Professional Photography as “emotional insurance” Part ONe: Why Memories Need Insurance

Today I want to help you reframe the way you think about professional photography, and moreover, why you should consider hiring an experienced photographer to capture images of the people and moments that mean the most to you. I want you to think about photography as “emotional insurance”

Now, that concept probably sounds foreign and odd to you. We don’t often associate insurance with taking photos, unless we’re taking pictures of our car after an accident or a tree that fell onto a rooftop. Insuring emotions, though? What does that even mean - and how can skilled photography help with that?

Quick note about the author: While I am, myself, a professional photographer - I certainly didn’t start that way. In fact, much of my professional experience has been spent in the personal and commercial insurance space, helping people and businesses analyze their risk, understand how insurance coverage works, and building plans and policies to help protect them financially from unexpected or inevitable loss. To put it simply, I’ve helped thousands of people by helping them make wise decisions about using insurance to protect their homes, cars, businesses, and loved ones - and I bring that experience and approach to how I help my photography clients.

So, let’s dig into the idea of “emotional insurance” and talk about the reasons that investing in professional photography is an important way to protect and preserve your life’s most important moments and memories.

Why Memories Need Insurance

I’ve never had the unfortunate experience of losing my home to a house fire; but I’ve spoken to several people who have - and to lose one’s home and possessions in the course of a few minutes is a gut wrenching and tragic event that leaves a family vulnerable, exposed, and seeking anything they can put their hands on to remind them of life before the fire. Quite often, the first thing homeowners look for once they’ve had a chance to walk through the ruins are their family portraits, baby-books, and photo-albums. Why is that? Why do people gravitate so strongly to these printed images? It’s simple - because at the end of the day, when everything else burns away, the memories we have of the people we love and the emotions we’ve attached to them matter a great deal more to us than much else in the world.

Here’s the reality: Time is a relentless force. Like the proverb so aptly states - life is like a vapor. It moves so quickly; before you know it the years have come and gone. Your children grow up, relationships evolve, and precious, irreplaceable moments simply slip through our fingers. We can’t restrain time from its inevitable march forward, but we can, in a meaningful way, preserve individual moments and the meaning that they hold to us.

Just as we insure our valuable possessions, professional photography serves as emotional insurance that allows us the ability to keep and revisit another time, people who have long since passed away, or special memories that hold significant value in our hearts and connect us with people and places we love. Through photography, we can limit the toll that time takes on our ability to communicate our stories to future generations by freezing that moment in time forever.

Next week we’ll talk more about your “insurance premium.” What are you actually paying for when you hire a professional photographer? Stay tuned for that an more.

Need a quote for your “emotional insurance?” - Tell me how I can help! Inquire at www.robb-goodell.com/inquire  or email me at robb@lumospix.com