Jim's Photos - Why Hire A Professionl Photographer

This is a question I get asked a lot. In today's world of phone cameras, tablets and other devices, it seems like there are lots of cameras everywhere you go. So why use a professional photographer when there are so many cameras around? Let’s face it, almost everyone has a nice camera. Even our phones have a pretty good camera. The digital revolution has brought amazing options. The hobbyist, the professional and the amateur all benefit from a sea of choices. However, these options come with a price. It takes a tremendous amount of effort and skill to create a truly unique portrait worthy of hanging in your home. Custom photography is all about choice and experience, and finding someone who will photograph your family or event with personalized attention necessary to achieve the anticipated end result.

We all know that you can go to the local Walgreens and pay a $1.99 for a print. As a client, you may wonder why you may pay upwards of $39, $70, to $90 for a custom photography print. Photographers often hear this statement: “How in the world can you charge $39 for an 8×10 if it costs me less than $2 to print at a retail store?” The answer to this question is multifaceted. Much of the cost of a photographic print produced by a professional photographer has a lot to do with the time, equipment costs, artistic vision and reputation of the photographer, not to mention expertise and the usual costs of running a legitimate business. First, lets take a look at some facts.

The human eye is an amazing device. We automatically can adjust to different lighting brightness and color tones. Our pupils will adjust bigger or smaller without us even knowing it happened to correct the amount of light enters. Additionally, our brain will interpret what it has been trained to see. Try looking at a good image upside down. Most people can't easily tell what it is. This is because our brain has been trained since we were babies to interpret the images that are sent to it. We automatically recognize what most things are.

Even the most elaborate cameras in the world are not as efficient as our own eyes and brain. Cameras most be adjusted for the many many different kinds of light there is in the world. First there is the amount of light the camera sees. Look at the lens on your camera phone, tablet or point and shoot camera. There is likely a tiny pin hole to let the light in. This keeps the camera small and easy to use. There is also a small thin wide angle lens in front of that hole to try to focus the very small light beam onto the image sensor. The quality of the light is poor before it is even processed by the units CPU! Most personal cameras are set to automatically adjust for different lighting so it looks correct. The unit has been programmed to deal with most of the usual lighting it is 'likely' to see. What the camera sees may or may not be what you want. The electronic shutter needs to stay open longer to let any useful light in through the small pin hole the camera sees through. This combination can cause images to be blurred and appear somewhat distorted. Most personal devices are engineered so the image looks OK when viewed on the device itself. However, there usually is not enough good quality pixels to allow for any post editing or to produce sharp prints. The manufacturers may advertise a lot of pixels, but the quality of light in each pixel is poor and result is poor resolution. Professional quality cameras and lenses allow a much greater amount of quality light to enter. This light is much less distorted due to the precision of the lens that conforms or prepares the light for the much more sensitive image sensor to see. Additionally, this light is metered more carefully in the process. The shutter is very precise and the aperture is more accurately controlled. Each pixel contains very good quality light information. The camera itself has a very powerful CPU that controls this quality light available to the image sensor. Most personal cameras produce a .jpg type image file. This type of file is usually very compressed and becomes more compressed each time the file is saved. The final image size is something like 17x11 at 72 dpi. The larger dimensions combined with the small dpi makes the images look better than they really are. Professional cameras create RAW image files capable of producing large high quality prints. These larger files can be cropped and corrected with very little degradation at all.

Next comes the human factor. Most professional photographers have extensive knowledge of light and how light reacts in different situations. Most professional photographers have rather expensive equipment to work with and have taken the time to learn how to use it correctly. This is most often done through experience or by trial and error. Most professionals have produced tens of thousands of digital images done under many different kinds of lighting environments. In order to compete in the business, they need to be on top of their game and produce images that are better than their competition. The professional will know how to properly compensate for the different lighting conditions, they will also know how to properly compose an image and will do so knowing the limitations of their equipment. Here is a checklist you can use to help you decide what photographer to work with.

So, you just spent good money getting your photos done with a professional photographer. What now? Well, in this day and age, a popular option might be to buy digital images so you can print your photos yourself and share with friends and family online. Makes sense, right? You want to save money!

It is estimated and less that 1 out of 100,000 photographs taken today actually ends up being a printed photograph. The digital world means you can look at those on some computer screen and without one, you have nothing. You probably have countless pictures that are just randomly stored and have no organization or way to locate them. Perhaps you have made some effort, but even that can seem overwhelming a task when you decide to tackle the task. And consider this, over the years, the technology has changed so fast that many photographs taken 6-7 years ago are stored on a type of media that is no longer supported. I have boxes of floppy discs and no longer have a computer capable to view them. In 5 years or less, your DVD is going to be obsolete as will your USB drives. File types are going to change as well. And the technology of tomorrow may not support these “older” file types! See article here.

Even if you do get prints, it’s easy as pie to go to a one hour convenance store and make a print ready to hang on your wall that night! We’ve all done it, myself included. Well, that way is not always the best choice. Most all the one hour print facilities use equipment designed to automate the process thus saving time and money. The images are never looked at by anyone before being loaded in the printer. The printer software automatically 'adjusts' any color correction, saturation and hue based on assumptions. The prints are almost never seen by anyone. I am really saddened by how bad these consumer prints can be. By using a professional photographer who uses a professional print lab, you can be reasonably assured that your prints will be a true representation if that your photos should look like. When ordering prints from Jim's Photos, you are assured of the finest quality available. All prints are carefully color corrected and adjusted by a professional print lab to bring out the very best quality and delivered directly to your address using quality shipping materials.

Remember the old saying: "The Bitterness Of Poor Quality Remains Long After The Sweatiness Of Low Price Is Forgotten"

High quality photo prints are probably one of the best investments you will ever make. With prints, you are able to retain for many years a moment in time that would otherwise be lost forever. The world of digital photography has changed the way we take pictures and the way we look at photography in general. Most people don't want photo prints any more. They want most everything posted on line or in social media. Please don't be mislead by this. You can never replace that photo of your 9 year old daughter making her first communion, or that shot of your son making that last minute basket to win the big game. So in summery, by using a professional photographer, to get very good quality images that can be modified to suit your needs and desire. You will get a good quality image rather than just a snapshot. Much has been written about this topic. Below are some links to real life scenarios I found interesting.

Lets start here, you’re not just paying for the actual photograph ; you’re paying for time, gear and expertise. Most of the people having this question in mind, think that it’s just about spending few hours & pressing few buttons. But that’s far from the reality. The work which you see as a 2 hour assignment, is stretched far beyond that. Let’s breakdown the factors involved which makes professional photography expensive.

01. Time - You might see it as a 2 hour assignment. But what you may ignore is the travelling time to reach the location, the set up time, time spent talking to the clients at venue, time spent in negotiations before the shoot, the actual shoot, transferring and backing up the data, post processing, reviewing with clients, delivering the photos or scheduling a pick up. And we are not even going into time spent building relationship with client, marketing and office hours. Post processing itself may take over a day or many depending upon the number of photographs. Especially in case of modeling or wedding photographers.

02. Gear - Professional photographers don’t compromise with the quality of their gear. They buy professional equipment. They spend thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars getting multiple camera bodies, the finest lenses, flash equipment for every situation, tripods, light stands, backdrops, props, carrying and storage cases. Not only this, they buy professional licenses for software and different cloud back-up storage solutions and many other things.

03. Premium Services - Pro Photographers join communities to further learn and explore new dimensions. They have to pay for their membership to different premium photography communities. They pay for a premium account on photography services like Flickr, 500px and others. They pay for maintenance of website. They even need consultation with lawyer sometimes. Premium services may also include office and studio rent, electricity and phone bills etc.

04. Skills - Apart from being a good photographer, they have to be CEO, marketing manager, financial manager, salesperson, production worker, buyer, negotiator, driver, networker, organizer etc. That’s the kind of skill-set of the Professional Photographer.

05. Compromise - Professional Photographers don’t compromise. They will give you the best they can. They don’t back off from tough assignments. They would travel to any possible location and will shoot to the best of their ability. They give you their valuable time. They schedule multiple assignments within a day. Most would rather do one quality assignment.

06. Technology - Pro Photographers keep themselves and their gears up to date with the rapidly evolving technology.They find things that perfectly match their clients taste. Their equipment are not that of a hobbyist. They will be using the best technology available.

07. Experience - Experience is the one thing that may beat everything. And the Professionals are vastly experienced. They can advice you over a number of thing which you would not be able to decide. They know whats right and what could go wrong.

08. Uniqueness & Quality - Professionals have their unique style yet every shoot will look different. They know how to infuse freshness. The quality of photos are supreme.

09. Returns - The truth is that you get what you pay for. You will get photographs worth the money involved. And you know that there are no second chances.

10. Assistants and Help - They may have a small team working with them either on location or back in the studio. The Photographer pays them for their work from his income.

So next time if you think a Photographer is charging more, do consider the above points. Reprinted from this article.

All events are photographed by Jim's Photos, LLC unless noted. Select the event you are interested.
All schedules are tentative and subject to change. Photos are subject to availability. Prints are for sale.

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Note: Jim's Photos is not affiliated with any school, team, group, club or organization and receives no compensation from them. Photo orders are appreciated!

We know you are out there working hard on the field, court, track or in the water. We are working just as hard on the sidelines to get that perfect action shot. Jim's Photos uses the highest quality digital photography equipment on the market and is always looking to stay ahead of the technology.

No matter what size photo you want, our 'View & Print' photo site offers you the most options for your individual needs. In addition to photos, we offer many other fun and exciting products. These products can make great gift items. Click on the merchandise tab to make your selection.

The photos in our galleries are original in size and resolution. You can crop and fit the image to the print size you prefer. After choosing your photos, place them in your shopping cart. There is a cropping tool for you to use. Click on the Adjust button. Drag the corner handles to crop or adjust for best fit. If you require special photo editing, please e-mail us with your request or call 608-663-3500.

We try to capture as many games and events as we can and we have photos for all events that are listed, however we don't always get them all posted right away. If you would like a specific event posted, click on the

icon next to the event you are interested in. We will try to give that event priority.

Jim's Photos can make available to you a bulk 'Digital Download' option for any event listed on my site. The bulk Digital Download option would be available for all photos from a specific event and available to everyone who views that event. There will be a ‘Download Image’ button next to the photos of interest. Additionally, any event can be password protected. This way, interested persons can download photos and make any number of prints on their own. With the bulk Digital Download option, any interested persons can make unlimited prints on their own. There is a one time fee that buys the bulk Digital Download option for everyone who accesses that event. Normal print options will still be available and any applicable team or club discount will be available as well. The bulk Digital Download pricing varies considerably depending on the number of image downloads available. Please inquire about pricing.

Special Introductory Offer: For a limited time, you can get 1 "Individual Portrait" photo done for free! No session fee, no strings attached. Please e-mail me for details and to schedule a time that is convenient for you.

All photos on this web site have been reduced for web site viewing. Actual prints are full photographic quality. All are high resolution photos that are suitable for printing and framing which can be ordered by following the instructions above. Large poster prints are available for most images. Any information appearing on the photo (watermarks) will not be present on your prints. Note: Jim's Photos, LLC is not affiliated with any team, group, club or organization and receives no compensation from them for his work. Photo orders are appreciated! All photographs and content of website contained herein are the exclusive property of Jim's Photos and may not be used or reproduced in any manner without permission.

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So whatever kind of photography you are interested in, whether it be Portraits, Sports, School, Concerts, Weddings, Graduations, Birthdays, Family Groups or Events, Modeling, Holiday, Real Estate, Construction Work, Trains / Boats, Industrial / Commercial, Advertising, Outdoor, Indoor, or just about anything you want, I can do it all!

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