People Assuming You Do Free Photo Shoots
Last night, I received another asinine message from a Facebook 'friend' who wanted me to photograph her kids - free of charge. While she didn't say free, this was the wording: "Next time you're back home, remember I want you to shoot my kids if you don't mind - thanks." I am not a pro photographer by any stretch, nor do I ever want to make a living exclusively in this field. I do make some decent money doing real estate photography on the side, but I charge between $100 - $200 per house. Anyways, this request got me thinking about how your friends always assume you will take their pictures for free because you have a camera.
I replied to this 'friend' (I actually can't stand her, but her husband and I are childhood friends - so I tolerate her) and advised her that while I would be happy to set up a shoot with her kids, there would be a charge involved. The great thing about Facebook is that you can see when people see your messages. She read it, started typing a response and then went offline. I haven't heard anything since. So, I sent her another message with a few bullet points why I am going to charge her. Keep these in mind the next time you are about to offer your services for free, regardless of your skill level.
Shutter life: Your camera doesn't have infinite lives like a video game cheat. Usually, a few hundred thousand clicks. I shoot at least a 100 shots when I do a shoot of anything, from sunrises to people.
Travel cost: What this idiot friend didn't realize is that I live in Houston, and she lives in New Orleans. Sure, I have great flight benefits with the airlines, but how am I going to get to her? I almost always have to either rent a car when I go home, or use my parents' car which still costs me gas money. Locally, I can't go anywhere in Houston without traffic jams. That time and wear and tear of vehicles is worth more than friendship.
Processing time: Just think about how long it takes to get one .jpg image to the web. After you import it to your computer, edit it from a RAW file, export to your photo editor, make the tweaks and then save the image. For my real estate photos, I will spend no less than 10 minutes per image, and as much as an hour for an image until I am satisfied. Even people in sweat shops make more than 'free' per hour! Also, people who expect freebies will want to make prints at some point. So, that means you will have to more than likely resize images to accommodate a certain print size. Just as an FYI, professionals usually charge upwards of $150 for an 11x14 print. Minus the cost of about $30 to make a high quality print on good foam board, and they will make a killer profit margin.
I know most of us on this forum are just out there taking photographs for the pure joy and relaxation of it. Eventually, those free requests or implied freebies will start flooding your inbox, if they haven't already. Just remember that your time and equipment is not free. Who will pay between $200 - $400 for a new shutter when yours die? Certainly not that buddy or their kids who ate up a few hundred good clicks. Taking a photograph on vacation and editing it for hours and taking a screaming brat's photo and editing that for an hour are totally different! What are your thoughts?
