We live in a fast-paced world, a world that gives minimal attention to any one thing but a lot of attention to many different things that quickly unfold one after another, entering our brain and leaving it with a phenomenal speed.
We live in the world of very sophisticated cell phones and portable cameras and perhaps because we are so quick to switch our attention from one subject to the next, we photograph all day long (whether we should or should not is debatable!). We wake up and take a picture of our coffee, hastily post it to our social media of choice, and move on to photograph ourselves in front of a mirror, sending that image out to the world to ensure everyone knows we have a mirror and a new pair of jeans (gotta show them off!) We then drive to work or some activity and take a video in our car (imagine that! what is the purpose of this video recording of us driving? I had to look up a definition of "vlogger" to try to wrap my brain around this activity), we say a few words to the world but all we want to show the world is how cool and busy we are! We take a number of snapshots during the day, photographing our food, the place we visited, a selfie in front of something memorable, a snapshot of a cool outfit, or a pic of ourselves in the bathroom mirror (this one really gets me, why is it so important to take a photo in the bathroom???) All this makes us feel good, we are recording our lives and paying for a cloud service to store it. But then when we are asked if we would like to have a portrait, we say NO without blinking, without thinking, without hesitating! And immediately, the reasons of “why not” fire out. They boil down to the following five:
1. I need to lose weight (oh, the most popular one, constantly fighting with the number 2 for first place and leading at the moment since it is a post-holiday season)
But don’t we all??? The good food is ample, the struggle is real and who knows what we will look like tomorrow. We may be thinner or we may gain a few more pounds but we will most definitely be older. Let’s face it, with a few posing tricks and good lighting I can shed off 10 pounds much faster than you on any diet. Please don’t take me wrong, eat healthy, exercise, and lose weight and once you do, come back to me, I will not charge the session fee, I will celebrate with you. But you are beautiful today! You are you, you are not your weight, you are not the size of your dress, YOU are the reason your dress looks pretty and I would love to capture that for you to see and remember! (oh, and if that favorite dress doesn’t zip up, don’t worry, it’s a photo, not a gala, we will make it work 😉)
2. I am not photogenic (this comes from people who take millions of selfies and phone snapshots)
We all think that. I guess there is a reason. With all due respect to the wonders of technology, there is no way for our phones to take a decent portrait. They take poorly lit snapshots, show all the imperfections in us, and then give us the option to apply a “filter” to make us think it will look better, training our minds that we are not photogenic and that we need help from a “filter”. As I progressed in my study of light I realized how poor those mobile images are. I know and it is for you to find out how different we look in proper lighting. Trust me, I can show you the best side of you without any “filters”!
3. It is too expensive!
I hear this from time to time and it all boils down to value. Portraits are there for us to cherish, enjoy and remember a moment in our lives. They will be the most priceless possession to pass on to our children, our nieces and nephews, and for the next generations to look at and treasure. When loved ones are gone, all we are left with are their depictions in imagery. I still have an old sepia photograph of my great-grandmother, someone gave it to me years ago and I love that I have such a connection to my roots. We pay a lot of money for our cars, our houses, our clothes, and many other possessions. We go out to eat and dedicate a hefty portion of our budget to food, not because we have to, but because we want to: we could eat drumsticks at home but we choose to eat a steak at a restaurant, it is all about value! I can’t tell you what to value, it will be different for every person. I can tell you that I order the highest quality products from Italy, that when you will hold them in your hands you will understand how beautiful and luxurious they are, but I don’t think it is about the nature of the products I offer, it is about the sentimental value of beautiful portraits I create. I love my family wall art, I go by it every day, I look at it and smile. I would rather have that than a painting that matches my home décor because that is where my value is.
4. I just want digitals, what would I do with printed portraits?
When I got married, I decided not to have a wedding photographer but to have a friend take our photos. Well, they were poorly done, overexposed, and unusable. I still have the old film strips in a box (I never bothered to print them) and it is as if I never had any wedding pictures. When we got to church, a man with a camera approached us and asked if he could photograph us during the wedding ceremony. We said yes because… I don’t even know why!.. he took the photos and until this day they are my most priceless possession. A few black-and-white prints depicting me and my husband on the most important day of our lives. Our wedding video is on the VHS tape, I never transferred it to digital and can’t watch it any longer. The photos of my family from 20 years ago are on CDs and I don’t even have a CD reader at this point. I have two large-size hard drives with digitals from many-many life events, I never bother to open them. BUT, I periodically pull out the albums I have made and look through the pictures, regretting I did not print more (one may argue I still could but the thought of going through millions of photos makes me cringe). I love having portraits of my kids on the walls to remind me how cute they were and how well they grew up. I love having portraits of me, especially as I age. I will provide digital files with every image purchased to ensure you can showcase your beauty on social media and have them on your phone, but I do not just take pictures, I create timeless portraits!
5. Not at my age! (what does that have to do with portraits???)
Well, this one comes from being influenced by culture. I think that every woman (and men as well, though they hide it better) would like to be in front of a camera, in a nice dress/suit/jeans, with hair and make-up done (or not), a little wind from a fan, a good light to hide all the imperfections, music, dancing, some treats after…. Why not want that? But, we shy away as this society trained us that such experience is not for us, it is reserved for supermodels and celebrities. Every stage of life is beautiful! I appreciate aging, not everyone has an opportunity to complete the journey. People are photographed professionally on two occasions: when they graduate high school and get married. What if we do not graduate from high school? What if we do not get married? What if we get divorced? What if??? My friends are in their 40s and 50s, they would photograph their children and grandchildren in a heartbeat but not themselves. My goal is to remind people of ALL ages that we are worth being depicted in photographs, that we SHOULD be photographed professionally, and that we SHOULD have a model-for-a-day experience. Come, bring a friend, a spouse, a child or make it all about you, whatever makes you feel better. Just like going to a spa, taking a vacation, scoring a ticket to a great concert, or dancing at a party, this is an experience and you deserve to have it no matter what decade you are in! (Oh, would love to have someone in her/his 90s, so much character!)
My dear reader, thank you for making it to the end!
I would love to meet you and tell you all about my service and my product, get in touch!