The shoulda woulda coulda's

There are times in our careers that we look back on a project and wish we would’ve done something differently. You know the feeling...shoulda woulda coulda.

Quite often that feeling comes along when a production invoice lands on your desk. It probably started out as a simple project; let’s say an ad featuring a photo of a ballerina on a sidewalk. But, there wasn’t a budget to shoot original photography. No problem you thought, you could always find a royalty free image of a ballerina and then drop it into an existing free image of a sidewalk scene.

Then begins “the creep”. It’s not really a ballerina that the client is envisioning, it’s a pretty girl in cute street clothes ~ not ballet clothes ~ but she is wearing toe shoes. Plus, the client would like the girl to have long, flowing dark hair that looks like it could be put up in a bun. Oh, and there needs to be golden sunlight streaming through the trees.

The three days you already spent searching for a stock photo have been a complete waste of time. You take whatever images you can find, do some pretty major retouching, and by the time you’ve finished you realize that it’s just a mishmash of different elements sewn together.

Then, the real dance begins. You have to explain to your boss or client that yes, the project started out to be very cost efficient, but because of all the searching and retouching, the “free” image now costs more than shooting original photography. Ouch.

And there it is...you shoulda told the client up front that shooting original photography was the way to go on this project; you woulda pushed harder if you had known how many hours you’d spend searching and retouching, and you coulda had John Nienhuis shoot a beautiful original image with everything that the client envisioned, and more. Yep, you coulda had an image like this one and been the star of the show, for probably less money than you think.

So the next time a project like this comes along, be on your toes and give us a call up front ~ we’ll choreograph an image for you that will please everyone in your company.

To see more original photography shot by lifestyle photographer John Nienhuis, please look at the portfolios on his website, or contact Karen at kereps@wi.rr.com.