You paid WHAT for a photographer?

I'm writing this primarily because personal friends and even family have asked "Why do photographer's charge so much" since we just "push a button on a camera". I'm here to explain why we charge what we do.

First, there is something called COB, or Cost of Business", and that is a breakdown of how much it costs to run your business divided by the number of days you spend conducting sessions. Some photographers high ball that number, I personally low ball that number. I charge half of what it thinks I should!

Second, we do not just "push a button on a camera", professional photographers who take pride in their work go above and beyond to learn angles, lighting, ISO's, shutter speed, and apertures. That is just IN camera, outside of the camera we have to learn proper editing techniques so photos aren't over and under exposed, while adding a bit of an artistic flair to each photo. Photographers are like finger prints, everyone has their own signature techniques, looks, edits, angles etc.

Another thing to consider, a photographer may spend an hour of their time with you, while capturing your beautiful images, but our work doesn't stop there. Once we get home we spend hours editing your images. Editing times of course depends on length of the session and number of shots, but editing wedding photos can take 10-18 hours! That could be a total of 26+ hours we work for you.

When purchasing a CD of your images, the price isn't high just because we feel our work is worth it, we have to account for the cd, the label, the case, the packaging, the envelope, the postage, and the tracking (if applicable).

Personally, I am a stay at home mom running my business, so I don't have "work" to put in front of you or your photos. Stay at home wives have to do laundry, cooking, cleaning, along with their own personal hygiene. I'm also a mom which means I have to cook special meals, do extra laundry, clean up toys (that when stepped on can be EXTREMELY painful haha), as well as making sure a 36inch tall human doesn't hurt himself, get into anything that can hurt him, walk out of the house, or break things, play with said tiny human, and teach him things he will need for the rest of his life. Then lastly a business owner, I have to create ads/flyers, create marketing material, create contracts, take photos, edit photos, create prints, create CD's, ship prints and/or CD's, spend HOURS promoting my business personally, and finding the proper target markets, as well as holding contests when I reach milestones, and finding ways to be certain I'm giving my clients the best deals possible. This is basically three full time jobs when you think about the time that goes in to everything. That is why 68% of small businesses ran by stay at home mom's do not succeed.

All in all, photographers do much, much more than just simply pushing a button. If you've ever paid a photographer $20 for a session with a cd of images, you will understand what all we do. I know these prices are not something EVERYONE can afford in this economy, so I run a few games to offer discounted sessions as well as offer discounts, and I even offer a payment plan for big events like Weddings and Children's 1st year milestone bundles. If you need a payment plan for any other session, don't hesitate to ask because I WILL WORK WITH YOU! <3

The Buzbee's

These two were funny. He is celebrating his 20 years in the service! Once we got there is started to sprinkle and did it off and on, so we rushed and mashed the 90 minute session into just an hour but I think it worked!! I'm not sure hubby was very happy about one outfit ever 20 minutes though. haha. I am in LOVE with how these photos turned out. See what happens when you have fun during a shoot? ;)

Baby B - 6 days new

Friday I got to work with this precious little one (who didn't help my baby fever at all). She was pretty set on NOT sleeping, until the very end. They all turned out amazing. I can't even begin to tell you how much I love these photos. Hopefully you enjoy all of them as much as I do. <3

Baby Lindquist

First off, this little one was the LEAST fussy baby I have ever had to deal with giving his age! Secondly, he gave me a serious dose of baby fever! He was so adorable! I'm not late posting this, he was born in December so we decided to give the shoot a Christmas feel! <3 I love every single photo. I hope to work with him, and the rest of his family again in the future.

Mazzeo Wedding

Well, I have officially worked my first wedding! I learned so much from this experience, and there is still more to learn. These are just the posed photos following the ceremony. I will add more of the ceremony/reception later on once I finish editing the entire evening. I'm only about half way through!

CONGRATS TO THE NEW MR & MRS MAZZEO!

 

Last day in Wisconsin :(

I'm rather sad to be leaving tomorrow morning. Some people may find that odd because we are with my in-laws, and not my blood family, but they have also taken me in as if I am blood family and that's truly awesome. I couldn't have better in laws. <3 I must say though, I'm ready to get home to the warmth and sweat out this cold my family got while we were here.

We went around to see the scenery one more time today, and we saw EAGLES! How awesome? Bald eagles - the bird of America. The photos are far away and flurry (Eagles were shot with a 300mm lens) because they are rather shy, and ran from cars and people. I also got a group of cows at a dairy farm and some wild turkeys! Everything here is so beautiful. I wish it snowed in Florida, even if only for a month. :)