I get contacted all the time from potential clients asking for my price sheet and then after reading it they respond ‘thats too much’ or ‘I just can’t afford that’. I get inquiries from the contact form often where someone has placed ‘$700′ on their budget line, maybe its a hope that what I have listed on my website is just inaccurate? It makes me feel bad and super guilty that I can’t say ‘YES! I will shoot your wedding for whatever you are willing to pay me!’. The truth is, I have to make a living like everyone else and running a business isn’t cheap. So I can’t.

Recently a craiglist post was brought to my attention, it goes as follows:

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 :)

I feel pretty bad now, because there are so many that just don’t understand why photographers charge what they charge. I think its completely ok for everyone to have their own opinion and values on what to spend or not spend; I understand that what I charge is not in everyone budget or even their desires. Some people just don’t care that much about photography and again its fine! :)

What I care about is the misconception that I’m just raking it in, that I’m just hanging out having a good time. I know my clients, that love me and love my work know this, but I guess some people out there don’t understand what we all go through to get those amazing photos.

To be completely honest with everyone I made just shy of $21K last year, but after expenses and taxes I netted $3700. Thats equipment, cost of upkeep of that equipment, paying assistants/second shooters, advertising, websites, office supplies, business cards and of course the IRS’s cut. I made just over $300 a month. Not exactly sitting pretty is it?

Now about ‘hanging out all day’, man I wish! If you have me scheduled to be with you at 9AM at the salon then I’ve been up since 6AM double and triple checking all my gear and of course driving to wherever I have to go. While you’re eating brunch with your ladies? I’m taking pictures of it, possibly crawling on the floor or standing on a chair and usually ignoring the fact that I too am a little hungry.

I’m also coordinating my 2nd photographer and at least one if not two assistants on what needs done when and where. If I’m lucky I’ll be done with the day around 9PM, just to get home and spend the next few hours unpacking gear and uploading the thousands of images I took to my computer. That’s a 16 hour day, no wonder on Sunday I feel like I got hit by a mack truck.

So at every wedding that I photograph I have somewhere between 2000-4000 images to go through. Thats 2-3 weeks worth of editing to get them done, because I have a 4 year old and a house to take care of so I don’t get the luxury of sitting at my computer for 30 hours straight. Add a album to that and I just doubled if not tripled my editing time (depending on how big the album is).

So to every person who contacts me, I want to shoot your wedding I do. I want to give you a deal and work with your budget, I really do. The reality is I just can’t. I have to put food on my kids plate and pay for my house and all those whack business expenses.

And please don’t take this as a complaint, because I love my job! I wouldn’t be doing all this hard work if I didn’t. I have so many awesome memories of working with my amazing clients :) So I’m in this for the long haul, hopefully this is what I’ll be doing for the rest of my life!