I tweeted this article         Album Schmalbum However felt it deserved a little more attention.

Not to rehash the article, I have however had my own experience of the issues noted and wanted to offer my few cents worth.

Handing over a disk of images has been something I have offered for a while and have always used the justification that I am secure in my work that I have no issues with my work being taken and printed by inferior labs etc, it has allowed me to present an advertised price that seems comparable to other photographers in my area. I shoot a lot of images and pride myself in telling a story of the couples day. As a result of photographing for a studio that had a very good graphics team, I got used to photographing a lot of elements of the day that stand alone would seem rather strange, however when presented in their final album really did add to the story.

The old adage of breaking a habit is harder than creating one is true in that I still shoot these subjects for my own album design and hand them over to the couple knowing in my mind their worth, I can only wonder what they must be thinking looking at them as a stand alone photograph. Now to clear up, I do offer albums and products in my basic products, however the couple are not obliged to purchase them. So from my own experience I have never sold a bride an album after the images have been handed to her. The only time I create albums are when they are included in my package. I will hasten to add that I do use a higher end publisher whose price does present itself for a rather acute case of sticker shock. This until the client sees the finished product and knows why it is priced accordingly. Generally this is I believe common in the industry, there are less expensive albums, however as you imagine the labor and care that goes into creating the product, why not lay it out in all its glory.

So back to the article, with a few interesting statistics, one of which was in 100 brides surveyed “70% of those brides had not yet made ANY prints from the disc, nor had they made an album.”  Although I have never taken the time to survey, I am left wondering if this would be accurate among my couples. As I end off I am left rather disappointed that my work ends up on a disk at the back of a drawer. Then again who am I to say what a person is to do with a product they purchased, then knowing first hand that when the honeymoon is over life comes at you and dealing with toothpaste caps and toilet seats can very easily take priority over time to do something with those wonderful memories.

Album schmalbum