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Bit of a blow up the last couple of days over a Craigslist ad.
The ad in question has been taken down. Here’s what it said:
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WHY is finding an amazing wedding photographer so difficult? :/
I am a Bride who is getting married this summer and have yet to find a decently priced, exceptional, amazingly talented, fun photographer.
WHY because the word “WEDDING” is involved photographers think they can change you $ 3,000.00 for wedding photos? Oh, because no bride is going to go without so they are going to pay it, because they HAVE to. They are ripping people off for all they have! Why when you want to get married it costs you AT LEAST 15 grand after all is said-and-done? Its such CRAP!! I love all you $ 3,000.00 photographers out there but i think your prices are WACK. All your doing is hanging out at a wedding taking tons of photos and editing them.. and thats owrth 3 GRAND!!! You’re making so much money its crazy. I just wish people would be more realistic. I mean the “average” persons salary for 1 freaking month is somewhere around 3 grand. (Thats making 19$ an hour) So you’re going to take someones WHOLE MONTH paycheck for one flippen day of photos? Just because you CAN!!?????? So that maybe they will not be able to feed themselves or pay any other bills they have, right? It makes me SICK!
I know im speaking for more than just myself right now. Alot of brides out there think the same thing. & I bet all you fancy photographers wont even read this. oh-well.
Maybe there are cheaper photographers that will read this and LOVE to take my photos
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To start, I sympathize. I really do. Weddings are expensive. Always have been. Likely always will be.
(Quick point: be thankful the practices of the dowry, dower, or brideprice are no longer common!)
But the above contains a whole load of misconceptions. Let’s tackle some. Not necessarily in order.
1. “All your [sic] doing is hanging out at a wedding and taking tons of photos and editing them.”
Sounds easy, right? Just hanging out? It’s like a vacation and a party all at once! WOOHOO!
My wedding coverage ranges from 8 hours to all day. Regardless, my day starts early and ends late.
At the wedding, I’m on my feet almost the whole time. More than that, I’m working. Organizing people, posing people, figuring out shots, staying out of the way, rushing to where I need to be, setting up equipment, taking down equipment, lugging equipment around, and so on. If I’m lucky, I get a minute to sit down and inhale some food.
By the end of even a short wedding, I need a shower. Bad.
Think about it. Your wedding photographer sticks with you the entire day. Make up artist? Pre-wedding. DJ? Reception. Baker? Not even there after delivering the cake. Florist? Sets up and leaves. Limo driver? Now that’s a guy that spends a lot of time hanging out. Sure, most of these people have prep work before the wedding, but we’re talking about the “just hanging out all day” notion.
I love this work, but no lies: it’s exhausting.
And then editing and retouching the photos. Sounds simple.
When I go on vacation or shoot for fun, maybe I take a few dozen or even a few hundred photos. I’ll pick a handful, do something with them, and maybe post ‘em to Flickr or Facebook. Easy peezy. That’s the frame of reference most people have.
A wedding is a different animal. A WAAAY different animal.
I take a lot of photos. No, you don’t understand. A LOT of photos.
From those, I cull out the bad stuff. You know: eyes closed, extremely unflattering expressions, or where some guest’s flash blew out my shot, or any other technical problems.
What remains is still a lot. I put my “touch” on those. Every one of them. I have my trade secret shortcuts, but it still takes time. And unlike personal photos, I can’t do them whenever I feel like it. Maybe get to them in a year, or maybe not at all. My clients are excited and want their wedding photos NOW. I don’t want them waiting any longer than absolutely necessary.
And don’t forget the engagement session, the meetings and all that other stuff. Which brings us to the second point…
2. “You’re making so much money its[sic] crazy. I just wish people would be more realistic. I mean the “average” persons[sic] salary for 1 freaking month is somewhere around 3 grand. (Thats making 19$ an hour) So you’re going to take someones[sic] WHOLE MONTH paycheck for one flippen[sic] day of photos?”
I get where this one comes from. It does seem like a lot of money.
Thing is, we aren’t just talking about “one day” of photos. Not even close.
Let’s break down a typical wedding:
- Initial e-mail contact. I respond and set up a meeting.
- Meet with the bride and groom.
- More e-mails or phone calls to set up engagement session (included in all packages).
- Engagement shoot.
- Editing, retouching, and delivering disc of engagement photos.
- Pre-wedding meeting to go over final details.
- Wedding day.
- Editing, retouching, and delivering a disc of wedding photos.
- Most of my packages include an album and prints, so there’s set-up/design work there.
I’m not listing the exact hours. It varies anyway. But it’s safe to say that it’s a bit more than a day’s worth of work.
3. “I am a Bride who is getting married this summer and have yet to find a decently priced, exceptional, amazingly talented, fun photographer.”
It’s hard to address this one without sounding like a jerk.
It’s the qualifiers here that trip it up. The bride wants premium work – “exceptional” and “amazingly talented.” But she doesn’t feel those qualities should cost much.
That’s kind of like saying you want the quality and prestige of a Rolls Royce, but at the cost of a Kia.
A Rolls is hand made to exacting standards. A Kia is mass produced on an assembly line by machines. You’re not going to get the quality of one at the price of the other.
Not everyone can afford thousands for their wedding photography. That’s cool. But it’s not fair to get pissed at the photog charging $3000, especially if you agree that the photos fit your criteria of exceptional and amazingly talented. Nor should someone expect an established photographer to match the prices of someone trying to break into the business by portfolio building.
Some responses I’ve seen to this try to break down all of the photographer’s expenses to every last dollar. This is ridiculous. My expenses are different from the guy down the street. Whether our prices are wildly different or virtually the same, what’s the point in justifying that? Clients don’t care about business expenses. They don’t care about how much I work.
And they shouldn’t.
They should care about the photos.
And this is the part where I have to be careful to not sound like a jerk. People who don’t see the value in photography aren’t my customers. I’m not interested in people like this Craigslist person, who thinks wedding photography is a rip off. I want couples who come to me because of the work.
When it comes right down to it, nothing said about what it costs to run a business is going to sway someone who views wedding photography the way this Craigslist ad does.
