Honesty, a two edged sword. Facebook a place to hide and throw rocks.
I felt a rant long over due. So, I wanted to devote an entire blog post to expressing my (Seth's) feelings on a recent email and a passive aggressive Facebook attack that followed it.
Where do I start, where do I start? Well I guess at the beginning.
Desiree and I, as you all know, own and operate Jones Photo Art. We are both photographers, not business people. So, sometimes we make mistakes with our business and we are not the greatest marketers. That being the case, our work has to speak for itself. It does and it has. Desiree and I didn't inherit a studio, we didn't apprentice with a photographer and then take over the business, our parents weren't photographers, we didn't buy out an operating studio. We didn't learn by watching our employers. We built our work, our studio, our reputation from the ground up. We had no connections, no help, no freebies, nothing. Nothing but a talent, skill, and desire.
When we did our first bridal show back in 2002, we were not welcomed into the photo community. In fact, we were met with a hailstorm of anti Jones sentiment. We immediately felt the underdogs on the defense. One of the largest studios in town was not just marketing for their studio, they were marketing against us. We had several couples come over with a list of things they wanted to ask us after visiting this other studio and being told these negative things about us. I quickly contacted the studio owner. Letting that person know all the ins and outs of our business and how Desiree and I were no threat to their business; we were not tying to become the biggest most prolific studio in town. We wanted to be a small boutique studio that focuses on our couples and the quality of our work for their wedding.
I later found out that this studio owner felt threatened because of the quality of our work. This was coming from a studio owner of many years, being threatened by a young couple who just really started out in the wedding industry. I was also later approached by this studio owner and told that they wished they would have used our business model, staying small and focusing on quality and not quantity.
Once we were in the industry we made it our goal to bring photographers together. We didn't want animosity between photographers in the wedding industry. We wanted all the photographers to come together and not compete for work on a vicious level but compete to bring the industry up. We campaigned to increase rates of the full time quality studios in order to set our work apart from the photographers that simply don't have the talent or the ability to competently provide couples with something they will cherish. We also wanted a network to refer couples out to. Instead of just a good luck pat on the back, we wanted to make sure we had a group of quality photographers with a variety of style and strengths that we could match our couples up with when we were not able to work with them or were not a good match for them.
Since then we have seen the wedding photography market grow in several ways. We have seen the quality of wedding photography increase and we have seen the sheer number of wedding photographers increase. With any other industry, a huge growth is not always a good thing. The market has become saturated with people wanting to make money photographing weddings. And as with any other industry, there are people that are amazing at what they do, people who a good at what they do, people who are average at what they do, people who are poor and what they do, and even still people you look at and think why, why, why? I have seen this with photographers, videographers, decorators, planners, wedding publications, doctors lawyers etc.
What happened in this big surge of photographers and what still happens, is that the couples end up suffering. They were fooled by cheap prices and a marketing piece in a bridal publication that showed a couple of the photographers best images. It turned out that those images were the only good images that that photographer had taken. We have had countless couples, over the years, come to us to fix the photos that another photographer had taken. Photographers had stolen the trust from these beautiful couples and left them with a disc of high resolution images not even worth the time to take to be printed. The promised "Lifetime of Memories" they were left with were memories of regret and disappointment.
That whole topic is another blog for another day and frankly I feel I have done that topic to death. Even still, there are other vendors who continue to refer out to these photographers to save the couple a few dollars.
The reason I mention this is because there is a scale of skill talent and ability when it comes to one’s profession. Again there are people who excel and people who struggle. I am not ashamed to say that Desiree and I excel at what we do. It doesn't make me an elitist to take pride in the all the blood, sweat, and tears my beautiful, amazing wife and I have pored into our business.
We are in this business for a few reasons; first we have a deep love for the photographic medium. I studied art, art history, and the history of photography. I love the art of it. I love the creation of it. Desiree loves the medium for other reasons. She loves the reality of it, the emotion behind it. She loves it for giving her the ability to freeze the deepest emotions and heartfelt connections.
Second, we are in the wedding, portrait photography market. Because of our love of people. I can be an abrasive person sometimes. People think I am pretentious, arrogant, prideful, etc. That sucks that some people think that. The truth is and as those that know me know, I am fairly introverted. It takes a while for me to warm up to people but on the deepest level I love and accept all people. On a shallow level I can be quick to judge and can be an apparent jerk. Yes this is to my detriment. Desiree, on the other hand, loves openly. She loves first and accepts people first. Together we balance one another out. But we honestly love people and more than that we love the idea of love. Desiree and I have a great love story. We were married within six months of meeting one another. Ask us about our love story, you will for sure get two different versions of it, they are both as interesting. We just enjoy seeing and working with people in love.
Thirdly, we want to be able to give these couples, with whom we work, something truly special. We don't want to give them a prepackaged value meal. We don't want to give them the same thing that they could get from all the other photographers around. We want them to have, not just a great experience with us before and after their wedding, we want them to sit with us after the wedding and see their images and fall in love with each other and with their wedding all over again.
We did not get into this business to get rich, to have a huge studio with countless photographers, or to be a wedding photo factory. We do however have a family and when it comes down to it we would drop the whole business, and everything related, if it was best for our family. But this business puts food on the table, puts clothes on their backs, and a roof over their heads.
We are not cheap and we are not ridiculously expensive. We charge enough to be able to provide for our family keep the business open and still be affordable for most couples.
Not being a wedding photo factory, we can't work with everybody. Nor would we want to. We are selective on the couples we choose to work with. We want to make sure that not only is our work what they are looking for but that we connect on a personal level. We want to make sure that we are a good match for them. If we are not, we need to refer them to a photographer or a studio that will be a good match for them. Our children are growing and we have less and less time we are able to spend with them. Weddings take that precious time from our family and we don't want to spend that time dreading it because we accepted a wedding for to make a few extra bucks. We want to have a good time and work with people we know we will have fun with. Does this make us elitists, nope. Does it make us exclusive, well obviously. On the other hand not everyone wants to work with us. We do what we do, and we do a dang good job at it. People may not like what we do. And I would hope there are people who don't. It means there is still variety in the world. It means there are people who have tastes similar to our, people with tastes similar to other photographers, and that means plenty of work to go around.
Just because we turn away so many people, and only work with a small percentage of the people that contact us, does not mean we a not humbled by the work we do get. We are humbled all the time when couples send us emails and leave messages saying how excited they are to work with us. We are humbled knowing that some couples with intimate weddings are willing to spend half of their wedding budget to have Desiree and I shoot their wedding. We are humbled when people want to fly us all over the world to be with them on their wedding day sharing our talents with them. We are humbled when couples come over and sit on our couch, watch a slide show of their images and cry because of the emotion that our images invoke. I am also humbled when I get an email from AGWPJA or ISPWP, letting us know that our images have placed in the top of their international photo competitions. I am humbled knowing that people recognize and appreciate our work.
Are we also proud of these things. Yes. Why would we not be proud of these things. Why would we not be proud looking back at what we have done over the past decade.
Are we also thankful for these things? Yep! We and our children give thanks every night when we kneel down as a family together to pray. We are thankful for the work we have and what it provides for our family. Are we also thankful for the relationships we have built in the industry? Of course we are. Mostly because we have built these relationships based on the quality of our work and it’s reputation first. We receive referrals from people and companies we have never met and never worked with. We have never set out to visit other vendors and schmooze with them, in order to be a “preferred Vendor.”
We also just don’t refer people out to anyone because they have asked us to, or because we are members of the same professional organizations. We refer our couples out to others based on merit. We only want the best for our couples, so we only refer our couples out to the best, or at least the best at what the couple is looking for. We don’t and won’t refer people based on what they can do for us, we want what is best for our couples not for other vendors. We would hope that other vendors refer us for the same reasons. And based upon the fact that we are always referred by people we don’t know, we can only assume they refer us based on work and reputation.
So, are we grateful for these referrals and relationships? Yes we are! And we are humbled at the same time, knowing that people we don’t know and have never met, know us and our work and are comfortable referring us. Yes we are!
On the subject of how other perceive us, I wanted to talk about the organizations we belong to. We are members of the Artistic Guild of the Wedding Photojournalists association. This was taken from the agwpja website:
“The Artistic Guild of the Wedding Photojournalist Association AG|WPJA is comprised of outstanding wedding photographers, who are at the forefront of the wedding photography industry when it comes to enhancing images. The chief objective of the AG|WPJA is to provide members with a platform where the finest enhanced, manipulated and/or artistic wedding photojournalism in the world is spotlighted and promoted for the bride and groom.”
We are also members of the International Society of Professional Wedding Photographers. This was taken from their website:
“The Best Wedding Photographers in the World
The International Society of Professional Wedding Photographers (ISPWP) is a rarity among wedding photography organizations. Photographers cannot simply buy an ISPWP membership, they have to earn it.
Our requirements are experience, talent, and professionalism. To be accepted, a photographer must have shot at least 50 weddings, submit their portfolio for review, agree to operate under the ISPWP Code of Conduct, and have an ISPWP Sponsor or four references. And THEN they have to be voted in by current members.
In short, when you hire an ISPWP Photographer, you are hiring a talented veteran with a track record, peer recognition, and a passion for creating heirloom images of your wedding.”
These photographers don’t let everyone join, you have to be tested and accepted. Your work has to be better than average, it has to be exceptional. We are not accepted into these organizations because of other wedding vendors, because we advertise in every local wedding mag, or because we know somebody. We were accepted because our peers, who are leading the industry, looked at our work and said it qualifies to be ranked amongst theirs. They recognize that we have a talent and an ability that is above average.
I am not bragging that we are super great and amazing, blah, blah, blah. I am stating an honest fact, we are good at what we do. Not because I think so but because others have said it.
Do I feel that I am better than other photographers? Of course I do. I have taught classes, and have been a photo mentor for a number of years and if I wasn’t better that other photographers this would not be the case. Does it make me an elitist to state this honest fact, no. I am not bragging about it I am not being overly condescending, I am telling it straight, no chasers. Are other photographers better than i am, absolutely. So, I am honest, sometimes people think that my honesty is condescension, sometimes people think its flattery. It is what it is! And if you are a not so good photographer, give us a call I would be glad to work with you and share my knowledge with you!
So, I'm am getting to the end of this rant and things are starting to fall apart in my thought process. So I’ll wrap it up. We didn’t get where we are for nothing. It has literally taken blood, literally taken sweat, and literally taken tears, and here we are. Call me pretentious, call me elitist, call me arrogant, call me whatever you want, it makes little difference. Then take a few minutes to get to know me, and you will probably take the time to apologize when you realize I am none of these things, in fact quite the opposite! So, we will continue to strive to be the best at what we do, continue to give all that we have to stay on top of our game and on top of the market, regardless of how people perceive it.
So there you are, my thoughts on the state of things. And regarding Facebook, it’s laughable how people use it to attack others, be it photographers attacking photographers, be it jilted lovers, or jealous girls, be it holier than thou business owners trying to stick it to others. How about we all just start being honest with one another and tell it like it is! Lets all stop getting so bent out of shape by what people are saying and accept that we are all different and we are all trying to do what is best for ourselves and our family and just stop the childish pettiness. And if you can’t stop, that's fine, because it gives us in the real world someone and something to laugh at...
Thanks for the time you spent reading this, I hope it was worth your time! And if you want to know what vendors we refer people to, just let us know we are always glad to share the the work of other skilled professionals!
