Have you ever gone to a steak restaurant where you choose your steak from a refrigerator and grill it yourself?

Some people love doing it themselves. They probably know more than me about grilling techniques, the heat of the coals, meat thickness, grilling temps, resting time of the meat after cooking, and so on. (mmm…. now I’m hungry!)

But me? I don’t really like doing that. When I go to a restaurant, I want to sit and enjoy myself! If I’m standing over a grill, DOING THE WORK, I can’t sit and enjoy the company I’m with. Also, I would consider myself a decent cook but I know I could never run a restaurant – that’s why, when I go out to eat, I leave the grilling to the experts!

So how is a cook-your-own steakhouse like photography? Well, a popular trend is for photographers, after the session, to hand over to their clients a folder of digital files and leave the printing up to them. Clients need to figure out a lot, in order to get that beautiful portrait up on the wall, such as:
– Where should I print?
– How should I enhance the photo for enlargement?
– When I crop the photo, part of it gets cut off. How do I fix that?
– What do all these print surfaces mean? Matte? Glossy? Lustre?
– I wish I could see what all these different products look like. Canvas, Metal, Acrylic, prints on wood….
– How big will this 8×10 look on my wall? What if I went up to 11×14? Or larger?
– Where do I get a mat and frame for this photo? Is there a special way to put the print in the frame? Should I have glass? Glare or no-glare?
– I would LOVE one of those big collages of photos in different sizes but I don’t know how to design it.

Much like your favorite full-service steakhouse allows their guests to enjoy their dining experience, meeting their clients’ every need or request through excellent service, Gretchen Willis Photography is designed to serve its clients, start to finish. This allows me to bring my clients’ vision to reality through my extensive knowledge & skills, design experience, and access to professional vendors, to create portraits that will proudly be displayed in your home for generations.

This is the reason I don’t just give a download of digital images to my clients after their session. My clients value the service I can give them, and they know they can trust me to meet their every need.