This Thursday I had my scheduled appointment to order prints from Simon’s photographer. With Dede Holman Photography, you don’t simply look at proofs and choose your package. No, you have to come in for an appointment to place your order after viewing the proofs online at home.
When Dede explained this to me, I thought it silly. An appointment to order my preferred prints? Ridicuous! I went home, studied the proofs with Talmudic intensity-show me one of the 60 or so pictures and I can tell you its number-and carefully planned an order within my preset budget. I knew what things cost, I made some hard choices, and I was ready to hand over my order to Dede in five minutes flat.
Ha! Dede ushered me into her studio, pulled down a screen in front of me, and settled me in beside her on a couch. The lights dimmed, music began to play, and before I knew it I was being entertained by a slide show of all the proofs. As much as I loved many of the pictures online, seeing them in their true color and at full resolution on a huge screen was overwhelming. By shot 6 or so I was telling Dede how beautiful her work was. By the halfway point I was holding back tears. By the end, I was blowing my nose and wiping my eyes.
I then promptly placed my order for a 20?X30? canvas wrapped wall portrait in sepia tone of Simon in profile. A piece of art I know I’ll cherish forever, and a purchase that exceeded my original budget-the one I had so solemnly committed to-by 300%. That Dede is one heck of a saleswoman. And I? I am one heck of a sap. But I am not alone! A stack of similar wall portraits in the front of Dede’s studio sat as silent witness to the overspending, emotionally wrought mothers who fell victim to Dede’s slide show before me.