Whether it is through ignorance, or more nicely put, a lack of understanding, an expected favour or perhaps an effort to haggle. I’ve experienced all three and each is as frustrating as the next. Now I will put my hands up and confess that I am by no means an experienced business woman and I’m definitely not the best at applying a price tag but I’m going to discuss the matter nonetheless.

Lets start with a lack of understanding by outlining what photography actually costs.
First of all, in a lot of cases photographers have expensive equipment and software. Personally, my gear is worth more than my car, so I will leave it to you to imagine how hard I have had to work to be able to buy it.

Second, and arguably the most important point of all, the photographer knows how to use that equipment and has the creativity and vision to take photographs that you probably saw in their portfolio. The photos that made you want to hire them in the first place.

Lastly is time. With photography, every project can vary, but you can still measure the amount of time (and money) the photographer spends traveling, and then there is the actual shooting, and the countless hours they will spend editing your photographs when you aren’t looking. This is without even considering sourcing prints or albums, which can be another time consuming task. Yes, there will be large chains offering a cheap portrait session (I’m looking at you Max Spielmann), but I challenge you to get the same amount of time, care and quality as you would from a dedicated photographer.

Lets use an example of a photoshoot that takes three hours and a further three hours editing. If you were charging Max Spielmann rates the photographer is getting much less than minimum wage based on their time alone. Then bring in the expensive kit, unique service, time and attention to detail that you should be getting from a good photographer and you start to realise what you are paying for.

Expected favours – people that knew you five years ago, people that know your friends sister, people that associate themselves with you merely because you live in the same area code. I’m sure many people get this when they are starting out or when they are a photographer alongside their day job. Don’t get me wrong, ‘free work’ can be a great thing, but as a rule of thumb, a photographer is only going to do it if they are getting benefit from it; a new experience or an invaluable addition to the portfolio. This normally happens when working with another experienced photographer or perhaps a talented model, for example. It’s very humbling to be asked by people you barely know to take photographs for them, but it’s also very disheartening if they come expecting it for nothing.

And people who haggle. This is to be expected, individuals do it, businesses do it. It happens every day in every sector. I’d like to hear personal opinions from people as to how they handle this situation (photographer or otherwise)? You have offered someone your well thought out packages for them to pick from, or given them a confident price to suit their request and they come back with a counteroffer. At what point do you turn down work, and at what point do you risk devaluation of your work by lowering your price?

Personally I think it is best to counteroffer the potential client back. If they aren’t willing to pay an amount for a certain package, then perhaps they would like to pay less for a smaller package. It’s just like going into Topshop and really wanting a shirt and a jacket but only being able to afford the shirt and using your other jacket.

Please let me know your thoughts and experiences in the comments.

Becca, a model and mother of one, is great to work with, a natural in front of the camera. It is nice to experiement with portraits away from my usually candid approach.

I have an arranged shoot with Becca and a male model who is a friend of hers in June which I am really looking forward to.

Let me know what you think.

The donkey was nice, though!

There aren’t many of my close friends that I haven’t taken photos of, I’ll get all of them eventually.

This is Nat and Jack, and they are silly and fun

Dylan has had to suffer me sticking my camera in his face quite a lot now, on this day he was giving me a very stern face but by the end of the day he wanted a cuddle from me so I think I did well.

This type of photojournalism fascinates me, as does history and war, but it’s obviously a long way from my own personal style or ambitions. I feel my approach to photography is changing as quickly as my life is. I’m not a student any more so I have a lot less time to take photos as I always did so in the daytime. I rarely take photos of myself now and my subjects are different and the amount of my subjects that are clients is increasing. I think it’s a good thing, change. I do, and probably always will, miss being a student, it was the best few years of my life, but I have to embrace the future.

This photo was a result of me getting out my new softbox and testing whether or not my triggers would fire my flash from my Canon AE-1 (this was a lighting test on the 5D). Turns out I can go strobist with my AE-1 so I’ll upload some film shots soon. I’m also about to shoot a roll of Portra that will be the last leg of a double exposure project with Bastien!

This first set of photos is from the first half of the trip, the weather was dull, windy, but not raining so it wasn’t too bad for street photography.

Previously when visiting London I have often chosen to only take one of my 35mm SLR’s, I’m not sure why I just felt like it was what I needed to do some shooting from the hip on the busy streets of London. I can safely say that the 5D2 was an absolute dream to shoot with in this situation and I think I’ll be shooting a lot more digital going forwards. Not that I would ever stop shooting film of course, that would be absurd!

I will post the second set of photos tomorrow, and in my opinion they only get better from here so do come back for London Part II.

Even though it is February, the signs of spring appeared overnight with lots of sunshine, extended daylight, singing birds and the feeling of darkness that looms over my head in winter is fading.

Spring means a lot to me, it’s almost like enduring the winter is worth it just to appreciate the beginning of spring, to embrace new beginnings and live life in the moment.

The sunshine seems to have appeared at a significant time in my life, my career in both Marketing and Photography have recently taken a leap forwards. One thing that will be changing is my camera. My companion, the 500D has been sold and is going to be on it’s way to a new owner tomorrow. Today I took the chance to go out with it one last time and do a quick self-portraiture session. Seemed a fitting way to end my relationship with the camera as a lot of the experimenting I did was using myself as a subject, something which I find myself doing less of now. The beautiful sunshine evaded me behind clouds (cheeky), so I didn’t get some of that to-die-for natural light that I rave about but it was a nice morning nonetheless.

I’ve been wanting to get my hands on a full-frame, professional camera body for some time but I always knew it wasn’t affordable. More recently I’ve needed to push myself into making the step because I have planned shoots this year that I wouldn’t want to be without a 5D mk2 for. Having said this, I’m glad I spent so much time using my 500D, I feel as though I pushed what I could from it.

This weekend I went to see some friends and their babies and cats. Taking photos of young children is something I’d only ever done a few times in the past, it’s very challenging for all of the obvious reasons. I got some nice photographs of Harry and Dylan this weekend, even though we were inside because it was raining and it was quite dark (acquiring a softbox is becoming essential). We are planning to do another shoot, maybe on a nicer day. I don’t ask of any of my subjects to pose but with kids you sometimes have to intervene to the point of getting them to be in the right place, facing the right way and keep them entertained. However, the photos in the post are completely natural, when I caught them off-guard.

Chasing kittens for a photo is equally fun. This kitten won me over, she was so playful and when she got tired she laid next to me, licking my hand before falling asleep.

All in all, a nice relaxing way to spend a saturday and take some casual photographs. I know there are a lot of parents that want photos of their young ones so if you are reading this and interested in a photoshoot that is not studio based, then please contact me.

The other thing I did this weekend was to put my camera and some other bits on sale. This means the long-awaited new camera will be entering my life pretty soon. Yey!