The portraiture business is piling over with photographers offering the one-hour shoot.
The one-hour shoot makes perfect sense. It makes everyone happy. Parents enjoy cheap rates and don’t worry about wasting precious time. Sharp-shooters conduct multiple sessions in a single day, maximising profit while minimising effort – the epitome of productivity and business success. Anything beyond the allocated hour is garbage time.
I know it makes garbage sense to operate a business like mine.
I know most parents will spend good money even if I stop the shoot at the hour mark.
I know that being sentimental is a weakness in the business world.
But I know, too, that it takes time to fall in love.
I know I won’t love this kid as much if I rush him off because another client’s waiting in queue.
And I damn well know that this photograph would be absolutely meaningless to me, and therefore to the parents, if I simply snap this child like any others in the production line.
Times are tough, and rife competition leaves photographers with little choice. But damn the day I succumb to the temptations of the one-hour shoot.