Why?

For lack of a better heading, I ask the question: "Why?" "Why what?" you are thinking, right? Let's see if I can explain! Keep reading. :)

My family and I recently had "professional" photos taken with a well known nationwide "studio", primarily for our church directory. Photographer tried to make the session fun, as fun as you can get in front of a backdrop. She tried to make my 'double chin' disappear in her lens or someone smile that wasn't. Took her time, she seemingly was not in a rush, despite other families waiting. Ok, so her focus at the moment was the family in front of her lens. She did that well! She blocked out the fact that they were an hour behind schedule.

Once we were finished with our smiles, poses, adjusting of collars, adjusting blouses to hide any imperfections we envision having, we sat down at a table with the photographer. It had a nice display of prints, collages, different papers, etc all to try to sell us stuff. And try she did. She had us to narrow down the shots taken to only TWELVE to look at for purchasing prints from.  And then the sales pitch began.

I pulled out my cheat sheet of prices, having an 'idea' of what we were going to spend. Ha Ha Ha Ha! She promptly told me, "Oh, you won't need that. We are going to 'build' your own package." (All the while smiling)

Long story, short - photos were compared and 'best' ones left to look at for product. Story boards were designed with chosen photos and shown, all in effort to sell more. Our oldest daughter looked at hers first, all the while, I am sitting there cringing at the thought of how much she picked out. The total was given and my daughter's face dropped. She could not in a year of Sundays afford what she had picked out. She looked at me, disappointed, and I reminded her that I had just taken their photos the week before. She agreed to getting just the free photo. We moved onto ours and ended up spending way more than intended and added the CD for a nominal fee and had ONE photo cleaned up for blemishes (the one for the directory) for a small fee of $40 (remember for ONLY the one photo!).

Photos came today. I was disappointed in our family group shot. Our granddaughter was all bunched up. The photos clearly indicated that the photographers are not used to working with infants. Yes, blemishes were clear on that ONE photo.

So why? When you want a gourmet meal, you go to an awesome restaurant where a trained chef will prepare it. Will it be the same, if you have the same ingredients and you prepare it at home? You want a massage so you go  to a massage place and have someone trained to give the much needed relaxation. Your car needs repair, so you take it to a trained mechanic.  In most cases, you would agree, right?

We thought the girl taking our photographs was a professional. I noticed her camera was taped to hold the f-stop in place. The other photographer somehow got the f-stop changed on her camera and she actually had to ask 'our' photographer how to change it back. She did and taped it in place. Professional?  Probably not. Trained in how to set up, snap a few photos and sell, sell, sell. Remember the one who had to ask how to change something? She also had to redo an entire session because her pre-set settings got messed up.

I say all this because that day, I no longer felt bad for what I do. When you book a session with Photography by Kelly, you will get ALL edited (blemish free, teeth whitened, eyes brighter, etc) at no extra cost. Am I crazy for doing this? Probably, but I feel that if you see one cleaned up, they should all be cleaned up in that way. Am I going to sell you product you do not want or need? No, you get no pressure from me. Granted I do not offer CDs. Why? Because anyone can go to Walmart, CVS, Target, etc to print photos.However, the professional print lab that I use recognizes when something is not 'quite right' with an image and will call me or email to get approval before going forth with the order!  Will the big box stores do that? No.

You can be assured that the product you order from Photography by Kelly is carefully inspected before processed and mailed out to me. So, why would you want to go to a photographer that only offers a CD? Each session includes prints also! And you want only those prints? No sweat! Remember, no pressure!

Want to know more about us? Check us out throughout this year as we have mini sessions planned for the rest of the year!