Photography as a whole can often be seen as expensive. Most people are on budgets, especially more recently with covid having hit people hard. However most people don’t realise how much goes into a simple hour session. With a photoshoot you’re not just paying for the hour session you spend with the photographer. There is so much more that goes into it.
Sessions start for me from the first moment you enquire about a photoshoot. From that point on, I don’t stop until you have your photos in your possession wether that printed or digital.
My first step is to organise your session, this includes working out the best date and time, where the session should be held. Is it better inside or outside? Is it too cold or too hot to be outside? Is the lighting going to work at the time of day that works for the client? There is so much thought process that goes into the session before a deposit has even been put down.
Once I’ve worked out the little details, I then spend time working out deposits, payments, and contracts for the session. Everything has to flow with ease to make the clients experience the very best it can be.
Once the session is secured, I then organise the session. This can include a number of different things. From investigating poses to include, thinking of different ways to keep your children engaged in the photoshoot, and buying props, outfits and backdrops to use during your session, this process is one of the most thought out. This process can last over a few days.
The set up...as a new photography business, I went down the road of a portable studio set up. So this obviously means that everything needs to be set up and taken down for every session. The beautiful set you see when you first walk into the building, the little personal touches added to the set up all take time and a lot of energy. As a perfectionist it’s not a simple half hour job, to put everything together either. You also have to make sure the lighting is perfect for your session. This has taken me an easy 40 minutes alone before.
Then the fun part - the hour you see, enjoy and treasure. The best part of the process by far is capturing those beautiful smiles and giggles of your little ones or the stunning last moments of your pregnancy. All the preparation done previously is for this moment right here and it always flies by.
By far the longest process in a photographers life is culling the images and editing them. This is my favourite part of photography, looking at the photos we managed to get during your session. I’m a very natural photographer, I don’t do much to my photos but even for me narrowing down the best of the bunch and then hand-editing each individual photo takes a lot of time. One photo can easy take up to half hour over a few days, just to make sure it’s the absolute best it can be for the client. So now imagine doing between 18-30 images.
The gallery you then view has to be made up to your needs, to make it easy for you to see and purchase your photos. Once your order is through, I either have to order my prints from my supplier or the gifts like cards, magnets and key-rings are all handmade by me. These are all done to the highest quality to allow you to treasure your memories forever.
All of this process doesn’t include any of the things I keep on top of, like updating my social media, updating my website, and keeping amazing deals coming your way as much as I can.
So when you view a photographer’s prices and think that’s a lot of money for an hour’s work, keep in mind the countless hours either side that they put in to making your experience the very best it can be.
Photographs are captured solid and visual memories that you can never replace or buy again. Just think of all the little things, like a weekly takeaway or a coffee everyday, that you spend money on that could instead be spent on a once in a lifetime session capturing something you will treasure forever.
Lauren :)
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