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Senior Photos, Weddings, Engagement, |
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Your Personalized Photographer. For Custom Wedding Pricing Please contact me at nostalgia@centurytel.net or nostalgicmemoriesbylea@gmail.com
253-857-4756 253-255-0681 cell
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| Basic Weddings $550.00 For Weddings Pre-planning consists of... We will sit and talk about what you are desiring, and the plan of the day. Research of the church may be necessary, this can be done before/after rehearsal. I am ready to photograph one hour before the ceremony starts, where I'm able to capture the bride and groom ready room, and I'll stay until the bride & groom leave the reception. This shoot includes the basic, bride and groom shots, rings/exchanging of the rings/candle lighting, arch of swords/steel, family members/friends groupings, cake cutting, leaving for honeymoon. I am usually there for about 6 to 7 hours and shoot several hundred shots. With this package, you will get my time, my expertise, editing of finished images, a beautiful Wedding Album with (20) 5x7 or (10) 8x10s, 1 proof album filled with 20 4x6 prints of the proofs I take at your wedding prints of your choice, and also 20 B&W 4x6. Additional proof books make a wonderful memory souvenirs for mothers of the bride and groom at extra charge. Photo Special effects or montages are priced seperately. A CD with copyright release of all your proofs is available for additional price. Blow up of individual images prices as above stated. Add $5 for matting. A fully edited DVD slideshow with music of entire wedding is also available, ask for prices. The first half of your total payment is due one month before your wedding, and the second half is due when you pick up your pictures. Pictures will not be turned over to customer until payment is paid in full. A Contract must be signed to book your date. Please contact me for more information. Nostalgic Memories by Lea Photography Referral Program: If you refer a customer to me, and they book and shoot their photo session and they turn in their initial order, then you will receive a $10.00 photo credit. If you refer more than one, you'll get a $10.00 photo credit per person. This is good opportunity for Anniversary or Birthday sessions.. |
Why are Professional Photographers so
expensive?
In this digital age where
everyone has digital cameras, scanners and home "photo printers", when people
upload their photos to a local drug store website and pick them up a few hours
later, we hear this all the time - How in the world do Professional
Photographers charge $55 for an 8x10 when they cost just $1.50 at the drug
store?
Here's why.
Simply put, you're not just paying for the actual photograph, you're paying for time and expertise. First, let's look at the actual time involved.
For a two hour portrait session:
- one
hour of travel to and from the session
- two hours of shooting
- 30 minutes of setup, preparation, talking to the client etc.
- 30 minutes to load the photos onto a computer (2 - 4 Gb of data)
- 30 minutes to back up the files on an external drive
- 3 - 4 hours of Photoshop time including cropping, touchup, contrast, color,
sharpening, saving a copy for print and a copy for the internet and backing up
the edited photographs
- 2 - 3 hours to talk to the client, answer questions, receive their order and
payment, order their prints, receive and verify prints, package prints, schedule
shipment and drop package off at clients or shipping.
- For local customers, we also print a set of all of their photos, and meet them
at our studio to review the photos and place their order. Meeting and travel
time averages 2 hours.
You can see how one two hour session easily turns into more than ten hours of work from start to finish. So when you see a Photographer charging a $200 session fee for a two hour photo shoot, you are not paying them $100 / hour.
For an eight hour wedding:
- An eight hour wedding typically amounts to at least two to three full 40 hour work weeks worth of time. Again, if they are charging you $4,000 for an eight hour wedding, you are not paying them $500 / hour.
Now for the expertise.
Shooting professional photography is a skill, acquired through years of experience. Even though a quality camera now costs under $2,000 taking professional portraits involves much more than a nice camera.
Most Professional Photographers take years to go from buying their first decent camera to making money with their photography. In addition to learning how to use the camera itself, there is a mountain of other equipment involved, as well as numerous software programs used to edit and print photographs, run a website etc. Every shot is wear and tear to gear.
And let's not forget that you actually have to have people skills, be able to communicate, make people comfortable in front of the camera - and posing people to make them look their best in a photograph is a skill all by itself.
Think of it this way - the next time you pay $X to get your hair done, a pair of scissors only costs $1.50. But you gladly pay a lot more to hire a Professional.
What about the cheap studios at the mall?
Please don't compare us to the chain store studios. But if you must, consider all of the time and work that we put into our photographs, compared to what they do. Good luck getting a two hour photo shoot at a chain store. Not to mention they won't come to the beach! And of course, look at our work compared to theirs. You get what you pay for.
The truth is, most of the mall and chain store studios lose money. In fact, in 2007 Wal-Mart closed 500 of their portrait studios because of the financial drain they were putting on the company. What the chain stores bet on is that you'll come in for some quick and cheap photos, and while you're there, you'll also spend $200 on other things. They don't have to make money, they are just there to get you in the door.
Conclusion
We hope that those who have taken the time to read this will have a better understanding of why professional photographs cost so much more than the ones that you get from your local drug store.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
