Personable Photography

Q. What advice do you have for a customer looking to hire a provider like you?

A. It's much more important to find a photographer whose style you love.

You're not going to get a candid, journalistic-style shooter to shoot stiff, posed portraits very well; and a traditional, formal, studio shooter is not going to provide you with relaxed, natural, and candid shots of you and your family.

Love the pictures, then talk about price.

Q. What questions should a consumer ask to hire the right service professional?

A. Who has the rights to the photos, once they're complete?

Will the photographer provide you with full-resolution digital copies for your own use?

What happens if the customer loses their pictures in a fire or computer catastrophe? (In other words, what is the photographer's backup service?)

Is the personality of the photographer one that I can relax around?

Q. What do you wish customers knew about you or your profession?

A. You don't have to pay photographers for your prints! They're your pictures, you should do what you want with them!

A "traditional" shooter will charge you a small (or sometimes non-existent) sitting fee to take the pictures, and then charge about $20-40 per "sheet" for prints. That means that (1) 8x12, or (2) 5x7s, or (4) 4x6s each cost $20-40.

A more "progressive" pricing model these days is to get paid well for your "sitting fee" and provide the edited, digital prints to the client, so that they can print them however they choose.

The one area that most people can't fulfill their own print needs is that of large prints, canvases, and albums. A good photographer can always help out with those, and at a reasonable price.

Q. What is your greatest strength?

A. People relax, and are themselves, around me. The biggest hurdle to overcome in the quest to take amazing portraits is to have a subject who is relaxed and enjoying themselves.

I love the fact that I can take a person who is afraid of the camera, who thinks that they *never* take good photos, and show them how great they can look when they trust the person behind the camera.

Q. What are you currently working on improving?

A. I have some great plans for being able to show clients some rough proofs on an iPad as soon as the shoot is over. Being able to give instant gratification that way would be really nice, and the technology is finally getting there!