Why Choose Custom Photography?

Because some things are worth the investment…custom photography being one of those things worth the cost.

Why choose custom photography? In the age of instant everything and the race-to-the-bottom pricing, custom professional photography stands apart – not because it’s trendy or easy-for-people to do (deceivingly so to do it right!) but because a custom photographer, a true professional photographer, absolutely refuses to compromise on quality, craftsmanship, or value.

Custom photography is not for everyone, and frankly? That’s intentional.

Why choose custom photography? This kind of professional photography service is handheld and much more interactive than your run-of-the-mill options. It’s for families who understand that the images documenting their children’s fleeting childhood deserve far more than a quick shoot at a chain studio or a budget session with an amateur photographer who’s competing on price rather than quality.

Custom professional photography is for clients who value artistry over affordability, who prioritize heirloom quality over quick turnaround, and who recognize that exceptional work requires exceptional investment.

Clients who hire custom professional photographers aren’t just hiring a professional photographer to get social media likes and comments: they’re hiring a professional for intentional images highlighting this time in their lives and looking to stop time in its’ unforgiving tracks.

Think of it this way: You could stay at a Motel 6, or you could stay at a boutique hotel. Both provide a place to sleep, but the experiences couldn’t be more different.

The Motel 6 vs. Boutique Hotel Experience

A night’s stay at a Motel 6 gets the job done. You have a bed, a bathroom, maybe a continental breakfast if you’re lucky. It’s cheap, utilitarian, and forgettable. The lighting is horrible. The temp control in the room is questionable and maybe your neighbors to the left and right of you leave a little to be desired. But you check in, you rest your head and are on your way. Mission accomplished.

A night’s stay at a boutique hotel located in a cute downtown area with all the night life and eateries? That’s an entirely different experience. From the moment you walk through the door, someone knows your name, takes your bags. The elevator may smell like some version of heaven. Your room is lit in many ways providing mood lighting galore. The thread count on the sheets, the comfy mattress, the incredible down duvet cover! In the bathroom you find a well appointed marble setting replete with locally-sourced bath products made from goat’s milk. The stunningly curated artwork on the walls thematically representing the tone of entirety of the hotel experience. The staff who remember you asked for extra pillows. The room service providing you with anything-your-heart-desires. Is it Motel 6 cheap? Nahhhh…but I promise you that years later, you’ll still talk about that hotel in a hushed oooooh and aaaaaah tone. You’ll never hesitate to recommend it to friends. You’ll return for anniversaries because it meant something. It will be your spot forever because the experience is consistently as good as the first experience you had there.

Custom professional photography is the boutique hotel of the photography world

Hiring a custom professional photographer is not just about getting photos. No. Indeed it’s about the entire experience. It’s centers around hiring a photographer who takes the time to understand your family’s personality before the session even begins. It’s about thoughtfully chosen locations that reflect who you are and what mood you seek to achieve in your imagery, not just what’s convenient to them. It’s about the creation of imagery that is meticulously culled (who wants to see those images of your eyes closed or your husband yawning anyway??!), color-corrected, edited and selected by you to be crafted as prints to stand the test of time.

Custom professional photography is about receiving artwork you’ll treasure for decades, not digital files you’ll lose in a hard drive crash three years from now, never to be seen again.

Yes. Both Motel 6 and boutique hotels serve a purpose. But you’d never walk into a boutique hotel expecting Motel 6 prices and you don’t expect boutique service at a budget chain, if you do then perhaps your expectations are far too high.

Custom photography operates on the same principle: premium experience, premium results, premium investment.

The Lexus That Lasts Forever (And Only Gets Better With Time)

Once upon a time the Professional Child Photography site (us!) compared custom professional photography to purchasing a fine vehicle and the analogy continues to hold up beautifully.

To get from point A to point B, technically even a bus would work. But if you want to arrive in comfort, style, and with an experience that makes the journey worthwhile? You invest in a vehicle that reflects your values and priorities.

A Lexus (or Audi or BMW or Porsche or any well-crafted luxury vehicle) isn’t just transportation. It’s the smooth jazz playing through premium speakers, the climate-controlled interior adjusted exactly to your comfort, the leather seats that heat your tush and massage your lower back just right. In the case of Lexus it’s also the engineering that ensures this car will run flawlessly for 200,000+ miles. It’s the intangible creature comforts you didn’t know you couldn’t live without until you had them: the thoughtful design, the attention to detail, the pride of ownership – that make the lofty initial investment worthwhile.

Custom professional photography offers the same caliber of experience.

It’s not just about clicking a shutter and “spraying and praying” for a good image. It’s about a photographer who has invested years honing their craft, studying posing and/or the developmental phases of humans, especially children. It’s about mastering the physics of light and its properties. It’s about intimate study in composition and in developing a signature style. A custom professional photographer is someone who cares deeply enough about your family’s images that they’ll spend hours ensuring every detail is near perfect: 1) because their name is on that work and 2) their reputation hinges on consistently delivering excellence.

But here’s where the analogy gets even better: That Lexus will depreciate the moment you drive it off the lot. Your custom photography portraits? They appreciate in value every single year.

The images you invest in today will become priceless as your children grow. The chubby-cheeked toddler that hugged your legs? Captured elegantly and with humor by your photographer. The gap-toothed grin of your school aged gangly limbed kid? Captured in a way so that the child never feels too “awkward”. Those lanky, fun pre-teen years: they’re gone in a blink but you were wise to capture the objective beauty of that stage. Your high school senior about to embark into “the great unknown” of life, who is handsome or gorgeous and you are just so proud of the young person they’re becoming? Captured with all the emotion that comes with saying goodbye to childhood by someone who has watched that child go from zero to 18 in a blink of an eye!

The families who invested in those custom photography imagery aren’t just buying pictures. They’re preserving moments they can never get back, in a format that honors the significance of those all-too-fleeting stages.

Twenty years from now you’ll stand in front of those portraits on your wall, tears in your eyes, unable to believe your babies are grown and you probably won’t remember what those images cost, just that you’re grateful beyond measure that you invested in images worthy of the love you feel for them and that stand the test of time.

What You’re Actually Paying For (It’s Not Just the Session)

When families who are new to custom photography see the investment, they sometimes assume they’re paying for an hour or two of the photographer’s time.

That couldn’t be further from the truth.

The session itself—the time spent photographing your family—represents only a fraction of the work involved in creating heirloom-quality images. Here’s what you’re actually investing in when you choose custom photography:

Before the session:

• Consultation time to understand your family’s personality, style preferences, and goals
• Need for any special considerations when engaging with any subject being photographed
• Location scouting to find the perfect setting that reflects your family’s vibe
• Wardrobe guidance to ensure your family looks cohesive and timeless
• Session planning to create a relaxed, authentic experience (not a rushed, stressful one)

During the session:

• A photographer’s years of experience knowing how to coax genuine expressions from wiggly toddlers
• Expertise in posing that flatters every family member without looking stiff or awkward
• Mastery of natural light (or studio lighting) to create images that look professionally crafted, not iPhone snapshots
• The ability to capture authentic moments while also creating intentional, beautifully composed portraits

After the session:

• Hours of culling with a discerning eye through a couple of hundred images to select only the very best to showcase and edit
• Meticulous editing: color correction, skin tone refinement, removing distractions, enhancing without over-processing
• Professional retouching that looks natural, not overdone and yet still retaining the photographer’s artistic choices
• The thoughtful curation of a gallery that tells the story of your session
• An ordering process that assures you, the client, of getting the best out of your session
• Design consultation for wall art, albums, or heirloom products
• Professional printing and framing through labs that use archival-quality materials (not the stuff that fades in five years)

All of this takes time. A typical custom photography session might involve 15-25 hours of work from start to finish. The photographer you’re investing in isn’t just “taking pictures”, they’re crafting artwork that will last generations.

It’s Not for Everyone (And That’s By Design)

Let’s be honest: Custom professional photography requires a level of commitment – both in time and financial investment – that not every family is ready for.

It requires planning: coordinating schedules, preparing for the session, outfit selection, dealing with coordinating with family members who may need gentle encouragement (may be a little cranky pre-session — who usually end up raving post session at the fun experience it was) and budgeting appropriately. It requires trusting a professional photographer’s expertise instead of trying to micromanage every pose. It requires patience, because exceptional work isn’t rushed. It requires trust that you selected your image professional right.

Many families save for custom photography sessions, treating them as once-a-year special experiences to commemorate milestones: the newborn stage, the 100-day celebration, the first birthday, preschool cuteness, kindergarten confidence, 8th grade braces, high school senior year gorgeousness. Some families splurge on custom photography to mark significant life events: a new home, a family reunion, a beloved grandparent’s final portrait session, the list is endless for significant times to capture moments of your family just being.

Custom professional photography should never about keeping up with the Joneses or filling every Instagram grid with professionally shot images. It’s about intentionally preserving the moments that matter most, in a format that honors their significance.

If you’re a family who:

• Values quality over quantity
• Appreciates craftsmanship and artistry
• Understands that heirloom-quality work requires heirloom-level investment
• Wants photographs you’ll treasure for generations, not just files you’ll scroll past on your phone

…then custom photography was created for you.

If you’re the kind of family that would rather have a piece of Amish or custom furniture vs purchasing DIY’ish pieces of mass-produced IKEA furniture? You’re likely going to be a fan of custom professional photography.

If you’re a lover of art of various sorts, you love emotive pieces of human heart: you’re likely going to love custom professional photos made of your nearest and dearest.

If you prefer candid expressions, beautiful relationship style imagery and gorgeous lighting…if you like being catered to and being guided…if you appreciate some of the finer things in life: you’re likely already a fan of professional custom photography.

The Beauty of Choice (And the Luxury of Options)

One of the greatest advantages of custom photography is the sheer range of options available to you.

Not every custom photographer works the same way, and that’s wonderful – because it means you can find someone whose style and approach align perfectly with your family’s personality.

Custom photography can include:

• On-location sessions in natural settings that feel authentic to your family
• Studio sessions with controlled lighting and curated backdrops
• Mixed studio/location sessions that give you the best of both worlds
• Specialty location sessions at meaningful places (your childhood home, a favorite beach, a family farm)
• Destination sessions if you’re willing to travel for the perfect setting
• Event photography with a photojournalistic, documentary approach

Not every photographer specializes in all of these which is a good thing. A studio photographer who excels at newborn posing may not be the right fit for adventurous outdoor family sessions. An on-location lifestyle photographer may not offer formal studio portraits. A documentary-style photographer may not provide heavily posed, traditional portraits.

The beauty of custom photography is that you get to choose. You get to find a photographer whose creative vision aligns with yours, whose style makes your heart skip a beat, whose approach feels like the right fit for your family.

And once you find that photographer? The experience is tailored entirely to you. It’s not a cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all package designed to process as many clients as possible in a weekend.

Why It Matters (More Than You Think)

In an era when everyone has a camera in their pocket and social media is flooded with images, it’s easy to assume professional photography isn’t necessary anymore.

But here’s the truth: Snapshot documentation and heirloom portraiture are not the same thing.

Your iPhone captures moments which is so wonderful for everyday life. But those images live on your phone, in the cloud, buried in albums you’ll never scroll through again. They’re not printed, not displayed, not preserved in any meaningful way. Often times moms never get in the photos with their family. Moms are often the documentary director and photographer, always the witness, rarely included in the photos.

Custom photography creates tangible, lasting artwork. It creates portraits you’ll frame and hang on your walls, images your children will inherit, albums you’ll pass down through generations. It creates a visual legacy that honors your family’s story. And moms…you’ll get to be in the picture. In with your family that you have done such a beautiful job documenting through the years.

Years from now – when your children are grown, when your parents are gone, when the chaos of daily life has faded into memory – you’ll have these beautifully crafted images. Not buried in a phone. Not lost to a corrupted hard drive. But printed, preserved, and prominently displayed as a testament to the love that defined your family.

That’s not mass-produced. That’s not a commodity. That’s not something you can get at Motel 6 prices.

That’s custom professional photography. And it’s worth every penny.

Why choosing custom photography is a way to invest in your family’s history

Custom photography isn’t for families looking for the cheapest option. It’s for families looking for the best option – the one that honors the significance of fleeting childhood, the one that creates artwork worthy of the love you feel for your children, the one that ensures your family’s story is preserved with the care and craftsmanship it deserves.

If you’re ready to move beyond quick, forgettable sessions and invest in heirloom-quality portraits that will outlast you, custom photography is waiting.

Because some things – like your children’s childhood -only happen once. And they deserve to be remembered beautifully.