What's the difference?

A couple months ago we had our portraits taken. As part of the church directory project, we dressed up and headed to our appointment with the Olan Mills photographer. I am happy to report that it went exceptionally well. It was fast, painless and even the kind saleswoman wasn’t pushy at all. We left ordering very little, but we did order something.

On a sidenote, Joy kept kicking me under the table every time I was about to open my mouth and share that we were photographers.

It was interesting, though, having the tables turned and being on the other side of the entire process. Did I learn anything about sales and photographer/subject rapport? Yes, a little. I was also reminded WHY we do what we do, and even more importantly, I was reminded WHY WE LOVE WHAT WE DO.

Here are the 2 images we ordered.One print was included just for participating in the directory. The other one we purchased. They are scans off of 8x10 prints. And yes, that is illegal. But I’m doing it to illustrate a point, not to make reprints to give to our family for Christmas. We paid for these, and trust me, we won’t be displaying anything that we didn’t pay for.


Image #1 is a lovely family image that does a good job of showing what our family looked like for our appointment.


Image #2 is a lovely child portrait that does a good job of showing what Graycen looked like for our appointment. She is lit well, the colors are nice, and the exposure is right on. At the last minute the photographer grabbed the white pillar and set it on the table and then took the branch of leaves and haphazardly placed it on the pillar. I think he was going for the juxtaposition of the new against the old….a young child against a several-hundred-year-old pillar with a vine growing up around it. But it’s quite obviously a fake—you don’t have to have been there to tell. And what gets me the most is that he was in such a rush that he didn’t even notice the two leaves that appear to be coming out of her head. Fortunately though, they distract from the fact that the image crops along the bottom, right through the middle of her hands. We had been there for about 3 or 4 minutes by the time we got to this shot, he had other people waiting and it was obviously time to move on.

Please understand, I mean no disrespect to our church photographers. They do an outstanding job at what they do…creating nice photographs and publishing church directories.

We, too, are photographers. But how are we different? On a banner in our studio hangs the following quote by one of the most celebrated portrait photographers of the modern era:

“The difference you see in my photographs is that I was not afraid to fall in love with my subjects.”
Annie Leibovitz

Annie's quote reminds us of the difference in being a boutique studio versus a photo factory. Whether we're photographing a subject we just met for the first time or someone we've know for 10 years, our goal, like Annie's, is to naturally fall in love with our subjects. It's not something we have to try to do, it just happens...naturally.

The couples who hire us to photograph their wedding do so because they value individualized attention to detail and our approach to capturing their style and sophistication on one of the most important days of their lives.

And the families who hire us to create portraits, do so because they value unique, stylized, fashionable images that show the love and bond and strength of a family or the style and independence of a child.

Shortly after we got our church directory pictures back we created this image of Graycen.

No, it’s not perfect, and it probably could have been lit better, but which one do you like more? Which one tells a story? In both images she's posing, but that's what she does. This is her being her. And that’s the difference. That's why we do what we do.

Oh, and one more thing…If the church photographer had kept us a little bit longer and somehow Graycen had gotten punch-drunk with laughter, look what else he might have caught! :-)