Home Forums Let’s Talk Photography Let's talk about the cost of being a pro. Reply To: Let's talk about the cost of being a pro.

#5390
cameraclicker
Participant

You can take a good photograph with a cell phone.  Unfortunately, it is a bit more difficult to take a nice close up of an eagle flying, or a whale breaching, with a cell phone, so a more capable camera is needed.  You can move up to a point & shoot, but while some of them have a long enough lens, they don’t focus quickly enough and there is shutter lag, so you move up again to an SLR.  Costs and weight go up each time.  The subjects may change but the concept remains, if you have to get a good photo, no excuses, you need equipment that will deliver.  As is pointed out in some of the comments, her list is missing a few items and is a bit optimistic.  The point of the blog is that it costs money to photograph at anything beyond the casual hobbyist level and if you are going to do it professionally, you have to understand your real costs and charge enough to cover your costs and make a profit so you can continue to do it.

That’s basic business.  It doesn’t matter if you are a one person shop or a multi-national with thousands of employees, if you don’t cover your costs and make a profit, you will be out of business.  The only difference is the one person shop may be out of business in a year or two and it may take the multi-national ten years.