Shutter-Happy Photography

I’ve heard what we do compared to mall photography chain stores or doing it yourself: fine dining versus fast food.

To explain further, I’m changing the wording of this published article to meet the needs of our studio:

In this digital age where everyone has digital cameras, scanners, and home photo printers, when people can upload their photos to a local drug store website and pick them up a few hours later, people tend to judge photography studios by the price of their session fee, the price of their 8×10’s, and how quickly they can have their prints delivered.  Why do we charge a $60 session fee?  Why are our 8×10’s $37?  Why does it take weeks to get the prints?  Simply put, you’re not just paying for our face-to-face time and the actual photograph.  You’re also paying for the many hours behind the scenes and our expertise.

The $60 session fee includes:
*30 minutes of Alice’s time during the session consultation to help you plan and design your personalized session
*30 minutes of Amy’s time to travel to location or set up in studio
*1 hour of Amy’s time during the session 
*30 minutes of Amy’s time to travel from location or clean-up in studio
*30 minutes of Amy’s time to download digital files to computer and then back them up on external hard drive
*1-2 hours of Amy’s time to proof session, upload proofs to the website, and create the slideshow
*2 hours of Amy’s time during the print consultation to present the slideshow and help design a print order

Your print order charges include:
*2-3 hours of Amy’s time to collect ordered digital files, all fine art editing, and the cropping and ordering process through the photo lab’s website
*30 minutes of Amy’s time to unpack order, review prints, and package them for delivery

With it broken down like this, you can see how that $60 session fee and your print order charges easily translates to about 10 hours of work from start to finish!

And don’t forget you’re also paying for the wonderful experience, the pampering, and Amy’s expertise.  The memories are priceless.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 26th, 2008 at 10:06 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.