I've had a lot of photographers send me additions to Strange Things Customers Say to Photographers,
(see previous blog) but many of them were just a variation on the theme, which is “Can we have all the photos on CD so we can print them at home?”
The bizarre thing is that some photographers are doing it, and just charging a fee for taking the photos. And customers actually think they are getting a bargain! Little do they know of the work they have just saved the photographer, by taking the stress on for themselves!
Proofing the images:
Involves editing, correcting colour balance and exposure, cropping, resizing, numbering every image and printing them as small prints, contact sheets or presenting proofs in digital form.
Making back-up files of the originals :
And storing them in a filing system, for easy access for future orders.
Dealing with the order when it is placed :
This involves management skills, computer skills, printing skills, sales skills and presentation skills that usually include keeping albums, folders and frames in stock.(Not forgetting Bookkeeping skills, Mr. Cowan)
So why, I hear you ask, bother with all that extra work when you can get away with writing the lot to a DVD and laugh your way down to the bank?
The main reason is that (call me old fashioned) I’m actually proud of my work.
I never claimed to be a Master of the Art, but when I decided to make photography a lifetime career I knew that flash-in-the-pans were for fish & chip vans.
These fish & chips snappers (hit-and-run-flashers) can’t possibly have a love or passion for photography, no ambition beyond "burning" their next victim. No business sense, no respect for quality. They come & go like the breeze. Unfortunately before they head for the nearest Quick Lodge, they leave behind a brown bag full of badly printed snaps, and an unwholesome reputation for the industry as a whole, which photographers with a professional ethos have to try to explain to suspicious clients.
Recent Comments