My First Payed Shoot

[Ernicus]

Ernicus, any tips on paid expectations? It would really really help.

Well, it's a touchy subject so I generally don't give my opinion on it. That, and I don't produce anything worth anyone paying for myself, so I kinda don't have much room to talk.

Having said that, I'll give my thoughts 'cause I know you won't get upset. lol.

My opinion on people buying shots. People expect perfection. Plain and simple. Many times, and I've witnessed this in other professions, people act happy because they are excited with the event as a whole. So we can oftentimes be mislead by their excitement. Also...if they are decent folk...they don't want to be rude...and they give false happiness as well. Later...they take their new pics to show friends and family and people being people, nit pick and point out flaws. All of a sudden they are not happp. Now your name is associated with bad press. Word of mouth is the best thing in the world to a persons business...and the most devastating at the same time.

When I get to the point where I want to sell services and photos, I can already tell that I will be problematic. What I mean by that is that I have such high expectations of myself and my work. If it's not something I would hang on my wall and be proud to show the world, I won't sell it. I won't let my eagerness to sell something overshadow my product. I am not saying you are...I'm just kinda letting my brain flow out in text on my thoughts of the subject. I had people offer to buy pics of mine and a friend wanted me to shoot lilacs to sell to her. I shot about 200 lilacs (dunno if you saw my post on lilacs or not, lol). All were **** to me. She liked a couple and wanted them anyway and I gave them to her. So...if one day she shows someone and they don't like them...they can always say they were "free" and so forth.

Now, having said that, I know that I am very hard on myself and one day when I shoot something worth while or really want to start making money, I know I'll need to loosen up a bit, but I am not ready for that.

So, there's my little rant on what I think. Now on to your pictures. I fear you could be caught up in the situation where the buyers will be excited to get them, as they love their kids...love seeing pics of their kids...etc...but later down the road...I would guess they may not like having paid for them. To me, they just aren't what I would expect as a customer to receive. Now..this could also be because I have a bit more knowledge than the average person about photography. I dunno. I know people and their expectations though. Having said that...I don't know all that well of people and their exceptions of photos...because I have no personal experience selling them. There were many great critiques and suggestions that point out many flaws, so that to me also states they are not "sell" worthy.

However, if they wanted to hire you, per se, and you accepted, I do feel that you should definitely be compensated for your time. I personally would have no problem paying someone for their time, even if I did not care for the end result, or the end result was not as great as I had hoped. Many of my jobs, even my own business when I had one, afforded me the opportunity to learn that time is money and people should indeed be paid for their time.

I guess that's all, if I think of more stuff I'll type it. I can get long winded when I do have an opinion on something. My main issue is I have a great deal of experience with customer service and giving the customer what they want, just zero experience as a photographer selling his/her product. So some of my thoughts may not fit the photog world, and some may disagree...but I started this post with "these are my opinions" so opinions are what they are.