I love to see when my friends post professional pictures. Be it wedding, baby, family. I enjoy looking at the glimpses the photographer is able to capture that most of us miss. Well-full disclosure-there are some often used newborn poses that creep me out, but I assume I am alone on this front so will blow right past those. Beyond that I love the smiles, laughter and lighting a professional photoshoot provides. All of that said, I am unfortunately cheap. Cheap + the cost of professional pictures=a drought of professional photos in our lives.
The only time I have regretted this was for our wedding. We paid for the bulk of our wedding ourselves and there were many, many things I wanted to lay out $2K for before paying a professional photographer. So a friend took photos. Unfortunately the friend's camera had a chip in the lens of which she was not aware. As a result all of the photos she took has this blurry dot:(. The good news is that even in 2010 there were lots of good shots taken by several guests using cameras and fancy phones so after the initial disappointment wore off we were able to assemble a nice wedding album at no cost.
The only time we have had professional photos taken was for our adoption photo book. It was a requirement from the wonderful people at Lifetime. I was able to find a photographer who was willing to do a minishoot at a discount so we had professional photos taken on our fifth wedding anniversary. There was one we really liked. The rest? Eh. The photographer had a great portfolio, so I can only assume we the subjects were the problem.
When Isabella came on the horizon we used our camera (a nice Christmas gift from J.T.'s mom a few years ago) for baby announcement photos and maternity shots. Got some good ones. Then when Isabella was born we used the camera again for her newborn pictures. The good news? We got some good ones of her. The not so great news? The only "good" photo of the three of us is right after delivery catching a glimpse of the top of my head. To be fair it was months before a "good photo" of me was taken so that may have all been for the best!
My sister-in-law has served as a good reminder to make sure we take regular family photos so we have a good one from 5 months and 11 months. However, none catch that special family look the professionals get.
What does any of this have to do with bartering you ask. Well let me tell you.
A neighbor I have never met recently lost her 102 year old grandfather and the family wished to to do a photo slideshow at his celebration of life ceremony later this month. She did an all call for help. I enjoy putting these things together so I volunteered. I hadn't considered charging until she made me an offer. Turns out she is a professional photographer and offered to do a photoshoot in exchange for the slideshow. It was a done deal. This is what bartering of services looks like in 2018. I like it.
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