You know what i love?

     Well, I actually love a lot of things, and a lot of people, not necessarily in that order.  But today I want to talk about how much I love it when my clients order prints from me.  Like real actual, physical, printed product. Last week I talked to you all about digital image files and why I understand that that's a thing that people really seem to want.  But you guys, I have to say this, I really can not understand why anyone would take the time and energy to plan and pay for a session with a professional photographer and then not get professional quality printed product, you know, FROM the person who has the vision and the expertise to know whether or not that vision has been created in the way that they expected.  There are a lot of blog posts out there from my peers that talk about the quality or professional print labs used by photographers and consumer places generally used by the public.  Here are some links if you're interested.  LINK - LINK - LINK -LINK .  That's just the tip of the ice burg.  If this is something that you are interested in google it, tons of post comparing pro quality print to consumer quality prints will pop up and the differences will astound you. 
     Let's talk consumer labs, (think CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Snapfish, Shutterfly, etc) they are not meant for printing your images from a photographer's session.  These are meant for what they have always been meant for.  Those amazing snapshots that we once caught on our personal cameras but now catch on our cell phones.  You know the pictures from Suzy's birthday party, or that funny shot of Cousin Bob pushing Uncle Joe into the pool, or the shot of Great Grandma Kate holding your baby for the first time.  Consumer labs are PERFECT for these kinds of things.  
Let's think about it this way.  Let's say you hire a chef.  You have to pay that chef for their time and expertise.  Now you have asked the chef to prepare a certain meal for you.  Now you have to pay for the ingredients too.  Now let's say the chef has gotten all of the ingredients and that she has taken the time to get everything ready for the final preparation.  Let me ask you this, would you then expect the chef to hand all of the stuff to you and say "ok, I'm done you have to finish the job." ? I am thinking probably not.  You expect the chef to prepare the ingredients and then have the final product delivered to you at your table to enjoy.  Am I right?   So why do you expect any different from your photographer?  You pay for the photographer's time to plan, photograph and then process your images. Then you expect her to hand you the digital files and say "that's it, I'm done, you have to get them printed yourself"?   
     Ok, Ok....I am going to step off my soapbox now.  Before I go though, I would love to share with you one of the most special moments in my career as a photographer.  If you follow me on here, or on Facebook or Instagram, then you are familiar with Victoria.  I have photographed her several time over the last couple of years and we have a lot of fun together.  Seeing as how we have gotten pretty close Victoria invited me to her graduation party.  Now Victoria's mom had made a BIG print order the week prior to her party and I knew that she had planned on using some of the prints at that party.  You guys, nothing could have prepared me for seeing my work so beautifully displayed.   Here are some pictures ( permission for use generously given by Victoria's mom, Gwen) what I saw walking into this party.  

16x24 matboard print displayed on the gift table