This morning was an exciting event for my oldest daughter, Hailey. It's her first day of Kindergarten, and the excitement that beamed from her face just made my love for her flutter and bubble inside me! She hardly even said goodbye to me as I dropped her off at her classroom. I am so excited to see what she will learn and how she will grow as she experiences life in a classroom and forms new relationships with people outside of her home. They grow so quickly, it truly feels like she was just a tiny, squirming newborn a few days ago. And here she is, backpack and lunch kit in tow, off to her very first day of school.
As I headed back home with my other two kiddos in the back seat, I realized something. When Hailey was a newborn, I wasn't a photographer yet. I was a young mom with a brand new baby, with a camera, and while I do have pictures of her as a baby, I have NO professional photos of her as a baby. And you know what? It SUCKS.
Professional photos are entirely different from cell phone snapshots and quick selfies. It hurts my heart to know that I have no high quality, detailed images of my sweet baby. And now that she's of school age, I realize that if I could go back and hire a professional photographer to have captured her in that baby stage, I WOULD.
Photography is expensive. In the moment, it's easy to dismiss the idea of getting photos done. Maybe you're on a tight budget, or perhaps you feel you'll be fine with the thousands of photographs you will take with your phone or have sent to you from loving friends and family. I am not trying to tell anyone you HAVE TO get professional photos done, but I AM saying... YOU WILL WANT TO.
If I knew what I know now, I would have known that...
1) The dollar value at the time of booking will not matter 5 years down the road when you're baby is heading to his / her first day of school, and onward. I would gladly throw my money at the best photographer money could buy if I knew how much I'd regret NOT getting professional photos done. The memories captured are PRICELESS.
2) Many, and most, photographers offer payment plans so that you are able to comfortably accommodate professional photos into your budget. You may not get the photos right away (most photographers require payment in full before releasing your images), but hey, better late than never, right?!
3) Quality over quantity DOES exist. I have THOUSANDS of photos of my kids. But it wasn't until my middle child was over a year old that I knew how to take professional-level photos. I have 0 professional photos of my firstborn, and a few amateur ones of my second. And I so, painfully wish I had more QUALITY photos of them rather than the dark, grainy iPhone snapshots that I have (don't get me wrong, I love those, too. But are any of them frame-and-hang-on-the-wall worthy? Not really.)
The other day, my Mother In-Law handed me a box. And inside were photos of my husband as a wee, brand new baby. It was absolutely AMAZING to be able to flip through them and see what my husband looked like as a newborn, and the resemblance between him and our kids is uncanny. I would have never known how much of a spitting image my kids TRULY are to their father. I mean, sure. They look like him. But seeing him as a newborn was like taking a time machine and peering out the window at a time before I was even born and getting a close up look at my "future" before the story unfolded.
This box of keepsakes will be handed down to us, and then to my children, and their children, and so on, so forth. Photographs are an investment, but when you think about how far they go and how long they'll last (they'll outlive us all!) and how their precious nature increases as time goes on, doesn't the price tag of them seem... insignificant?
So what I'm trying to say is...
I'm not trying to sell anyone is booking ME. I'm not trying to tell you what you HAVE to do. Obviously, I'm a strong advocate in getting professional photos done, considering it's my career, but putting that aside: if you have not considered (or have considered but haven't committed) to booking a professional photographer to capture precious moments as these, I truly encourage you to thoroughly look into hiring a professional (PROFESSIONAL) photographer to do it for you. I PROMISE YOU, you will NOT regret it. But you WILL regret NOT getting them!
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