Life happens. There is nothing at all we can do to slow it down. Everyone warns you about it, but I don’t think you get your first glimpse of how fast life truly is until you graduate high school, then college and by the time you have a baby, you start to see how fast it really is. My daughter turns one this month. ONE. An entire year old. She will be a toddler, not an infant… I blinked and her first year was coming to an end. It truly breaks my heart.
I was thinking today about shooting weddings/events. As many of you know, I no longer give discs with all of the images from a shoot. It was part of my transition to custom photography. I recently decided that I would always give a disc for weddings/events just because so many people are involved and if I cut one image, it may have been the only image of your crazy Uncle Herschel cutting a rug on the dance floor.
As far as the rest of my sessions go though, I am now selling prints and with the option to purchase the digital files. Incase you missed it, this was effective Jan 1, 2012. What does my decision have to do with my little intro paragraph? I’m getting there. : )
On our wedding day, the man who married us gave us the advice to frame our marriage license and hang it on the wall as a reminder of the commitment and contract we made with one another on that day. Done. Well we have a reminder of the legal contract, but does that show the love we felt for each other on that day? No, it is a piece of paper that labels me a “spinster” and has our signatures. Seriously, it says SPINSTER!! We need a picture on the wall. One that shows the love we felt, just incase we ever forget. Lets face it. There are HARD times in a marriage. There are days you actually dislike the person you made a commitment to spend the rest of your life with. On those days, you don’t sit there and dream of the good times. Sometimes you need the visual reminder. You need that image on your wall that shows more than the legalities of your marriage.
Today, I do not have a single image from our wedding on our wall. Not one. It is not because I don’t love my husband. It is not because my pictures aren’t amazing. My wedding photographer was one of the most sought-after, award winning wedding photographers in St Louis. Our pictures are AMAZING. I don’t have images on my wall simply because life happened.
I had so many options on my disc I couldn’t narrow it down. I had/have no idea which one we want to represent our day on our wall. We were never forced to sit down and choose. So I put it off. Said, “I’ll think on it”. Life happened and I have yet to print a single image. Again, I am not trying to knock giving a disc of images for events. I won’t stop giving the disc and I personally would not have chosen a wedding photographer who did not give me a disc. I wanted the flexibility to be able to do what I wanted with the images, when I wanted. I have done nothing. Knowing what I know now, the disc would not be a deal breaker for me. I would hire Kelly whether she gave the disc or not. Why?? Because I trust her to get the shots I need. I know she is not blowing smoke up my tush when she says Walmart prints won’t hold a candle to her professional printing company and if I weren’t a photographer myself, I would know that any album she produced would be matted, laid out, and higher quality than one I could produce myself. I trust her.
I have had skeptical clients during this transition, I don’t blame them. I am proud of them, I would be skeptical too. Trust can’t just be handed out in this world, it needs to be earned. I am earning it one client at a time. I know the transition to custom photography was the best move I could have made. I have never seen my clients so happy, and I am so incredibly blessed to see their joy when their prints come in… and yes, I am still GIVING low-res, watermarked digital copies of the images a client purchases for Facebook. It’s the main reason my clients want the digitals, and HELLO?? it’s free advertising!
So here’s the challenge. I have until this Friday, March 16, 2012 to send some engagement (yep, don’t have those printed either) and wedding pictures to print. I’m not talking 5×7 copies either. I am talking gallery wraps, or enlargements. Something of major significance to show our love on the day we said, “I do”. If you are like me, and your wedding images are still sitting on a disc. I challenge you to give yourself the same deadline. Comment here, I will check up with you.
So we are starting with some engagement pictures today. Then tomorrow will be a completely different set of engagement pictures our photographer asked us to be models for. Then Wednesday will be OUR WEDDING!! Happy Voting and Thank You for the help!
Number 1
Copyright Kelly Manno Photography
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Copyright Kelly Manno Photography
Number 3
Copyright Kelly Manno Photography
Number 4Copyright Kelly Manno Photography
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Copyright Kelly Manno Photography
Number 6
Copyright Kelly Manno Photography
Number 7
Please leave your favorites in a comment below.
The winning pictures of each category will soon be hanging on our walls!
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.jpg "Fayetteville Newborn Photographer")
<3 Good luck!!!!
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