this is for YOU. {thoughts on pricing}

Once photography was simply a hobby and a passion...  But now I look around and feel so fortunate to do what I love for a living - and I love every minute of it (well, almost every minute)!!  Over this past year I have been so blessed.  Brandilyn Davidson Photography has been expanding quite quickly during the past several months.  In light of this, I have decided to completely restructure the way I offer my products to clients.  But before I do, I thought it would be helpful to share some behind the scenes info on the editing process and the amount of work that goes into producing high-quality images from what may seem like a relatively brief photo session or event.

Most professional photographers will spend anywhere from five to over twenty minutes (!) thoroughly editing each individual image from your session.  Each image undergoes a series of fine-tuned adjustments to important aspects of the photograph such as cropping, tone, exposure, contrast, white balance, and sharpening - just to name a few.  Many photos require additional work - including but not limited to: blemish removal, color and texture effects (ex. vintage, retro, black & white), skin smoothing, background editing, etc.  I've included just one example below:

 

 

Taking the info above into consideration - a typical wedding package includes roughly 200-300 finished images and can take up to several weeks to complete.  This makes the seven or eight hours a photographer spends actually taking photos on the wedding day just a small fraction of the time required to produce the final products. 

 

 

In addition to the time spent taking and editing photos, another reason going with a professional isn't cheap is because professional photography equipment and editing software is extremely expensive.  A high end DSLR can cost several thousand dollards just for the body - before it even has a lens on it!!  A good lens often runs well over a thousand dollars - and most photographers have several.  Then there's computers, hard drives, memory cards, flashes, reflectors, bags, etc. etc. etc.  Further more, you must take into account years of schooling, interning, classes, tutorials and all that practice practice practice!!!
 
So, even though professional quality prints can seem pricey -  just remember - you're not paying for the ink and the paper it's printed with/on.  You're paying for the talent - the time and the artistic energy that has been put into that very image.  For you.  If you want a cheap 19 cent Walmart print - well then that's what Walmart is for.  If you want a high quality image that beautifully captures you and your loved ones in a moment in time - a moment that will last for forever... well then that's what professional photographers are here for.
 
I welcome any and all comments.  If you have a question, please feel free to leave it below and I will do my best to answer it.  Thanks for reading!!!                                                                                   

Helping Hands & Linking Arms {johnson city tn photographer}

On April 24th hundreds of volunteers throughout the southeast United States and parts of South America joined hands and put forth service at several projects throughout their communities.  This was part of the Helping Hands & Linknig Arms Day of Service.  I was privilaged enough to be a part of it - and somehow lucky enough to get out of shoveling or digging fence posts!  It was a beautiful day and even more beautiful was watching so many happy faces - old and young - serving their community.  I was assigned to take pictures at the opening ceremonies at Winged Deer Park as well as a fence repair project at Civitan Park and a step building project in the disk golf park at Winged Deer Park.  I wanted to share some of the shots I took throughout the day - and give thanks to all those who participated.  I am looking forward to what we can accomplish next year!!

i heart photoshop {tips and tricks}

Some people are under the impression that photography simply involves taking pictures.  Now more than ever, in the digital photography age that we have found ourselves in, that's only half of the process!  With digital photography and all that it enables, 'image manipulation' - or in other words, photoshop-ing (digitally editing) images is part of the art (and fun)!!  Every photographer has their own editing style.  I tend to be more on the minimal side of things... trying to keep things as natural as possible, using the editing to enhance the already there beauty of the shots.  But every now and then I like to go a little crazy and have fun!!  The options are endless with what you can create with a simple image.  Here is an example:

As you can see, the SOOC (straight out of camera) image is blah.  Not much to it right?  Well to fix that, I added some fun textures (I love textures!!), increased the contrast, adjusted the colors to give it a 'vintage' look - which I love right now - and there you have it!! Big difference!  This should give you an idea of how dramatically an image can be altered...  Please let me know what you think - I love comments!!