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Charlotte Ashley

Winter Always Comes

Business

4 Nov

Small business management is tricky and HARD. Lots of folks do not understand nor consider that 70% of a photographers time is NOT spent behind the camera snapping those wonderful pictures. In starting this post I’m reminded of an excerpt I read somewhere and just copied and pasted for my referral later. Lesson learned– document Charlotte!! Here’s to all you professional artists!!

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In this digital age where everyone has digital cameras, scanners and home “photo printers,” when people upload their photos to a local drug store website and pick them up a few hours later, we hear this all the time – how in the world do professional photographers charge $55 for an 8×10 when they cost just $1.50 at the drug store? Here’s why.

Simply put, you’re not just paying for the actual photograph, you’re paying for time and expertise. You expect to be paid for your time put into your career, right? First, let’s look at the actual time involved. (If you don’t read this entire page, at least read this first part.)

For a two hour portrait session:

  • one hour of travel to and from the session
  • two hours of shooting
  • 30 minutes of setup, preparation, talking to the client etc.
  • 30 minutes to load the photos onto a computer (2 – 4 GB of data)
  • 30 minutes to back up the files on an external drive
  • 3-4 hours of editing time including cropping, contrast, color, sharpening, saving a copy for print and a copy for the Internet and backing up the edited photographs
  • 3-4 hours to talk to the client, answer questions, receive their order and payment, order their prints, receive and verify prints, package prints, schedule shipment and drop package off at Fed Ex.

You can see how one, 2 hour session easily turns into more than ten hours of work from start to finish. So when you see a photographer charging a $200 session fee for a two hour photo shoot, you are not paying them $100/hour. For an eight hour wedding: I won’t bore you with the details, but an eight hour wedding typically amounts to at least two to three full 40 hour work weeks worth of time. Again, if they are charging you $4,000 for an eight hour wedding, you are not paying them $500/ hour.

Now for the expertise. Shooting professionally is a skill, acquired through years of experience. Even though a quality camera now costs under $2,000 taking professional portraits involves much more than a nice camera. Most professional photogs take years to go from buying their first decent camera to making money with their photography. In addition to learning how to use the camera itself, there is a mountain of other equipment involved, as well as numerous software programs used to edit and print photographs, run a website etc. And let’s not forget that you actually have to have people skills, be able to communicate, make people comfortable in front of the camera – and posing people to make them look their best in a photograph is a skill all by itself.

Think of it this way – the next time you pay $X to get your hair done, a pair of scissors only costs $1.50. But you gladly pay a lot more to hire a Professional.

But wait, what about the cheap studios at the mall? Please don’t compare us to the chain store studios. But if you must, consider all of the time and work that we put into our photographs, compared to what they do. Good luck getting a two hour photo shoot at a chain store. Not to mention they won’t come to the beach! And of course, look at our work compared to theirs. You get what you pay for. The truth is, most of the mall and chain store studios lose money. In fact, in 2007 Wal-Mart closed 500 of their portrait studios because of the financial drain they were putting on the company. What the chain stores bet on is that you’ll come in for some quick and cheap photos, and while you’re there, you’ll also spend $200 on other things. They don’t have to make money, they are just there to get you in the door.

Conclusion: We hope that those who have taken the time to read this page will have a better understanding of why professional photographs cost so much more than the ones that you get from your local mall or drug store.

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Thanks to my friend and fellow photog at HMK Photography I’ve stumbled upon this awesome blog about the business management behind photography which brought to my attention this AWESOME video that I’m posting mainly for myself to refer back to from time-to-time when I’m feeling down in the dumps about my photography. I almost closed it after sitting through a couple seconds of the intro but I’m glad I didn’t. Check it out. Just watch.

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Comments

  1. Nomad says

    November 6, 2009 at 11:46 am

    i had never really thought about how much behind the scenes work goes on. great post.

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Meet Charlotte!

Hey, hey friend! :) I'm so glad you're here! God gives me all the strength to navigate this crazy, beautiful life of mine; and this is my attempt to keep it somewhat documented and organized! My family and I believe we are called to be stewards of the land and try our hardest to live a biblically-based, holistic life. You'll discover a whole lot about nature, photography, and being a creative entrepreneur if you poke around a little bit on the site! Enjoy. More about me...

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charlotteashley


I have never, until today during our Latin transla
I have never, until today during our Latin translations, even WONDERED what ‘alma mater’ means, or the origin of the words. Have you?? It means ‘nurturing mother’ in Latin, which makes so much sense now. 🥴 Why are we conditioned to refer to state institutions as our nurturing mother? 🧐

#NOPE #latin #almamater #thisishomeschool #homeeducator #howwehomeschool


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Found my first ever digital photo files. 😳 Gah, I need to look at these!!! Who can come through for me with a floppy disk reader?! 😆 Y’all, THESE were the memory cards; this was inserted into the digital camera. 🥴🫠

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It’s a screenshot from a video filmed Saturday night in low-light on a smart phone, but it captured a core memory for me! 💜 We used to dance a lot; well before everyone had video devices with them everywhere. 😅👵🏼 This picture is such a treasure to me-  my forever dance partner! 🥰 Thank you, @pampamtee !!!

#dancepartner #coupleslinedance #longbranch #foreverdancepartner #couplegoals


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I’ve recently realized that most of my friends force me out of my comfort zone. 😆😆😆 And while I am not the best at voicing my thoughts a lot of times, I’m so very thankful for that in my friends! 

And it is no different for this girl! 

Find you a friend who says, (meanwhile, while we are planning a trip to Utah), “Oh! But let’s extend a couple days, rent a car, leave Utah and travel to Idaho for some sight- seeing to check that state off my list! And while we are there we may as well drive on to Oregon before flying back home. And possibly Washington if we have time!” 😳🤣 And so we did! (We didn’t make it to Washington, though.)

Or a friend when returning from a girl’s trip to Hawaii with a 4 hr layover in San Francisco says, “you know… we might as well hop in an Uber and go see the Golden Gate Bridge while we wait.”And already had the Uber lined up before I could think this through. 😆😅 

I knew of April in high school, and even vacationed with her family (friends also with her SIL) one Christmas to Dollywood, and thought, “now there’s a girl who isn’t afraid to just tell it like it is. I LOVE THAT!” 🤣 No wonder our lives have connected years later! And I’m SO THANKFUL FOR YOU!

Happiest of birthdays, @april_waddell_essentials ! Have the best adventure today!!!


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Y’all… I really *am* thankful for friends in my life who push me out of my comfort zone. lol! And also plan adventures!!! I do think of the fun adventures in my head, but the planning part is NOT my forte. However, my pal Allison has it down pat! 🙌 She approached me several months ago about an overnight backpacking trip with her and her kids. I was reluctant, but I also have been slightly curious how it would be, since I’ve camped many times- just not by packing everything in on foot.  So, when she said it would be for only one night, AND we would have another gal along who had done it many times, I agreed! 

Well, two days before leaving, we had to pivot. 😅 Our ‘guide’ had a family emergency, and couldn’t go with us. So, our original plan for hiking the Blue Ridge Parkway had to be switched up a little, since we both knew nothing about it. We decided to add a little safety net and backpack into a primitive site at Jones Gap State Park instead. It was WONDERFUL! We camped beside a waterfall, and had the best time! 

Our backpacks were SLAM FULL. 😆 And we survived it! We all slept in hammocks. Well… I didn’t sleep real well actually because I FROZE (40ish degrees) even though I had on a short sleeve, a long sleeve, a sweat shirt, and a jacket all while inside a sleeping bag. 🤣🤦‍♀️ I definitely learned I need a hammock liner or something. 

Regardless, I would totally do it again! 🙌💜 So thankful for nature-loving friends!!!

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