Professional photography isn’t cheap.
I’m not going to pretend that it is. If you’re hiring a photographer, especially for a Signature portrait session with artwork for your home, you’re making a significant investment in your family. The question isn’t really whether photography is expensive. The better question is whether it’s worth it.
Whenever a client is surprised by pricing, many photographers jump into justifying it by talking about years of experience, the cost of equipment, and the bills that come with owning a studio. Or they’ll explain that our client-facing hours are just the tip of the iceberg for the time we spend working on and in our business.
But honestly, no one cares about that part- the logical part of running a business. While there’s memes and infographics about all the numbers, the part you really need to consider is “do you value investing in truly custom artwork that tells your family’s story?”
It’s More Than an Hour Together
One of my favorite parts of family photography isn’t actually taking the pictures. It’s watching families slow down for an hour.
No phones.
No rushing to soccer practice.
No laundry calling from the other room.
Just spending time together. Through a series of prompts, you’ll be sharing treasured memories and inside jokes.
The photographs become proof that this season happened. Your toddler really did insist on bringing that floppy-eared bunny plushies everywhere. Your teenager really did have that grin for half a second before they remembered they were too cool for this. Your dog really did look at your kids like they hung the moon.
Those little things don’t seem important while you’re living them because they feel normal. Five or ten years later, they’re often the very first things you notice.
The To-Do List Problem
The cobbler’s children have no shoes… and the photographer’s home doesn’t have current photos.
Yep, I’m a photographer, passionate about preserving your family photos through prints, and I’m terrible about printing my own pictures.
Every year I tell myself I’m going to organize the thousands of photos on my phone, print vacation pictures, and finally make an album. Every year life gets busy, and somehow it never becomes a priority.
If I struggle with it, I know my clients do too.
That’s one of the biggest reasons my studio is print-first. It’s not because I don’t value digital images. I love sharing them on my social media or seeing them pop up once a year. But I know how easy it is for digital files to become another unfinished project.
When I deliver a framed portrait or a canvas, it’s finished. It goes on your wall instead of sitting on your computer waiting for “someday.” When I design an album, your children can pull it off the shelf and flip through it instead of hoping someone remembers the password to an old hard drive twenty years from now.
To me, helping clients actually enjoy their photographs is just as important as taking them.
Buy the Ones That Make Your Heart Skip a Beat
One thing I tell clients during every ordering appointment is that you don’t have to buy every image.
In fact, I don’t want you to.
I want you to choose the photographs that make your heart skip a beat. The ones that instantly make you smile. The ones you know you’ll still love when your children are grown.
If budget is a concern, let’s talk about it. Maybe that means planning ahead and purchasing gift certificates throughout the year. Maybe it means booking a mini session instead of a full session. Maybe it means choosing one beautiful framed portrait instead of several smaller pieces.
There’s no prize for buying the biggest collection. My goal is for you to leave with artwork you’ll treasure, not photographs you purchased because you felt like you had to.
Looking Back
One of my favorite things in my house is a gallery wall from when my children were little.
At the time, they were just family pictures.
Now I walk by them and notice all the things I had forgotten. The boys weren’t taller than me yet. Athena had the longest, curliest hair. Everyone looked so little.
Sometimes I don’t even notice those portraits anymore because they’ve simply become part of our home. Other times I stop, smile, and think, “Aww… my babies.”
I’ve never once looked at that wall and thought about what it cost. I actually don’t remember what the cost was for the canvases.
I have, however, been incredibly thankful that we took the pictures when we did.
That’s what I mean when I say photography is an investment.
It’s not because photographs increase in value the way a house or retirement account might. It’s because time keeps moving whether we’re ready for it or not. The investment isn’t really in the prints hanging on your wall. It’s in the future version of yourself who gets to look back and remember a season that disappeared far faster than you realized.