Reply To: "Freelance Photographer"…More Like Fauxtographer

[JanJan]

Thank you for all the positive feedback on my portfolio! I’ve been a hobbyist photographer, mainly shooting landscapes since 2006, but after taking an online photography class at my local community college in Spring 2012, I’ve moved on to taking pictures of people.

I might just keep in touch with her, only to make a new friend, which I don’t mind. However, I don’t think I plan on taking her with me to any of my shoots. The most I’ll probably do with her photography-wise is probably have a photo day just for fun, with no money involved or anything.

I continued to talk with her through text and asked if she gets paid for her work. She told me she just did a 3-hour baby shower for $150, but her normal shoots are $50. I told her that I’ve had paid shoots before (mainly to ensure that people don’t take advantage of my time), but I’m very careful and ask a lot of questions first to see if I can do it, and if I can’t, I just turn them down (especially if it’s for a wedding or special event). I make sure to be very honest about my skill level and let people know that I’m just starting out. In response, she told me that she will shoot anything, but will let people know if she can do it or not.

After she told me her rate, I’m starting to think that I’m charging too low to give myself so much stress on making my pictures perfect. I always get nervous before doing a paid shoot and I really plan ahead. I’ve been only charging people $60 for sessions up to 2-hours, and it also includes at least 10 of the best shots edited. However, for the most part, I’ve been offering free shoots or doing TFP shoots to build my portfolio, and only had 5 people pay me.

This is off-topic, but the reason why I’ve been charging on some of my shoots is to ensure that no one takes advantage of my time. When I did my first TFP shoot, I ended up spending about 10 hours with this girl her over a span of 3 days, and I don’t want that to happen again!