Becoming a Professional Car Photographer.

[SGpascoe]

Yeah I'm constantly on the look out for jobs at the moment, just because I need an income to support myself. I suppose I expected to make more than I can.

When I'm doing free shoots I'm going to make it clear that they're for my portfolio work, rather than specifically for the customer as a normal shoot.
I'll be sure to check out other photographers in order to find a good price, and weigh up the hours and costs on my side.

I'm always happy to photograph anything, as you can see by my flickr portfolio so far; so I'd be very happy with any work without cars involved to start. portraits, pets, landscapes etc. I'd just like, if possible, to specialise in cars as I go.

You get a customer, have to drive 20 miles/kms to the location, or you have multiple locations, or you have to do it over a couple days for the "right light" or sunsets, and you spend 6 hours getting enough shots for them to pick from....what do you charge?
Eventually, you are charging for you hourly wage, petrol, car insurance, travel time, your gear, time spent editing, your website...and any other overhead you have factors in.

Hmm, that sounds like, to cover all costs it would add up to quite a lot of money.. I'm not sure many of the average people would want to pay a lot of money for a photo of their car?
So that means that I either work at a loss, or alienate anyone without tons of cash to throw around!

Shooting for a magazine, which would be for editorial use, doesn't pay much, unless you also write the story the photos support.

Which brings up the question: What do you consider making a living? Income of $30,000 a year, or income of $100,000 or more a year?

The entire Cornwall peninsula only has a population of about 500,000 souls. To make a living shooting cars plan on doing a fair amount of traveling, and hauling all your gear with you too.

Hmm I expected shooting for a magazine would make more money. I'm really not experienced in the business/moneymaking side of photography!

The income and earnings I expect are very different across the atlantic, but right now I'd be very happy with minimum wage if I could do this as a living. which is £5.93, so that works out around £9250 a year after 20% tax.


I'd be very happy to travel, or more likely, relocate to another part of the country once I start getting more business. I can't see myself staying in cornwall.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

You get a customer, have to drive 20 miles/kms to the location, or you have multiple locations, or you have to do it over a couple days for the "right light" or sunsets, and you spend 6 hours getting enough shots for them to pick from....what do you charge?
Eventually, you are charging for you hourly wage, petrol, car insurance, travel time, your gear, time spent editing, your website...and any other overhead you have factors in.

Hmm, that sounds like, to cover all costs it would add up to quite a lot of money.. I'm not sure many of the average people would want to pay a lot of money for a photo of their car?
So that means that I either work at a loss, or alienate anyone without tons of cash to throw around!

You can't run a business opperating at a loss.
In the beginning you pay yourself less, so the cost of doing business is lower. You also spread your overhead across many customers.

For my business, I total my overhead, and divide by the a standard work week (40 hours) to come up with hourly labor charges. So a job costs the multiple of the hours plus parts/supplies (marked up). That's the simple explaination though. Difficult or risk jobs cost more. You can also factor in the simple supply and demand theory. If your service is in great demand, and your time is of limited supply, you can charge more.

 

[StevenW]

Since you asked what to charge, I suggest you look at making a formal business plan, which a bank would request anyway. It is a little complicated and time consuming, but it forces you to crunch numbers and make projections which can be an eye opener. It will show you what you need to charge to cover business insurance, health insurance, travel expenses, your income, taxes, etc, and how many customers you need to service a month to get by.

I am not trying to discourage you.
Running your own business and controlling your own destiny can be incredibly amazing and satisfying, an also frustrating, stressful and worrisome.

Very sage advice. One of the most important parts of considering a business is determining it's viability. This cannot be done until you know reasonably well what the business costs are. So many times very talented people attempt a venture and it fails, not because they are no good at their talent but they aren't good in business. These folks tend to work their calculations from the wrong end, setting a price first is backward. Writing a business plan then sticking to it and benchmarking your progress with it continually is a favor you cannot deny yourself.

Most times photographs are not a necessity of life, they are a luxury item something purchased out of some level of vanity. When you can meet that vanity void with a emotionally charged filling you can capitalize on a golden opportunity. You want to photograph cars and profit from doing it. Next piece to that puzzle is identifying who wants to trade money for photos of cars. Vane people with discretionary income would be one. I have a 15 yr old van and it's not pretty nor clean. I don't have a relationship with it, I use it for work. It would be difficult to convince me I need a photo of it, even if you are the word's most renown automobile photographer. So consider who your best customer is and what his motivation for having automobile pictures. Is he the owner? Is he a seller or an advertiser or a collector? Maybe your customer is a performer, shows cars or races them. A museum curator maybe who would use the images for a calendar or brochure. Once you've decided who your customer is, you can align your skill and product line to meet his want (note did not say need).

Best wishes on your endeavors

Steven