I’ve been sending out a few reminders to families who had sessions but not ordered prints.
I’ve never really done that before. I never want to put people under pressure. In fact I try to turn around a proof gallery as quickly as possible and then leave it to clients to come back to me. As with most things in life, everyone is different: some people come back straight away and want it sorted; for by far the majority of people with young families, life takes over and they put it to one side, fully intending to come back it. And in fairness most people do get around to it sooner or later.
Christmas is usually a trigger. Or the anniversary of the event. Or the next child’s communion or confirmation.
And look, I know what it’s like. You should see my ‘to do’ list. So I really don’t mind, as long as they eventually do come back. The one thing I don’t like is lovely pictures taken and forgotten forever.
But I do think that for some people, if they leave it too long, they are reluctant to come back to me for the sake for pure embarrassment. Please don’t feel that way.
So if you are one of the lucky clients who got an email this week, I hope you don’t think I’m nagging or badgering or trying to make a sale. I haven’t sent out reminders before because I don’t want to come across as pushy.
I just got that ‘disc full’ warning and had to kick off my periodic archive process: moving files from my working drive to the archive drive. Generally I keep images not yet printed handy on the working drive so I came across a number of sessions not yet printed.
But every session is kept on archive. It’s a time-consuming process but one which I think is vital for a professional service. Your images are always available, whenever you need to come back to them. Going back to 2008.