Wedding photographers offer lots of ‘extras’– prints, albums, extra shoots, digitals, and more! So how do you know what’s right for you, and what the pros and cons are? Today Don from Weddings by Don and Julia is talking about preserving your legacy and why you definitely need to consider a wedding album!
As a child I was fascinated with memories and the ways you could preserve them. My Mom would take out the family album and we would leaf through it together. I loved touching the pages and feeling the history. She would tell me the stories and point to the images, talking about the people they connected with back in their days. Many of the images were from vacation destinations or friends of my parents whom I’ve never seen in real life, but it still fascinated me all the same. This portal from my past was a way to preserve moments lost.With technology reshaping our world everyday, tangible products have lost their value.
As a professional photographer who focuses on preserving memories through tangibility, this has greatly alarming me. No longer are couples seeing the end result as quality albums and wall art, but as a USB flash drive in a box. There are plenty of reasons for this, but one of the leading problems is that there are not enough photography studios that offer tangible solutions for their clients. Clients then must go through department stores that are run by untrained employees on equipment that hasn’t been calibrated since the 90s. Professional photographers have access to some of the best print labs in the world. Printing though your photographer means that there is a real person there to be able to talk to about your desires and concerns.
With professional labs, the quality is guaranteed, and your prints will look the way that your photographer intended them to look.These are the photos that are going to be in the family for generations. You want your children and grandchildren to experience the photos the way that you experienced them. If you have a poor quality album with inferior paper, that’s not going to last.Walmart or any other department stores all use laser printers to cut down on costs and time. However, by cutting down on costs and turn around time, they also deliver a far inferior product. Whereas professional photographers will use print labs that use inkjet printers that have a highly trained staff to ensure a superior product. By giving our clients only USBs, we are telling them that their photos are not special. The USB is going to end up sitting in the back of the drawer for years and you’re going to keep telling yourself, “Oh, I should print them. I’ll do it tomorrow.” and tomorrow turns into a year, then it turns into three years. And by that time, you’re so caught up with your life that the USB is no longer a priority. By offering printing services, we can guarantee that the quality of your products are going to be top of the line. Instead of giving you a box with a piece of metal and plastic, we can give you your product ready to be displayed in your home. Tangibility means taking ownership of your photographs and displaying them proudly, on your wall for all to see. It means pulling out your wedding album to show your family and friends after dinner, and reliving those heartfelt memories again.
These are the moments that will live on for generations to come. We are devaluing our memories if we don’t print them and put them into photo books. If we only see our photographs on a screen we are only using one of our five senses. But if you touch your images and take the time to hold them and show them to someone, that’s when we become connected to our past, thereby fulfilling a personal service from your local professional photographer.
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