Okay so I’m a little bit of a perfectionist - not a true perfectionist I might add, as I usually know when to let go, but I do strive for top quality consistently.
Photography for me is not just pushing a button at your portrait session or wedding day. I want my clients to have a quality experience from the outset. This means that I do not do ’shoot and burn’ photography. This means, for example, that I would not photograph your wedding day, burn the images on to a DVD for you that night and post them off, with no further interaction with you. I am providing a service, and in my very humble opinion, I do not believe that offering ’shoot and burn’ photography is a professional and top quality service to offer.
I do offer the high resolution files in some of my wedding collections, and they can be purchased a la carte, but I want to make clear that they are all colour corrected and enhanced in Photoshop. My RAW files straight out of camera are good, but a little bit of love in post-production goes a long way to creating timeless, beautiful images. This is also the reason that I do not offer thousands of images of your day, as it would take far too long to edit, and cost you a small fortune. As a bride recently myself, I would much prefer to have 200-400 fantastic images to treasure, that still tell the story of the day, than 5000 photos that I will never have enough time to look at. I do not want you to lose interest in your own wedding images!
I also offer only a limited amount of wedding commissions per year. The main reason for this is that in order to keep a tight rein on quality control, I cannot possibly do 3-4 weddings per week. The way I do things, there would not be enough hours in the week to post-process 3 or more weddings per week, including both enhancing the images and designing albums. Not to mention organising orders from family and friends via the online gallery after the wedding and the usual day-to-day running of the business.
Therefore, I accept an absolute maximum of 2 weddings per week to ensure I can offer the best in service to all my clients, and prefer to do only one. Over an entire year, I aim to restrict my wedding commissions to 30-35 dates. Because of this, I offer up to 8 hours coverage in all of my collections. As I only do a limited amount of weddings, it makes sense for me to be there for the entire day to showcase all the detail and emotion involved in your day. I do not book more than one wedding per day so it makes no difference if I am there for 4 hours or 8 (or longer). If you only need me for 6 hours, that is perfectly fine, but the collection price will remain the same. I now only offer a reduced amount of coverage to last minute weddings (usually booked within 3 months of the wedding date.)
Going back to the quality issue, I also only offer the best in albums. You want your wedding images to last a lifetime, not fall apart after a couple of years. I much prefer to present your beautiful memories in an album, whether traditional or contemporary, that will become a family heirloom and treasured possession.
Photography has always been valued in my family and because of this, I am able to sneak a glimpse into my parents’ and grandparents’ lives. Photographs that are now over 50 years old tell me so much. What would you take if you had to immediately evacuate your house? Family members, pets and photo albums!!
It is also my philosophy to not offer ‘loose prints’ as I feel this is an unfinished product. My 6×4″ prints that come in every collection are enclosed in an acid-free slip in album and are enhanced prints, not proofs (I do not offer proofs). Any enlargements ordered are either mounted, ready to be framed, or professionally mounted and framed. For individual enlargements, I offer sizes 5×7″, 8×10″, 8×12″ and 11×14″, all of which are mounted like the examples below:
For enlargements 12×18″ to 30×40″, I offer professional mounting and framing. This is included in the price which is very competitive as I do not mark up on the framing (which is outsourced). I just prefer to see the images presented professionally and ready to hang. Loose prints are damaged easily and many procrastinate in getting them framed, increasing the likelihood of damage and dirt ruining the photograph.
My framer is fantastic and offers hundreds of frames. I have selected a few that I like and my wonderful husband has made me this display board to showcase the frame corners.
And here is a sample 20×24″ mounted and professionally framed in the black rounded frame.
So in my opinion, a wedding photographer’s service should not end with your wedding day. I usually come to your house a few weeks after the wedding to show you the images personally and we can decide together which ones you would like for your enlargements and other products. Albums are pre-designed according to details and specifications reviewed before the wedding, but you may have up to 3 rounds of image changes with no extra cost, to make sure you are totally happy with your album. Once all your products are ready, I personally check them before they are delivered to you, along with your digital files.
Okay, off the soapbox for today. (I did warn you about the ramblings…)