Hi, my name is Niki and I'm addicted to taking pictures of my kids. Really. I love to capture the many special moments in my kids' lives, but unfortunately, I rarely get to share those moments since I am "behind the screens." Even when our whole family is together, my husband and I pass cameras and phones back and forth, rarely appearing together with our kids in pictures.
Last fall, I decided that it was time for our family to be photographed together by a professional. I had grown up with the Keck family, so I took a look at Jim's website and then contacted him to schedule a consult.
Jim was the consummate professional from the minute he stepped in our front door. He was organized, had a lot of really interesting ideas and examples of how to display pictures, and was very patient with our questions (and interruptions by our children!).
We scheduled the photo shoot for a Saturday evening at a neighborhood park. Our family was, as usual, running a little late that day and we were a little frazzled by the time we got there, but Jim and his assistant, his wife Amy, were very understanding and put us at ease. The park was beautiful with a lot of different settings for pictures (e.g., bridges, lakes, brick areas, playgrounds, benches, posts). Although there were wind gusts and mosquitos the size of small airplanes to contend with, Jim was able to get some really great photographs of our entire family, as well as individual ones of just the kids and of just my husband and me.
A couple of weeks later, Jim came by our house once again to show us what he captured. He had prepared an amazing DVD of all the photographs (with music!) that we watched, then we narrowed down our final choices and selected a package. The culling process was tough because we really liked almost all of the pictures. I cannot express how very patient and helpful Jim was with us during that exercise. He even offered to work some Photoshop magic and change some of the colors in one image for the Christmas cards that we ordered.
When our items arrived, Jim brought everything over. They were packaged nicely and it really felt like we were receiving an early Christmas present. The prints we ordered on metallic paper were absolutely beautiful and the cards were perfect (we received several compliments on them from the recipients, too!). But the showcase item was undoubtedly the 20" x 30" metal print that is now on display in our living room. We had no idea such a medium existed until Jim showed us in the initial consult, and it has proven to be the perfect modern, fun way for us to show off that moment in our lives.
Yes, I am still addicted to taking pictures of my kids, but I am so grateful we made the decision to work with Jim and get some really good, high-quality photos of our family to decorate our home today and pass down in the future. A picture really is worth a thousand words and a good photographer like Jim really is worth hiring.
- Niki K., March 2014