yes yes yes i am running a half off gallery wrapped canvas sale now through the end of february. please contact me directly either by phone or email for pricing.
schoon-ey family
i have a few new blog postings coming….we wont talk about how old they are though….hey better late than never!! angies family here has been dear friends of mine for many years and she wanted to gather all the mommys and grammas up for a shoot with the kids. angies mom has such awesome property to shoot at!! love you ang!! xoxoxo
why are pro photogs so expensive?
Yes, its been a while since ive done any postings here….i just got a nudge from beth to get on it! since i am also a blog stalker, i came across a really nice article posted by andrea that i will steal from her and post myself…thanks dre!….it was actually published by a photographer shawn richter- this article was in the december 2009 edition of professional photographer magazine. REALLY nice piece here!!
In this digital age where everyone has cameras, scanners, and home “photo printers,” we hear this all the time: How do professional (or personal) photographers charge $X for an 8×10 when they cost just $1.50 at the drugstore? Simply put, the customer is not just paying for the actual photograph; they’re paying for time and expertise.
The average one-hour portrait session
First, let’s look at the actual work involved:
Travel to the session
Setup, preparation, talking to the client, etc.
Shoot the photos
Travel from the session
Load images onto a computer
Back up the files on an external drive
2 - 4 hours of Adobe® Photoshop® time, including cropping, contrast, color, sharpening, and backing up edited photographs. Proof photos are also ordered.
2 - 3 hours to talk to the client, answer questions, receive order and payment, order their prints, receive and verify prints, package prints, schedule shipment, and ship.
Possibly meet clients at the studio to review photos and place order. Meeting and travel time average 2 hours.
You can see how a one-hour session easily turns into an eight-hour day or more from start to finish. So when you see a personal photographer charging a $200 session fee for a one-hour photo shoot, the client is NOT paying them $200 per hour.
The eight-hour wedding
A wedding photographer typically meets with the bride and groom several times before and after the wedding. And it’s not uncommon to end up with 1,000 - 2,000 photos, much more than a portrait session. Many photographers spend 40-60 hours working on one eight-hour wedding if you look at the time that is truly involved. Again, when a wedding photographer charges $4,000 for eight hours of coverage, clients are NOT paying them $500 an hour!
(Don’t forget that the photographer runs the wedding day to some extent. A comfortable, confident wedding photographer can make a wedding day go more smoothly.)
The expertise and cost of doing business
Shooting professional photography is a skill acquired through years of experience. Even though a DSLR now costs under $1,000, taking professional portraits involves much more than a nice camera.
Most personal photographers take years to go from buying their first camera to making money with photography. In addition to learning how to use the camera, there is a mountain of other equipment and software programs used to edit and print photographs, run a website, etc. And don’t forget backdrops, props, rent, utilities, insurance, etc!
In addition to the financial investment, photographers actually have to have people skills to make subjects comfortable in front of the camera. Posing people to look their best is a skill by itself. You could argue that posing is a more important skill than actually knowing how to use the camera. A poorly exposed photo can be saved, but a badly posed photo cannot.
The chain store photo studio
Chain stores do have their place. For a very cheap price you can run in, shoot some quick photos, and be done with it. But you get what you pay for.
Consider the time and effort that a personal photographer puts into photographs, compared to a chain store. Store sessions last just a few minutes, while a personal photographer takes the time to get to know the people, makes them comfortable, makes them laugh. If a baby is crying at a chain store, they often don’t have the time (or the patience) to wait because everyone is in a hurry.
The truth is that many chain store studios lose money. In fact, Wal-Mart closed 500 of their portrait studios in 2007 because of the financial drain. What the chain stores bank on is a client coming in for quick, cheap photos…and while there, spending $200 on other items. They are there to get you in the door.
The real deal
Professional, personal photographers are just that—professionals. No different than a mechanic, dentist, doctor, or electrician. But a personal photographer often becomes a friend, someone who documents a family for generations with professional, personal photographs of cherished memories.
Maybe we need to help clients look at it this way: A pair of scissors costs $1.50 at the drugstore. Still, most people will gladly pay a lot more to hire a professional hair dresser to cut their hair.
The added attention and quality that a personal photographer gives is worth every penny.
merry christmas
christmas is here!! i want to wish all my awesome friends, family, new clients, old clients and whoever reads this 
a very happy and safe holiday season. my 2 beauties are on school vacay and i am also on some much needed vacay time myself. things will go back into full swing after the first of the year. i hope you all get everything on your wish list!!
1st place cover contest winner in the house!!
GAAWWWD i have been dying to post the cover image and finally today i got my hands on some magazines!! Sacramento Bride and Groom Magazine holds their cover contests every 6 months months, and oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh i took FIRST PLACE cover again!! Emily here is an absolute knock out stunning dreamy bride and a 100% pleasure to work with. i feel so lucky and so blessed to have had so many wonderful positive things happen to me while in this business, every year just gets better and better. i truly have theee bestest of the best clients ever!! aww today is a very very good day :)
emily & noe
emily and noe get married next june. we just recently shot these engagement pics…oh how i love the fall colors! they are getting married at the rancho murieta country club….a brand new location for me to shoot :) the wedding no doubt will be amazing, and its gonna be a big one from what i hear. cant wait!!
shelby & kevin
shelby and kevin…amazing! they were married just a couple weeks ago, and this wedding happens to be my very last 2009 wedding. this couple has been wonderful and really one of my favs of all time. working with shelby and kevin has been just like playing dress up!! they are up for anything and like everything i like to do and go with whatev’. the wedding was awesome, and she had that cinderella wedding she wanted! cake topper was cinderella and her prince, and she gave her girls sweet bracelets of carriages with pearls inside. all of her wedding goodies came in from families and friends and everything was super personalized! i cannot be more happy with the pics here, and such a treat to end my year with this one. 2009 has been such a fabulous year…..all of my couples this year have been picture perfect wonderful and i loved every single wedding of 2009!! thank you so much to shelby and kevin and your families for having michelle and i share your perfect day.
nicole & brian
nicole and brian were married last month at the cathedral. the reception was held at the capitol plaza ballrooms. beautiful wedding and it was cram packed with all their wonderful family and friends. i apologize i dont have many vendors listed here…ouch i think i left the planning sheet with my fabulous helper michelle. nicole is also a wedding planner that works along side with amanda from romantique weddings. amanda was awesome, by our side the entire day and evening and everything fell in perfect place. nicoles flowers and cake were just gorgeous and ill for sure grab that info and update the post. the flowers were fresh fresh and just breathtaking soft! congrats to you both and your families!!
elizabeth & octavio
YES im far behind on my blogging!! im going to try to get a couple up by the end of the week. Liz and Octavio were married last month at the cathedral. my last 3 weddings this year were at the cathedral so weve got tons of those coming on the blog here. this couple here…GORGEOUS and in some serious love!! they had the reception at the hyatt, one of my fav type of receptions…cocktails and horderves, and then finished off with this glorious cake from freeport bakery. very very beautiful and very different. it was a later day wedding so we pulled in some nice evening shots with the lights of downtown. great crowd here and so much dancing. they brought in an AWESOME mariachi band, oh i do wish i had the names for that. really really good though and liz, thanks again so much for your patience on the blogging and getting these fabulous pics together for you!!
michelle marie, my sister (personal)
november is a bitter sweet month for my parents and i. it happens to be 10 years ago this month my beautiful sister left us. i have gathered for the last year or 2 all of those old family pics that people have in boxes and albums and dresser drawers strung everywhere and i managed to grab a hold of about 700 pics. let me tell you this has been a long project and i finally wanted to get this up for my parents this month!! my sis was born in 1968 with spina bifida…and many many other things that would be a parents last thought to happen to their baby. aww my sister, she glowed, everyone loved her, and she warmed so many hearts. i am not a big country music fan, however it was my sisters favorite. her very favorite artist was kenny rogers….and yes we have a picture of him and her in this slideshow. some of her friends years ago, managed to get a hold of not only concert tickets but backstage passes to meet him personally. i remember she was so excited. just a few of the pics i wanted to talk about. believe it or not we were practically the wilderness family here. my sister and i grew up in washington state a million miles from any gas station….and we only had one! our school was very small, in fact i graduated with a class of about 80 people. theres a couple pics here with a log home. my dad built this…took about 12 years i think. and when i say my dad built this, i dont mean we had a contractor!! we had boom trucks for years, cutting down trees and actually stripping them ourselves. i remember pounding re-bar into those logs when i was little. we had so many weekends filled with fishing, the lakes, and gotta love those days of cutting wood and stacking….i did hate that dad!! but wouldnt change it for the world. my sister had this long glorious hair that i remember vivdly being so jealous of, all those long ponies and buns and i ended up with the short stragly hair and huge round eyes that were way too big for my face. my daughter kaela had the privelage of meeting her aunt and kaela does remember tid bits of her, i feel very lucky to have a couple pictures with them together. allyson unfortunately did not get to know her, however, weirdly allyson was born almost exactly 9 months of my sister passing….im talking within days of 9 months. my mom, she was awesome and smokin’ hot!! (she still is) theres a pic here of her in her bikini at the lake, one of my favs! i remember my mom used to make us clothes….oh good lord some of those outfits…really mom?? like everyone you go through your super old pics and do a little laughing and crying, i am SOOO glad my mom was into taking so many pics, a lot of wonderful memories. anyway, this is for you mom and dad…i love you!! view our families show here
by admin
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