Toward the start of the notorious Financial Melt Down, a lot of wedding photographers were anxiously wondering why their businesses still doing well. As the years dragged forward, many noticed that their clients were leaving it later to book and ordering a little less in prints and albums, but it was not a real problem for well established and respected photographers.
For more marginal photographers things were different. They started to lower their prices as business started to fall away, and we saw the rise of the "shoot and burn" brigade... it sounds like a bargain to clients not "in the know" because it is so cheap. Which is also why it is easy for inexperienced and even second rate camera people to get into the market. Take the picture, burn the CD, go on to the next job - all care, but no responsibility taken.
Those of you who follow these rantings will know that I am not a fan - not because the service is automatically going to mean bad photos or even poor photography, but because the photographer has no commitment to the final output - there is no quality guarantee and there is a lot that should make a bride or groom very nervous about just what is going to be on those CDs.
You will also know that I include Hi-Res files in my packages, which sounds like I am having a bit of a two way bet. Not so, as a glance here will demonstrate (Designer Pack).
From now on, as a way to encourage people to print their photos, were including $200 worth of prints in selected packages. In fact, all of our offerings have been revised. At the budget end, the price has dropped and free prints have been added, but the number of files provided on disk has been limited to 500 hi-res files.
All our packages have been radically revised and new products have been added - there's even an A la Carte Menu with clear descriptions and prices to help you build your own.
All the changes have been driven by what our clients have been asking for over the last couple of years. Our most popular collection of files, prints and album has now become a package in its own right. I don't think it will still be the most popular this time next year - the newer products are really beautiful, and compared with other vendors, relatively economical, and while the recession of the last 3 years might not have pulled business back, I suspect that growing confidence and good economic performances are likely to help brides and grooms decide they are gong to have the very best! After all, this is once and forever.
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