Paterson Photography Ltd.

Well came back from the road trip through BC to have several loads of wash to do.  Started wash last Friday only to have our washing machine pack it in, on the first load.  So out we went to look for a washing machine.  After another stop we ended up at Bakers.  We have dealt with them before and have always been impressed with the service.  In fact we were in last month looking at dishwashers as ours didn’t seem to be working right only to have them tell us that if we added some salt to the dishwasher it would clean better ~ right they were a tablespoon of salt and dishes look much better (has to do with removing phosphates from the dish detergent).

Found out that a front load was not good for us and they showed us a machine that was half the price of what the front load was that we were looking at.  Add to that they included a dryer for very little more and I was very happy.  To top it off they had it delivered by 4pm and installed (we never bought it till 1)  and I was a very happy person.

GREAT job Bakers!  Prices were great, sales and delivery/ install service was fantastic and after 6 loads of wash I am now ready to hit the road again.

The past couple of weeks I have had a chance to sit down with a number of photographers.  I have been hearing a lot of the same things from these people and I thought that it would be worth sharing with others.

Several points keep coming to the forefront:

1) For those that do shoot & burn weddings (shoot the wedding and burn the digital files to disk for the client) I have been hearing a number of photographers mention that their customers are complaining about bad prints.  What is happening is that the clients are taking the disk of images to a discount lab to get prints made and they are coming back horrible.  Most times the photographer does not know how their client feels as they don’t hear about the bad prints, and the clients think it is the photographer ~ because the lab says it is not them.  Usually when the photographer hears it is through a third party and the printing damage is done.

2) Many photographers have seen a drop in the number of assignments that they are having.  A couple photographers actually inquired of past customers and received some feedback about what they thought.  One big point is that clients were not happy with the final prints (all that mentioned this had been having prints done at local one hour labs), the common statement went something like “…. the service was great, we were not happy with the way the final prints looked.  The prints looked like the ones that you get from a one hour lab ~ not professional prints”.  One photographer actually brought us a couple of images to print that they had done someplace else to see what their client thought, the quote form their client was “These are amazing, we never thought that the printing would do that!!!!”

3) Many of the photographers also mentioned that they needed something to add a WOW factor to the services that they were offering.  They have been giving 4×6 & 5×7 prints and their clients were not impressed any longer with this.

In just about all the comments one thing was clear, clients want/demand something more than a cheap 4×6 or 5×7 one hour print.  We have been saying for years that if photographers want to survive that they need to set themselves apart from what uncle Bob is doing ~ usually for free because he is a relative and wants to be helpful.  Uncle Bob can have the nice camera, but many times he is handing the wedding couple a disk and that is it.  Or he is printing some prints at the one hour place and handing them to the couple.  The problem is if that is what the “professional” photographer is doing we are not setting ourselves apart and WOW’ing our clients.

So what should photographers be doing?

First, every client should be getting a WOW picture.  Something that stands out like a 16×20 or 20×24 portrait fully finished!! Second you should be providing your clients with some professionally printed images that they can show friend’s and family so they can see what a great picture looks like.  Prints that they cannot get at the local one hour!

Finally if you are handing over the disk to the client make sure they know the difference in the printing that they will get.

Remember we need to set ourselves apart for the positive and one of the best ways to do this is with professional printing!

To help with giving some wow to your photography we are offering a coupon for a discount in printing that you can give to your client to get professional printing.  That way they will get the best image possible from your files.  Drop us an E-mail and we will run off some discount coupons for you!

A number of years ago I purchased a Peerless faucet for our kitchen.  It came with a lifetime warranty, that I have come to understand in most situations means nothing.  Well in the 10 years since I have bought this faucet they have replaced the spray head three times (various reasons from the coating pealed to the button that controls the spray pattern died) and the hose once (the hose actually wore out from use and I was trying to buy a new one and when I called to find a supplier they shipped me a new hose), all with no questions asked!!  You call, they take the information and a couple days later it is at the house.

If only everything that had a warranty was treated like this it would be so nice.  GREAT job Peerless!!

For those that know me I am not a big mechanic, I would like to be but I just don’t have a spot to work on my vehicles.  That being said I do a number of small jobs and recently I needed to get some parts for my truck.  Went to a couple of places and was not able to get what I was looking for so I stopped in to silver Automotive to see if they could help. WOW was I impressed, not only did I get service but I got a lesson in the different parts that where available and that I could choose from.  They guy that helped me explained the differences, the prices and gave me his suggestion ~ I would say this went way beyond exceptional customer service.  I could make my decision based on facts and helpful input.  After purchasing the parts I actually checked into the information that I was given with a couple of other sources and everything that I was told was fact.

GREAT job, you can be assured that I will be back!

Well I finally got out for a couple of days of travels around Southern Alberta. This was more of a road trip than a camping trip as the weather did not want to cooperate and I had wanted to cover this route for a while to see what shooting locations were along the way.  Major wind, snow and cold weather moved in on us as we left but we decided that we may as well hit the road and explore.

Just east of us by two hours is a park called Cypress Hills Provincial Park. This park is located in the middle of the prairies but at a height that makes it seem like you are in the mountains. I was there once a long time ago but remembered very little about it so I wanted to head back and see if there was anything to explore this time, and in the future.

We hit the road on Thursday at 10 to a major south crosswind for the first hour and a half. We stopped in Medicine Hat to grab some extra food and have lunch.   After fueling up and getting back on the road we drove for a half an hour into a MAJOR headwind.   The headwind combined with going up hill was a fun half hour on the trucks engine.

When we arrived we were happy to find that the trees in the area gave us shelter and some warmth from the wind but it was only when we were in the trees.   The temperatures actually got up to 16C but the wind made it feel like it was a lot colder.

Did some exploring at a couple of closed campgrounds and headed back to the town site in a rain/snow storm.

Found a campsite that was open and did very little exploring as the temps now dropped to 5C and the winds was still blowing.

Woke the next day to find that the weather had really turned over night, the dry cold ground was now a frozen ice landscape with a lot of snow.

Got some pictures of the snow – not what I was looking for, I really want to have spring!  Ended up taking a lot of back roads across southern Alberta to our next stop and got to see a lot of open land.

Saw some Antelope on our way and got a couple nice pictures, have been trying to photograph these animals for a long time but they are very nervous.  Had a mom, dad and a yearling stay around us for a long time as they tried to figure out what these people where doing in the middle of their field.

Arrived at Writing on Stone and did some exploring in the cold and wind, this has to be one of the strangest landscapes around with the looks changing as the sun moves.

My youngest is an early riser so I was up with the sun to take some more pictures and walk the dog.

Another good breakfast and one last hike before we hit the road for home got a number of great pictures.