6 years ago I had a photographer come over and photograph my new born baby. The pictures are now safely stored on my hard drive, somewhere.
3 years ago I had a photographer take pictures of our family. She did not let me purchase the photos as digital image files. My pictures are now safely stored on her hard drive. So what did that leave us with?
This:
(all those images were taken by Monika Michelle Photography, she also handled the printing and delivery of my prints)
I look at those images every day. I love them so much in fact that I have no desire to take them off my wall. I love them so much because someone made them for me with great care and all I had to do was pick my favorite ones. The funny thing is that I think it cost me less money than the digital image files I purchased 6 years ago.
Then I started my business, and because everyone is like me, everyone wanted digital files. So I just sold the digital files. And when I go to my clients house I see mostly: poorly printed images in an 8×10 frame or no images ever printed. It didn’t use to bother me until I became burned out last year after editing 1000s of images, and very few were ever printed at all.
Everything changed for me after I went to Vegas for a photo conference. I looked at prints. Touched canvases, metal, wood base, flipped through albums. I was in a place where photography was valued, not only as a service to people, but as art work.
What does it mean for you as my clients ? It means that there will be a session fee as before. But instead of me sending you the digital files for a fee, I will have you come over (or Skype if you live far away) and select your images with me. I want to hold your hand as you decide what kind of art work you wish to see on your wall. And then I will take care of editing everything to perfection and print everything exactly like you want it. I will do a quality check on every single product and then deliver them to you, ready for hanging on your wall.
The two questions I get are: yes, but how do I share my pictures with the family? Don’t worry about it. I will give you the right tools to do it. Your pictures with be on Facebook and Twitter and Pinterest even. Your family still has the option to order small prints at a low price. My goal isn’t to make money off of small prints. My goal is that you get a huge canvas or a beautiful metal image for your wall, or that you make a gallery with cool images that create a story.
I also offer albums and folio boxes if you prefer the pictures to be seen only by you.
The second question is: How much more expensive is this going to be? Not much more than the digital, if you consider the fact that you will spend a lot less time, energy and money trying to find ways to print your pictures. And you will have something gorgeous to look at every day.
I have a lot of samples in my office and you will be able to see and touch and have a good feel for what you want to get.
I took this image last year at the Wise Homestead Museum.
I think it deserves better than being on my hard drive or somewhere on Facebook. I want this to be printed on metal, I am thinking of a 20×30 metal to have on my staircase 🙂
