A day in the life of an aspiring photographer...

[bblaine]

Family Photo Shoot at the Dunes for 90 minutes/ CD with beautiful edited photos- $50

22 miles both ways...

3 hours of photoshop editing...

8 various 5x7's from walgreens to make sure they came out right... never trust the computer monitor (actually, never trust walgreens either)- minus $8

Parking ticket while dropping off pictures to Dunes the next day (22 miles both ways). Ticket-$20

Four adults, six kids, being sand blasted at the beach and a lens that keeps fogging up with sticky air and sand...

priceless

 

[tirediron]

Yay! (I hope that's the right answer)

 

[Aw45]

You are not charging enough.

I would recommend highly that you raise the price for your photography.

You made $2.44 an hour minus your driving times, so you are looking at making under $2.00 an hour.

Here are my reasons for why you should charge more.
1. If you stay at a low rate like this you are going to get burned out because you will never make any money, and eventually quit. (Happens all the time)

2. You are ruining the market for every other photographer in you area. By charging an unreasonable rate like this people will not understand the value of photography. Most people find it hard already to justify why we charge what we do, they do not understand the amount of work it takes to make a professional image.

3. Once you get known as a cheap photographer when you eventually try to raise your rate to live on people will not understand and stop coming to you. You have to build a solid respectable reputation early. Don't get tagged as the "cheap" photographer!

I understand that its hard to ask for a higher rate but it is part of the job. You are worth a reasonable days pay, when you explain this to your clients they will understand. If you do not take any of my other advice remember this, if people are asking you to take their photographs they believe you will do a good job. No one would ask you to photograph them if they thought otherwise. This makes you a professional, you are getting paid. Don't underestimate or under sell yourself it will only hurt your career in the future.