“It’s been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon, my home town, out there on the edge of the prairie...”
Garrison Keillor
Actually, it’s been more like a quiet couple of months in Lakewood, my home town, on the edge of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.
I’ve had clients and friends reach out to me—are you okay? Is your business okay? I haven’t heard or seen anything from you in a long time.
The bad new is, yes, photo shoots slow down dramatically in winter. Folks don’t typically want to bundle up their babies and capture their red noses in the frosty cold.
The good news is—while I have been a bit on the quieter side for the past couple months—it’s not for lack of activity. In previous communications, I’ve been hinting at changes coming to Holly Freeman Photography, and folks, they are coming to fruition! The biggest change was an investment in software that allows me to help families envision what their images might look like on their own walls. They can also preview a photo book or see a personalized Christmas card or birth announcement. I’m super excited for the possibilities this offers. It opens up a whole new world of interacting with the families who choose to get portraits with me. Let me explain what I mean...
In the old model, I took your pictures, I sent you a link to an on-line gallery. You chose your favorites and that was the end of our interaction. You have these digital files, and you could go anywhere and print them. There were some advantage, right? There was a lot of freedom to decide when and where to print. But there were some serious disadvantages, too.
Let’s talk about the first point: when to print.
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”
My Grandma (like many grandmas out there)
I’m not saying if you fail to print your pictures you are headed for hell, only that sometimes we intend to do things and no matter how good the idea, no matter how important it is to us, sometimes those good things never happen. Sometimes those beautiful images remain pixels lost in the cloud forever.
And the second point: where to print. Say you take them to a local lab—because that’s what you know, that’s what’s convenient, that’s what’s affordable—you have prints made, and the colors are horrible. They do not look like what you see on your computer screen...what then?
In the new model, before we take your pictures, we have a long conversation about what you expect to do with these images. I hear from you what would be the best way to celebrate this ideal of family that you cherish and want to capture, and I share with you some ideas that I’ve come across in my search for products that I think speak to the unique aesthetics of the families who choose to have portraits with me. We do the shoot, and then I carefully prepare the images with your final goals in mind. We meet via Zoom so you can review your fully edited images, choose your favorites and then preview some of the products we discussed. You can even send me a picture of a wall in your house where you would like to hang prints, and we can visualize your prints in various sizes and materials on that wall. We finish our meeting with an order so that two or three weeks after your shoot, you have prints on your walls and/or images in your hands that help you cherish these special memories we made together.
So far, I’m loving this new model. Take family “P” for example: I met them in a park last summer doing a senior photo shoot, and Ms. P approached me because she was looking for maternity pictures. We chatted and realized the Bumps to Bundles package was a good fit.
We had a blast with their first shoot, and I was thrilled when Baby finally came along and we got to spend a morning together in their lovely home, capturing the precious beauty of their new Little Love.
In our pre-consultation, Ms. P had shared that she really wanted to get birth announcements out for Valentines, so we put a rush on things and during their ordering appointment made a custom Valentine-themed birth announcement. In addition, because they chose a photo book, they were able to have all their favorite images from our two sessions in a collection they can hold in their hands and look at with their Little Love when she’s older and curious about her pregnant mama and her earliest days.
To sum up, here are a few highlights of this new model:
prints on your walls or in your hands that remind you every day of your deep love for one another
more personalized interaction—from the pre-consultation, to the ordering appointment—there’s more time to craft a product that speaks to each family’s unique vision
higher quality prints and products that meet individual needs
a guide in the printing process that can ensure you get durable, accurate products that will stand the test of time
You can check out some of what I’ll be offering in 2021 by visiting the online Product Catalogue, and while you're there you might peruse the revamped website (see, I have been busy). If you have questions about this new model or suggestions of products you'd like me to carry, please reach out.
“And that’s the news from Lake Wobegon, where all the women are strong, the men are good looking and the children are above average.”
I mean, really, the same thing could be said about Lakewood, right?