I was born to immigrant parents forty-three years and some odd months ago. My parents divorced and my mother re-married when I was about three. The first time I remember seeing my father was when I was about nine years old.
I grew up around a male role model that was pretty much a jerk which, in hindsight, made me a better person. I was married and had my first child by the age of eighteen followed by three more (we didn’t have cable TV for a long time). I struggled through the ups and downs of marriage and ten years later became another statistic.
What does all that have to do with finding the value of a professional? Not a !@&(*#) thing. Except that, I recently learned, that in order to be effective you need to engage your reader/audience/client. Connect with them. Educating yourself, has a lot to do with valuing a professional.
Education and knowledge are what set the every day Joe that is trying to change the water pump on your SUV with a butter knife and a pair of tongs apart from Mr. Good Wrench. It sets your uncle Bob with his shiny new digital camera apart from the guy that knows if he could just Mc Gruber his flash to bounce off a white paper plate he can make you look like Heidi Klum. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking uncle Bob. He’s just been victimized by those two camera companies that told him if he bought their camera he too could be Doug Gordon. The flip side is that he really could be if he educated himself. However, if uncle Bob or Johnny Newbie doesn’t know aperture from a hole in the ground then you need to find a photographer that does. Does it mean you have to spend $8,000 to have someone photograph your wedding? No. It does mean that you should ask questions.
What does your prospective photographer’s work look like? Are the images fuzzy or clear? What about the background? If the background is blurry or out of focus and the foreground is in focus that’s good. That means they have an understanding of depth of field. Unless it happened to be a good mistake, look at a few of the images. When you bought your dress and your flowers you were probably attracted to the detail. If your photographer is inexperienced and can’t get the details in your dress then no amount of Photoshop can help.
What about pricing? What about the giveaways? Times are tough, no doubt, but some things shouldn’t be compromised. You’re spending thousands, and if the averages are true, tens of thousands of dollars on your wedding. A year later, all you will have to remember the day is your credit card bill and your photos. The photographer that is undercutting everyone else and giving you his farm to boot could be sending you a secret message. They don’t have confidence in their work. If the artist doesn’t have confidence in themselves why should you?
Wedding magazines and sites have been telling brides to make sure they get high res images from their photographer. Why? In reality a high res disc is of no real value to anyone but the photographer. A good photographer has calibrated their equipment to match each other. In most cases they don’t print their own work because they are educated enough to know that the average equipment will not do their work justice, and high end equipment is not cost effective so they use a professional lab.
Social media like Facebook and Myspace don’t allow for high res files. They’re just too big. There are also issues with taking the his res files to Wal-Mart or Costco for processing. Often times these places recognize that the images belong to the photographer and won’t print them, or if they do print them do a lousy job of it.
If your photographer is OK with handing over their lively hood, that is certainly their business. I’m not judging and I’ve actually been there myself. I’ve done jobs for free, I’ve given away discs, I’ve done work for trade. More importantly I know why I did those things. I didn’t value my work. It’s knowledge and experience that has given me the confidence to realize my value. Do I think I’m Clay Blackmore? No, I don’t live in fantasy land. I do know that I’m worth more than fifty dollars and a free lunch though. Does that mean I’m never gonna give away free stuff? No. I have friends and family that I would never dream of charging. I also happen to be a nice guy. It’s just going to come in different forms.
A good example is when I got a message from a fellow photographer. Johnny Newbie left a bride stuck, undoubtedly realizing that the $450 he was charging just wasn’t enough. My friend was booked and looking for someone to help this bride out. I happened to be free that weekend and stepped in. It was a huge pay cut for me but it was the right thing to do for my industry. I proudly say “my industry” because I’m proud of what I do, what I’ve learned, and the way it makes people feel.
I’ve been using wedding photography as an example because it’s a big dollar industry. Your family portraits, senior portraits, or the head shot you plan to turn in as part of your portfolio have no less value and deserve no less knowledge or experience.
Photography is my passion. Because of that I felt I had to educate myself in all things photography. I’m not done by any means. The industry is ever changing and evolving. I was at a recent seminar and the things that are coming down the pike will make your head spin. I’m also not trying to knock the new comers. I’m a relative new comer myself. I’ve been into photography for about fifteen years but only very seriously for about ten years and professionally for three. I’ve made more mistakes than I care to admit, and although this post has the overtones of self marketing it’s really meant to be about the education of you, the consumer, the promotion of we, the professionals, and the admonishment to the Johnny Newbies to do the right thing by their clients and the industry and educate themselves.
I hope this post has helped someone in some way to better make a decision, not only in picking a photographer but any real service. It could be a plumber, accountant, or your hairstylist.
If you have an opinion please leave a comment. If you know someone that needs a photographer give them my name. To keep up with the lunacy that spills out of my brain, become a subscriber to this blog. The goal is to reach more than tens of people.
