Chrissy, it's really not about the dollar value of what you give, it's more about your time. The people closest to you will value that far more than anything you could buy them.
Recently, I gave one of my best friends a portrait shoot (for baby annoucements) as one of her baby shower gifts. Overall, I'd say that cost me about 10+ hours of time to drag the studio set-up to her house, wait for the baby to be ready, shoot, process, upload, and go over print packages with her. As it turned out, it really wasn't a "cheap" gift at all considering the retail value of the print packages and really, the cost of my time. I promised her "no Walmart-type photos" and this is what we got:
  
I saw your gift certificate, which is much fancier than what I give out. :) Unless you are willing to spend whatever time it takes to get a good shot, I might say something like "good for a one-hour portrait session." In addition, you might say something about prints - including $x of retail value for prints. Just some thoughts, unless you are also giving them all the hi-res images on the CD you refer to.
Edit: typos
Message edited by author 2006-08-05 06:42:51. |
