Curious?...george

Nope it's Curious.. PAYTON.. 6 months old bright eyed and like a sponge soaking up the world around him. He's listening, looking, tasting, touching, and growing like a weed.

Why is professional photography so expensive?

Why are Professional Photographers so expensive?

In this digital age where everyone has digital cameras, scanners and home "photo printers", when people upload their photos to a local drug store website and pick them up a few hours later, we hear this all the time - How in the world do Professional Photographers charge $55 for an 8x10 when they cost just $1.50 at the drug store?

Here's why.

Simply put, you're not just paying for the actual photograph, you're paying for time and expertise. First, let's look at the actual time involved. If you don't read this entire page, at least read this first part.

For a two hour portrait session:

- one hour of travel to and from the session
- two hours of shooting
- 30 minutes of setup, preparation, talking to the client etc.
- 30 minutes to load the photos onto a computer (2 - 4 Gb of data)
- 30 minutes to back up the files on an external drive
- 3 - 4 hours of Photoshop time including cropping, contrast, color, sharpening, saving a copy for print and a copy for the internet and backing up the edited photographs
- 2 - 3 hours to talk to the client, answer questions, receive their order and payment, order their prints, receive and verify prints, package prints, schedule shipment and drop package off at Fed Ex.
- For local customers, we also print a set of all of their photos, and meet them at our studio to review the photos and place their order. Meeting and travel time averages 2 hours.

You can see how one two hour session easily turns into more than ten hours of work from start to finish. So when you see a Photographer charging a $200 session fee for a two hour photo shoot, you are not paying them $100 / hour.

For an eight hour wedding:

- I won't bore you with the details, but an eight hour wedding typically amounts to at least two to three full 40 hour work weeks worth of time. Again, if they are charging you $4,000 for an eight hour wedding, you are not paying them $500 / hour.

Now for the expertise.

Shooting professional photography is a skill, acquired through years of experience. Even though a quality camera now costs under $2,000 taking professional portraits involves much more than a nice camera.

Most Professional Photographers take years to go from buying their first decent camera to making money with their photography. In addition to learning how to use the camera itself, there is a mountain of other equipment involved, as well as numerous software programs used to edit and print photographs, run a website etc.

And let's not forget that you actually have to have people skills, be able to communicate, make people comfortable in front of the camera - and posing people to make them look their best in a photograph is a skill all by itself.

Think of it this way - the next time you pay $X to get your hair done, a pair of scissors only costs $1.50. But you gladly pay a lot more to hire a Professional.

What about the cheap studios at the mall?

Please don't compare us to the chain store studios. But if you must, consider all of the time and work that we put into our photographs, compared to what they do. Good luck getting a two hour photo shoot at a chain store. Not to mention they won't come to the beach! And of course, look at our work compared to theirs. You get what you pay for.

The truth is, most of the mall and chain store studios lose money. In fact, in 2007 Wal-Mart closed 500 of their portrait studios because of the financial drain they were putting on the company. What the chain stores bet on is that you'll come in for some quick and cheap photos, and while you're there, you'll also spend $200 on other things. They don't have to make money, they are just there to get you in the door.

Conclusion

We hope that those who have taken the time to read this page will have a better understanding of why professional photographs cost so much more than the ones that you get from your local drug store.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.



Shawn, Pamela & Gavin Richter
Caught on Film Photography

JUMP!

In the AIR-these volleyball players and military men show their prowess..

This is from a past wedding, of Ashely and Matt, I marveled at how cute they all looked and their ability to catch air when just told to JUMP! A second look at photos while I am working on them always provides me with something new to see in our own work.

Morgan - 1st Senior of 2009 season

See a slightly larger version here.

Announcing the birth of Nolan

Unscathed by birth, Nolan appeared to the world last evening July 7th-a very lucky number indeed, and born under a full moon rising. Congratulations to Cara and Mike and welcome baby Nolan Edward-23 inches long-his dad says he will play ball.. maybe basketball instead of baseball.. :)

Door County Wedding Photographers | Ashley & Tony

Not everyone sees fireworks when they are with the one they love, but you can bet these two did!
Door County was ablaze with color, a buzz with people, swinging with fun, as Ashley and Tony tied the knot yesterday. Their ceremony was over looking the bay from the grounds of the Landmark Resort. The officiant, Uncle DAVE, delivered the vows in style. The wedding party and couple were willing to follow our art direction to capture the fun moments of the day. Thanks to the families and friends of Ashley and Tony, we had a great time celebrating with everyone.

Happy fourth of July !!
See a slide show of the days events here.

Morgan

Brrr....hard to believe it's summer today. Kept Morgan moving just to keep her warm during the shoot.

Castolab ribbon cutting.

Tonight we documented a commercial project for Eutectics-there was a chain cutting ceremony for the opening of CastoLab. Fitting since the company deals with welding products.

Check check and recheck...

Getting geared up for senior portrait tomorrow, just foolin around with new hot lights.
Want to have that 30's look

Milwaukee Wedding Photographers | Ashley & Matt

Buckeyes unite in Wisconsin! Ashely and Matt were married yesterday in a quaint historical church, Zion Evangelical Lutheran, located in Allenton. Friends from all walks of life flew in to participate in the event. Ashley organized every detail down to the imprinted golf balls and tees. Her sister, Lindsey, worked hard creating the designs and icing all of the cakes that became the center pieces for each table, she also designed and iced the wedding cake! Everything was fantastic, the food, the cake, the flowers, the dresses, and of course the wonderful couple.
Our thanks to both families, along with Ashley and Matt, for having us photograph their wedding. It's people like these that make us LOVE our job.

Reception : Camelot Golf Club

See a slide show of the days events by clicking here.

Riley in better spirits...

Last time he would have no part of smiling, but today he was feelin' the love.

Door County Wedding Photographers | Saramarie & Ryan

Our first Door County wedding this year, perfect weather, perfect couple, perfectly beautiful.
Saramarie and Ryan became husband and wife at St. Joseph's in Sturgeon Bay. We had fun with the whole party riding in the Trolley to wonderful locations. Then back to a reception at the gorgeous Stone Harbor Resort. Hats off to Ryan and Saramarie who paid attention to every detail of this celebration. Congratulations to you both, and thank you for including us in your plans.

See a slide show of the days events here.

What? no smiles?

This little guy has a mind of his own, mom says he can be stubborn. We had a glimmer of a smile on a few shots.. but I think we will have to be funnier the next time Riley comes to visit--->
"Charlie, get out that clown suit!"

BATAVIA!

What a cute little town in Illinois, where this couple has taken up residence prior to their Wedding date in TWO WEEKS!

Ashley and Tony will be wed in Door County on July 3rd.
We all got behind schedule when it came to taking these warm up shots..but they needed no prodding to look like they were in love.

Jenna is growing, and on the go!

At 6 months this little girl looks like she will skip crawling and head right to walking. She is a delightfully happy baby girl.

Erin as Model

Kate, our associate photographer and long time daughter, has a friend who doesn't mind modeling. So Kate has been doing some fashion shooting with Erin, both of them having fun in the process.

Milwaukee Wedding Photographers | Ashley & Nick

I loved this image, but then there were bunches from yesterday that I LOVED! Nick was adamant that they be to their cocktail hour by 5:00, which could have been a bit of a problem since the wedding was at 3:00 and the formals did not begin until 3:45...we fit formals, travel, and all of the fun wedding party shots along with those beautiful romantic images into less than one hour.
EVERYONE was happy, us included. It paid off for us to arrive in Racine and plan every composition ahead of time.

A special thank you to the Families of the bride and groom, and to Nick and Ashley for yet another wonderful wedding. We feel so blessed to have clients like you.

Wedding : Holy Communion Lutheran Church
Reception : Racine Country Club
DJ : CSB Entertainment

See a slide show of the days events here.

Malecha Family the day after.

The day after a big wedding, Liz and Dale, host baptism for their new grand daughter and mark it with a great family photo.

Milwaukee Wedding Photographers | Jackie & Dale

Too cool... near the lake that is...
This couple was so much fun to work with. We suggested playing on the beach yesterday afternoon ( I thought it was going to start snowing!) Everyone was good natured about the antics we had them perform. Congratulations to Jackie and DJ.
Special thanks to David and Justin from Milwaukee Sound & Light for keeping the party moving!
See a slide show of the days events here.

Sylvia Louise has arrived....

and she is beautiful!