Why Professional Photographers are reluctant to 'give you the disk'
Sadly, the industry is in a bit of a state, with more and more people picking up camera's and deciding to make a few dollars by being a photographer and charging $200 or so for the full disk of images, sadly the true value of photography is getting missed more and more (but most of that is a whole other argument). For now, I want to explain why, although it seems so easy and convenient for you (the client) to get all your beautiful images on a cd.
Here is an image for you to consider.
This is my hallway. I wanted these frames so much, I planned for them when we bought our house and finally got them for Christmas, I nailed them straight up on boxing day and was so excited to fill them. This photo was taken 10 minutes ago. 3 months after I so carefully nailed them in place, there isn't a single photo in a frame. They are empty, looking beautiful but longing to be filled with laughter and memories.
Why are they empty you ask? I have thousands of photographs of my family, all sitting beautifully edited...... on disks! Sadly thats where they stay, I dont sit down and look at them, I dont get to enjoy them as I walk up my hallway like I so eagerly intended. Im busy, I work...A LOT, Im a mum, keeping up with work and homework, I'm on a diet which means I have to excersize every day, I drop off to buses, take to after school activies, cook dinners, manage the house hold, clean....the list goes on and essentially I am just the same as all of you. None of us have time. It takes a great deal of time to sit and choose the images you want to use, organise printing, collect them and of all people I have access to that more than any one else, yet I still dont find time. I value photography possibly more than most of you, yet I still dont have time! So how will you?
You will get your beautiful disk, you will be all excited, just as I was, then you might have to pick the children up, cook dinner, help with that book report, you will have all intentions of printing them, then might do it tomorrow, then the next day and then the next but pretty quickly the excitement will wear off and that job will get put to the bottom of the pile.
Those beautiful photos that you put so much time into organising, finding outfits for, maybe getting your hair done or a spray tan and then got all the family together in the one spot together, for which your photographer planned, prepared all the gear, travelled out to meet you, spend that hour or so capturing the most beautiful moments, took those images home, downloaded them, maybe edited a few and blogged them, sat and went through each one, edited the rest with love and care (maybe over quite a few days), uploaded them to a gallery, burned them to a disk and hand delivered them to you, will now sit there, in your draw unseen by most.
Its a bit sad really.
Here is another photograph for you to consider.
A huge 150 years after the family in the photographs spent all of the time above (perhaps minus the spray tan!) went in to each of those photographic studios to sit for their portraits I am enjoying their images. All the effort they and their photographers went to on that day has been worth all the time and effort and money it costs because those images have outlived the people in them by around 100 years. Does that not amaze you? It does me! I sit and look at each image for a long time, at their clothes, at their hair and their poses and the lighting and picture them going in to a studio as a family, having their photographs taken and what they did when the left. Its incredible, its beautiful and to me it is what photography is all about. Those people live on through their images because I have them in a beautiful little album, that yes, at the time may have cost them a lot of money, but it lived through their family, then onto new generations and then on for hundreds of years.
CD's have a life of approximately 5 years. Your children wont even be able to show their children what they looked like, let alone have someone see them, feel them, enjoy them in hundreds.
I do believe most people think Photographers discourage people from buying the disk is because it will beneift the photographer, but really its to ensure their craft and your memories last a lifetime. Professional photographers print on premium archival quality paper, it will last a life time...and its worth it, wouldn't you say?
Here is an image for you to consider.
This is my hallway. I wanted these frames so much, I planned for them when we bought our house and finally got them for Christmas, I nailed them straight up on boxing day and was so excited to fill them. This photo was taken 10 minutes ago. 3 months after I so carefully nailed them in place, there isn't a single photo in a frame. They are empty, looking beautiful but longing to be filled with laughter and memories.
Why are they empty you ask? I have thousands of photographs of my family, all sitting beautifully edited...... on disks! Sadly thats where they stay, I dont sit down and look at them, I dont get to enjoy them as I walk up my hallway like I so eagerly intended. Im busy, I work...A LOT, Im a mum, keeping up with work and homework, I'm on a diet which means I have to excersize every day, I drop off to buses, take to after school activies, cook dinners, manage the house hold, clean....the list goes on and essentially I am just the same as all of you. None of us have time. It takes a great deal of time to sit and choose the images you want to use, organise printing, collect them and of all people I have access to that more than any one else, yet I still dont find time. I value photography possibly more than most of you, yet I still dont have time! So how will you?
You will get your beautiful disk, you will be all excited, just as I was, then you might have to pick the children up, cook dinner, help with that book report, you will have all intentions of printing them, then might do it tomorrow, then the next day and then the next but pretty quickly the excitement will wear off and that job will get put to the bottom of the pile.
Those beautiful photos that you put so much time into organising, finding outfits for, maybe getting your hair done or a spray tan and then got all the family together in the one spot together, for which your photographer planned, prepared all the gear, travelled out to meet you, spend that hour or so capturing the most beautiful moments, took those images home, downloaded them, maybe edited a few and blogged them, sat and went through each one, edited the rest with love and care (maybe over quite a few days), uploaded them to a gallery, burned them to a disk and hand delivered them to you, will now sit there, in your draw unseen by most.
Its a bit sad really.
Here is another photograph for you to consider.
A huge 150 years after the family in the photographs spent all of the time above (perhaps minus the spray tan!) went in to each of those photographic studios to sit for their portraits I am enjoying their images. All the effort they and their photographers went to on that day has been worth all the time and effort and money it costs because those images have outlived the people in them by around 100 years. Does that not amaze you? It does me! I sit and look at each image for a long time, at their clothes, at their hair and their poses and the lighting and picture them going in to a studio as a family, having their photographs taken and what they did when the left. Its incredible, its beautiful and to me it is what photography is all about. Those people live on through their images because I have them in a beautiful little album, that yes, at the time may have cost them a lot of money, but it lived through their family, then onto new generations and then on for hundreds of years.
CD's have a life of approximately 5 years. Your children wont even be able to show their children what they looked like, let alone have someone see them, feel them, enjoy them in hundreds.
I do believe most people think Photographers discourage people from buying the disk is because it will beneift the photographer, but really its to ensure their craft and your memories last a lifetime. Professional photographers print on premium archival quality paper, it will last a life time...and its worth it, wouldn't you say?
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1 comments:
You say it so well
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