Expensive vs Valuable
Where your heart is, there your treasure will be also.
I’m sitting here, typing this on my 27 inch, 2018 iMac. It’s got a 4.2 Ghz processor and 64 (count ‘em) GB of RAM. When it was made, it was quite possibly the best desktop computer you could buy.
If your eyes started glazing over when I started talking Gigawhats and Megatrons, chances are, you are not a computer nerd. It’s not something that you value.
For me, as someone who spends more time in front of a screen than behind a camera (sigh), it is something that is important to me. Back about 20 years ago (sigh), I was working as a graphic designer to support my photography habit, and it was then I really got hooked on the Mac operating system. I remember one day getting into a discussion with another designer who used a Windows machine, and after telling me all about how much less expensive it was, and all the ways it walked on the Mac operating system, I just looked at him and said “but do you even understand what design means?”
Computers are something I love, and I love the Apple ecosystem. It is something that I value. So when I go to buy a new computer, and people point out that I could buy a much less expensive Windows machine that is just as good, I just smile, nod, and walk away. They are confusing price with value.
For some, it’s cars. Sure, you can get from point A to point B in a Kia as easily as you can with a Ferrari, or a F150 or a Mustang, but why suffer the ignominy? For others, it’s shoes. For one of my friends, it’s Fluevog or F-off. I know people who are passionate about jewelry, about cell phones, about handbags.
For these people, when they spend the extra money to get a Burberry purse, it is not an expense. It is an investment. They are not spending money simply to have a place to put their tissue, it’s a statement about who they are.
What’s the difference?
We often use “expensive” and “valuable” interchangeably, but there is a fundamental difference. If something is expensive, it is referring to the monetary worth of it.
But if something is valuable? That is referring to what is worth. Yes, a part of that could be monetary, but it can also refer to personal value. In my closet, in a bag that I haven’t touched in years, I have a bunch of socks that were hand knit by my mom. They all have holes and are unwearable. Even when I did wear them, they were mostly oversized and ill-fitting and garish.
Financially, they represent about $12 in yarn. And I will never get rid of them. Because the value they have is not monetary, it is deeply personal, and even now I am fighting back the tears, thinking how she made them for me with her own hands.
She passed away about five years ago, and I will never get another pair again. Given the choice between the computer and the socks? Take the computer.
Some would say I am overpriced. Too expensive. And, for some, that is indeed true. Some are perfectly happy driving their Kia, eating at McDonalds and waiting impatiently for their Windows laptop to finally boot. These people are not the clients for me.
No, I’m looking for the people who are looking to make an investment in themselves. Who value the experience, the positive self image these photographs will help foster. Who want to dream up creative ways to capture their characters, who trust me to capture their essence.
If that’s you, feel free to contact me and we can come up with a plan to shoot. Maybe that’s waiting until this whole Covid thing is over (sigh). Maybe that’s coming up with a way to do a socially distanced shoot (I have a whole stack of ideas…) Maybe it’s just masking up (me) and not being ruled by fear. If you want to even just start the conversation, feel free to call or use our form to book a no-pressure consultation today.