our company & how we roll!

When we meet with clients, we get asked all sorts of questions about ourselves and our company. Randy and I are always as open and honest with our clients as possible. (Randy often says I’m brutally honest – in life in general, not brutal to clients!) Our openness about ourselves and how we run our business doesn’t always make us the best “business people”. It’s definitely safe to say that neither Randy or I are sales people, and certainly not smooth talkers, either! But, we try to treat people (clients or not) the way we would like to be treated and hope the rest will take care of itself. Because we really do care about our clients and we want to do right by them.

Funny story. I had a bride’s mother call me a few months back. Her daughter had seen our website and fell in love with our pictures, but the mother obviously wasn’t quite as convinced. First of all, we rarely get out of the blue phone calls asking about our packages and pricing – everything is via email. And it makes sense, because it’s much easier to show clients all the details about what we offer in a clear, typed out format. Anyway, this bride’s mother was… forward, to put it nicely. She was throwing all sorts of questions my way, which is fine, but one question caught me off guard. She blurted out, “How old are you?” And I said, “Ummm… how old am I?” “Yes, how old are you.” I responded, “Well… my husband and I are both 23.” I certainly wasn’t going to lie to the woman and give her the answer she wanted. I have no shame about my age. She responded quite judgmentally, “Oh. I knew your voice sounded young.” I had to stop myself from asking, “And how old are you?” I’m sure that would have gone over well :)

We never heard back from the mother or the bride, and perhaps it’s just as well. I want people to hire us based on the quality of our work. Period. Sure, I’ll admit we’re young-ish (I’ll be 24 week after next), but Randy and I both completely believe in our knowledge, experience and quality of work. Heck, I spent 5 years of my life studying photography, got my degree in it, and spent two years working for a wedding photography studio before starting my own company. This isn’t something I did on a whim – it’s a passion.

Anyway, I really hold nothing against that bride’s mother. I thought it was quite funny, actually. And I know where she’s coming from, and also realize that not everyone is up to speed on how this industry works and that there are lots of super talented, young wedding photographers out there. If she had found out we didn’t have a studio, she probably would have dropped the phone! And perhaps that’s surprising to some people too – that we don’t have a studio. As I explain to clients, quite honestly, studios are expensive! In an effort to keep our package prices down, we in turn try to keep our business costs down. Sure, maybe one day we’ll have a place for clients to come over, but there’s no rush.

We hope everyone has a great last weekend before Christmas! We’ll be shooting our last wedding of the year up north, followed by a family session on Sunday. Should be a fun and crazy weekend!

- He&She