Ann Arbor Wedding Photographer
When was the last time you had your family portrait done? Preserve those precious memories with a family mini session. For only $200 you will receive a 30 minute portrait session, 5 digital images with a print release, custom timeline cover, and a 5×7 print of your favorite image. Additional prints and products are available for purchase.
Offer good through February 28, 2015. Session fee must be paid in full to hold your date.
There’s a rather heated debate in the photography world about whether or not to sell digital files to our clients. I have always stood on the side against digitals, but I do include web-ready files of each image purchased as a print because I understand wanting to share them on social media. Personally, I feel that strictly handing over a disc of the images from your session is doing you such an injustice, and my beliefs couldn’t have been more solidified by my grandfather’s passing.
He passed away in June and while my parents were going through the house they found thousands of prints. Some just Polaroid snapshots, some were studio portraits dating as far back as 1930 (it’s at the bottom of this post). Now think of how much technology has changed since then. What if I only offer you a disc of your images? Sure you’ll post them on Facebook or Instagram, but will you ever actually print out those photos and hang them on your wall? Where do you think that disc will be in 20 years? Forgotten and tucked away is some drawer. CD/DVD readers are already on their way out, how are you going to retrieve your images in the future? At his funeral we had multiple displays of printed images from throughout his life, how will your loved ones remember you when you just have a CD hanging on the poster board? I’ve found that the majority of people who buy discs never print a single image. How sad is that not to have your family proudly displayed on your walls.
As a photographer I feel like it’s such a disservice to my clients to not offer prints. I treasure each and every one of those photos from my grandparents house. There are photos that I never even knew existed of my dad and my grandparents all when they were young children. Looking at them is like going back in time. I have very fond memories of my grandpa always taking a Polaroid of the family during the holidays and me watching in wonder as the image would magically develop on the page. Words can not truly express how lucky I am to have had a grandfather that saved so many wonderful memories. Memories that I had long forgotten or was too young to remember. I will now be able to show those photos and the pictures of him to my future children and tell them what a wonderful man he was and how the whole town of Northville adored “The Werther’s Man.”
The next time you get your portraits done, I really hope you think will twice about only requesting the digital files. Please consider those beautiful heirloom prints that your family will cherish for years to come.
I was going through my old blog posts and realized that I forgot to blog this amazing family portrait session. These photos were a gift for the holidays so I had to keep them a secret, but since the holidays are long gone I can finally post them. These two sisters were so much fun to work with. They were very polite and had me laughing the whole time, not to mention they are the best of friends. Together they had plenty of inside jokes between them squealing with little girl giggles between the photos. I just loved how the youngest girl would mimic her big sister. You can just tell they are going to be inseparable for life.
My parents have been married for 16 years and the last time they had professional photos done was at their wedding. How crazy is that?! Since I’m an Ann Arbor family photographer, I decided to give them a gift card for updated photos last year for Christmas. They’re lucky enough to live really close to Island Lake State Park so we chose the park for their portrait location. The funny part about that day was they fought me tooth and nail, trying every excuse in the book to get out of doing them; but good thing they raised me to be stubborn because I eventually got them out there. And once they saw the finished images they were thrilled! I designed Christmas cards for them to send out this year as well and every one of their friends called to tell them how cute they were. It’s so awesome to hear all the positive feedback they got on them and my parents liked their family photos so much they are talking about doing them every year (this Ann Arbor family photographer couldn’t agree more!). They also have a little surprise coming to them for the holidays this year, but I’ll have to wait and share that AFTER Christmas day.
Do you remember last fall when I had my family portraits done by Shawna Gerry Photography? Well it was time for me to return the favor for her and her family. We made the decision to do them down in Depot Town and couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day. I love being an Ypsilanti family photographer, we have some of the most gorgeous locations around! The background of the river and the wooden bridge are perfect for any portrait. I was so excited to do her family photos besides the fact that her family is super cute, I got to use the equipment I rented for the wedding last week. It was great to be able to use my dream camera setup for seven days and give Shawna beautiful family portraits. Although, it was a sad day when I packaged the camera and lens back in the box to send to California.
Both of these images are my favorites, I can’t decide between the two which I like better, which one do you like best?
