How much do you spend???

Its really a quite simple question isn't it? How much do you spend on photography? Think of all of the equipment bought, think of all of the hours and time spent, think of the creative exhaustion, think of all classes taken, blogs read, youtube watched. All of this... to make you a better photographer than the next person.

Next time you are shooting, time yourself on all aspects of the shoot: Pre-production, Production, and Post-production. I'll venture to guess that you spend around 1 to 2 hours on Pre production, 2 hours on production, and 2 - 4 hours on post-production. A conservative guess is that you are spending 5 hours on a shoot.

This next part some of you aren't going to like but it needs to be stated. How much are you charging? I look through the classifieds from time to time, and all I can say is WOW!! You are really going to charge $25 for a session and give them a CD of all of your images at the end. You are basically pricing yourself out of business. lets do the math.... $25 divided by 5 hours.... yup thats $5 an hour. At that rate you will never be able to find success in photography. You would do better to work in fast food for $7.50 an hour.

The worst part of this scenario is you are letting everyone (potential clients) know that photography is a cheap commodity, and that it shouldn't be taken seriously. Not only are you hurting your own business, your hurting everyone else's. People are starting to expect to pay less for photography. How much easier would it be to state your price knowing that people are expecting to pay a premium?

Now you may be saying, "I cant charge a lot, i am only learning right now" that may be true but look at the time your spending on a shoot and figure in all of your expenses. No matter what your charging, you need to come out in the positive. Also, you need to remember. WE ARE ALL LEARNING!!! have confidence in yourself and your abilities, no matter how limited. People will feel better about paying you more, if your confident.

I wrote this post because some of my students have a hard time in this area. They feel a cheap client is better than no client. Truthfully it can be hard to turn down clients because they don't want to pay. I promise this... if someone turns you down because your too much... you didn't want that client anyway, they would have been the worst client ever. Picky! Picky!

I would love to hear thoughts on this... please forward and comment.

Best

Jedediah

Marketing

As of Lately I have been reviewing and editing the lectures for my advanced class. The class is created to help photographers with the business and marketing aspects of photography. I have been reading a couple of books on the subject and have made some very profound discoveries. The first book that I have been reading is a book by Selina Maitrea called "How to succeed in Commercial photography". Selina is a leading photography consultant that will work with all styles of photographers. Here technique on success starts with the photographers vision. This is the most important business quality that a photographer can develop. A photographers vision is what defines them in the market place. By developing a distinct vision the photographer will have a marketable product.
The next book I am reading is called "The Brand Gap" by Marty Neumeier. Neumeier Is a leading brand consultant and takes a more inside out approach to branding. He wrote "The Brand Gap" to help businesses get on the same page (so to speak) with the brand message that they are sending. His approach is more of collaboration of individuals giving input and working together to define a brand. This book has changed my view of branding all together. Most people think of brands as logotypes or design work to make something feel more professional... not at all! A brand lives inside of its customers. It is the gut feeling that people have about your service or product. ultimately we are not the ones defining our brand, our customers are!
I could get really carried away writing about this subject. If I did, I wouldn't have much to teach to my advanced students! Come take a class and learn how effective branding and marketing will really help your business. In the meantime I recommend purchasing and reading these two books.

Poor Little Bunny

A few days ago my wife sent an email to my sisters and my sisters in law. She tried to keep it secret, but she is horrible at keeping secrets... here is what it read:

I thought i Would share this funny little story for your enjoyment:

Friday morning I wake up, and go to the bathroom. I walk in to find the medicine basket down with the nyquill spilled all over the counter. Hmm, jed must not be feeling well. I come out of the bathroom, Jed rolls over and mumbles something to the effect of "I'm really sick", and back to sleep. So..., I assume he has the flu. It has been going around our house if you haven't heard. I proceed to change up my hair appointment I had that morning, and continue on with my day. I go in an hour later to check on my sick husband, see what I can do for him. He wakes up super grumpy, I ask about his symptoms, and all he can muster up is that once again he is really sick, and back to sleep. An hour after that, it is now around 10am, jed rolls out of bed and sits at the kitchen table and stares at me all nyquilled up. "How are you feeling?" "Do you think you have what Jessey had?" still trying to be nice and understanding. HIs response to me is "No, it's just my throat, it's all sore and scratchy and dry". Yes, it's true. Jed had a sore throat on Friday. Poor little Bunny. This is funny alone, but then my friend Ashley shared this video entitled "Man Cold" from youtube. Check it out.