Digital files…. everyone wants digital files… except me… and I don’t want you to have them either!
Well let me rephrase that, I don’t want that to be the ONLY thing you have.
Anyone who has ever talked to me or been a client know I am passionate about this debate. So let me set a few things straight:
- This isn’t about being able to charge you more - my digital files are the most expensive thing I sell by themselves for a reason… so you won’t buy them. I want you to walk away with a product of your favorites AND digital images for your own peace of mind.
- This isn’t about holding your pictures hostage - I want you to walk away with as many images as you love. Be they in a book, in a box or to hang on the wall. I want you to be able to see them without needing to use a device of any sorts.
- This isn’t about me “being different” - before the Shoot and Burn era came upon us, you would have NEVER found a photographer who just handed you their negatives. Not every photographer feels the way I do, many embrace the digital era, but that doesn’t mean I am talking crazy talk either.
What it is about is something much bigger than you… at least bigger than the you of TODAY.
- This is about the you 5 years from now who wants to look back on your first couples pictures but the CD is cracked
- This is about the you 10 years from now who wants to show your kids the pictures of you carrying them in your belly but the USB is no where to be found
- This is about the you 15 years from now who needs a picture of your child as a baby for a school project but you can’t remember your login and password to your Cloud account… nor the email you used to create it and retrieve said password
- This is about the children and grandchildren and family members who will come after and will never get to sit on the couch and flip through beautiful images of you, finding out who they look like, giggling about your fashion sense or reliving that amazing family vacation to the beach you took when they were 12.
Digital media gets outlived every day. 15 years ago, floppy disks were the big thing. Try finding a floppy drive to read those today. The same is currently happening to CDs and USBs, slowly but surely. But we have the Cloud!! Sure… we have the cloud… and when the cloud malfunctions or the company you use to store goes out of business or you mistakenly erase files on the cloud… then what happens?
But I can print them myself, you may say! You can, but will you? I know most of the clients I used to give CDs to don’t even know where they are today. How do I know this? Because I flat out asked them before making the final decision to sell quality, archival products instead of digitals!
And if you do, will it be from the Walgreens Kiosk or will it be from a reputable lab that can assure you your picture will not be yellow and curled from sunlight in a year? 1 Hour Kiosks are nothing more than inks and printers you probably already own. They are there for instant gratification, not to be around 50 years from now….
At the end of the day, my desire to provide you with something else than a CD is not for my own benefit, it is for yours…
I assure you, every time a client says “Can I just get the digitals instead?”, my heart breaks for you, for your kids and for everyone who will never get to see your beautiful pictures if they weren’t your Facebook friend at the time.
And in the great words of Missy Mwac:
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Photo credit to Missy Mwac
