As a parent (and before, come to think of it) I’m often accused of taking too many photos. My retort has always been “the more I take, the more likely it is that I’ll get some keepers”.
As somebody who grew up with expensive film-processing and even more expensive point-and-shoot cameras, I still find it a real luxury that digital cameras don’t limit how many photos I’m able to take – so I’m still making the most of it!
Now that I have a constantly-changing and always entertaining subject to take photos of (with another on the way), I’ve probably become even more snap-happy – since Robert has been born I’ve taken (according to my camera) over 15,000 photos – though not all of him, I should point out!
Add to that the thousands and thousands of snaps I’ve taken on my Blackberry/iPhones, and I could probably make a pretty convincing flick-book-style montage of Robert’s 2 and a half year history to date!
As much as my bulk-photo technique can generate some occassional gems, I’m have to begrudgingly admit that the professional photos we have had taken over the past 2 years have actually been a really good investment – if not a little on the pricey side! That’s quite hard for me to admit, it’s true.
When Robert was born, some friends gave us a voucher which entitled us to 3 annual photo shoots with a local photography company, along with a framed photo after the first and a montage after the third. Whilst their prices were pretty steep (though seemingly pretty competitive based on other studios – I’m in the wrong business, evidently!) the quality of the photos was very impressive – I’ve included a few examples below.
Having a few professionally-taken photos alongside the thousands of self-snapped versions has proved to be a really nice keep-sake – as well as a cool, annual reminder of how much he (and we) have changed.
This is beginning to smell a little like an advertorial at this point – it’s not, though if it was I probably wouldn’t be able to get away without mentioning the studios name, so hopefully that’s a clue. But my reason for blabbering on about this is this:
In my opinion, getting professional photos done once in a while can be a great investment. If you can afford it (or have a friend who is willing to do it for you), I say go for it!
Here’s my number-one piece of advice, though: If the place or people you’re using offer digital copies as an alternative to prints, do it! Each of the three shoots we did, we came out of it with a CD of hi-res copies of all the photos we purchased. Then, we simply uploaded them to PhotoBox and bought as many prints as we wanted – copies for family, a MASSIVE blow-up of one to be framed in our lounge, we even got a photo-book printed each time. And all for MUCH cheaper than the photo company were offering.
It’s all about being a savvy-saver when you’re a parent, after all!
