As a parent you can find yourself in all sorts of situations you never imagined (or desired). Mixing with the crowd of moms (I was the only dad) who are parents of my daughter’s classmates at the ballet school she attends was just such a situation. I’m sure they’re all lovely people, but it’s just not how I prefer to spend my time. And since yesterday was picture day I found it particularly burdensome. Every little girl is perfectly coiffed, arranged, etc. I always feel unequipped to give our eldest daughter the same support and infrastructure that every other girl is clearly getting (especially in the hair department).

Maybe that’s why I was particularly annoyed when the photography studio hired by the ballet school told me that there was no digital option among the suite of photo packages they were offering. I suppose I can’t say I was surprised, but I was incensed. I explained that I didn’t want any of the prints they were offering, I just wanted the digital version of the picture being taken. The photographer was summoned over to discuss my plight. I explained what I wanted and he asserted that I wanted to digital version so I could make extra prints. I explained that I didn’t want any extra prints, and I didn’t even want the original print. I just wanted the JPEG. He looked at me suspiciously. It probably didn’t help when I told him that if I wanted additional prints I wouldn’t order them from him anyway, I would just scan the print I got and make more.

By this point despite his obvious annoyance with me he agreed to quote me a price for a digital only “package” — i.e. e-mailing me the jpegs from the photo shoot. When he told me that there was no way he would charge me less than the printed package I asked him why it made sense to charge me the same given that his COGs had gone down to zero? I know it didn’t help when I pointed out that the business model of holding negatives (or digital originals) hostage to squeeze money out of customers for extra prints was bankrupt and over. I know this because at this point he just looked at me in disgust and told me that I could have the analog prints or nothing.

OK. I realize, not super effective in terms of getting the digital versions. Point taken. But I wasn’t really too worried as I prefer the candid shots I’ll take at the performance anyway. But I had to wonder, why was I so bothered by this guy not offering the digital versions. I know why he was annoyed, you can see it on the net. But I wondered why I was so annoyed. It wasn’t just the fact that the guy didn’t have what I wanted. It was the fact that he was clearly hanging on desparately and defiantly to the old way of doing things. And it made me especially annoyed given that the new way was not necessarily a threat to his business if done properly (hey, how about in the digital version I get many more variations of pictures), and was (from my perspective) an easy transition to make.

Before I left I asked the nice lady who runs the ballet school if next year when considering photographers she could ask them to offer a digital package along with the menu of print offerings. She said, “oh, that’s a great idea.”