I will continue the Photography business but now will only be doing Seniors and Portrait shoots. So, if you know anybody needing there Senior Portraits done this year, please feel free to send my name.

To all of our family, friends & clients, we thank you so much for standing behind us as we grew our company from the ground up. We’ve made some very special friendships along the way. It will always be truly appreciated.

Sincerely,
Frank
DiGiorgio Photography

In this digital age where everyone has digital cameras, scanners and home “photo printers”, when people upload their photos to a local drug store website and pick them up a few hours later, we hear this all the time – How in the world do Professional Photographers charge $55 for an 8×10 when they cost just $1.50 at the drug store?

Here’s why.

Simply put, you’re not just paying for the actual photograph, you’re paying for time and expertise. First, let’s look at the actual time involved. If you don’t read this entire page, at least read this first part.

For a two hour portrait session:

- one hour of travel to and from the session
- two hours of shooting
- 30 minutes of setup, preparation, talking to the client etc.
- 30 minutes to load the photos onto a computer (2 – 4 Gb of data)
- 30 minutes to back up the files on an external drive
- 3 – 4 hours of Photoshop time including cropping, contrast, color, sharpening, saving a copy for print and a copy for the internet and backing up the edited photographs
- 2 – 3 hours to talk to the client, answer questions, receive their order and payment, order their prints, receive and verify prints, package prints, schedule shipment and drop package off at Fed Ex.
- For local customers, we also print a set of all of their photos, and meet them at our studio to review the photos and place their order. Meeting and travel time averages 2 hours.

You can see how one two hour session easily turns into more than ten hours of work from start to finish. So when you see a Photographer charging a $200 session fee for a two hour photo shoot, you are not paying them $100 / hour.

For an eight hour wedding:

- I won’t bore you with the details, but an eight hour wedding typically amounts to at least two to three full 40 hour work weeks worth of time. Again, if they are charging you $4,000 for an eight hour wedding, you are not paying them $500 / hour.

Now for the expertise.

Shooting professional photography is a skill, acquired through years of experience. Even though a quality camera now costs under $2,000 taking professional portraits involves much more than a nice camera.

Most Professional Photographers take years to go from buying their first decent camera to making money with their photography. In addition to learning how to use the camera itself, there is a mountain of other equipment involved, as well as numerous software programs used to edit and print photographs, run a website etc. And let’s not forget that you actually have to have people skills, be able to communicate, make people comfortable in front of the camera – and posing people to make them look their best in a photograph is a skill all by itself.

Think of it this way – the next time you pay $X to get your hair done, a pair of scissors only costs $1.50. But you gladly pay a lot more to hire a Professional.

What about the cheap studios at the mall?

Please don’t compare us to the chain store studios. But if you must, consider all of the time and work that we put into our photographs, compared to what they do. Good luck getting a two hour photo shoot at a chain store. Not to mention they won’t come to the beach! And of course, look at our work compared to theirs. You get what you pay for.

The truth is, most of the mall and chain store studios lose money. In fact, in 2007 Wal-Mart closed 500 of their portrait studios because of the financial drain they were putting on the company. What the chain stores bet on is that you’ll come in for some quick and cheap photos, and while you’re there, you’ll also spend $200 on other things. They don’t have to make money, they are just there to get you in the door.

Conclusion

We hope that those who have taken the time to read this page will have a better understanding of why professional photographs cost so much more than the ones that you get from your local drug store.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Shawn, Pamela & Gavin Richter
Caught on Film Photography

Link to source and their other links:

Click on the image to open Phillip’s beautiful site [opens in new window]…

It’s unfortunate that a few can ruin it for many. If you’ve been to our website or our blog and have been redirected to sites that are not suitable for human consumption, or have been having computer issues, please accept our deepest apologies as we are truly sorry. We’re doing everything in our power to correct this horrific situation.

Kindest Regards,
Frank & Kandy
DiGiorgio Photography

If you need to contact us, you can reach us via the CALL ME logo on the bottom of the page or send an email to: frank [at] digiorgio-photography [dot] com

NOTE FOR OUR CLIENTS: You can still access your proofs at our proof site: http://digiorgio.zenfolio.com

UPDATE: July 9th – A new website and hosting company has been secured. We’re hoping the new site will be up in a week or so. We do thank you for being so understanding as we deal with this horrible event.

Seven just-married couples compete for a nest egg worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to kick-start their new lives together and help them realize their dreams, in “Here Come the Newlyweds,” a new one-hour romantic comedy reality series.

Hosted by comedian Pat Bullard, “Here Come the Newlyweds” is all about relationships, the differences between men and women, and the universal issues that every couple must face. The newlyweds are diverse, sexy and competitive, including such pairings as high school sweethearts, couples who fell in love at first sight, an arranged marriage, an interracial couple and two divorcees who are hoping the fourth time is the charm.

In this six-episode show, each couple faces a variety of mental and physical challenges which will test the love and passion they have for one another as well as their competitive spirit. At the end of each episode, the field will be narrowed as the couples vote to send one couple home. The stakes get higher as the potential nest egg grows, until one couple ultimately wins the grand prize.

We taped it and finally had the chance to watch it last night and to say we laughed our butss off would be an understatement. The seven couples are now completing for $310,000.00 – which is a very nice chunk of change.

So if you get a chance to watch it or tape it, let us know what you think of it. Comments are always welcome here…