Digital cameras are both the very best and the very worst thing to happen to photography. Film is costly and time consuming, but it is safe because it is a real, tangible media. Digital is easier to work with, but the safegaurds are gone. Computers crash, memory cards fail, and sometimes things just don't work the way they are supposed to. Technology is advancing faster than a New York minute, and there is always, bigger, better, brighter just around the corner. And of course, anyone can snap off a couple shots with a decent, consumer grade camera. So why hire a photographer? Because when you go to a photographer, what your are really looking for is art. Art that will capture who you are at a moment in time, art to enjoy in your home with your family.
Sometimes it seems like the only concern prospective clients have are getting digital files. But what good are digital files in your computer? Those files are at risk until they make the wall, or the album, or that heirloom picture frame. Those files are at risk of life getting too busy to make time to print them, those files are at risk of not making the time to decide where and how you are going to display those amazing moments in your living room, those files are at risk of computers one day not having any CD drives or even USB ports. Look at computers the last 10 years and truly think about the evolutions that have taken place. Does that thumbdrive or CD make give you that confidence when you try to imagine what technical evolutions will take place in the next 10 or 20 years? By then your son or daughter may want their baby picture for their wedding, but you never made time to print them properly. Photographers today are actually doing their clients a disservice by just giving it all away.
