BEHIND THE LENS / IT'S ALL ABOUT EXPERIENCE
Experience (n) - an event or occurrence which leaves an impression on someone.
These days the word “experience" has never been so important. Defined in so many different ways, in my eyes an experience is the collective feelings you get from someone or something following an interaction. Going out for breakfast is an experience - how you feel when you’re sitting at the table, how your coffee tastes, the service from your waiter, how your bacon and eggs are presented and even the smile of a fellow brekky lover as you leave the cafe, all culminates to make you feel… something. You see people’s experiences everyday, all through your Instagram feeds. Every Instagram photo is sharing an experience that person has had and it made them feel enough, to want to share it with the world.
Gone are the days where businesses can get away with just selling a good product. The entire experience of purchasing that product now needs to be awe-inspiring - from the second you walk through to the door to the second you get home and take your purchase out of the bag. Every little detail needs to be considered and is reflected positively (or poorly) on the brand directly.
If you buy a pair of jeans from a beautifully themed store, the staff are lovely, but not too pushy, you don’t just get a plastic bag but a nice canvas bag with a handwritten quote and the brand’s logo, and then you get home, take the jeans out of the bag and viola! there's also a discount voucher in the bag for another of your fave stores. That transaction has then become a memorable experience because you know that the business has put in more thought about who you are and what you want, as opposed to just getting dollars in return for the product.
These days, in many cases, the experience is more important than the product itself. Of course we absolutely still want an amazing, quality, thought out product that is going to do what it says it does, but the delivery and post experience can sometimes trump (dirty word?) the product.
That is absolutely my mantra as a photographer, I don’t want to just deliver gorgeous photos that will give you a fleeting flutter of memories at a glance. I also want to give you an experience. I want you to feel all warm and fuzzy inside before you even get to see all of your photos, because you feel like the experience that I offered added value to your wedding day and the experience of you and your guests.
Think about it, if every wedding vendor put in as much effort to the experience as you do, imagine the possibilities of what your wedding experience could be....
