Say NO To Retail Portrait Studios

If you're the parent of a young one, you know how much effort it takes to get your child cleaned up, suited up, bundled up, re-cleaned (oops, that spit up while getting out the door), packaged into a carriage, packed into the car, tantrum subsided, unpacked from the car, strollered through the mall (oops, another spit up... good thing those extra two outfits are squashed under your arm), and plopped down at a bustling portrait studio at which many other kids are already crabby and whining for having been dragged there and made to wait in a line to get their pictures taken, because it's a Saturday and everyone else and their kid is in line for portraits! Exhausting! I don't even like to think about it.

Getting memorable shots of your baby as she grows should not be such a hassling task. Really. You are a busy enough parent and you don't need this stress. Thus why Amkar Photography is enthusiastic about our brand of portrait photography. I like to think of it as the Naturalistic Hassle-Free In-Home Mentally Non-Taxing portrait session. There are quite a few perks to adopting this trend in professional portraiture and ditching the retail portrait studio altogether.

Firstly, the convenience is clear. In most cases I am simply coming to your home to photograph your son or daughter in their natural and comfortable environment. You can't take your bathroom, your kitchen, your child's playroom AND your child's wardrobe closet to the mall with you. It's so much easier to clean spills or change outfits on a whim when you're at your own home. This practice is 10,000 times more convenient, especially for parents of newborn babies. You've got your arsenal of pacifiers, bottles, cleaning towels and outfit changes right behind your back. And don't tell me your house doesn't look photogenic enough; that's what portable backdrops, close up shots, and maybe an outdoor excursion are for.

Secondly and most importantly, your child - the central focus and subject of this photographic event - is comfortable. Some parents don't realize that children can perceive such things, but there is a very significant aesthetic/mental connection that your child has with his own home. If you take him to a loud, busy studio with scary black curtains and huge spider-like tripods and that frightening squeaky clown some stranger is shoving into his face thinking it'll make him smile, then you've got a few things to learn about the way a child's mind processes unfamiliarity. Have you wondered why kids cry so much at portrait studios, even if there's a plethora of toys at hand? Honestly, some props that adults think are fun and playful are downright frightening to a child. It's simply because he feels insecure in this space and he has no idea what else to think. Your home is familiar and safe to him. If he doesn't feel right, he can toddle back to his room and play with his favorite toys... and I can get some authentic child-in-his-play-world shots. The retail portrait studio has got nothing on childhood authenticity.

Thirdly, your client satisfaction experience. When everyone and their mother goes to the retail portrait studio, you get a photographer who is there working an hourly shift during which she has to satisfy a fairly large client base on a daily basis. She oftentimes doesn't have time to give you and your child the attention and direction you really deserve because she knows she has to fit you in before her next customer. She may be a semi-seasoned photographer, but all she really has to work with in her time frame is pre-determined poses that look the same for every child. It's like a factory: come in, sit down, look here, face there, chin up, hand here *flash!* you're done. Come look at your prints and buy some products. This is all fine if you want the wham bam stereotype pose experience. But if you're the person I envision you to be... the cherishing mother who simply wants a memory of her child shaking hands with his invisible friend, or the fun loving father who would cry when he's 50 years old to stumble upon a photo of him and his 3 year old daughter having a tea party together... then you'll need to be looking somewhere else for someone who knows how to read you as a being of emotion, and not just a random family sitting on the floor in a retail studio.

Lastly, don't shop for portraits based on price. Remember that what you pay for is what you get. Good photographers will not be super cheap, but you also don't want them to be. They know the value they can provide to you, and truly, that value is priceless. It comes down to Memories. Covering the growth of your child is in the same league as covering your wedding day. It only happens once and it happens quickly. Afterward, what will you have to remember it by?

Also of note, most retail portrait studios offer you a low-resolution disk of your images which they disclaim is "for web use only". Ok... once you've slathered them all over your Facebook wall, then your newer Facebook updates keep pushing them down further and further into the "old post" category, where do they go? They get sucked into Internet Oblivion, that's where they go. No sir! When you want memories, you want to be able to print them out and give them to people who will frame them and put them in books or on walls. You cannot print low-resolution images yourself. They will be a blurry, pixelated mess if you enlarge them. Sorry! And have you tried going back to a retail portrait studio years later to get a re-print of something? Umm, no. Sorry, they will not keep your files that long. And what if your child stands on top of your CD and pivots around on it with the data side facing down on a concrete floor? That is tough luck for you. Your Family on the Floor in the Mall Portrait Studio images are gone forever. Good thing Amkar backs up all our client photos indefinitely... specifically for those "My son boiled my disk to see how it would melt" moments. You know kids, they're scientists. Every one of them.

Amkar Photography offers maternity, baby, family and senior portraits for just $150 per session. That package includes a 1-2 hour session, an in-home visit or outdoor location, no image limit, online gallery and high-resolution rights-released high quality DVD in a keepsake case. We also offer albums and canvas gallery wrap wall decor.