I'm bringing this all up because more often than not, the work, technical skill, and experience of a true professional photographer is most often overlooked and undervalued. Yes, UNDERVALUED. In this day and age where everyone owns a camera of some sort, be it on your phone or point-and-shoot, or even a DSLR, most people who are not professionals or avid photo enthusiasts THINK that they can produce the types of images they are after. You know, pictures that are well lit, properly exposed, conveying emotion, and overall, is a solid photograph. So, in an effort to save money, the do-it-yourself'ers go out, buy a "nice" camera, start shooting, and then wonder why their photos aren't coming out the way it's supposed to. I mean, "I bought the best, most expensive camera at the store, so it should shoot professional photographs, right?!!!". 

There's this great joke about how an aspiring writer asks a successful writer about how he got to be so good at writing, and the reply was "I buy all my quills at the same place that Shakespeare did". And for some reason, people still think this to be true! All they have to do is go to a camera store, by the latest and greatest, and then they too will be taking professional level photographs. Not!!!

I get this all the time, and sadly, because of it, I'll lose jobs over it because although the photographs of an event or occasion are important, how to get them isn't. There's always "Unlce Bob" or cousin Betty who has a camera who can take the photos of the wedding or birthday, which is all fine, but if the event really means something to you, leave it to a professional to cover the event for you. Someone who through years of experience can always get the shot, and not just cross their fingers in hopes of getting a good image. Sure, people who don't photograph for a living, can sometimes, and randomly get a good, solid image, but when you hire a pro, you will most certainly get many more images that you possibly could not get, and even better than what you may have expected. 

One last analogy to this dilemma is one I heard about recently. If you needed to get your taxes done, and have a friend who is an accountant, and you asked him or her to do it for you, when it's completed, would you pay them for their work? Of course you would. You know how much time and effort, tax knowledge and experience went into that tax prep, so of course you would compensate them for their work. Then why is it that if you need a certain event or project to be photographed, something that also requires time, effort, knowledge, experience, and this time equipment, and location challenges, would you second guess about paying a professional to cover it for you? This is precisely why we hire professionals in every field to do the things that we could possibly do, but can't because there are people who do it everyday and know exactly what it takes to get the job done. Just because we all may own a hammer, doesn't mean we can build a house :) 

My point is, next time you have an event, or need to have photographs taken, and you do go ahead and hire a professional, the price that you're paying for their services are for their experience, their knowledge, the use of their equipment, their rapport with people, etc. Should you love the work they are creating, don't second guess the cost. Way down the line, years later, when you look back on the images, you won't be thinking about how much you paid for them, only how great the day was, and how terrific it was to get some fantastic images from it. 

Okay, that's the end of my "rant". Next time you see your favorite professional photographer, give him or her a hug will you?

Happy Thanksgiving everyone :) May you all be blessed to be around those you love and cherish the most this holiday season :) See you next week!