I recently listened to an interview with a married couple that are professional photographers. Pricing was a big portion of the interview.
Based on what I heard and assuming there is no cost-based reason for the $1400 sitting fee, it sounds like the prices may be based on the the photographer's desire to work with affluent customers that have the disposable income to spend $1400 on a sitting fee. It's likely a predictor that they will spend a significant additional amount on more prints and other products after the fact. On the other hand, suppose this were your primary job and you could do 30 of these sittings in a year. After expenses and taxes you might have an annual income of about $30,000. For a family of four in the US, that's barely above the official poverty line. So, they will need significant after-the-sitting sales to get up to a reasonable annual income. These are very rough estimates and could be completely wrong, but it doesn't sound that unreasonable to me. After all, this isn't the typical discount store or shopping mall portrait studio. They going on-site for a time consuming sitting. I wouldn't want to undercut pros that are charging reasonable (and I'm not saying they are) )prices. They are trying to make a living in a very competitive and difficult business. Buy undercutting them, (and I'm not saying you are) you're devaluing every one's work. If you are charging less because you are inexperienced and want to learn, make that clear to your clients. Let them know that in the future your prices will rise with your experience level. Best of luck, GS <http://georgesphotos.net> On Sat, Mar 29, 2008 at 7:35 PM, David J Brooks <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > My wife works in a Pet Valu food store, and takes in my meager photos > of our cats and friends dogs as part of their monthly > specials and to help in adding extra photo work my way. > > I have heard a lot of good comments from these photos, and some of > their customers have new dogs and cats > and have inquired if i would be available to do a shoot. > > Of course i am, they just have to get dates organized etc, but i;'m at > odds for rates. > > Just recently in the Toronto Star newspaper, they had a 1/2 page > article on a couple of pet photographers scattered around Canada, > Toronto, Vancouver and another city i forget. > These people were charging upwards of $1400 for the sitting and CD. > One was a very experienced person, the other two just getting in to > it. > > I have no intention of charging these rate, but i feel a shoot at a > place both owner and animal are comfortabel with, own home, local park > etc would be best. Try some posed shots, follow the animal around and > grab the animal doing its thing candids. > > Not sure if i explained that well, but hopefully YKWIM. > > Travel would be minimal, we are still a small town, but i feel it > would be appropriate for my experience, and sense of fair play, that > a rate of $50-60 for an hour shoot, and put a CD together add another > $50-60 for time, PS work, maybe a bit more for a musical slideshow > etc.. > > Am i in the ball park out am i way out of line to start off > > Dave > > > > -- > Equine Photography > www.caughtinmotion.com > http://brooksinthecountry.blogspot.com/ > Ontario Canada > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
