I wanted a momma bear to show off for this blog post, as I try to explain why I think it is important to invest in professional photography to document your life. I’ve broken down the top 3 reasons I believe you should invest in professional photography, and I hope they inspire you!
1. Your family wants to remember you.
Lookin’ at you, momma bears of the world. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve told my husband, “hurry, grab your phone, take a photo!” to watch a precious moment (of my dog, let’s be real) disappear into history without a record. My personal instagram feed is full of nothing but my husband and dog (usually sleeping). Basically the only photos my future children will have to remember me by are the ones that a professional photographer has taken.
This is truly the #1 reason I hire someone else to document us, even though I prefer to be on the other side of the camera. That’s right, even ya girl here has another professional to take family photos–that’s how important I think they are! 🙌 Could I set up a tripod and do it myself? Sure! Been there, done that. However, there is a huge difference in setting up a quick posed shot than letting someone else engage with your life and truly capture your family.
2. We’ve got the goods and the experience to go with it
This is the most obvious argument for hiring a professional. Most people and their grandmother have nice cell phone cameras these days (literally, both of my grandmothers have iPhones). With the iPhone “portrait mode” your husband may be thinking, “what do I need to pay a professional for, I bought you that schwanky phone, use it.” Well, let me tell ya hubbies, in addition to the point made above that the universe would also like to remember your wife’s face, a photographer has an even better camera and knows how to use it.
Professional photographers are also trained to understand light. We know how to capture it, manipulate it, and edit it. After I document how precious you all are together, I take the images home, check the color balance, adjust the light, edit the imperfections (which are sometimes perfect just the way they are) and send them back to you after hours and hours of intense work. I have the camera, the lighting equipment, and the programs to do all of this for you. All you have to do is show up and be you.
3. When they’re pretty, you print ’em
As mentioned above, most of us have cell phone cameras and camera feeds probably full of thousands of random photos. Now, raise your hand if you ever sit there and go through that camera roll to order prints of those photos? Nope, me either. When I get an email link to a gallery full of AMAZING photos of my family? Totally different story. I paid for those, they are amazing, and they are going on my wall. I can print them as big as I want because my photographer has a badass camera and knows what she is doing. With a gallery of professional images, the possibilities are endless. You can print your favorites to display in your home, have your photographer help you design a coffee table book, make magnets for all your family and friends, etc. You can celebrate your life and remember it forever!
One of my favorite things to do whenever we moved (every year or two in my Army family) was to find my mom’s big tubs of 4×6 family photos and scour through them. I loved (and still do) looking through them at what our family used to look like, where we used to live, and how we are now. Disposable cameras that require physical prints to be made just aren’t necessary anymore. What we are left with is iCloud notifications telling us our storage is full (I refuse to pay apple $.99 a month 😬), digital feeds of abandoned images, and boring, boring walls. When you hire a professional to document your life, your goal should be to share those memories! Let that photographer capture you guys in the most flattering, honest way and share, share, share your life! Relish in it. We all know it flies by. 💕
That is all I have for today’s post. ✌ I would love to hear what made you decide to invest in family photos!