Hiring a Photographer

My journey so far in the business called "Photography" has exposed me to different experiences when it comes with offering services to clients.

I received a call from a lady 2 years ago from the Victoria Island in Lagos State requesting for my service to cover her upcoming wedding ceremony. With gladness and joy in my heart on this fateful day, I dressed up, jumped in my car and drove to the filling station with the last N 2,000 in my pocket to buy fuel. 

It was a indeed a good news for me that I have a wedding to cover, I turned up my radio and sped off to the Island. On getting the address given to me, I rang the bride to be', and behold my brethren, she was so gorgeous and delicate looking. I introduced myself properly, showed her some of my past jobs, and she was quite convinced. 

Then she brought out her ipad, and showed me some lovely wedding pictures, pre-wedding pictures and so on. Obviously, they are pictures downloaded from popular wedding blog sites. She said ' I want my pre-wedding pictures taken at three different locations; at the beach, in a hotel, and a garden. Hmmm, after all had been said, I told her what it cost her for the service she requires, and to my biggest surprise, all she could do was smile. Then she told me her budget for the pre-wedding shoot. I was too surprised by her budget, my face turned red, but i was still strongly trying to keep myself smiling, even though i felt like giving her a punch in the nose. She silently said "my budget is N 13,000, and you don't have to bother about driving down, we would pick you up, and even buy you lunch". With so much anger bottled up in me, I smiled and said, no problem, let's see what we can achieve, knowing deep down inside of me that is a good bye to them.

You know, I could have used the N 2,000 i spent in fueling my car to get something to eat or drink. 

 

The moral of the story is that ''' Customers think they are paying for someone  who can take pictures, whereas, what they are subscribing to is "someone who can create images that meet their requirements and this comes with; 

- camera equipment

- lighting equipment

- a functional post production equipment; editing software, a computer

- data storage and back ups

- transportation costs

- telephone and internet data

- income and sales tax

- business insurance

- hundreds of hours of education and training required to operate all of the above effectively.

  also a living wage for the photographer in order to pay for food, housing, and other expenses.

Still think hiring a photographer is expensive?