Stick with me because this is not just a rant!

It amazes me how many people buy a nice camera (typically under $1,000 with 1 or maybe 2 kit style lenses and no hot shoe mountable flash), put up a Facebook business page, get business cards printed and say they are a photographer. Technically, anyone with a camera can likely be called a photographer, but the dictionary defines a photographer as a person who takes photographs especially as a job. So for the purpose of this post, a person that takes photographs is not a photographer but someone who takes photographs to make money as a job or career is what this post will focus on.

Does a hammer and a box of nails make someone a carpenter? No – Does putting a quart of oil in a car make someone a mechanic? No – Does using a plunger to unstop a toilet make someone a plumber? No – Then, why in the ____ do so many people think that owning a camera, having a Facebook business page with some of their images and business cards from Vistaprint makes them a photographer? Most new photographers that I meet have NO clue how to actually adjust settings on the camera and absolutely ZERO clue how to use a hotshoe mountable flash inside and outside. When it comes to editing, they are also not very knowledgable about that either.

My point to the above paragraph is that new photographers need to learn some basics and do a lot of other things to really be a solid photographer. Most of the $99 burn it all to a CD are not making a full time living at photography. I mean actually paying the household bills and putting food on the table with nothing but their photography income.

Does any of the above make someone a bad person or a bad photographer? No – It’s mostly just a rant from me about wannabees that have no clue what they are doing to themselves in their business or to the photography business in general. However, at the end of the day, unless these photographers are truly taking food off your table, I personally wouldn’t worry about it much and move on.

Rant Over – Here’s Why…………

Concerning the previous paragraph, a core reason that I wouldn’t worry about it is because if a $99 burn it all to a CD, new photographer with a kit lens is stealing all your business, you should consider a different target market. If you are a full time photographer consistently losing business to new low priced photographers, you need to explore your business plan and make adjustments. Hint: It’s not competing on price that will solve the problem.

There are clients who are shopping price and need images that are just good enough to get by. Images that will be used only on the web or social media in a small size may work fine for some clients. However, there are clients that want quality and don’t mind paying a fair market price to get it. So don’t go head-to-head with the $99 newbie kit lens photographers and don’t whine about it.

The problem with the low priced new photographers is that they are focused on being the low priced leader and some clients are looking for that. On the other hand, some new photographers are willing to travel hundreds of miles from their home base to make it happen, don’t whine about them either. Either do what they are doing or find another way to make it happen. Don’t get caught up on the new guy. Focus on your business and strategy instead. Trust me, the right clients are out there. Nothing worth having comes easy and working full time as a photographer is not the easiest way to make a living.

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This post was sparked by a call that I received this week which is similar to a handful of calls this year.

When the phone conversation starts like this: “What’s Your Price For A Headshot?” – “How Much Do You Charge For A Headshot?” – “I’m just calling around pricing. What Do You Charge For A Headshot?” I should start replying $10,000 because based on experience when price is the very first sentence of the call, the person RARELY books or calls back. FYI, I’m not expensive and I don’t charge $10,000 for a headshot.

I feel these type of callers fall under one of two areas: 1) They are purely shopping price and hope to find something really cheap. (FYI, they should call the local drug store or that big discount store we all love to hate around Christmas) or 2) They are a photographer, are doing market research for a photographer or work for a photographer and want to see what others are charging in the area.

I don’t believe these callers are genuinely interested in my services in the majority of cases because for those that are, the initial conversation goes something like this. “I found your website, like your work and I’m interested in getting a headshot done to update my LinkedIn profile. What does your availability look like?” or some other very similar scenario which is not “What’s Your Price For A Headshot?”

The most recent caller had NOT even looked at my work. She stated, “I’m just calling around for prices.” I’m very tempted in saying, “It’s $10,000.” But I guess I should bite my tongue because I am a professional and should act like one. However, I do think that I’ll try to be better at exploring more details with the price callers to at least gain a better insight rather than saying a headshot is X and they end the call.

Again, I’m not expensive for a headshot. Most callers schedule on the first call, the ones who say “What’s Your Price For A Headshot?” are rare. However, I still get frustrated by those calls and maybe I shouldn’t. My take and experience is that it’s a tire kicker wasting my time when I could potentially be on a call scheduling someone who is truly interested in my services because they like my work.

OK, blog rant over.

“Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.”
– Warren Buffett

The post What’s The Price Of A Headshot? $10,000 Should Be My Answer … Read More Below first appeared on .

This is a stock photography image for a visual. I’m a commercial photographer.

This post was sparked by a phone call that I had a few minutes ago with a lady needing a professional headshot which is a core area that I focus on for my commercial photography business. She mentioned that she had family pictures done a while back and the photographer burned all the images to a CD. She was a little surprised by my commercial pricing model of per image pricing. So I’m going to RANT in this post.

As photographers, each of us has the right to run our business as he or she would like. However, in the digital age, the photography industry has become diluted by “wanna be” …”weekend warriors” … “still have a day job photographers” … that like shooting family photography sessions for next to nothing and burning all or a boat load of images to a CD. Sure, “I’ll take two hours out of my day and shoot for you on a Saturday then burn 9,000 images to a CD for $99. No problem, it’s not how I make my living.” Yes, I’m being a little sarcastic, but I’m driving the point home. I hope!

In the commercial world that I work in, it’s a lot different than that. I’m thankful that I don’t have to compete against the “cut throat photographers” in the consumer world. At least I know when I quote a project that I am likely quoting against another full time professional with a very similar business model. For example, when I do headshots in studio, the fee that I charge to do the shoot includes ONE… YES, ONE… final edited image. Each additional image beyond the first one is an additional fee. YES, I charge by the image. Guess What? It works just fine that way. There are some photographers that would argue… SELL PRINTS. Most business professionals that I work with DO NOT NEED prints.

I recently photographed a dentist that got 3 final headshot images. He paid the base fee that included one image plus the per image fee for two additional images. BUT his wife was searching for a family photographer and would not dare pay the same price for 3 images of their family. The reason is because so many family photographers in the Raleigh market, and likely around the country, charge a fee that often includes either all the images burned to a CD or a large amount of images burned to a CD. The per image price often works out to $10 or less per image. FYI, I don’t see how these photographers can include any editing in that and I have yet to see many photographers than can nail it so well out of camera that their images do not need any editing at all.

Even within the family photography industry, the pricing is still very different. For example, the wife of the dentist above told me that the range she was finding in the Raleigh market varied from $150 to $700. Sure there is likely, and should be, a quality difference from the low end to the high end. But when someone is looking for family portraits, they likely look hard at two things: 1) How many images do I get on a CD? 2) What’s the price? It’s true that everyone has to work within a budget, but what happened to focusing on the quality experience and end result over the previous two things. One thing that I have learned about headshot inquiries is that I book an extremely HIGH percentage of those I speak with that don’t ask about price first and rarely book those that the first question is: “What’s the price of a headshot?” The reality is that I am competitively priced for headshots in Raleigh, but if price is their primary concern, I am not the lowest headshot photographer in the Raleigh market nor do I want to be.

The sad reality of this post is that it will likely NOT change anything. It’s just a RANT from a professional commercial photographer about a frustration with the family side of photography. But as long as digital cameras are easily available for the masses to put on “P” and get a decent image, there will be “wanna be photographers” diluting the industry with the approach of burn an enormous amount of images to a CD for peanuts. I’m thankful that I’m a commercial photographer and don’t have to fight those battles.

The post Family Photographers In Raleigh and Beyond – STOP Diluting The Photography Business By Burning All Images To A CD For Peanuts (FYI, I’m A Commercial Photographer) first appeared on .

A lot of Professional Photographer’s feel that many that do photography as a sideline take away from those who do it for a living.  I have mixed emotions about it all but want to share my thoughts in this post because we all have an opinion about something, right?

Here are the core problems that I have with photography as a side business: aka “The Photographer with the Nice Camera.”  FYI, it’s not the individual that I have the problem with.  It’s their approach.

1) Buying a nice camera kit (say the low end of $600 D5100 / T3i to the high end of roughly $1,800 roughly D7100 / 70D ) does not automatically make someone a photographer.  Oh that’s right, owning a nice camera and having a business card does (sarcasm).

2) Giving someone a CD with 100 unedited images from a photo shoot for $100 not only hurts the photography business but the personal brand of the one handing over the CD.  At minimum, edit select images (Lightroom and Photoshop Elements are both affordable), provide the best of the best (not all of them) and raise the price to a respectable market level.

3) Get some training.  Please get some training.  Putting a camera on auto mode and shooting may provide some nice images, but learning how to override the settings can take ones photography to  another level. A great way to start with some training is with the following: Kelby Training, Karl Taylor and FroKnowsPhoto.com Flash Guide.

4) Work your A** off to make it in photography.  Whether it’s part-time or full-time, photography is not the easiest business to be in unless someone is working for free or practically giving their work away (see #2).  Photography not only takes a lot of work to stay busy, but it requires investments in equipment, training, insurance and more.  Personally, I would not recommend anyone hire a photographer for their wedding just because they have one nice camera.  The photographer better have some backup equipment for that special day and some liability insurance.  FYI, I shot my last wedding in 2001.

As for Professional Photographer’s in Raleigh and beyond, they/we have to stay on our game.  One thing that I do like about the side business photographer’s is the desire within in me to make sure my personal work stands out.  As a photographer, either your worked is loved by others or it is not.  I only want to work with people who love my work.  If someone cannot tell a difference in a veteran professional’s work and the $100 CD photographer’s work, I cannot blame someone for focusing on the price.

As Professional’s, we have to do our part in the industry as well.  Whining and complaining is not the way to get things done.  We all have to work together and better the industry as a collaborative effort whether full-time, part-time or wanna be.

My guess is that top photographer’s, like Brett Florens, that get $20,000 for wedding photography are likely not worried about someone who just bought a “nice camera” and will be shooting weddings for $500 or a family CD for $100.  Ah, there’s another thought, “What’s Your Market?”  That may be good title for another blog post.

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