Tara Flannery is a Certified Professional Photographer (CPP) based in The Woodlands and Conroe, TX. Tara Flannery Photography specializes in family portraits and can tell you why custom photography is so important. See more family photos in the gallery. Contact me to book your family portrait today!
Why Custom Photography?
Custom photography: an investment in the present for the future
Custom photography is more of a luxury product than your entry level cookie cutter photography chain store experience. Custom photography truly is not for everyone, it requires a level of commitment, investment in time and money, forethought and planning on the part of the subject/client and requires a larger time commitment for the photographer as well.
Clients who enjoy taking a more active role in the creation of their families’ memories have the desire to have portrait art that is truly personalized. These more discerning clients have been known to budget and allot time for a custom photography session. Many clients opt for it to be a once a year special experience, some opt to have custom photography sessions done to record their child’s stages in life. Having said this, it is clear that custom photography is not in everyone’s budget, it is something that most families save for to splurge on from time to time to memorialize their children as they really are (not posed and primped in the cookie cutter studio setting).
There is a great deal of time involved in creating high end custom photography sessions for a client. The luxury of great service, better choices and a supberb end product. The result of all this are heirloom quality images. The time invested at the session is only a small portion of time involved in this process.
Custom photography has been likened to purchasing a fine vehicle. To get to point B from A let’s face it, even a bus ride would suffice. If you want to luxuriate in a finely appointed vehicle, customizing your own experience by listening to smooth jazz while sitting in a climate controlled setting adjusted purely for your comfort in a body hugging leather interior, perhaps that Lexus you so desire is your cup of tea. Custom photography is much the same cup of tea. It is the Lexus of the photography world. It is where the intangibles make the experience truly wonderful and the images themselves make the investment of money and time truly worthwhile.
Custom photography can be broken down into even more levels. There are:
- on location
- studio
- mixed studio/on location
- specialty location
- destination
- event photographers
Not every photographer specializes in studio photography, not every on location photographer specializes in event photography and not every event photographer can shoot photo-journalistic style portraits.
The beauty of custom photography is in the choices and in the luxury of those options. The customized service level you are sure to experience will be amazing. The knowledge that your final images are the result of someone caring about those moments so much that they take extra time ensuring that the artwork you receive is good enough to stand by with their name on it. That level of quality and commitment is all but lost in the age of “mass produced,” “mass marketed,” corporate “everyone is a number”.
Custom photography is based on being unique to you. How great an experience would be, to be able to sit back and allow a photographer to do this highly custom work for images that you will most likely cherish for a lifetime?
Keep in mind more than anything that the Lexus will never appreciate in value the way your portraits will. The portrait art you become invested in from your custom photographer will no doubt increase in value and become more priceless as the years pass.
This article was written by Marianne Drenthe of Marmalade Photography http://www.marmaladephotography.com and can be found at the Professional Child Photography site at http://www.professionalchildphotographer.com
Custom Photography for Emily and Family
I first met Emily on a corporate headshot session for her company. We chatted while doing her headshot and she mentioned that she had a son and would love to have family portraits. Excellent, “let me give you a business card”, I said. A little while later, Emily did contact me for those family photos. We had a great session! The following year (this year), she contacted me again for family portraits with her son and husband. I love to work with repeat clients because we already know each other. I know her style and what she’s looking for and how she likes to be photographed. She knows my style too and we work so well together! Custom photography allows for the flexibility and the extra attention to detail that you need in family portraits. I love photographing families and I look forward to many more years with Emily and all of my family portrait clients for their custom photography!
Tara Flannery is a Certified Professional Photographer (CPP) based in The Woodlands and Conroe, TX. Tara Flannery Photography specializes in family portraits and can tell you why custom photography is so important. See more family photos in the gallery. Contact me to book your family portrait today!
