Upsherin photographer... Am I crazy?

Ruchel

Sun, Jun 02 2013, 2:16 pm

Crazy. Some pay much less for a wedding

Ashrei

Sun, Jun 02 2013, 2:39 pm

Hi, I'm the OP.

So, this is what we would get for over $850: (actually it may be $825, I forgot)

about 4 hours of photographing, including posed stuff before the event, w/siblings (they all do this posing)
Around 200 pictures that are edited very nicely and printed.
We are paying extra for those photos to be on CD/DVD in high resolution for us to have (over $850 includes this)
All the photos are available online to download mid- reslution quality
Separate 1 hour shoot at son's yeshiva on a different day, to see his rebbe. (we're paying extra, but $850 includes this)
Quality photographer

Another guy wanted $500 for the same amount of time, and all photos unedited on a CD/DVD for us. This would have been fine, but we saw his photos, and it wasn't the quality we were looking for.

Still hoping for some numbers to call.

wifeandmore

Sun, Jun 02 2013, 2:44 pm

For 200 photos h res on a dvd plus prins plus its 2 separate occasions seems reasonable forb a top quality

shalhevet

Sun, Jun 02 2013, 3:30 pm

Ashrei wrote:

You don't have to answer me here. Just answer yourself honestly.

Why do you need hundreds of photos of your son's upsherin? What will you even do with them?
Why do you need your son to feel that the point of the day is what he looks like and how he poses for the camera?

You probably won't like this, but I find this thread so sad. Such an important simcha is being turned into a whole lot of gashmius for everyone to ooh and aah over. I'm sure if you are considering spending $850 on the photographer, you are buying him expensive clothes that are worth being photographed in. Maybe even new clothes for other family members. I bet you aren't giving each child a bag of bamba either.

Do you think this will be a good introduction to a life of Torah for your son?

Raisin

Sun, Jun 02 2013, 3:40 pm

I agree it seems excessive. Do you really want to spend half the day posing for a photographer? If you want nice sibling pics, take them some other time to get pictures.

familyfirst

Sun, Jun 02 2013, 5:13 pm

We took our children to Sears and came home with FABULOUS pictures! Whoever sees them askes who the photographer was! You can great GREAT packages, and thy have cutting edge equipment where they can change the border, turn it black and white, sepia, enlarge, zoom in etc all for a VERY reasonable price. Just saying...

Ashrei

Mon, Sep 02 2013, 9:47 pm

Hi, just thought I'd let you know what we wound up doing.

We found someone not as top rate, but also very good to do the job for $500. (better than the other $500 photographer)

Your posts were great, and made us realize that no way did we want to pose for photos all day. So we asked the photographer to come to our home after the Yeshiva on Friday, and that's when we posed.

On Sunday, we just had some photos during the party and the actual upsherin. It worked out! We have great pics!

Thank you, imamothers. Smile

solo

Tue, Jul 11 2017, 10:02 pm

I know this is old but I'm looking for someone to photograph my sons upsherin party in august bzh. I'm in brooklyn

chocolatecake

Tue, Jul 11 2017, 10:54 pm

Pictureitbyniri shes reasonable and does a great job. Google it and her website will come up and there is contact info

amother

Powderblue

Tue, Jul 11 2017, 11:00 pm

I don't think you're crazy to hire a photographer -- I did. But it sounds like a lot. For a wedding I'd want the best. For an upsherin I think good is good enough.

amother

Slateblue

Wed, Jul 12 2017, 12:07 am

Beily kaufman
Rachel stern
Judy Fischman
Nissen
Etty Berger
Are all excellent photographers
The going rate is $150-300 an hour.

amother

Periwinkle

Wed, Jul 12 2017, 8:12 am

amother wrote:

Beily kaufman
Rachel stern
Judy Fischman
Nissen
Etty Berger
Are all excellent photographers
The going rate is $150-300 an hour.

Are u sure these these photographers do events? I think most people on this list are NOT event photographers

amother

Seagreen

Wed, Jul 12 2017, 9:02 am

amother wrote:

Beily kaufman
Rachel stern
Judy Fischman
Nissen
Etty Berger
Are all excellent photographers
The going rate is $150-300 an hour.

That's just the sitting fee. They'll charge you another $20 per printed photo and won't give you a CD. So you'll end up spending much more than $150-300. Plus 2 of the above names have sitting fees of $400.

amother

Mauve

Wed, Jul 12 2017, 9:23 am

shalhevet wrote:

Having done this already I can answer your questions.
What will I do with the photos?
-My son is lucky to have grandparents and great-grandparenst! I made photo books for all of them. Not all of them were able to join us but they all loved the gift. I also made an extra one for ds. He can show it to his dw some day. Meanwhile we enjoy it too.

About the point of the day:
-My son didn't feel the point the point of his special day was how he looked and posed. That's why I hired a photographer. Nobody was bothering him to look over here and smile. Except for a few photos we took at the beginning the photographer took shots without bothering my son. Some of them were taken from a funny angle and my son wasn't perfectly centered but that was what we wanted.

Don't be so sure you know what I spent on clothes. Don't bet you know what I gave each child to snack on.

As for my son's introduction to a life of Torah-
This wasn't his first introduction. By the time he got his haircut he already knew about Shabbos and making a bracha, and his Morah and dh had taught him some aleph bais. We introduced him listening to kiddush, zmiros, maoz tzur and dayeinu before he could talk. He had a lot of fun the day of his upsheren. He was only a little scared of getting his long hair cut. He loved the attention and the presents. After everyone left he sat and looked in the mirror and took his new kippa on and off about a hundred times. I don't know if he'll remember much about his special day since he was only three so I'm glad he has pictures.

(Sorry OP. The photographer has since moved on. He stopped doing this a few years ago.)

amother

Aquamarine

Wed, Jul 12 2017, 9:31 am

solo wrote:

I know this is old but I'm looking for someone to photograph my sons upsherin party in august bzh. I'm in brooklyn

What are you looking to spend?

amother

Maroon

Wed, Jul 12 2017, 9:45 am

Most people just take a gifted family member