Why I Don’t Use Online Photo Galleries (And What I Do Instead)

Have you ever gotten SO excited about getting your photos from your photographer… and then completely forget about them for several weeks?

Yeah, me too. 🙋‍♀️

Every season seems to be a busy season these days. The last several times we’ve had our family photos taken, I’d eagerly await the images, get the gallery link, share it with my husband, start favoriting images, and then…

Life would happen.

I’d realize it was late and I needed to go to bed (or I wouldn’t be a nice person the next day). Or one of the kids would need something, and I’d get distracted. Or the dog barks at the UPS driver. You get the idea.

And then one day, I’d remember that I hadn’t gone back to make our final selections and complete the order. 🤦‍♀️

And that’s not good for anyone.

It’s not good for me because I don’t have my images yet. I haven’t printed them, haven’t done all the things I wanted to do with them (and I always have plans).

And it’s definitely not good for the photographer because I’m gumming up their workflow. I know I’m not their only client, so my delay means it’s just sitting there in their queue, waiting to be tied up with a bow.

In my opinion, it’s a super inefficient process for everyone involved.

It also made me realize that I wanted to change that for my business. That I wanted to take something that’s pretty impersonal and make it personal.

So why am I telling you this?

Because I had a conversation with someone recently who was genuinely shocked that I don’t use online galleries.

“But I thought that was industry standard?” she asked.

Nope. While there are a lot of photographers out there who use online galleries, every photographer does things differently.

And me?

I’m a Quality Time gal and love getting to know my clients. That’s why my process is designed the way it is.

Here’s how it works:

Right after your session (or within 2-3 business days at the latest), the two of us look through all of your imagery. Every last image.

You get to see:

All the misfires when the flash didn’t flash

Everything that’s out of focus (because I’m human, I make mistakes)

All of the awkward poses

And all of the AMAZING images

All at once.

Why?

Because I did use online galleries once. And I did use to cull them down before I sent them.

And then I realized that doing that really was a disservice to both of us. 

When we’re in person together, we can look at everything, and you get to choose the images that stand out for you. If I pre-cull them, I might be taking images out that I don’t like because I’m looking at them with a technical eye.

Which means that I’m not looking at them from the point of view of the client.

And there are some images that my clients absolutely love, that if I had culled them out, they wouldn’t have gotten to see. 

And when you choose an image I would have culled? That’s when the magic happens: you’re teaching me about yourself. You’re teaching me how you see yourself. You’re teaching me what smile you feel is your best smile. You’re teaching me all sorts of things that I would not have known otherwise. 

I’m looking at them from a technical perspective, but you’re not. And I absolutely love seeing which ones resonate with you, often for reasons I’d never have considered. 

So I think it’s a really intimate process to go through these images with you, and you get to see everything.

You also get to ask all of those burning questions, in real time:

These are conversations you cannot have with a photographer in real time when you’re staring at a gallery at 2 am. 

Because let’s be real: you’re typically looking at your gallery after hours, not during the workday when you can actually reach your photographer. 

It happened to me. 

I had a question at one point with one of our family sessions. 

I loved a particular image, but I couldn’t tell if it was actually in focus. It was late evening and I couldn’t call the photographer; I sent an email instead. Which led to a back-and-forth email chain that delayed me getting my images.

So let’s take out the middleman and look at them together. Immediately after your session.

The benefits of doing it this way:

Once we’ve chosen all of your imagery and any artwork, I put them in the retouching queue.

When they’re ready, they’re delivered via Dropbox. You have 48 hours to review them, to let me know if they’re perfect or if there’s that one tiny thing you’d like adjusted (there’s one additional round of editing included). 

Once they’re approved? You’re good to go and I’m ready to order any printed products you fell in love with at the studio.

And because I use the printer that I do, you’re getting heirloom-quality prints that’ll outlast all of us.

The more we can solve upfront, the faster you get your final images. It’s a win-win for both of us!

So if you’ve been putting off booking because you’re dreading the whole “forget about the gallery for three weeks” cycle?

Good news: That’s not how I do things here.

Ready to experience a different kind of photography session? Fill out the form below and let’s get started.