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The subject of professional photographic fees needs to be discussed and looked at in more detail. I have clients, not ones that I have previously worked for, but new enquiries when discussing their requirements to be amazed at what is a fair and accurate cost or fee to accomplish what they want from a photographic session. There is a sense of what you should be charging is relative to only what someone in a job should be earning per hour be it six ,eight even12 pounds per hour and not look at the bigger picture that professional photographers have to have and address to do the job to a high standard.

It is true that no one moans or is surprised when a washing machine or household appliance repair person being self employed or working for a company charge a call out fee just to attend and diagnose a fault at ninety pounds and then more cost to actually repair the issue. The call out usually give you the first hour of labour. This is also at their convenience on what part of the day they want to arrive while you wait in. How many operators like this can you say to I want a specific time for you to arrive. No, they give you a day when they can come; you have to wait possibly more than half a day for them to call. And still you pay the heavy call out fees without fuss.

In my experience my clients or perspective callers don’t say could you possible mosey over when you feel fit and etc. No the call is more positive with firm times and direction. The event is then and at a time and I want you to be there until and this has to happen and I want images back by this time etc etc. The whole employ is of a different nature and has the costs that come with it. An article written by a wedding photographer Jay Hoque outlines why the fees that are charged by professionals are justified and what we have to be and do in this profession. It is written with great accuracy and I want to share some of the information with you to explain why the fees are what they should be.

Why Wedding Photography is not as expensive as you think.

“Why is wedding photography so expensive”

“They’re only there for a few hours! It’s a rip off to charge that much for a few photo’s!”

 These are some of the questions and comments you might hear from people who have just received the quote from a wedding photographer. When a wedding quote for £2000 for an 8 hour wedding shoot is presented, the immediate assumption is that he/she is earning £250 per hour. But if you take a closer look at what goes on behind the scenes and see what really goes on then you will realise that wedding photographer make nowhere near that kind of money.

Contrary to what people believe. The disheartening fact is that most wedding photographers are not actually as expensive as they seem.

“You are kidding me right?” I hear you say. Well instead of asking why the expensive photographer is so expensive, ask yourself this,

“Why is the cheap photographer so cheap?”

What corners are they cutting?

Are they insured?

Are they using the right equipment?

How much experience do they have?

There are a number of reasons why there are so many cheap photographers out there. Here are some of the most common ones:

TBC in part two soon.

As I have previously mentioned in my blog the importance of what to consider when booking a corporate photographer in London. Apart from the working style and the individual capabilities of the photographer it is also a comfort that he or she has knowledge of their own equipment needs to produce a good service.

All photographers should be aware that you do need to use good brands of equipment like Nikon or Canon etc to be able to stand up to the demands given in every day life on a shoot. It is also vital that you never go to a shoot without backup pieces of equipment should something fail on you.

In my years of being an event photographer in London I can count on one hand the failures that have happened with either a lens or body. Even using some of the best equipment available it can still go wrong. But always I have to hand and often already set up to go a back up piece that I can carry on with and finalise the job in hand.

This responsibility of having back up is a sure difference between an experienced professional and someone who is not. A professional would ‘have in the bag’ two camera bodies, various lenses, two flash guns and a stock of batteries. So if anything went wrong another was close by.

Often now at shoots the client would need images quickly and having a laptop computer to hand is essential. Here too having one that is quick and efficient is a must. To reduce any risk to your quality of service a backup of software needed to post produce images should be carried. It is probably unreasonable to have a second computer to hand out in the field but software to download images from camera cards and programmes to do production is easily carried using USB pen drives or even having the programme saved to be re- installed if needed. It has been known that as long as you have the software with you to borrow another computer to get you out of a jam is a possibility. I have even gone to the extent to carry a spare computer hard drive and have a mirror image DVD of it should a main drive on a desktop computer fail at an assignment.

All this’ paranoia’ gives a trusted security to the client who has commissioned you to obtain the results needed for their use. They have more faith in you as a professional and a relationship of trust grows.