Offering Only Digital Photos Is A Disservice To You
Dear Client,It's no secret that I believe in tangible products – a picture isn't really a photograph until it's printed, right? The print has so much more depth, so much more meaning, so much more value. I can't even begin to compare the experience of scrolling through photos on my laptop to when I can touch and smell and flip through the real thing.But let's back up for a moment, because I used to offer digitals only packages – because it really did seem like the easy way to do business and it appeared to be what most clients wanted. What I wasn't thinking about how it affects my clients.
The term "client" originally stood for a person under the protection and support of another. In my case, I really really really think that your kids are my main client, because I'm recording a piece of your history for them. So I have a responsibility to protect the legacy you're about to forget on your hard drive.I can't believe how much money people spend on photographers, only to have their pictures stowed away on an iPad or usb-stick somewhere.I know – life just gets in the way of planning photo books and putting together albums. And it's so easy to look at things from your laptop anyway.
However, I recently listened to an episode of the Sprouting Photographer podcast where the guest of the day brought up a very good point: how often when you have guests do you sit down to look through pictures on your laptop? How often do you pull out your iPad thinking "Hey I want to take a look at the pictures from that trip we did three years ago?". How much more likely do you think you'd be to look at your pictures if you had them printed in a book, and that book sat on your shelf with a collection of other ones?I want you and your kids to have photographs that last beyond the Facebook newsfeed cycle – photographs that can outlast a lifetime. Which is why all my packages include a photo book that you can proudly display on your coffee table. You'll easily be able to flip through it in two years, or ten years. Even in 30 years when your kids have kiddos of their own, and they want to see who their parents were as kids.(And yes, you'll get the files, too.)Do you see now how offering digitals only would be a disservice to you?