William Baroo
No longer a newbie, moving up!
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2023
- Messages
- 255
- Reaction score
- 35
- Location
- FL
- Can others edit my Photos
- Photos OK to edit
I have thousands of shots of my wife and baby son, but we wanted a few pro shots for his first year milestone anyway, simply because I don't have the know-how to do formulaic studio shots of babies.
We called a photographer, and she said we would have to wait a month for the shoot and meet with her for a consultation that cost $267.50. We went and talked about the theme of the shoot and the wardrobe and so on, and she showed us lots of products. For example, a box of matted prints for $4000. She also showed us an aluminum plate 3' tall with a shiny picture on it; $2900. Not just expensive, but tackier than Elvis on black velvet, riding a tiger past a sad clown.
All we wanted were maybe 20 JPG's. She said she had a digital-only package but didn't have the price printed in her "Investment Guide" yet. Yeah, mall-grade baby photos are great investments. People call me all the time, asking me if I have any to sell for astronomical prices.
Her studio was a mother-in-law cottage next to her house. She had no lighting. She had one Canon camera and two primes. She had hooks on the wall with not-attractive baby clothes too small for my son. She had a bunch of cheap toys. I could literally set this studio up for $700. She didn't even have a tripod.
My wife and I talked about it later, and we decided all we wanted were JPG's. We don't want this stuff on our walls. We have better photos for that. We just wanted the standard milestone documentary shots, and we wanted someone else to shoot them because it would have been a pain for me to shoot photos with myself in them.
Found out she wanted $1090 for JPG's alone. Of course, editing accounts for that. Editing takes about 10 seconds per shot with Adobe presets you never change because you take the same photo 50,000 times, but, okay.
The photographer who did our newborn shots charged something like $250 at the hospital. She is no Vivian Maier, but her work is exactly as good as the new lady's.
I thought we were looking at a similar fee for the digital-only shots from the metal-photo photographer, or I would not have considered using her, but she managed to obscure the price until we had paid for the consultation. Now we both wonder if she is insane. My wife loves spending my money, but she wants no part of this.
Being old and not a moron, I knew I was looking at an operation that relied on outside coaching. I could tell someone was providing the spiel, the pretty boxes, and so on. I didn't let on at the session, because I am not poor, and we just wanted to get this over with. I didn't care about spending $600 for a $250 service. Now that it's a $1400 service, we are backing out. I call the $267.50 tuition.
I looked into the photo-churning business, and of course, I was right. There are coaching companies that provide photographers with ways to skin people. It's a lot like Omaha Steaks, which sells garbage meat for Wagyu prices. To name names, two coaches I learned about were Sue Bryce and Bernie Griffith. I learned that companies like White House sell 36" metal photos to photographers for $250, so less than 10% of $2900. I read about the amazing manipulative methods the coaches teach. How to overcome price objections and so on. How to pit wives against husbands, which is despicable.
You make people wait a month for shoots so you look busy and in-demand. You call them "clients," which is ridiculous. You show them catalogues with photos of the homes of apparent imbeciles with metal photos all over the walls.
Anyway, we are contacting the cheaper company to see what they will do for us, since nearly all baby photographers produce the same junk using the same lenses and themes and compositions and lighting and props. But we are probably going to turn an upstairs bedroom into a studio, and I will shoot the baby myself. I am getting better all the time, and I have been producing much better shots than the pros we have dealt with. I described these formula shots to my wife as, "Insert your baby here," and she thought it was hilarious.
I just want to know if other photographers here have opinions about professionally-coached photo mills that manipulate and deceive customers. You have to be a real idiot to pay a hack $10,000 to cover your living room walls with third-rate recipe photos featuring your child surrounded by the same props 5,000 other babies have bathed in spit, but I am sure weak people do it.
We called a photographer, and she said we would have to wait a month for the shoot and meet with her for a consultation that cost $267.50. We went and talked about the theme of the shoot and the wardrobe and so on, and she showed us lots of products. For example, a box of matted prints for $4000. She also showed us an aluminum plate 3' tall with a shiny picture on it; $2900. Not just expensive, but tackier than Elvis on black velvet, riding a tiger past a sad clown.
All we wanted were maybe 20 JPG's. She said she had a digital-only package but didn't have the price printed in her "Investment Guide" yet. Yeah, mall-grade baby photos are great investments. People call me all the time, asking me if I have any to sell for astronomical prices.
Her studio was a mother-in-law cottage next to her house. She had no lighting. She had one Canon camera and two primes. She had hooks on the wall with not-attractive baby clothes too small for my son. She had a bunch of cheap toys. I could literally set this studio up for $700. She didn't even have a tripod.
My wife and I talked about it later, and we decided all we wanted were JPG's. We don't want this stuff on our walls. We have better photos for that. We just wanted the standard milestone documentary shots, and we wanted someone else to shoot them because it would have been a pain for me to shoot photos with myself in them.
Found out she wanted $1090 for JPG's alone. Of course, editing accounts for that. Editing takes about 10 seconds per shot with Adobe presets you never change because you take the same photo 50,000 times, but, okay.
The photographer who did our newborn shots charged something like $250 at the hospital. She is no Vivian Maier, but her work is exactly as good as the new lady's.
I thought we were looking at a similar fee for the digital-only shots from the metal-photo photographer, or I would not have considered using her, but she managed to obscure the price until we had paid for the consultation. Now we both wonder if she is insane. My wife loves spending my money, but she wants no part of this.
Being old and not a moron, I knew I was looking at an operation that relied on outside coaching. I could tell someone was providing the spiel, the pretty boxes, and so on. I didn't let on at the session, because I am not poor, and we just wanted to get this over with. I didn't care about spending $600 for a $250 service. Now that it's a $1400 service, we are backing out. I call the $267.50 tuition.
I looked into the photo-churning business, and of course, I was right. There are coaching companies that provide photographers with ways to skin people. It's a lot like Omaha Steaks, which sells garbage meat for Wagyu prices. To name names, two coaches I learned about were Sue Bryce and Bernie Griffith. I learned that companies like White House sell 36" metal photos to photographers for $250, so less than 10% of $2900. I read about the amazing manipulative methods the coaches teach. How to overcome price objections and so on. How to pit wives against husbands, which is despicable.
You make people wait a month for shoots so you look busy and in-demand. You call them "clients," which is ridiculous. You show them catalogues with photos of the homes of apparent imbeciles with metal photos all over the walls.
Anyway, we are contacting the cheaper company to see what they will do for us, since nearly all baby photographers produce the same junk using the same lenses and themes and compositions and lighting and props. But we are probably going to turn an upstairs bedroom into a studio, and I will shoot the baby myself. I am getting better all the time, and I have been producing much better shots than the pros we have dealt with. I described these formula shots to my wife as, "Insert your baby here," and she thought it was hilarious.
I just want to know if other photographers here have opinions about professionally-coached photo mills that manipulate and deceive customers. You have to be a real idiot to pay a hack $10,000 to cover your living room walls with third-rate recipe photos featuring your child surrounded by the same props 5,000 other babies have bathed in spit, but I am sure weak people do it.
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