Reasons to hire a professional photographer

OK, so you’ve been contemplating for some time getting some photos taken. You’ve gone and done some research, looked at your friends on Facebook getting their photos taken, you’ve scouted all over Pinterest and have even created a board! Oh, the good ol’ Pinterest…how ever did we get by without it?? You see that there’s a trend now that people are following–or I should say leaving behind…good old fashion big chain studio portrait photography. Not to undermine or say that it’s completely obsolete, but we definitely are now seeing more and more people doing outdoor photo shoots to document important events in their lives. I mean everything from engagement proposals (yes, people are hiring pros to document when they propose, how awesome is that?!) to the engagement photos (you can check out some fun engagement sessions here) the wedding, post wedding (yup believe it or not people are also doing day after wedding sessions, super cool in my opinion), maternity, newborn, baby milestones and children is being done in a fun, new and creative way. There are so many things to consider when wanting special photos taken, but the most important question is “should I hire a professional?”  Well that all depends on what it’s worth to you. Photography is absolutely an investment and the way I see it is that you will have these precious memories/photographs forever. Some may argue that it is very expensive and that they are just photographs. While yes it can be expensive, they aren’t just photographs, they are documentation of the important events throughout our lives! Who wouldn’t want beautiful  memories of those? So here are my top 6 reasons to hire a professional photographer:

1. Equipment: Yes, with all of the advancements in technology I think it’s safe to say that everyone has some sort of camera at reach! Most of us have pretty decent ones just in our smart phones alone. I think also mostly everyone owns a point & shoot camera, but let’s face it, most people don’t own high end professional photography equipment. Professional cameras and lenses make a HUGE difference. You can have a good eye for capturing moments, but if you don’t have the right equipment and knowledge of how to use it the images are just not going to be professional looking.

2. Experience & knowledge: Professional photographers know how to conduct a session, they know the best way to get the best images and they have the knowledge of even the simplest things such as lighting, which actually is a huge thing. Professionals know about composition and setting up the shots that are going to look like the ones you’ve been pinning! They have experience on how to make a session flow and how to get your children to smile and you to relax to optimize for the best natural photos.

3. Editing: Professional photographers have the best software to professionally edit your photos, and I’m not talking about those apps where you can edit them yourself or use filters on your iPhone. While all those options are super awesome, again, it isn’t professional and you won’t end up with the gorgeous images that you really want.

4. Consistency: Professionals are consistent in capturing beautiful images for you. Why? Because they know how. We can anticipate just the right moment, we know just the right angle to snap that photograph and we know which time of day, what lighting, etc…it all goes back to #2 experience and knowledge. Pros consistently produce beautiful images because we know how to tie all of these elements together to give you the photos that you’ve always dreamed of.

5. The whole experience: You’re thinking “what? didn’t we just cover ‘experience’?” We did, we covered the photographer’s experience, now we are talking about YOUR experience! What I  mean by this is everything from consultation to choosing a location, to the session, to your appointment for viewing your gorgeous photos for the first time, to ordering your photographs and finally getting them and putting them up on your wall for all to see! All of that is an experience! An experience that you will get by hiring a professional. The attention, the one-on-one and hopefully even the relationship and rapport that you can build with your photographer is all part of the experience. You won’t get this by hiring an amateur or by doing it yourself. 🙂

6. You get what you pay for: Last, but certainly not least–you really do get what you pay for. I think this is true for pretty much everything and it’s self explanatory. You won’t get any of the above or if you do get some of it, it may not be worth the cheap price. If you are looking for the ultimate awesome photography experience, please hire a pro, trust me you will not regret it!

A friend shared this with me, some of you may have already seen it, seriously I couldn’t stop laughing when I saw this because I’ll be honest–before I went pro I probably would’ve done the same thing! Lol…

So although it is funny, I think it sums up well why hiring a professional is a very good reason! You will not regret it, I promise!!!!