After proofing this post – I am going to go ahead and apologize for some of my sarcasm and snarkiness in this post. Please forgive me in advance.
Everyone raise your hand if you have a Facebook page? There “ain’t no shame” in our game. Everyone, well pretty much everyone, has one. We all constantly check our phones, tablets, and computer to see what the latest updates are on our friends, family members, celebrities, favorite brands, books, movies, etc. We all reconnect with old classmates or that one guy we met backpacking through Europe. Facebook is so wonderful for that! Businesses, like myself, use it as a platform for displaying our products, our talents, and our content (blog post for the win!) and pretty much everyone I know uses it for displaying their latest photos whether personal or a professional photography session.
I love Facebook so much (and sometimes equally hate it for its hold over me). Who doesn’t?
But have you ever thought about what happens when Facebook is no longer “in” or even available? I know you think that is not going to happen because it has been strong for a decade or so. But does anyone remember a little website called Myspace? That was my jam in middle school. Choosing my themes, my top 8, and curating the perfect profile picture was the highlight of my 7th grade existence which explains so much. But who in the world still has their Myspace page? Or can access their pictures on Myspace? I know I can’t. I deleted that page faster than a hot knife cutting butter. All those posts and pictures are gone (well as gone as the internet allows- I am sure they are out somewhere in the internet cosmos or something).
You are probably at this point thinking, “Well, Sami – what exactly are you blabbering on about?”
Funny you should ask. I am actually here to talk about the taboo topic of *checks over my shoulder* printing your pictures. GASP!
Ok, so I know I am being very sarcastic but I have learned that anytime I mention printing pictures and hanging them on your actual walls, I get so many virtual sighs from those reading. People are like: “Come on Sami. We are in 2016 where everyone has a camera and easily shared on social media. I mean, how hard is your job anyways. You just take a picture, apply and instagram filter, and post it to Facebook. *I* can even do that with my iPhone. And I can get my prints at *insert retail store with cheap printing prices* for like -$5.00.”
I apologize for the snarkiness but you have no idea how many times I have heard that line or something similar whether to my face, in an email, or seen online somewhere.
But first, let me digress a little.
Many of you may know – or perhaps you don’t – but I am transitioning from being that photographer that hands over 50 digital images. When I was doing that, I never sat down and thought about how overwhelming that must be to my clients. Not only is everyone busy with their jobs, new babies and their families, I am giving my clients the 50+ images to sit down with, sift through, and actually take the time to locate a quality lab online or locally, choose your images, and pick-them up or ship them to yourself. Then we have to actually go through the process of hanging those images up after purchasing frames and matting. Talk about hard work! Once I sat down and thought about it – I took to Facebook and ask my friends and family what they thought of this process. I got a lot of mixed responses. Some were in favor of getting the numerous digital images and printing on their own. But a majority of those who responded love the convenience of printing their images with me.
I firmly believe that your artwork deserves to to be proudly displayed in your home and not just one of the many post on a Facebook wall or shoved into a junk drawer or saved on a computer that is bound to crash and obliterate those images. My new pricing structure for each of my sessions is now built with fewer digital images and more print credit. I know that I am probably going to lose some of my faithful clients but this has been weighing on me for several months now and I have decided to take the plunge. I truly believe that this is best for my clients and for my business.
So this post is more about preserving our present moments for our future generations. It is my hope that I am offering you a service that many others don’t offer – sitting down and truly trying to figure out what you want from your session whether it is large piece of wall art, a custom crafted album for your coffee table, or even prints to send to relatives.
Let me know what you think of my new approach! Feedback and questions are always welcome. Just drop a comment below.
Now – I gotta go check my Facebook! 😉
xx,
Sami
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