Jonathan Betz Photography Blog

When you choose a full-time, professional, custom (or boutique) studio experience for your session, you’re doing something truly special for your family. We are so excited to work with each family that comes to us because we know that a professional photography session is not something you do every day…it’s a special occasion. It’s memorable. We love creating memories with our families and making the whole experience fun and inviting.

We often are asked about image files. It’s interesting how the digital world of photography has created an expectation to have the image files from your session. In the past world of film, buying the negatives wasn’t really something people thought to do; they expected to purchase what they wanted from the studio. This expectation for image files has evolved from a lot of part-time, often advanced amateur, photographers with professional grade cameras who wanted to start making some money from sessions but not offer a high level of service. They therefore give the image files on disc and provide nothing else to their clients. What’s interesting to us is that this really cheats the clients out of a huge part of their photography experience. The clients are left to do all the legwork to have anything tangible to enjoy their images and have nothing different from what they have from their own pictures they take of their family. There’s nothing more special to treasure over the years.

We do provide opportunities to purchase your image files, whether it be our initial product of 15 for 50 designed for electronic uses or choosing to purchase all of your high-resolution image files with full reproduction rights. However, we do have minimum purchase requirements before these options are available. Why? Because we feel that families who come to us deserve professional quality prints and unique and special products to enjoy their professional images. We want our families to all have something more special than the “everyday.” We want families to leave with more than a plastic disc and a “to do” list in order to enjoy anything tangible from their portraits.

Consider this… You decide to treat your family to a really nice meal at a fancy restaurant. You eat out on occasion normally, but you want this time to be different. So you do your research and choose a great place that will provide a really special experience for your family. Everyone’s really excited and takes extra steps to dress nicely and look their best for this special meal. Entering the restaurant is everything you hoped for…it feels special just walking into the place. You’re seated at your table reserved just for your family and are given menus to select your meal. Everything looks amazing and you each decide on your dish. You place your order and cannot wait to taste what the Master Chef has created for you. The server returns, not with your meal, but with the recipe for each dish you ordered. Now in order to enjoy anything close to the Chef’s creation, you must go out and get all the ingredients and make it for yourself. Suddenly, this really special meal loses it’s luster and you feel cheated out of the most enjoyable part of the experience. This is how we feel when families come away with only a plastic disc of their image files. Those files are certainly valuable and we understand that. However, the full experience of professional photography is only complete when you receive your favorite images ready to enjoy as top quality framed prints, a beautiful canvas piece, or in a fantastic custom album. The tangible things and the experience you receive are what you’ll treasure forever. We provide the complete experience because we care.

Invest in an artist…your memories are priceless!

We invite you to read our reviews from many of our valued families here.