Ummm, how is it APRIL?! Today’s sunshine is definitely helping me feel like maybe Spring IS just around the corner! 🤞
My last note to you was on Dec 30/24 and - while I’ve always promised not to inundate your inbox - 3 months feels a little too long in between! Alas, life happens and I’m happy to write when I have something to share!
Two things today:
1 - some thoughts about value and
2 - a spotlight initiative.
I’ve been thinking about value lately… about perception (and expectation) surrounding price, service, and product. And that, ultimately, the client experience should be top of mind… I mean: does a professional need to know their craft, of course; and do service providers + artists need to pay their bills, obviously; but, with all that hopefully established, is your chosen provider invested in you having the best possible experience?
Flashback to when we were planning our wedding (a lot of years ago now), great photography was - for me - the non negotiable. I wasn’t yet working in the field but my lifelong love of the medium propelled me to research, interview, and eventually hire a well respected local wedding photographer. I loved his portfolio and was happy to communicate to him that his unique style would be perfect at our family farm (the ceremony venue) AND that I wanted him to know that photography was my most cherished wedding day ‘decision’.
I was impressed with his awards + fancy office. I assumed his pricing indicative of his service. I was both excited + naïve.
I bought his second highest priced package for our wedding day, which meant that he (with an associate) would be able to capture us getting ready, the ceremony, and ending with both formal and informal portraits. He assured me that we’d be the only wedding booked that day to ensure we had time to enjoy the process.
Sadly, directly after the ceremony (which, important to the story, ran only 15 min late), while enjoying a champagne toast with our guests, the photog pulled me aside and said that if I wanted him to capture any family / wedding party portraits it would have to be right then as he had another wedding to get to… ummm, what?? He then said, ‘don’t worry my associate can stay and do more shots with you.’ But I didn’t hire HER! (Note: she was actually fabulous!, but I’d not seen any of her work and had only met her that day: she was an unknown quantity.) He proceeded to take the first few pics of us in the middle of the field in mid-day sun, before we finally got in a few shots in quasi open shade —> in short, the portraits he took post-ceremony - save one or two - were a total disaster. After maybe 6 or 8 posed family and newlywed shots he announced his departure. He had to have noted my disappointment (with ire in my gut + tears in my eyes) to which he just smiled and told us to have fun, and then he drove off.
I think the thing that sticks in my craw the most, (obviously AFTER the fact that he didn’t provide the service we’d paid for!), was that he just didn’t seem to care. I look back and think - yeah: fancy camera, awards, a staff, but ZERO concern for our experience.
Of course, none of us are perfect… BUT I do know that - whether you’re looking for a photog or lawn maintenance service or accountant - choose someone who CARES. Someone who is curious about you, your needs, your hopes. Someone who spends time imagining + designing how they might make your experience the very best it can be. Someone who not only lives up to their word but who is also human enough to acknowledge when things have gone sideways and endeavours to make it right. Does price, equipment, skill, etc contribute to value, of course; but make sure that authentic interest + care are a big part of the package! As Maya Angelou so aptly wrote, “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
In other news: Spotlight
A while back I was approached with the opportunity to share my bio on a local photographer’s blog, where he intends to showcase Alberta artists… I thought it a beautiful offering, and was inspired to do the same! You can now find a place on my site where I will share + celebrate local artists… first up is the talented Ned Radan!
Enough ‘reading’! 😉 Here are a couple shots from some of last week’s fun in studio.
Branding + Headshot Session
Professional Headshot Session