The environment has been on my mind a lot lately. Last weekend when I was in Indiana for a wedding, there were very noticeable amounts of pollutants in the air and an unusually large number of people coughing and sneezing at the wedding. You could chalk it up to the season if you want, but as the plane flew over the city, I noticed exactly how much impact various manufacturing plants had on the environment around them as they spewed their chemicals into the air and let them fall on the surrounding communities. Since moving out of Indiana, I've had fewer allergy problems, and I don't doubt that it has something to do with Indiana's lack of recycling and environmental protection policies. Same thing happened while I was driving in Manitoba for a wedding this weekend, and noticed how the emissions stemming from the manufacturing plants would just linger in the air, forming clouds of waste, which would then settle on the surrounding farmland, often causing areas of dense fog around the plant. I can't help but think these emissions could somehow be harnessed into creating more energy in a way that doesn't dump them into the environment. Call me crazy, but I think we need to demand more from our policy makers.
So, after thinking about how much waste there is in the world, I decided that it was time to create a Totally Green Wedding Photography Collection that essentially eliminated all possibility of waste. What does that mean? No printing of prints that aren't absolutely going to be framed, no packaging or shipping materials which need to be discarded, and no mailing of products across many miles in a truck or plane. Some people are going to think this is outrageous, but I think it's exactly what we need right now.
What does the Totally Green Collection include? An online gallery that allows you, your family and friends FREE High Resolution downloads of any and all wedding photos directly to your computer from anywhere in the world with internet acess (great for the recessionistas), an online slideshow album available for download in digital format, and carbon offset credits for the projected energy usage and carbon waste produced by the wedding. All images are fully color-corrected, exposure enhanced, and include creative cropping and toning- making each one its own little piece of sentimental art. Current clients are welcome to trade in their wedding album for the FREE digital downloads gallery if they'd prefer, or can simply add it onto their package for an additional fee (to cover hosting and bandwidth usage). In just a few weeks, all current and future clients will also have the ability to purchase digital downloads from their current galleries as well- WOO HOO!!
I can already see the chaos this is going to cause with some wedding photographers who still can't fathom letting their clients have any of the digital images, and to them I say: get with the program! As an artist, I definitely struggle with the idea of giving up creative control and allowing clients to reproduce my work on sub-par printers or with poor-quality album makers, but the fact is that most of my clients who have received high resolution files in the last few years really haven't done much more than kept them on their computer to look at anyway. To be honest, I can't even remember the last time I printed something for myself- but I do know that I look at my favorite images online all the time! I live such a digital lifestyle that I would be a hypocrite to tell others that they HAD to have their images in physical prints or albums. Of course I'm still offering professional prints and professionally bound albums because I really just don't think there's anything more beautiful and romantic than seeing photos in physical form away from the eye-numbing glow of the computer screen, which is why I still give photo gifts to friends and family in prints and albums even if I don't print much for myself. But for those who embrace the digital lifestyle as much as I do, now there's something for you that embraces the commissioning of the artist's work up front so that it can be freely available for everyone to enjoy later. (Please note that images are available under a creative commons license for personal use only.)
Now that I've put this idea out there, I'd love to hear your thoughts!! What do you think about The Totally Green Collection?
Brides: If you'd like to calculate the total Carbon Emissions for your wedding day, check out this carbon calculator from CarbonFund.org: http://www.carbonfund.org/site/pages/individuals/category/Weddings/
