April
artist : noun \ˈär-tist\
defined as: one who is adept at something.
I consider myself an artist. I have vision, a palette, an eye, some education, and most of all EXPERIENCE.
Like every photographer in the biz that has a talent and finished product worth selling, I wanna bash my head against a brick wall when I hear the words “Oh my friend actually has a nice camera and is just going to do my __________(<–insert —-senior, wedding, daughter’s, family) pictures for free.”
I understand it, the economy is poor, we make sacrifices and everyone owns a camera or at least a mobile device with one. But if you are going to hire (or not hire) a photographer, then you are going to get what you pay for (hopefully). The process of photographing someone or something does not begin and end with the click of a shutter button. There is a plan, there is a skill, there are other settings besides “auto” on a camera, and there is post processing. Even the most beautiful images that come straight of the camera can look even better with some tweaks in photoshop. I’m not saying every photographer needs to use an editing program. I’m saying that I do, and it takes a photo that looks like this…..
and turn it into a piece of art that looks like this…..
Thank you to Crave photography at www.cravemyphotography.com for the recent mentoring class that helped me to achieve images like this with hands on editing rather than just leaving it or pushing play at full opacity on a purchased action. I now absolutely believe that I am worth my weight in gold in this market. So if you are questioning whether or not to hire someone or have Uncle Ed take your pictures, keep this in mind. If you decide that Walmart does a great job then that is fabulous, but guess what? They Charge 10 times more for an 8×10 print than I do. So you won’t be saving any money and you will end up with studio images that look like everyone else.
The next person that asks me my prices and then I never hear from them again because they think they can get a better deal….won’t hurt my feelings. I love my work, and my prices are where they are because I’m good at what I do, and I’m worth it.