To Print or Not To Print

I’ve been doing some tough soul searching lately.  This is the time of year to do it, too.  All bundled up, hanging out closely with our loved ones at home, mostly.  Between stoking the fire in the wood stove; shoveling snow; playing board games or cards; reading or journal writing, there’s plenty of time to take stock of what worked last year, and planning for the things upcoming this year; and, yes, time for dreaming, too.  

While attending Imaging USA in Nashville, I gathered tidbits of sage advice from industry leaders, artists in the imagery field with years upon years of knowledge and proven success stories in their own right.   These offerings of wisdom ultimately reaffirmed what I already knew to be true and sparked my decision to make some changes to the way I do business.  It’s my highest and best hope that my clients will benefit the most from these changes, by adding value to their photography investment.  With that said, I’ve revamped my website and my entire pricing structure to reflect these positive changes.   Take a look, see; Click Here or here: www.my3girlsphotography.com

The number one change I’ve made is to no longer be what our industry refers to as a “Shoot & Burn Photographer.”  In an effort to add value to the way I do business, I am switching models.  I’ve restructured my packages or what I refer to as "collections," to only include a few or some or all of the digital files in low-resolution, watermarked and ready to upload and share on the web at my clients’ discretion, but will not be given print rights permission.  I’ve increased my print options and credits to encourage more, (MORE!) printing of my images with professional print labs that I commission and offer through my online gallery service.  I plan to offer additional options and incentives in the months to come for photo books and albums, as well.  

These changes have grown out of a genuine concern for my client-friends and their memories, history, and their heirloom treasures.  I'm adding value to the collections, offering images to share on the web, plus big incentives to print the images through a professional print lab service, and by doing so will help stretch my client-friends' investment.  I've also decided to offer framing suggestions and in-home display consultations, with no additional service fee.

What I mostly noticed was that my client-friends who were receiving their digital files on disc were not doing anything with them.  Other than sharing the images on social media platforms, such as Facebook, these files are just collecting dust.  They aren’t being printed at quality print labs or put on display, as was the initial intention of my offering these files.  I am old school, friends.  My passionate love for photography began in the era of film, and I have countless photo albums, framed portraits, and prints of all sort throughout my house.  I even have boxes full of old negatives.  The printing of images is immensely important to me - and, in my humble opinion, the bigger, the better!  You are investing your hard earned income, and you deserve to have a tangible return on your investment.  Something to treasure and admire for generations to come.

Confession time - Since I have gone digital, I have become lax on printing out my own images.  Things need to change for me as well.  I know this, and I always feel guilty for not printing more.  I'm over due! 

And if that wasn't enough cause to ruffle my feathers and cause a turnabout, how about this notion - a looming 'Digital Dark Age' soon to possibly lose our data and documentation (yikes, yikes, and more yikes!):   

View Link to watch "Digital Dark Age"

Time and time again, I am hearing from other professionals with this similar viewpoint - about the importance of printing your digital images - And here's another great article to read and educate ourselves from Mike Yost Photography:  

The Most Photographed Generation Will Have No Pictures in 10 Years!  

I hope to report back to you at some point later this year with success stories and notes of appreciation for these changes I am making to my collections.  Of course, I understand that one or two digital files would be appreciated by my client-friends around the holidays for greeting cards, or engaged couples wanting to print Save-the-Date mailings, and I will make concessions for these special occasions, and others similar to it.  I am flexible, and do bend, up to a point.  :) 

If my decision to change business models can be supported by other professionals in the industry and/or researched, please leave me a comment.  I’d love to hear from you and your stories of success and why it's so important to print your images.   As well, I'd love to hear from my client-friends, too.  What are your thoughts?  Yay?  Nay?  How are you using your digital files?  

Here's to a New Age, my friends!!  

Onward! 

Nashville Highlights: Imaging USA

Home again and digging out of the exhaustion of averaging about 3 to 4 hours of sleep a night while away on my 4.5 day whirlwind jaunt in Nashville.  When I got home, sleep was my best friend.  I knew it was going to be a full on adventure with little sleep so I’m not surprised, just not all that accustomed to so much excitement in such a short amount of time!  After all, my life is fairly routine and steady these days.  It’s good for me to shake things up a bit every once in a while!  As far as mixing business with pleasure - I’m not sure where the business stuff ended and the pleasure began.  It was all pleasurable business.  The way it should be, in my opinion.   

Imaging USA hosted by Professional Photographers of America (PPA) was outstanding in its class.  I cannot say enough about the quality of this conference.  The classes that were available and the speakers within the expo were all exceptional and inspired me greatly.  It was fascinating to me to be amongst such incredible talent, blindingly amazing artists, seasoned photographers from all over the world.  I met another wedding & portrait photographer from western Pennsylvania whom I absolutely admire; could not help but introducing myself and telling her how much I love her work.  I would have never forgiven myself if I hadn’t.  Jen McKen was amazing and treated me like she already knew me - like we’ve been pals forever.  I love that about her!!  Check out her work! 

Here are a few shots I was able to get during the conference and in some of the classes.  

I wish I had gotten more!  Next time around!! 

Hanson Fong demonstrating to the crowded room posing skills. Number one rule in his book is, "The woman always looks good!"  And the man pays the bill.  

He had us laughing with his enthralling words of wisdom. 

The acclaimed natural light, children's photographer, Audrey Woulard gives us advice on social media tips.  I learned so much from her in a half hour - many thanks for the inspiration, Audrey!  Her work is incredible and to a photographer, mind-boggling blessed!

I also met a group of professional women photographers who shoot Sony/Carl Zeiss gear too!  This was the Holy Grail, I tell you!  Now, I’d have to say this was The Highlight of the conference for me.  We have chatted within a Facebook group for quite some time now and I’ve been following their work, so I knew I’d be honored to meet and share ideas with some of the finest photographers in the industry.  I was not disappointed.  These ladies were generously gracious with their time, industry tips, helpful advice and friendship.  I learned so much from them.  I can only hope that I offered them equally inspiring advice or, at the very least, my sincere friendship.  Thank you again for everything, Laura Harris, Heidi Melms, Noreen Nooner, Victoria Mason and Melissa Edge.  Although, Melissa is a Nikon gal, we’ll give her a pass!  *wink, wink*  I look forward to meeting up with you all in the future - maybe another Imaging USA or similar conference, and wish you much success in your business and family life.  Miss you girls already! 

I had mentioned before that I have family and friends in the Nashville area and I was able to see as many of them as I possibly could!  With such a short amount of free time, we were able to schedule everything that we wanted to do and see.  My first order of business was a dinner date with some girlfriends I went to grade school and jr. high with.  Here we are as we were wrapping up our night together.  

 Me, Renee, Michelle & Christy

I first met Renee in 4th grade and Michelle the following year at a Nashville elementary school, Rose Park.  I lost touch with Renee in 1982-83.  So, I was super excited for this opportunity to reconnect with these fun-loving, southern gals!  I love to hear the southern accent - takes me back to a place I once called home.  The conversation was broad and sweeping - from grade school to current day:  family life, health, work.  We spanned roughly 30 years of time over a delicious Mexican meal and drinks.  And memories upon memories were stirred.  I was a bit overwhelmed within my thoughts of days long gone by.  It’s amazing what the memory can store in our brains, deep in the recesses of time.   It was a fabulous evening of reconnection and I send my good thoughts of continued life-loving awesomeness to my old friends.  I’m reminded of that song we used to sing as Brownie troop members:  Make New Friends But Keep the Old, One is Silver and the Other’s Gold.  You girls are Gold to me.  

The theme for the weekend was: Reconnection.  I saw cousins I haven’t seen in many, many years - and met new ones, too!  It was refreshingly wonderful reconnecting with everyone, my beloved southern family members!  It was a soulful, good time.  I loved every moment.  

I met up for a lunch date with an aunt I haven’t seen in close to 25 years!  She was the “cool” aunt whom I always looked up to and admired fiercely.  A creative force to reckon with and smart business woman.  Thank you, Donna, for carving out a little time with me.  I hope our busy lives don’t keep us apart for another 25 years!!  Wishing you happiness, beautiful lady!

I was able to help celebrate my step-father, Ted’s birthday with my Mom and more Nashville family at their new home.  Thanks, Mom & Ted!  So wonderful to spend time with you and the “kids” and see your new home.  It’s just perfect for you!!   Happy birthday, Granpa Ted!

There was so much more, but I'm trying to keep this blog post under an hour long!  ;) 

On that note, I'll leave you with this video clip from PPA.  I can't wait for next year's Imaging USA conference, although it won't be held in Nashville.  It will be held in Atlanta from January 10 - 12.  I hope to meet more photographers then!   

We are PPA strong!!

Link:  http://youtu.be/nSd-8T6m2lg