About the Studio

Baltimore & DC Portrait Photographer, Erin White, is a professional photographer and artist specializing in boudoir photography. Also offering services in Family, children, and newborn photography both on-location and studio sessions (indoor/outdoor). She serves Baltimore, Maryland and surrounding areas such as Annapolis, Ellicott City, Columbia, Silver Spring, Washington DC, Arlington, and Northern VA. The studio is located in Severn, Maryland which is about 20 minutes north of Washington, DC and 20 minutes south of Baltimore, MD.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Luke and Family!

What an easy going little guy! He didn't sleep much, but he was full of smiles!







Thursday, January 20, 2011

Little Miss Sydney

This family came to visit the studio yesterday and I couldn't be happier with this beautiful girl! 








Tuesday, January 18, 2011

WHAT ARE YOU PAYING FOR?


WHAT ARE YOU PAYING FOR? {BALTIMORE PHOTOGRAPHER}

Photographic media has come a long way over the years, and we are all very much aware of it. While most photographers truly desire handing over their work in the form of a beautiful canvas or wall print, many have succumb to the fact that we know you want the digital files. I myself love them for the versatility they offer. I am more than happy to offer my files at a fair price, but the bottom line comes down to, “what is fair?”. Most of my families agree that my offerings are just what they desire, but there are also many inquiries received that do not understand why photographers charge what they do for paper or a disc. I mean after all, you can get a 5×7 for $1 and digital files are virtually free when you email them! My good friend and fellow photographer, Blair Blanks has explained it better than I could today……..
“My husband just got a Kindle and it got me thinking…I have a lot of clients who understandably are confused as to why professional photographers charge what they do, for digital images or for prints.
So here goes…

Books, up until recently, were just paper and ink…people bought books not for the paper and ink, but for the ideas, the creativity, the insight, the wisdom, the artistry, the experience contained within those pages. Now, books are going electronic. E-readers are all the rage. But the price of an e-book is still only slightly less than the cost of a bound paper book (and e-books are MORE expensive than used paperbacks, and you can’t lend out an e-book to a friend)…why is that? Stupid question, right? Everyone knows the money you pay for an e-book is for the ideas and artistry contained within the words of the book, so you can have them to read over and over again and enjoy for many years to come. Book authors surely deserve to get paid for the products of their hard work, right? Right!
It’s the same for digital photos. Some people wonder why professional photographers charge for the digital negatives of the photos they create. I’ve even had people tell me they would be happy to kick in $2 for the cost of the CD! That is like telling an author you will pay him for the cost of the paper in his book, or like telling him that the e-book should be free since there is no cost to the author. When you buy a digital photo, or even a print, the bulk of the price is not for the cost of the CD or the paper the photo is printed on. Both of those are very small costs. You are paying for the years the photographer has spent learning and perfecting his or her craft, the way she knows how to get your cranky baby to smile, the way she has learned to pose you so you look your best, the tens of thousands of dollars worth of camera bodies, lenses, lighting, backdrops and props in her studio, her studio rent, utilities, insurance, taxes (we self employed photographers fork over 30% or more of our profit to Uncle Sam), her computers and massive hard drives needed to store so many digital files, child care, marketing, continuing training and education, and so much more.
Consider that for every shoot in the studio, which, with me, lasts up to three hours, a photographer will spend around four or five more hours before and after the session, communicating with the client, preparing for the shoot, then after the session, sorting through all the shots, backing up the files, editing the images for the perfect crop, color, saturation, removing imperfections, blogging the images or posting sneak peeks on Facebook; then, during the ordering process, creating a proof gallery and publishing it to the web, uploading orders to the print lab, packaging prints and shipping them to you. It’s A LOT of work! The session fee only compensates the photographer for a fraction of the work she does in creating your images. She depends on sales after the session for her income. It’s kind of like the waitress who gets paid less than minimum wage by her employer, but earns her living off tips. Her tip income depends on how well she does her job, and a photographer’s print sales are the same. (I do offer a Time and Talent session, which is a flat fee all-digital session that takes into consideration all of the many, many costs of producing and executing a photo session.)
In the marketplace today, there are many hobby photographers who will photograph you for “fun money.” Many are just starting out, inexperienced, working off the books and under the table, and do not yet realize all the true costs of operating a portrait photography business. I was, about nine years ago, one of those very people who thought I only needed to charge just slightly over my lab costs in order to be successful, until I realized just how much my “business” was actually costing me and my family.

So, remember, you pay your photographer not just for the price of the paper your images are printed on, or the CD they are burned to, but for her artistic eye, her creative heart, and the hours of her life she spends making portraits that you will cherish until you are old and gray and bouncing great-grandkids on your knee. And she’s worth much more than a $2 CD.



Saturday, January 8, 2011

4 months old

My baby is getting so big!

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Thursday, December 23, 2010

DC Boudoir Marathon!

Valentine's Day will be here before you know it! Book your session today! Email me erin@erinslens.com

Jan 8th, Washington DC! $200 Deposit



Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Eva's Baptism Photos

This is Eva, isn't she beautiful? Her mother does some modeling for me and makes a mean pecan pie! I have to admit I don't have a clear sense of an organized religion inside myself, but I find it intriguing for those that do. Unfortunately my flash broke and I couldn't be at the church to take photos for her baptism- Fortunately mom was nice enough to bring her by for a quick shoot in the studio :O) Check out her bible!