This blog was written by Michele Celentano, and used with her permission.

I Believe

  I believe in photography - but more than that, I believe in photographs... Printed photographs are tangible.  We can hold on to them, pass then around, frame them and hang them on a wall.  We can make albums to be treasured and looked through by children for years to come.  I am without a doubt passionate about creating photographs - real pictures - printed on professional papers and made into beautiful wall portraits onad albums.  I want your children, their children, my children and future grandchildren looking and holding onto tangible photographs.

   I believe the best way to provide expectational service to all of my clients is to present them with beautiful professional work.  Handing them a flash drive or a DVD and sending them on their way is not the best representation of my work or the value I place on photographs.

   I believe in printing my work professionally by professional labs. The photographs I create are not only precious to my clients, but are precious to me, too.  It is my work, a lifetime of work that deserves to be printed.  Can you imagine a floppy disk, a DVD or a flash drive sitting in a frame representing your family portraits?  We can't touch a file and the truth is we don't know the longevity of a file or if we will even be able to find it someday.  A digital file is a bit of a mystery - if it's lost, where did it go?  If a drive is damaged what happens to the files?  How many people truly back up all of their images or ever print their digital files?  When was the last time you printed your own pictures?  How many pictures are on your computer that are still not printed?

   I believe that not all labs are created equally. Quality printing is not something the corner drugstore offers. Professional labs have strict quality control and print my work to my standards.  Correct color and density and professional mounting are important for the final product.  As an artist I am a perfectionist when it comes to cropping, color, density, and print quality and chose to maintain control over these variables.

   I understand that in this age of digital technology you want to share images through social media and view them on portable devices.  For this reason, I offer web-friendly, and device optimized images.  The images are not formatted for printing and contain a signature watermark.

   My house is filled with printed images, framed portraits of the people I love, some, like my grandparents are long gone.  Others, like my children and my husband, are captured in time, memories of years gone by that I will never experience again... except for the images that I have printed.