Shoot'N Burn Photography

Hi everyone! I know it's been a while since I've posted, but things have been really crazy. My husband was laid off again after my last post and I also had another miscarriage. We have moved from Ohio back to West Virginia and back to Ohio again. It's honestly been just a mess and so stressful. I do have some good news though!

I recently opened up a photography business. WHAT?! I know. I'm still in shock too, even though I've been thinking about it for a long time. I know the first question I'm going to get asked from many people will be "Can you just put my pictures on a disk?" and the answer is.....No. No I can't and I won't. This is known as Shoot'N Burn photography, because the photographer snaps the pictures, burns it on a disc and that's the end of it. I know what you're thinking, but getting the disc is so much easier than dealing with prints and most photographers make this a really cheap option. I used to be one of those people that shopped around until I found a photographer that was cheap and would just hand over the disc. I didn't realize until I got into photography how many problems there are with this model of doing business.

First I'll talk a little about why it's wrong for the photographer. This method mostly brings in people that are looking for cheap and easy. That's not the kind of customer a photographer wants to bring in. A photographer needs to bring in people that appreciate their work and will be repeat customers. That's how you make your money. Building relationships with people is so important in this kind of business. Customers that treat a photographer like the flavor of the month won't make the business thrive and those aren't the kind of customers I need to be bringing in.

Now, to those of you that get the disc and run away, what happens when you get home with that disc? I bet I know. You get home, upload some pictures online and then throw it in a drawer to never see the light of day again because you'll get to having them printed "later". Does later ever come? A lot of the time it doesn't. Then what happens when years down the road, your kids are all grown up and have no pictures to show their kids? You know within a few years cd drives may end up non existent, like the floppy drive. When was the last time you used a floppy drive? What if your family had kept your pictures on them and you now had no way to retrieve them? See what I'm getting at? Actual pictures in your hands are better to have. As long as you take care of them, they last for a very long time. Technology is forever changing and evolving. Devices will be compatible with something one day and not the next. Some computers don't even come with cd drives anymore and others won't read certain types of discs. Discs are fragile. We don't always treat them as such, but they are. Spill something on them, leave them in the sun, drop them, lightly scratch them and they're done for. Let's say you do decide to get that disc out and have some prints made, but it's been a year since the pictures were done. You get the disc out, pop it in the computer...and it won't play. Nothing happens or the disc can't be read for whatever reason. Then what do you do? Those pictures are lost, gone forever. Not only did you pay that money and now you don't have the pictures, but maybe those were the last pictures you had made with someone. Or maybe they were the happiest pictures and now they are gone.

Bottom line is that I strongly encourage my clients to purchase prints. Not because it's what is best for me, but because I feel it's really what is best for my clients. I do offer the option to purchase a USB flash drive, but my prices reflect my opinion on technology versus prints. I know I'm going to have some unhappy people here and there that just want the disc, but I'm prepared to deal with that. I can only hope that you can understand my reasons and respect that. So, the next time you are in the market for a photographer, please think about what I have said here. Preserve those memories. <3