It started with going to an auction for a charity. You know, the kind where you show up for a nice dinner and put bids on various items, ranging from the inexpensive to the very expensive. We were glad to go, but we hadn't planned on really spending a lot of money there, like maybe one hundred dollars or much less.
Well, there was one item that caught my eye immediately. It was from a photographer who is very well know here, who specializes in family portraiture. He was offering one family portrait and a free family photo session with the option to purchase more, with a starting bid of $450. His work is stunning. Several of my friends had used him in the past and I had always admired (coveted) their beautiful photos on their walls of beautiful families on the beach, or at the botanical gardens, or wherever. He captured personalities with an exceptional eye.
That temptation just ate at me. I couldn't stop thinking about all of the reasons we needed HIM to do our portrait NOW. After all, we hadn't had one done in years, the kids looked significantly different, and it was just $450, what a deal!
So the bidding began and I was the only bidder on that item. I won, and paid the $450 (which we really didn't have to blow on this) and went home happy.
Then I called to schedule to photo session. He said that he needed to come over to my house first and show me examples of his work and to explain how he does things. He brought a brochure with his pricing, but I didn't read it carefully. I thought a package would probably cost around $2500, which I was increasingly justifying as a reasonable expense for lifelong memories. Well, I misread the print, that a package didn't start at $2500 but that an individual portrait started at $2995, and went up from there. Stupid mistake. Always read the fine print right?
So I schedule our session at the beach, and we get them done in about two hours, at sunset, and I knew they would be beautiful.
About a week later, he brings the proofs to a meeting at our house that he insisted my husband my husband attend. Later I knew why. He showed us the amazingly gorgeous photos with which we were instantly smitten. We had never seen more beautiful portraits of our family, each individual child, the kids together, etc. He even airbrushed out the braces on our oldest!
Then we began to talk packages. That was when I realized I had made a big mistake. The minimum package started at $5000!!!! My husband nearly went white. Awkward. He and I went into another room to talk about it. We were stuck. We had gone through the trouble of getting the photos done, and had seen the pictures, and now we couldn't let them go.
So what did we do? We agreed to sign on and pay monthly, interest-free installments for two years. Aaargh! I could feel my stomach turn in knots. We had to put a down payment on the photos, and so we wrote a check for a thousand dollars (which we really needed) and ate it.
So that was a year ago, and we are still paying for photos that aren't on our walls. What if the guy goes out of business and we lose everything? If we sell our house this fall, we will pay the balance and just be done with it. Lesson learned: listen to that small voice inside screaming "YOU CAN'T AFFORD THIS!!!" and forget keeping up with the Joneses and their smiling photos. We could have gotten high quality portraiture for far less, I have now realized by seeing other photographer's prices. Oh, and will will have to get them framed too. Sigh. Live and learn from your mistakes. And drop some more quarters on the pile.
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