This may sound like a self serving message to our business or even yours but the message is very powerful as it pertains to the dynamic of the general public wanting to “just buy a CD” of your work..

Most professional photographers have built there business and reputation on the quality of the Finished Portrait, delivered and hung in a clients home or office.

More than 50% of a photographers revenue comes from delivering prints.

So, if you cut out the part of your business where you are no longer delivering clients your prints, you have not only Lost That Revenue, but many times the consumer is paying far less for your Professional Training and the Quality of Image that you just created for them and burned to a CD.

If the consumer does have your images printed. You know where they are going to take them, not to a Pro-Lab. They are headed straight to the drug store, this is not their fault, it’s what they know.  Your client’s don’t know there is such a thing as a Pro-lab. For many, many years we have been behind the scene, creating and serving You. So when the results they get from the Drug store are typical (poor), they assume it’s you and it waters down the value of all your training, equipment, and your reputation.

It was almost unheard of 10 years ago for a bride to ask a photographer to photograph a her wedding and then just give her the film.

You can imagine the look on your face if one would have asked that, right? Well, today it’s the norm, your clients that cant a CD or take there own digital pictures, thinking they will eventually make prints next week or next month or maybe over Christmas. But chances are they will not, the files will be shared over Social Networks, emailed to family and friends and be parked in a folder on there computer hardrive for years to come. Worst case scenario is that they will have them printed somewhere, the results will be bad, and you get the blame, never knowing why they never came back.

Now I know this is not news to you, you have been dealing with this problem for several years.

So what do WE do about it? What do YOU do about it?

Well you can keep proceeding as is, or you can tell stories like the one coming up that will make your clients think about what they really want in a Professional Photographer. All of our client’s work is TOO VALUABLE to just be sitting in an unviewed computer folder or printed by someone that just got a night job, on a machine they don’t know how to balance, on a paper that is designed for blue sky’s and green grass.

Now the story that NEEDS to be told

During the Christmas holiday a local family’s home was broken into. The thieves stole the basic things, jewelry, TV, computer and other electronics. When the family appeared on the news they pleaded for the return of there computer. You see, it contained all of this family’s digital pictures they had taken during the past few years. Typical of today’s consumers, that are being overwhelmed with digital pictures of themselves, family members and children. They are not turning these files into prints.

Without the photo prints, we all know that eventually these images are going to disappear. Maybe by a thief, due to a hard drive crash, or the CD or DVD just not reading anymore.

But one thing is for certain, very rarely, if at all, will a hard drive crash effect the Portrait on their wall or will a thief steal a families portraits.

If you have any thoughts on dealing with this issue in your area and would like to share your story, please email me at rob@nctricolor.com

This just in… An album we completed as a gift from a cancer research firm to President Bush Sr. was given to the family last week. The former President and first Lady loved the signature album that, our client shot and we produced, so much that it is being moved to his Presidential Library. What a great honor..Congrats Eric!