Quantity isn't always quality

I have taken the last few months to do a lot of reading, research and soul searching as far as the direction I want my business to go. When I first started in the industry I was convinced that clients wanted as many pictures as possible, even if that meant being stuck looking at 1500+ pictures. As with anyone first starting into a new business venture, I had a lot to learn about what truly is important to clients as well as to the integrity of my company.

The old addage, "bigger doens't always mean better" was certainly true for my photography. Though my clients were more than thrilled with the photographs I was giving them, I wasn't happy at all. I was missing the spark I so desperately was searching for in pictures. I didn't want to be like anyone else in Fort Wayne, I wanted my photos to stand out, to have a different flare than anyone had seen before.

I owe a lot of my knowledge and style to Bobbi + Mike and Scarlett Lillian . Both of them have opened up their hearts and minds to me when I had questions, and just looking at their amazing work has given me such inspiration over the last couple of years.

I read an article the other day on one of my photography sites, (I have many!) and it was talking about how photograhers should only show the images that WOW their clients. To some of you, this may be a "duh" statement, but it spoke to me in a much differen way. The way I had been taught in my early years of photography was to give the clients a ton of images and let them pick what they think is the "wow" image. I totally took this the wrong way at first and basically gave clients a bunch of images, even ones that I was like, "eh...that's not really all that great, but they might think it is."

The last couple of weeks, I have noticed my photos have become so much better as I strive to capture that "wow" moment at the precise moment instead of just holding down my shutter, taking fifteen frames and then choosing in Bridge the best one. In hind sight it gives me a whole lot of respect for the pioneers in our industry that used (or may still use) film. You have got to know your stuff when you don't have the ability to look on your screen and see if you nailed the shot. So...here's a little kudos to all of the amazing photographers out there who paived the way for us.

Why do I bring this up? I can't tell you how many couples I get that ask me, "How many pictures do you take generally?" I used to generalize and say around 1500. But that number is so misleading....1500 totally differet pictures? 1500 files on a DVD? So...to my current and future clients, I can't really say how many pictures I take. It depends on your event, what's going on, how many "wow factors" I come across. You don't want to look at boring pictures anymore than I want to take them. I can tell you I have been shooting far less than I had been as far as number of frames taken. But, I am finding I am SO MUCH happier with the end product.

I can't wait to show all of you the things I have been working on the last couple of weeks...

And of course, no post is complete without a picture...(I know I am terrible about this....)

Here's munchkin this week after getting his hair cut...I can't believe how grown up he looks :(