Why I Don’t Just Give You All the Pictures

Once upon a time, there was a mom who hired a family photographer. The photographer took a whole lot of beautiful photos of the mom’s family, and then put them all in a gallery for the mom to download and then said, “thank you, goodbye.” The mom looked at the beautiful photos, she loved the beautiful photos, but she was overwhelmed by the amount of beautiful photos and didn’t know what to do with them. So the beautiful photos sat on the mom’s laptop in a folder marked “Beautiful Family Photos” and they were never seen again. The end.

This is my story. But here’s the twist: I’m the mom, not the photographer.

Even I get overwhelmed with a full gallery delivery of gorgeous family photos, where I want to bury my head and not deal with it.

I know exactly what happens if I download the images and then say “I’ll print these tomorrow.” Tomorrow never comes. The photos don’t get printed.

The kids are left wondering why we let a photographer into our house.

My husband wonders what we actually paid for, and is less likely to want to do it again next year.

And I’m left feeling guilty because I haven’t carved out the time to take full advantage of something I paid good money for.

I prefer a different story for my clients:

Once upon a time, there was a mom who hired a family photographer. The photographer took a whole lot of beautiful photos of the mom’s family, and then sent a video explaining the different ways the mom could use her photos. Then the photographer put the photos in a slideshow for the family to watch together, and then said, “how many digital photos do you think you need?” Then the mom chose a collection based on how many digitals she knew she needed, and then used her included print credit to buy a framed print so her kids could see themselves on the wall. Then she also bought an album that held all of the photos, because she loved the photos and wanted to look at them all the time with her kids. And the photographer arranged the album and delivered it and the framed photo to the mom, and the mom didn’t have to do any of the work of getting photos off her computer. And the family enjoyed the photos around their house for years. The end.

And the mom twirled and twirled, having so much free time since she wasn’t spending it figuring out how to print and frame a family photo.

I like this story because the mom is not left on her own to figure out what to do with her photos. The photographer is there, each step of the way, to make the process easy to understand and simple to navigate. The kids can see the photos of their family on the wall and are excited to see themselves, and know they’re loved. The mom’s partner is able to see the benefits of having the photos done and is happy that the mom isn’t having to do a lot of extra work. And the mom is left feeling lighter, a task completed, a chore found to be easier than expected.

And that makes the mom very excited.

And that’s really what I’m aiming for. A way to make it easier to do this thing you want to do but find difficult to accomplish on your own.

That’s why I offer different collections - maybe you don’t need all 50+ digital images (because what will you do with them) but you do want a photo book with all 50 images from our session, and you want a few printed to sprinkle throughout your house. You can go with the lowest collection, with only a dozen digital images, but then use the print credit to help boost you toward that album.

Or maybe you want two dozen digitals, so you can print them throughout the year or put them in family member’s gifts that I don’t carry in my own store. And you can use the larger print credit for the things my store does carry - those photo books that you don’t have time to make, the larger framed print that would require multiple steps for you to finish.

Am I talking myself out of a larger sale, by telling you that you might not need to buy all 50+ of the digital images from our session? Maybe. Or maybe you know that the largest digital collection comes with the largest print credit, and the math checks out for you to keep the digitals in the cloud while you use the print credit to finish out your fairy tale of a family photo session.

11x14” framed and matted print

Ultimately, there are a lot of photographers in the world (and somehow, even more in Midlothian than the world, it seems), and finding the one who fits your style, meets your needs, and makes your fairy tale photo dreams come true, is my fairy godmother wish for you. Whether we end up working together or not.

Want more ideas for what to do with your photos after we make them? Check out this blog post. Want to learn more about how to find a fairy-godmother-type of perfect photographer for you? Click here. Want an excuse to not hire me as your photographer? Here are five reasons not to hire me as your photographer.