Why I hired a professional photographer
As a photographer, it’s rare that I ever get in front of the lens. Every once in a while I’ll hand my camera over to my husband and have him take a few shots. His philosophy is much different from mine…hold the shutter button down and eventually you’ll get at least one photo. He forgets that if you don’t make sure the camera is in focus, it doesn’t matter how many shutter clicks there are…none will be any good.
Steve surprised me by proposing and giving me an anniversary ring!
Last year we celebrated our 10th anniversary. We had a lovely honeymoon on the Caribbean island of Anguilla the week after we got married. It’s been our dream to go back and explore other islands in this beautiful part of the world. So for our decade celebration we did just that. It’s also been 10 years since we’ve had any professional photos taken of us. In fact, the last time was on our wedding day. And while I love my wedding album, frankly, Steve and I are more casual folks. We’re happier in shorts, a sundress and sandals than in formal attire (even though I absolutely loved my wedding dress!). So I hired a photographer to do a session with us on our favorite place on this entire planet - Anguilla.
We were fortunate that Susan of Susan Croft photography was available the day of our anniversary. Not that the day we had our session mattered. But in this case, it turned out to be the only nice day during our brief stay. We heard it from everyone. The Caribbean is known for blue skies, white puffy clouds and turquoise water. For about 3 weeks, it was anything but except for a 3 hour window which coincided with our photo session!
It’s awkward being in front of the lens and Susan noticed that I wasn’t relaxed. She started our session with us walking through the water to get me to loosen up. Eventually I did and forgot there was a camera in her hand. Even though I brought my camera gear and could have set up a tripod and gotten some photos of us, I knew I couldn’t capture authentic images capturing our relationship. And that was important to me. If these last 10 years flew by in a blink of an eye, I knew it wouldn’t be long before we were celebrating our 20 year anniversary.
Our session lasted for almost 3 hours.We had fun and enjoyed getting to know Susan. We capped our session with a nice cold island style drink at one of the most popular joints on the beach. Living on a small island, Susan doesn’t get to talk photo talk much with other photographers, so we immediately began chatting about equipment, sessions, goals, marketing and so on.
After our brief visit to Anguilla, we hopped over to Antigua where we spent a week exploring this island. You would think it would be more of the same, but each island is unique. There were some things we loved, and some things we missed from Anguilla. Fortunately, the weather finally broke and we were able to enjoy the perfect sunny weather we had been looking forward to. Among many things, Antigua is known for it’s 365 beaches - one for every day of the year. We probably found about 20 of them, each one better than the last.
While photographing pets will always be my favorite subject, I also love landscape photography. My camera went everywhere with me and I came home with over 1500 images. Sadly, I’ve been so busy, I still have yet to finish sorting and editing all of them. My ultimate goal is to put together a 10th anniversary album with photos from our session on Anguilla mixed with my landscape images from Antigua.
Yes, hiring Susan was an investment. But it was worth every penny! Sure, we have lots of cell phone images we took of ourselves, but it just isn’t the same. How long has it been since you’ve had professional photos of your family? I challenge you to make this a priority! Don’t wait. It’s too easy to put it off, but it should be one of the most important investments we make. Let me tell the story of your family. Now offering family and children’s sessions in addition to pets! Call me for details!
