Archive for the ‘Helpful Articles’ Category

Preserve Your Priceless Memories ~ Guest Blogger Spanki Mills

September 29, 2011

I read Spanki’s blog post several months ago, I was waiting for the perfect time to share. But I felt the longer I wanted the more people were putting off getting their portraits done. There is no better time than the present!

Spanki Mills is a professional photographer from Texas. She has 4 beautiful children, including a set of twin boys! Check out her website Spanki Mills Photography and her blog Spanki Mills Blog

“The other day my husband and I started talking and the conversation lead to what I call my “picture wall”  and the one image of all 4 of our children on walking and holding hands. He said to me, and remember this is coming form the mouth a one VERY CHEAP man who was not raised where pictures were important, “that picture is priceless to me, had you come home the day it was taken and told me you wanted to spend $500 on that print I would have had a hard time, but now, it is one of my most treasured images of my children. It is a time of their lives that as parents we were so busy parenting to to really grasp that age. It is a time we will never get back, I can stare at this picture for hours and take in the details of how Paysli’s shoes are on the wrong feet, how the boys hands were still “baby hands” how they had missing teeth, everything about it I love”… So that one conversation got me thinking.

The  phone rang at 1am. I knew what the call was about, I already knew what I was about to be told, but it hearing it made it real. It was the phone call from a sibling, telling me my cancer stricken father had taken his last breath. I gently got out of bed, not to wake anyone, went to my office and dug out of the drawer the last picture we had taken together and just held it and sobbed. That was all I had left, the pictures we had taken. Still to this day, five years later, when we tell stories of my father to my children, we get out the pictures and re-live that moment in our lives that was taken away all to soon.

I was once (a looong time ago) 100lbs and got pregnant with TWINS! I have only one snapshot that I set my camera on the timer and took of myself. At the time I felt fat, and ugly. We look back and I am so disappointed with myself for not making it a priority to have maternity pictures taken, when would my body EVER look like that again. At the time I was more shamed but now, older, I am proud to show off what my tiny little frame  held. I grew two VERY healthy  full weight (5.1lb and 5.12lb) babies in my stomach! ROCK STAR! And still to this day think I should tattoo their names on each of the stretch marks I have on my stomach!;)

Years later I was in a doctors office being told one of my boys had a bone disease, and the only way to “cure” it was to amputate his leg. The first thing I did when we got home, set an appt. for a second opinion, and the second call was to a photographer so we could have family pictures of all of us with shorts on and barefoot so one day we could show our son what his real leg looked like. He is in medical history books for being the ONLY recordable child to NOT lose his leg with this disease, which I 100% credit GOD our father for… but, pictures were important!

Like my husband said, the cost would have been hard to swallow for the prints, but  years later, the images are priceless! We as Americans have gotten so used to spending money on ridiculous things! I know someone who spent $1,500.00 on a purse, but thinks money on pictures is silly. That is their own opinion, but I highly doubt that the purse will give her the same feeling an image of her precious children will years from now. Are your grand-babies going to gather in a room and ooh and ahh over a purse, or clothing, or red soled shoes, or are they going to laugh and reminisce over the images you had hanging on the wall of their mother in braces. Or the prom she went to with their father for the first time….

I am not saying this to get anyone to hire me. I just want to make you aware of how important images are and how one day they all become a treasure! So make sure when you hire a professional, they can give you what you want, something to cherish for years to come. If you do hire a professional, make sure to save up it is an investment, get the images you want and hang them proudly on your walls. If you chose to take the images yourself, take the time to learn your camera, and make sure to get it out and USE it!  We all too often are filled with regret. Take it from me, we will never get these moments in time back.”

Thanks so much Spanki for sharing your story!

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Disc Envy?

January 24, 2011

I came across an article the other day, that I totally connected with. “No disc, no deal! Album schumalbum!” by Pink Pro Tara of Dixie Pixel Photography. You can see the article for yourself here

Here is her article:
“DISCLAIMER: I know this post will ruffle a few feathers with brides to be. But please, read with an open mind, and just hear me out. It’s something that I need to address. PLEASE, your opinion is welcome. Let your voice be heard in the comment section!

When I started shooting wedding photography, all of my brides and grooms purchased prints and albums. It was pretty rad.

In 2007, I began getting my first inquiries for discs, which I didn’t offer at the time. It was a new concept to me, to just “give” the photos away, a concept that I wasn’t comfortable with. But, I wasn’t booking any weddings. So, like the majority of photographers, I gave up the battle and I began to sell the disc. I instantly started booking weddings again.

In 2008, I sold the disc to well over 75% of my brides and grooms. I sold maybe 3 or 4 albums that year. I was well on my way to the disc revolution.

Recently, I ran into 2 brides from 2009. We’ll call them bride A and bride B. Both bride A and bride B purchased nothing but a disc and my time in their wedding package (also known as a “shoot’n’burn” package). I really thought bride A’s wedding was unique so I made a sample album from her wedding. Once she saw the sample album, she confessed to me that she had not yet made a single print from the disc (may I remind you, a disc for which she paid $1500). Bride B was torn between purchasing the disc or an album, but ended up deciding on the disc in her package. She also confessed to me that she hadn’t printed a single image from her disc, and was still interested in purchasing an album.

Not too long ago I conducted an anonymous survey from brides married in 2009. 100 brides were surveyed, most from the East Tennessee area. An overwhelming (but not surprising) 97% said they would not hire a photographer if the photographer did not sell a disc of the images. Ironically, 70% of those brides had not yet made ANY prints from the disc, nor had they made an album. I should remind you that these brides had been married for 9 months or longer.

So what the heck are the brides doing with the disc?

The overwhelming majority had said that they only thing they had done with the images was post them to social networking sites.

Ouch.

This is kind of a knife through the heart of a wedding photographer. Well, I can’t speak for everyone, but it is for me. I lose sleep over every wedding. The anxiety I feel before every wedding can’t be described because I know I cannot make a single mistake, for if I do, I won’t be forgiven. I go 6 or 7 hours without going to the bathroom because I don’t want to miss anything. I wear ugly shoes and put up with drunk people. I hold heavy equipment to my face for hours. I sit at a computer for weeks, editing and editing and editing. And once I’m done editing, I edit again. And again. All for my blood, sweat and tears to remain forever on a 30 cent disc collecting dust in a desk drawer.

I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining, I really really really love what I do. Really. I’m smiling for the majority of those long hours at my computer. But come on! For the fruits of my labor to remain as magnetic digital data for eternity is just a heart breaking reality I don’t really want to accept. And really? Y’all would pay thousands of dollars for just a nice facebook profile photo? Tsk. Tsk.

And I’m not just shaking my finger at you (and I hold nothing against bride A and bride b, I still love them both madly!). I’m guilty too.

I was married in 2006. All I have is a disc and some negatives of my wedding after I had friends from college photograph my wedding. I thought, I’ll make the prints myself. I’ll make my own album. I’m NOT paying someone else to do it when I can save so much money and do it myself.

It took me two years to hang a photo from my wedding on my wall. I still don’t have a wedding album. I hate myself.

But times have changed for dixie pixel. I now include an album with every package. I include a medium resolution disc too, as well as print credit. Why? Because I KNOW that my brides and grooms will have their photos in print. Photos they can hold. Photos they can touch. Photos they don’t have to log in to see . . .

Meg Wohlford, an architect from Clarksville, Tn, was married in July of 2009. She said, “ . . . It’s too easy to put off making your own album I guess. It’s overwhelming to do it yourself. I’m jealous of your (dixie pixel) brides who have prints/albums so quickly. I’ve only made a few small prints. I definitely regret signing myself up to do all my own printing/albums. It’s not the way to go.”

So before you decide to book that “shoot’n’burn” package, ask yourself if you really NEED hundreds of high resolution images on a disc? Do you plan on hanging 500 or more 30×40 prints in your house? And if it’s the price tag on the prints that the photographers sell that turns you off, ask yourself this: What is the image worth to you? That beautiful iconic image from your wedding that your grandchildren will someday look at with nostalgia in their hearts and longing in their eyes (you know, that feeling you get when you look at that sepia toned image from your grandparents’ wedding?). Is it worth $1.00 from a drug store lab? I didn’t think so.

Wedding photos are heirlooms, and should be treated as such. Thank you for reading.”

If you took the time to read til the end, I thank you.

At Julie Rhodes Photography, we strive to put your artwork on your walls, so you can leave your mark. A little moment in time that will help future generations feel connected. Your moment, your story, your history……..

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