(A lot of people write really really sappy posts at New Year’s. I happen to be one of them, ‘cause I really like really sappy posts. Get ready to get your “sap on.”)
We’ve been doing this thing called portrait photography in Albuquerque for a long time. A really long time. In dog years, we should have died, like, 200 years ago.
So much has changed in this industry; some for the better and some not. We don’t miss the smell of fixer in the darkroom (Can you say “rotten eggs?”) and it’s quite wonderful to get more than 24 images per roll of 220 film. And although I do miss my Hasselblad and take it out from time to time to play, it now sits in a bookcase behind glass. Digital has brought a new level of creative freedom which, although thrilling in its possibilities, also brings to mind the Jeff Goldblum from Jurassic Park quote: “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.” The level of digital fakery is astounding.
“Hey, that tree and river weren’t there. And that was NOT the sky over us that day. And hello? McFly? Why does my face look like a fetus?”
But through all the changes we have seen, some things have remained as constant as the northern star. (Okay, full disclosure I’m not sure I actually could find the northern star, but I KNOW it’s there.)
One of those constants is our dedication to the craft of photography, sometimes to a fault. Our clients are picky and that’s a good thing, because we are, too. As a matter of fact, there has never been a time in our 200 dog years where we sat back and said, “Yeah, that’s good enough.” Good enough is the stuff of mediocrity and we aren’t made like that. We push ourselves constantly with education and better processes to improve the photography experience. Are we perfect? Please. Is the Pope Baptist? Is grass purple? Of course we make mistakes, but we own them and care to make them right.
Another constant is our commitment to doing what we do…better. We have a photographic style and while it’s been tweaked and refined and re-worked here and there over the years, the core concepts have not changed: reading the light, natural expressions, joy, warmth, color, gentle posing that makes you look your best…these are embedded in our style. (Fun story: years ago, I once did a bit of a 180 in the artwork and processing of an image. Gone was the richness and natural skin tone and warm real colors “It looks like an Instagram filter.” Lesson learned, son. Lesson learned.)
But on the list of our constants, our most enduring is the appreciation we have for YOU. (If you were wondering where the sappy part was, buckle up.)
See, we’re not just building and growing a business, we are about growing and building relationships. We get to watch your children grow; we get to share in the joy of graduations and weddings; we get the honor of crying with you when those we love leave us.
YOU are family to us. And family, well, it’s everything. YOU are why we love what we do.
So as 2022 slips away, we look forward to 2023 with optimism and light.
Thank you, dear clients, friends…FAMILY for allowing us to be YOUR photographer. There is never a time we don’t appreciate it…and you.
~Frank and Cheri
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