HOW MANY DO YOU WANT?!

It's funny about how we all (and yes I mean we all) shoot so many images. Whether it's a vacation or a wedding I find that I shoot way to many images, and for what!? When a client ask me how many images will they see I tell them 50-100 images for every hour I'm at the event. And god forbid if they ask me how many I'll actually take. That can be 250 or more an hour! At 250 that's just over 4 photos a minute. That's nutz! And yet that's what we do.

I know why we do it. It's fun, it guarantees plenty of images and we can. It's digital after all. Why limit? Well I can answer that too. If I had over 850 images and tell you to pick out your favorite 80 for an album I will not hear from you for a year or more but if I handed you 400 images you would have no problem. I think back when I shot film where if I was shooting a roll of 36 exposures of 35mm I would get 10 good images and 1 or 2 great images. Heck if I was shooting sheet film (one photo at a time like Ansel Adams) I would take all day to shot 3 images and they were always great.

So what are the other 400 or so extra images for out of 850 images if all we need is about half that. It's fluff.... no not really. With myself, at a wedding, a lot of those are candids of guest having a great time at your reception. With the limit of how many film images we would take we did "TABLE SHOTS". They are not always great and it meant spending a lot of time chasing down everyone at a table who got up to go to the bar. Now we mingle and get great fun shots of friends talking, dancing and having fun. But then there is the dreaded sequence. This is when we want to give you options. You know to confuse you. Why have one great shot of the family when I can show you 4 or more and each being special with slightly different expressions on each person. Do that enough through out a wedding or at the beach with a family session and now we have just enough images to confuse you. Awesome! Shock and awe baby! Dazzle them with lots of images. Now I don't need to worry about you picking out your album images before the dead line or placing an order for family photos from that beach session till you kids are 2 or 3 years older. Sweet...NOT!

So what's this rant about? It's about quality over quantity. This year I maybe changing a bit of my shooting style and concentrate on the best possible image. I think you deserve that. I know it sound silly but what do you want from your hard earned money? Do you want the best money can buy or do you want the most money can buy? I, myself, would want to show off one awesome image than a hundred so so images.

After all I'll probable only have room on my wall for one.