A brief detour to talk about the value of a photograph.

Beyond a shadow of a doubt the most common first question I get when talking with prospective clients is “how many pictures do I get?”

It’s a perfectly natural question. The easiest way to gauge the value you are getting in return for your money is to quantify the volume of pictures. But, that’s not quite how photography works. I’m doing the lords work here and trying to buck this trend (slowly but surely) and set the expectation with my clients that this whole thing isn’t just about “how many” photos you get. It’s truly about the quality of the photos you get in return, but perhaps more importantly, it’s about cultivating an appreciation for the sanctity of the single image. When you hire a professional photographer to take a photograph using $6,000 worth of camera gear, they are not doing so because they want to take 60 nearly identical pictures of your family standing in a field. It’s about finding that ONE picture that captures the moment in time in a way no cellphone camera can compete with. If I have to go out each time and worry about filling a quota, then it cheapens the art form a bit (a lot).

We all have cellphones in our pockets that store a lifetime of high quality images. God knows I don’t need to pay someone for more pictures of my kids. What would I do with 60 more gigantic 24MB photos? I have many of those and they gather virtual dust on my hard-drive.

But I DO have a few magical photos of my kids that I will cherish forever. They are printed and hanging on my walls. I look at them everyday.

Conclusion: all of that is mostly just to clear my conscience. I always tell clients to understand that I’m not a photo making factory, and they still end up with 200 photos. It’s a dash of “covering my butt” and a heaping helping of advocating for myself as an artist. Your mileage may vary, I’m just asking you to be open to the artform.