Alright…we’re going to get a little forward here ladies and gents and talk about something that I know every photographer wants to say but just doesn’t. You pay for your spectacular newborn photoshoot and have your adorable session. I send you your collection options to choose from and suddenly I’m standing in a graveyard! We need to talk about what happens when you ghost your photographer and why it makes us so sad…for you!
You Waste Time and Money
Starting out with probably the most obvious of things that happen in this situation, you waste your time, and you waste your money. Every photographer knows that life happens sometimes. You get busy, get sick, you lose a job, we understand. However, if there isn’t some extenuating circumstance at play, you essentially just paid the retainer. Then took the time out of your day to come get these breath taking and heart string tugging photos taken, for absolutely no reason. Let’s break that down in the next two sections.
You do not Have Access to Your Gallery After 30 Days
After you have your newborn photoshoot done, you receive a small but fully edited proof gallery from me. This is so you can see what your photo collection will look like in terms of style and editing. Once you approve of these, you then receive your full, soft-edited collection of photos that I took during our session together! Here, you get to choose which photos you want me to fully edit, pay the remaining fee, and receive your memories shortly after!
Here’s the deal though…this gallery that you’ll be picking from is only available for 30 days. After that, I take it down. So, you may be able to show people these adorable photos for about a month, but not forever when you ghost your photographer. Additionally, there’s the whole watermark situation…
All Photos will be Watermarked
Now, 3 weeks may seem like a long time, and sure you could screenshot the photos supplied in the soft edited full gallery, but you won’t want to. Every single photo you receive is watermarked to prevent the stealing of work and it’s something every photographer does. When you screenshot a watermarked photo, you can’t remove it (and quite frankly, the quality is subpar at best). So, you’ll have this adorable photo, but there isn’t anything for you to do with it.
This is so sad because as your photographer, I want you to be able to hang your photos up or display them in albums! I want you to be so excited to show everyone your adorable nugget and have this time in their lives forever captured for you to look back on for decades. This simply isn’t an option when you don’t pick your collection out and receive the non-watermarked final photos.
Your Photos are at Risk for Damage
I know we all love technology, but technology isn’t this golden standard of safekeeping. When you ghost your photographer, you’re not leaving your newborn photos in their hands, you’re leaving them in the hands of the code of a storage drive. Now, for me specifically, I store your photos on numerous drives. There’s a backup for every backup I have. However, this doesn’t guarantee “safe keeping” for years to come. It doesn’t even necessarily guarantee safekeeping for months to come.
I initially hold your unedited photos on a smaller drive until you pick your final collection. When they are not edited, they are just sitting there on a drive waiting to be touched up and finalized, which allows more time for technical error. Hard drives can go bad, SD’s can get lost, it happens to every photographer in existence, I promise you. However, when you pick your final collection, those photos are moved to a large, permanent drive where they will remain. These larger drives are much safer, meaning it’s less likely anything will happen to your photos!
Those Memories are Gone Forever
When you abandon your gallery, you lose out on all those memories. Now, I’m sure you have photos on your cell phone somewhere, but they’re not the same as professional photos that are designed to capture your little one’s soft smiles, big eyes, and cheeky poses. Ghosting your photographer means never getting to show anyone those pictures. It means never getting to look back and remember that bonding day where you and your newborn got to pose together.
Do I have them saved somewhere on a drive? Yes, but as you just read, the longer they sit there on my drives, the more likely they are to be damaged. The file could get corrupted, the drive could get corrupted. So much can go wrong, and I don’t want that to happen. Even if nothing “happens” to them, the longer they sit, the deeper they get buried. I, like most photographers, don’t have an individual drive for each session. So, your photos are buried beneath other sessions that happened after yours, making them harder to find when you ghost your photographer.
Final Thoughts
As I said, every photographer knows that things happen in life, but there’s no reason to disappear. All we ask is that you communicate with us. If something happens, if you don’t like the photos, if you can’t afford a collection right now, tell us. We want you to have your photos and we will never be mad at you for being open and honest! Ghosting us can lead to damaged photos, lost memories, and the wasting of your time and your photographer’s time. All of which is 100% preventable! So, before you ghost your photographer, talk to us, we’re here to help!
Before You Go
Make sure you reach out to talk about the types of sessions that would be best for you, whether you have a newborn, a toddler, or want a family session! My books fill up quickly, so contact me asap, and I can’t wait to meet you!
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