How To Choose a Beach Portrait Photographer

With so many beach photographers to choose from, how the heck DO you choose ?

That's a great question and with today's article I am going to make it easy as possible.

1. Look at their portfolio...I mean REALLY look at it and study the images. Does this photographer (including me) offer the style that you want ? Will you be happy with the images hanging on your wall for many years. Looking at the portfolio, studying the portfolio, is my #1 first thing to do.

2. What type of PACKAGES do they offer. Family, Multi-Family, Groups or Mini-Sessions. Do you see one that fits your family size.

3. What are the COSTS of the packages? Is the photographer reasonable ? Now here is the BIG ONE. Doe the photographer charge a "sitting fee" and then charges you more money to select the images that you desire. KA-CHING ! That adds up fast ! Best to choose a photographer that will charge a higher sitting fee and then deliver a LOT of images. (This has always been my pet peve)

4. Speaking of images? How MANY images does the photographer offer you? I've seen photographers charge $200 or $250 for 5 or maybe 10 "digitally edited images". Seriously ? I have a tendency to go overboard and deliver a LOT of images. I have delivered well over the 100 image mark on several occasions but I usually deliver no less than 75 HIGH QUALITY images per portfolio. When I edit the images I select all the "keepers" and deliver the best. Chose a photographer that will not only deliver a fair amount of images but also images that are QUALITY and not just a lot of OK images. Also it's very important that you get the PRINT RELEASE for all of your images. This way you can print and share with all of your friends and family members.

5. Experience. How long have they been involoved in photography, especially BEACH photography? It. helps if they know what they're doing. All kidding aside, I love helping other photographers as much as possible and when I am booked I always refer my clients to other trusted photographers but hey...they have to be good and very familiar with photography...especially editing the images.

6. Speaking of editing pictures. Does the photographer edit his own images or does he outsource them? I ONLY edit my own images and NOBODY else will ever edit my images. I know through experience what I like and what works. Also, and this is very important, how do they incorporate AI technolgy? If they upload your entire portfolio to an AI machine and say "edit these pictures" then run away as fast as you can from this photographer. AI is a great tool to HELP you edit images NOT to edit the entire portfolio by itself.

7. Does the photographer return his phone calls or emails? I can't tell you how many times I got hired because I was the only one who returned the phone calls and emails. Communication is a MUST for beach photographers. I always return my texts, calls and emails as promptly as I can.

Of course there are other items that you must consider when choosing a professional beach photographer but the above 7 items should be enough to get you started in your photographer search. (hopefully it was me !). Always feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns.

Thanks and...picture yourself at the beach !