FAQs
- What should the customer know about your pricing (e.g., discounts, fees)?
My pricing is roughly $180 an hour, I will normally factor gas into the price (round up to $200 for distance) and then go from there. My pricing is based on how difficult the shoot is, how far the shoot is, and potentially how many photos I will have to edit after the shoot. The longer the shoot, the more I will charge because it is mentally exhausting to shoot longer than 4 hours, especially for weddings because you don't want to miss a single moment. There have been times where I worked a whole 8 hours without eating because the event didn't have long enough breaks between each session. So if the event is more challenging, I will charge more than my usual base price.
- What is your typical process for working with a new customer?
When working with someone new for the first time I ask them a series of questions. What they expect, what they want out of the photos, if they saw other photo styles they like, or if there are specific people, events, or poses they would like during the photo shooting process. This gives me an idea of what they want. If they have no idea, I will give them suggestions. I have created an "inspiration gallery" of other photographer's photos and I will show those photos to my client to help them decide what they want. If they still don't know what they want, I can normally figure it out based on what they describe to me.
- What education and/or training do you have that relates to your work?
I learned the hard way shooting 35mm film on an old Minolta SLR camera. Growing up my parents had cameras and I would play around with their cameras and video camcorders, and unconsciously learned from just having fun. By the time I became an adult and my friends started asking me questions to trouble shoot cameras, I knew the answers because I would go through all the menus to learn how it all worked. My favorite school subject is history, and I studied the history of photography and what made a good shot. By the time I started using digital cameras it just made it easier because they autofocus and help you frame the photos. Having said that, I often times shoot full manual raw photos anyways because that is the only way to truly get the highest quality photos. Last but not least, I am the official Vendor at my local Best Buy and I teach photography classes. You learn so much about cameras and photography when you teach someone else the basics. So I am constantly learning more everyday!