The need to have professional photos taken will only increase with time...
“Mom! Look!,” my eldest daughter shouted as she rode her bike past me going downhill during our weekly bike ride around our neighborhood. I attempted to quickly pull out my phone and capture her proud feat before the moment passed. Luckily, I was able to snap a quick pic as she zoomed past. Unlucky for me, it was blurry. However, no matter what version of iPhone I’ve upgraded to, it’ll never compare to my Nikon full-frame. That’s not my point, though, that’s another post altogether.
No, my point isn’t how great your camera is or even capturing blurry fun, life-filled photos. Nope. I have no qualms with that. In fact, I’d even go so far as to say,
PLEASE take those photos on your phone. Heck, my phone storage is so full I’m constantly reminded to upgrade. And...that’s great. I love having a gallery full of images, some even blurry and dark. I love being able to pull up my phone gallery and see shot after shot of the life I’m living. Times I’ve captured my kids being silly, my husband and I attempting a cute selfie. (It never works for me. I’m selfie-deficient, unfortunately.) Those pictures are capturing my day-to-day life, allowing me the opportunity to recall favorite moments. I absolutely adore where we are digitally. Literally, taking a photo with the touch of our hand. That’s insane. And, invigorating. Which, brings me to my point for this post.
The day and age we’re living in has allowed us to become complacent. I’ll even hazard to say...lazy. With everybody having the ability to take pictures, we’ve lost some of the importance behind pictures. Actual, professional, print-and-frame-and-hang-on the-wall pictures. If you always have something, it loses its luster... until it’s too late. Professional portraits have fallen under this ailment. And, that’s truly saddening to me. (I mean, besides the obvious reasons.) Times have changed and I fear we’ll not realize what we’ve missed out on until it’s too far gone.
Unless I’m mistaken (and I hope I’m not!), you can’t (please don’t!) blow up your phone images and print them to a 30x40 canvas without all the things bad happening that I can’t even go into here. At your wedding, it’s cool to have some fun images on that montage video you play during rehearsal. Not so cool to have those blown up and greeting your guests when they arrive at your wedding. When your children are born, phones are AMAZING to have. You can capture every smile, messy face, and drool-covered nap. However, again, those pics don’t last. Will these be the ones you print out to give to grandparents?
"Here, Mom, that’s your new granddaughter. Sorry it’s so blurry, she, strangely, wouldn’t sit still long enough. Also, sorry my finger is covering some of the photo. No worries, we can always go back in time to the first week she was born and re-take them, though..."
Um... how about, nope. Mom doesn’t want your pixelated and too-dark photo of her FIRST GRANDCHILD. Nor, your finger covering one of her grandchild's eyes. I mean, she’ll love those, too... right after you hand her a precious framed print of her new grandchild to put on her mantle.
Listen, photos are important. Across all mediums and devices, photos are important. Literally, priceless. There is nothing that compares to an image of your loved one. I can not express this enough. I try valiantly to tell my clients that while professional photographers are expensive, they are SO worth it.
Think about it this way, how often do you eat out? Drive through and grab that mocha-venti-cream and vanilla latte? Take a moment and add all of those extras up and ask yourself, "Are these creature comforts more important than lasting memories?"
