| Artists beware! By far, the most difficult areas in | | | | them off due to the ease I have acquired with the |
| creating successful and agreeable business plans have | | | | camera. This is the type of issue that is very difficult |
| to do with working within proposed budgets and | | | | to emotionally deal with. |
| agreeing upon realistic time constraints. Typically, | | | | Finding out what the fair market value is for artistic |
| from my experience in providing the service of | | | | services (other than photographs) can be very |
| wedding photography, there are many hidden hours | | | | misleading and stupefies most people (including myself |
| working on projects where clients typically | | | | at times). The varying talents of each artist vary and |
| underestimate processing time, skill level, and time | | | | are difficult to price and compare. |
| spent in correspondence with them. I worry about | | | | To be honest, I think designers are easy targets for |
| my client accepting the cost of what it takes to pull | | | | dishonest people. From my experience as a wedding |
| together a top-notch product. | | | | photographer (a 20 year whirlwind), I have been |
| For instance, if I had a set of photographs on hand | | | | verbally muscled around too much! I learned that I |
| for a project and showed the pictures to a client | | | | had to work with a pre-set pricelist of the cost of |
| prior to writing up a business plan, in many cases, the | | | | every facet of my business. Otherwise, the |
| client would want me to throw in the photographs as | | | | customer assumed all extra services were FREE. Not |
| a bonus. But, if the client had to purchase these | | | | only this, but many people tried to "sweet talk" me |
| photographs online for on average $300 each at | | | | into lowering prices by minimizing my efforts and |
| Getty Images (that is, if I didn't happen to have | | | | costs while maximizing their financial challenges. So |
| them on hand), my client would probably agree to | | | | unfair! But, what was worse than that was the |
| pay the price. Then again, if the client knows that I | | | | occasional disgruntled attitude (buyer's remorse) after |
| will take the images on location for them, the price | | | | a shoot. This aspect is ugly and if a designer or |
| would be expected to go down to as low as $10 | | | | photographer is not careful, the clientele can beat |
| each. Yet, would I not deserve a fair marketable | | | | them down to the point of burning out of the |
| price per photograph? Since photography is second | | | | business. When this occurs, it's not "buyers beware," |
| nature to me; my clients can easily think I am ripping | | | | rather it should be "artists beware! |