It’s been quite some time since I’ve actually made contact out there…. and I have to apologize because while I finally have some things to say, I may be preaching for quite awhile today.

Last season was hellishly stressful for me. Actually, the whole transition from film to digital has not only been hellishly stressful, but completely traumatic. I went in the the “digital world” kicking and screaming. I’m still not at a place where I can look at digital images and find the same beautiful sentimental, grainy, creamy skined toned images that film can produce. And I find myself constantly striving to make my digital images look just like film when I am working in photoshop—a task that I need to let go. It can’t happen. Digital and film are two different worlds, similar to a Mac vs. a PC (I say this because I also just switched from a window PC system to Mac and am loving it)! However, I just took the most amazing workshop thru Seth Resnick and D65 and my life has changed as I know it. This sounds a bit dramatic, but I finally believe that digital is superior to film. I just needed to learn how to use digital properly and how to manage my workflow—because there is a lot more workflow. There are now standards to digital photography that I will always meet and respect. And… I learned how to use the best new software out there for digital photographers—lightroom!!! Ahhhh let there be light.

Here is what I want to say, and I want to say this both to my fellow photographers and to anybody else that may be thinking about photography, film, digital, booking a photographer, etc etc, etc.

I will never do 60 weddings in a season again!!! Bottom line! I could do it with film—I’d simply take my film in to a lab and spend my weekdays laying at the pool waiting for my film to be ready–color corrected and perfect. I would then put together a little album, hand it over to my clients and be done. I was able to deliver a service to my clients with passion and energy . I was proud of my work, and I loved working with each and everyone of my clients…. times have changed. I still love all of my clients and I still deliver a service with passion and energy, but that ends when the reception is over and all the chairs have been put away. I then go home and spend hours—many, many, tedious hours editing my work. while I was spending an average of 2 or 3 hours on a wedding, I am now spending 12—-my pricing has stayed the same. Which brings me to the next thing I want to say. I am raising my prices!!! I am raising my prices because I want to set a standard. I have a life. I am worth way more than I charge—if I can say so, myself!

This part of my sermon is for those who don’t have a clue how the wedding photography pricing thing works. Let me start by saying, that digital is not, absoultely not, cheaper than film! I’m going to quote Seth Resnick for a moment.

“Here’s a thought…. I could take out my 30-year-old nikon and compete head to head with my mentor, Jay Maisel. The only thing seperating us would be talent not technical issues. With film, we were all in the same playing filed. Competition was based on our creativity. An old film body can produce an image that is equally comparable to a new film camera. With digital this is simply no longer true. My canon 1Ds, which cost $5000 and is only three years old, can’t produce the quality of files I get from my canon 1DsMarkII, which cost $7000. I can’t compete if my competetion can produce better files.”

Now, I’m not going to tell anybody how much I spend on my equipment, but I will say that i just spent about $5000 on a much needed workshop with Seth and it was awesome!! I am refreshed and ready to take on my next season and raise my prices and raise the standard for what a good photographer is making these days! I have spent way more on all my equipment, and the updating and maintaining of my equipment than I ever had with film. Plus, I still deliver prints to all my clients, plus…. I’m working 4 times more than I was when shooting film. People should be paying more for digital. Not thinking that they should be paying less. Bottom line.

However… While our clients should be paying more for digital, they should also be expecting more from us. “The advent of digital has taken the responsibility for excellent reproduction to the photographer.” It is up to us, and us only, to make our images look perfect. And any photographer that is doing just that, can not be charging $1000.00 a wedding and making a living! If your wedding photographer is cheap, there is a reason for that. I know this now. I am quite the perfectionist when it comes to my work, and I will spend hours to deliver the perfect product! I want each and every image to be priceless.

I’m now addressing this issue to my fellow photographers and I know a lot of you will be happy to finally hear me say it. We need to set a standard here with digital! There seems to be this constant competetion between photographers , it seems like it’s us agaist us, instead of us against them (by them, I’m mean our clients). There also seems to be this snotty attitude with digital where photographers feel like if they learn a new production skill, that they need to hoard it and keep it a secret. This is bull shit! There needs to be a standard, and I will say it again! We all need to know how to use a digital camera and how to do post production —I’m talking color correction, sharpening, shooting in RAW, etc, etc, We all need to be able to do the same things and be equally skilled digitally so that photography goes back to photography—not techincal photoshop f00-f00 “skills”. When it comes down to it, we should all be able to look at each others work and say, “This is technically perfect, so what’s the content about?” I will often see a photographer whose images are beautiful and moving, but are flawed techically. This is a shame, and these photographers need to take a workshop like D-65 so that their image will stil be able to convey the creativity, the emotion, the way an images moves us, without the distraction of the noise or tecnial flaws. am I making sense? I want every photographer to go out and buy Adobe lightroom right now, if you don’t already have it. It’s awesome and it is cutting my work flow in half! I will willingly share any info with any photographer, or amateur for that matter, when it comes to what I know with digital and adobe and white balance and blah, blah, blah, because it shouldn’t matter if they know how to do it right. My images are still my images. My style is still my style and we should get back to that mentality. Can i get an Amen?

So—I’m raising my prices and I’m preaching about art. Let’s set a standard here—with our work and with our worth.

Oh, and if anybody is interested, check out D65 workshops. I plan on attending another in December in Chi town if anybody would like to accompany me.