Why Hire A Professional

In this age of digital photography one might wonder, "Why hire a professional photographer?" To me I wonder what has changed. Since the invention of the Kodak Brownie, everyone has had access to a point and shoot camera. In fact I dare say they could take better photographs with that camera than they can with some of the lower priced digital cameras. For as long as I can remember we have had access to inexpensive Kodak and Polaroid cameras. Anyone can take pictures.

But there is a lot more to photography than pointing a camera and tripping a shutter. There is a difference between a snapshot and a portrait. One is a record of what an individual looks like at a certain point in time, while the later shows who a person is. A beautiful portrait is a time machine that will take you back to that time when you were an innocent child. It can take you back to when you first fell in love or the birth of your first baby. It will take you back to the time spent with a loved one who has passed on. A beautifully crafted portrait will stir emotions as you look back on your life and the ones you love. A portrait is more than the tripping of a camera's shutter.

The argument over whether photography is an art or not was settled for me long ago. Agreed – a snap shot is not art and in the case of many "professional photographers" photography is merely a craft to record what people looked like at some period of time or who they were with. You see the question can only be answered by looking at the work of an individual photographer and how he or she approaches her work. I choose to view myself as an artist and therefore approach what I do as an artist using a camera to create my work.

For me photography is an art because I chose to see into a subject's sole. I want to tell their story. Capturing who they are is more important than just what they look like. To do that takes certain skills. First you must understand your tools, how they work, what they do. Next you must have a background in principles of art. You need to understand posing and how it flatters or tells the story of the individual. A knowledge of light and how that illumination affects the image is essential. It's all about the light. But the most difficult thing in photography is to make it all come together and in a split second recognize and captured who the subject is. Think you can do it with one person? Try it with a family of 10 or 12 or 30. (Oh did I mention they have a 3 year old? Well, you get the point. I like to tell folks that a good photograph is one you can show to people who are not related to the subject and they can still enjoy it. A good photograph is a work of art.

My goal each and every time I take a photograph is to create a timeless work of art that can adorn the walls of my client's homes for years to come. It is not always easy, but it is the most rewarding thing I've ever done. I watched a bride and her mother smile, and cry as they looked through the bride's wedding album I had just presented to them. The images took them back to a beautiful and significant time in their life. There were no thoughts as to how much they invested in their photography, only the joy over the memories jumping out from the pages of the book. The smiles, the tears, the excitement are among my greatest rewards. For my clients, their images are worth more than money. They are the memories of their loved ones and who they are, frozen in time for all to enjoy.