One of my best friends is having a baby… Shelly was the maid of honor in my wedding. I am so excited for her! Her and her husband Terry came for a maternity session a couple days ago. She has already seen her proofs, and this one was a favorite of everybody! And a couple more….

I just got a new air purifier from Shelly this week too, and I LOVE it! What I love about it is that it kills a lot of bacteria, like e coli, streptococcus and stuff like that. It also helps with allergies. This is what I got. If you are interested in finding out more info on this, let me know and I’ll hook you up with my friend Shelly.

Kaylee was such a cutie! She was a VERY happy baby, which makes my job easy! I love this one of her, with her mom and dad’s legs… I love it when babies play with their feet!


Kaylee was such a happy baby, that I had to try the tea cup. I have only used my teacups a couple times, because most babies don’t really like sitting in them. But, Kaylee didn’t complain too much!

Troy and Katie are getting married this weekend. Last week we had an engagement session, although this was more of a “get to know you” session. I like to have a session with my couples before the wedding so that I can get to know them a little better. Well, we had a lot of fun, and now I can’t wait for the wedding! It will be beautiful. Troy and Katie are a lot of fun, so I can’t wait! Here are a few favorites from the session…

I have been wanting to write about this for a while, and I read a similar article that a friend of mine sent me, and it made want to post this. Before I was a photographer, I couldn’t understand why professional photographers cost so much. Now I am a photographer, now I know. I don’t want to come off as sounding high and mighty, rather I want to educate you on why professional photographs cost so much. Exerpts of this artical have been taken from another blog by “Caught on Film Photography“.

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 $20 – $70 for an 8×10 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 portrait session:

- one hour of travel to and from the session if on location.
- one to two hours of shooting
- 15-20 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 and burn back up DVD
- 1 – 2 hours hours of Photoshop time including cropping, 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, do a final edit on prints,order their prints, receive and verify prints, package prints, schedule shipment or pick up from the customer.

You can see how one two hour session easily turns into eight to ten hours of work from start to finish.

For an eight hour wedding:
- I won’t bore you with the details, but an eight hour wedding typically amounts to at least 40-60 hours of work. Again, if they are charging you $4,000 for an eight hour wedding, you are not paying them $500 / hour.

Also, you are paying for all the extra things that are not related directly to YOUR session. Things like the 3 days it takes to get taxes ready for the accountant, the 1 hour a week to do business banking and finances, the time it takes to email and talk to customers who don’t book the photographer, the computer paper and paper clips in the office, time and costs related to workshops and seminars that is needed to stay on top of an ever changing industry.

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. (Although most photographers have $10,000 – $20,000+ worth of equipment)
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 photographs, run a website etc.
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 car fixed, a wrench only costs $15. But you gladly pay a lot more to hire a Professional.

Now, after all that time and expenses involved, it is still a JOB, and we need to EARN AN INCOME. Do you want to go to work and work for free? Do you need an income to buy food, clothes, and shelter for your family?

What about the cheap studios at the mall?
Please don’t compare Professional Photographers 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 page 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.

I had so much fun today! I have been wanting to go to the lake in the winter for a couple years. I never make work to do it. So, Today I decided to go. I left home at about 1:15, and I got back at 8:30. After 7 hours, I am looking through my images, and I have a handful of them that I love! I started out in Holland, by big Red. I couldn’t believe all the people that were out! I had a hard time finding a parking spot. Although, I was pleased that there was an area of the parking lot that was plowed. I wasn’t sure if there would be. Here is one from Holland…. I’ll post a few more from Holland when I get more time to do some editing on them…Then I went to Grand Haven. It was very icy and cold! I took a pretty good spill on the ice! But, it was worth it! The sky was so blue! And yes… I did take a risk by climbing out past the lighthouse. I was VERY careful, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

Then the best part came last…. I waited until sunset…. and after sunset. I went to a photography workshop this summer, and they taught us that a lot of photographers put their camera away when the sun goes down. That is actually when the good colors come out!

Margo came over this week for her 6 month session… I am so glad she brought the blue hat back! We took a few of her older brother too… he is 3 years old!

To me this is a timeless looking portrait… this is Margo’s baptism dress.
I love it when babies play with their feet!

Today was the opening exhibit of the Heart Gallery in Lansing at the capital. My husband and I drove out to Lansing to see the exhibit. Last fall I photographed some children for the Heart Gallery. The Heart is a unique not-for-profit corporation dedicated to raising awareness about foster children available for adoption. Through the volunteer efforts of some of the country’s most prestigious photographers, portraits are taken that help capture the individuality and spirit of each foster child who is eligible to be adopted. These photographs are then shared via the web and through gallery exhibits in the hope that potential families will be moved to inquire about adoption.

I wasn’t sure what to expect at the exhibit. It was a wonderful experience to see the effort that goes into trying to provide these children with a home. As I was looking through the gallery, I noticed a few other PPWM members who had done some work for the Heart Gallery. Ruth Parbel and Christine Gribble had photographed some children as well as myself. I thought I’d take a few pictures so you could see them! (Sorry these aren’t the best, they were taken with my point and shoot camera. Why, as a professional, do I feel I always have to produce professional looking pictures?)

Here are the two children that Ruth Parbel photographed:

Here is the girl that Chirstine photographed:

And here is mine. The three children in the middle of the display were a sibling group that needs a home.
This young man told a touching story of his life. He was in a foster home for many years. After being featured in the Heart Gallery for two years, he was adopted, and is featured this year as one of the success stories.
They presented him with a large collage of his previous Heart Gallery portraits.The gallery will be traveling the state of Michigan for the rest of the year. Check the Michigan Heart Gallery website to see a schedule. In West Michigan the gallery will be in Grand Rapids, Wyoming, Lansing, Kalamazoo, and Traverse City This is a great cause, and if you have a couple hours to spare, you could change someone’s life. If you are a photographer and you would like to volunteer, Contact the Michigan Heart Gallery to volunteer for next year’s Heart Gallery. Or if you live in a different state, you can search your state’s Heart Gallery to volunteer.

Last week I had the privilege of meeting Eris. She was a beautiful happy baby! She didn’t fuss hardly at all. It is funny how newborn sessions are so different. Some babies don’t like being naked and fuss a lot, while others don’t complain a bit! Thank you for letting me capture this special time for Eris!

Well, I had a great time at the Convention. I got to know some awesome photographers from all over the state. The workshops were fantastic. My brain is still spinning with ideas! Here are some pictures I took while I was there….

This one is Lori Nordstrom leading a class on newborn photography. Sorry it isn’t a great picture, but the room was crowded and all I had was my point and shoot camera. I just wanted to give you an idea of what we did…There was a Supper Bowl Party in the lobby of the hotel on Sunday Night. Here is a picture of the Super Bowl party…. well I am not really into the Super Bowl, so the next picture shows what I did instead…Here is what I did instead of the superbowl party. I went to a “digital cafe” session. It was in the hospitality suite. Anyone who wanted to talk and share about photoshop could. It was a great time!Here are my prints hanging for display after the print competition The three on the right are mine, and the top one on the left is mine also. The bottom one on the right is supposed to be a red ribbon, but they ran out, so they used a yellow ribon with a red square.Here are my other two prints. Again, the one on top is supposed to be a red ribon.And, me standing proudly by my printsWe had an awards Banquet on Monday night. It was a great time to have fun with old friends as well as meet some new ones. Here is the room of the Banquet. It was a semi formal event.Mr. Croft is from Michigan, and he was just named as the new president of PPA (Professional Photographers of America…. with 20,000 members) So, I was in good company. Here is the PPWM (Professional Photographers of West Michigan) Group. We sat together at the banquet.
I won two schollarships to GLIP (Great Lakes Institute of Photography). The first one I won on Saturday night at a raffel for $200, and the second schollarship I was awarded $300 from an application I had submited.
They had a slideshow at the banquet will all the prints in competition. Here is when one of my prints came up on the screen… (Ok, I really am a photogeek if I take a picture of the slide show that is a picture!)

Ok, I will tell you my print scores now! I did very well for my first competition. I had three prints score merits, which I am very happy. I had one score 81, and two score 80. The other three prints still scored above average, two at 78, and one at 76. There were so many great prints here! The highest score at this competition was 99. Even the judges, (who were national judges) said that this was one of the best print competitions they have ever seen at the state level. So, have a great night!