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