The price of photography

Hello near and dear ones, and new friends.  Before I head to bed tonight, I felt the need to share a little something with you.  My family and I are getting ready to have a  yard sale, and no, I am not asking you all to come and buy our stuff. ;)  I am simply setting the scene for you.  As we prepare for our yard sale, going through closets and drawers and various boxes, we have come across many little treasures.  The most important and valuable of all have been the forgotten photographs.

Even professional photographers occasionally get some loose 4×6′s printed and forget to put them in a scrapbook or frame and they get tucked in a box or drawer for later good intentions.  This evening, my son found some small prints that a friend from California gave us of our family when my son was only 9 months old.  My hair was super short, pretty sexy I must say, Casey had more hair and still spiky, and my son was wearing his first pair of shoes.  We had gone to a friend’s birthday party and I was instantly transported back there and felt as though I could reach out and touch that time again.  Of course, I teared up with happiness.

Photography truly is a priceless medium and something that only appreciates in value.  For example, you might buy a fabulous car that is perfect for your life style.  It’s got everything you want and though it’s more than you thought you would spend on it, you buy it and feel great about it.  The minute you turn the key and drive off of the lot that vehicle starts depreciating in value.  You will not be able to get the same money out of it that you put into it period.  The same could be said for a 30 year mortgage, a pair of designer heels or heck, even the amazing dinner that you enjoyed on a recent date.  A printed image only becomes more valuable and special as each year you move further away from it’s reality. 

Of all of the things you might collect in your lifetime, why not collect memories?  Collect something that sparks conversation, imagination, joy, nostalgia and happiness.  The instant satisfaction of a Facebook album is powerful yet fleeting.  Do you still own a floppy disk? Go ahead and try to use it.  Ten years from now will all of us even remember Facebook or Twitter or will they seem like Rubik’s Cubes or antiquated forms of communication like the rotary phone?  A tangible gift of a photograph does not expire, if printed by professionals, and it does not go out of fashion, if created by true seasoned artists.

Most of our clients want wall art, albums and small collections of prints.  Some spend a couple of hundred dollars and some spend over a thousand.  No matter what a client spends, it is simple math to see that personal art is worth every penny.  Let’s suppose you spent $100 on a print for your home.  It will hang in your house every day for more than likely the rest of your life.  Even if you only kept it out and visible for one year, you really only spent 27 cents per day to have that reminder of joy.  It’s less than a trip to Starbucks or the Dollar Menu for that matter.

And art stays with you, from place to place and move to move.  If using a professional, they take care and every means to safely protect your images so that if a worst case scenario were to present itself you could go back to them years later to purchase replacements.  An artist can also help you design what you are trying to achieve for your home.  Why DIY it and risk wasting money on a image that you wrongly size or don’t know how to retouch?  I certainly don’t ask the chef to give me the ingredients please so that I may make my own four star meal; after all, I have cooked before.  Let an artist do their job, which is to make you look amazing.

My parent’s wedding album will be 53 years old this September. We had it rebound for them for their 40th anniversary.  All of my siblings will fight over who gets to keep that precious book.  The same argument will happen for the wall portraits of our grandparents and our parents.  Photographs are our common history.  Resting in the knowledge of your place in this world gives meaning to life. 

My advice to everyone considering hiring a professional photographic artist to capture their portrait, their family or their wedding is to weigh the real value and importance of your memories.  How tangible would you like them to be?