe in another post I'll explain hi-res photos.)
On to the question of the disc. Why don't a lot of photographer's offer a disc with your photos? It's simple really: Protection. The protection covers a wide area; copyright, print, stealing, claiming...just to name a few. We don't want our photos to be stolen and claimed as someone else's and put all over the internet or sold to a company who might use the photos for promotional reasons. The photos we create are intellectual property according to the Federal Copyright Act and we still own the rights to those photos. Another reason why photographer's might not offer a disc is because you then have the ability to go where you want to print them out and honestly, we don't want our masterpieces printed on poor quality paper or with poor quality ink. Whether you want to believe it or not, it does reflect on us and our quality of work.
(I promise, we're getting to the end of this.)
The final question: why choose us over your friend or relative who has a camera similar to us. This one should be a no brainer. Assuming your friend of relative has little to no experience with photography, they won't know what they're doing. Photographer's are very meticulous, on an obsessive level, about making photos. We pay a MASSIVE amount of attention to detail about color, position, camera settings, composition, posing, lighting, angles, hand placement, clothing placement, head position, hip placement...EVERYTHING!!! I've completely lost count at how many times I've heard this line: "We had our friend/relative take our photos and we were so disappointed. I really wish we would have hired a professional to take our photos." Every time I hear a story like this, it just breaks my heart. No one should ever have to receive poor quality photos. Ever.
So what does all this technical, artsy, fartsy stuff mean to you? Literally everything. When you hire a photographer, you're telling us that you trust us to capture moments in time for you and create masterpieces for you. You're not just paying for pictures, you're investing in masterpieces of art that have been carefully crafted with proper lighting, posing, composition, our vision, and for one-time moments that can never be returned.
So the next time you want or need to have photos done, don't ask yourself, "how much can I spend," but rather, "what kind of quality do I want?"
(FINALLY! THE E N D!!!)
