A piece of my Heart

Hello my lovelies! How are you on this beautiful Sunday afternoon?! I've been thinking about writing this post for a while now, and I decided to just dive in head first.... so here goes! Photographs......what are they REALLY worth? Seriously, take a moment to think about what those photos are truly worth to you? See the thing is, they aren't just photos....they aren't just pieces of paper or bits of information on a hard drive. They are beautiful and precious memories, special moments frozen forever.

I've seen it more times than I care to think about, people will ask me for my prices and then they will tell me "oh I just can't afford to pay that" regarding either the session fee or the print prices...but then they are out buying a new car, taking a vacation, spending a Friday night out on the town or off on a shopping spree. At first it used to break my heart. I remember the first year I finally made the transition from a super cheap shoot and burn photographer to a more professional business model. I had two clients in a row tell me they could not afford me and they went to a super cheap shoot and burn photographer. I remember seeing the photos on Facebook and thinking "How in the world could they pick that kind of a product over me and my work"?! After a couple of years I finally began to understand, it wasn't that my work wasn't up to par, it's that they don't value their memories as much as I do. And I'm not here to pass judgement on anybody!! Please don't mistake my thoughts and feelings as me passing judgement on the way you prioritize your life!!

I'm going to stop the ranting there and tell you a little story. Well OK, it's not a little story at all, it's a big story. I've always backed up my photos onto two separate external hard drives. Every month I create a folder labeled with the month and year. The year my little boy turned 1 we were very busy. My husband was in another state for a 3 month long school and immediately following that he would be deployed to Afghanistan for a year. So in July we drove down to Virginia and we stopped in Washington DC for the first week of July. We did a ton of sight seeing, saw the fireworks and the parade, Arlington, museums, the National Zoo, all sorts of fun stuff. Then we left my husband in Virginia and the baby and I went back to NY. A couple of weeks later we went back down to Virginia to celebrate baby love's 1st birthday with big love. We took him to see the ocean, visited some historical sites and had a birthday party. After about a week baby love and I headed home. I had emailed a few of those pictures, and put a few on Facebook for friends and family to see. I had also backed them up onto an external hard drive. Yeah, I was feeling like super mom because I was totally on top of things. So no kidding there I was..... doing some homework while my little man played with his toys in the living room. The next thing I know he had picked up that little external hard drive and he dropped it on the ground. It broke. I had not backed up those pictures onto the second hard drive and they had been deleted off my laptop..... I now have none of the pictures from my son's first birthday and our trip to Washington DC. I've tried and tried to find someone who could repair that broken drive. I would pay just about any amonut of money to get those memories back. I guess it's true what they say, you don't know what you've got till it's gone.

Let me paint you another picture...... I had some friends who kept saying they wanted to get a family photo done. They have an absolutely beautiful family! My friend, his wife, and their three amazing kidos. It had been probably 4 or 5 years since their last family photo. They kept spending the money on other things... a new car, a vacation, a new motorcycle..... then he went off to Combat, and didn't make it back. Now they will never have another opportunity to have that family picture done. They will look back at the photos they do have, which are few and far between because most of the snapshots were on phones that were upgraded or lost. They will look back at their last family photo from when their third son was born a few years ago. I can't tell you how many times she has said to me.... I wish we had taken more pictures. Or, I wish we had made the time to get our family photos done.

We are the most photographed generation in history....but how many of those photos will be around ten years from now? So you went to some super cheap "photographer" and got a CD with all your pictures on it. Did you like any of the pictures? Did you print any of them? What happens if......when... that CD gets broken or lost? I can tell you from personal experience, it is a terrible feeling to lose those images and not be able to get them back. I can tell you from experience that life is precious and short and tomorrow is not promised. You lose people unexpectely and then there isn't another chance to do things. So what am I saying... I'm saying tell people how you feel, do the things on your bucket list now, use the nice dishes, wear that special outfit, and most of all take pictures and PRINT them!

#photography #costofphotos #memories #value