First real gig: What/How to charge: Interviewee portraits for local paper

[Bruck]

An old client of mine (used to do IT consulting) has asked me to do photography work for her private local paper. Most of the work will entail taking portraits of local business owners that she will be interviewing. Its a very small newsletter, she's the owner and 1 of 2 employees. Currently she does the photography herself with a point/shoot.

In the past I had charged $50 an hour for my IT services. This was definately on the low side for the type of services, but she is a family friend and I was still just out of Undergrad. Now i'm done with grad school and will be hopefully giving less "family" discounts as my consulting becomes my primary income.

Since this is my first paid Photog gig, I am not sure how and how much to charge. I was thinking of keeping my rate the same and charging by the hour. (including time spent post-processing). In the future, if I don't have a prior relationship with clients, what would you guys suggest me charging?

Thoughts? Advice?

Here's a couple samples of my portraits in case that matters to how much I'll be charging.

http://www.pbase.com/bruck/image/78578568.original.jpg
http://www.pbase.com/bruck/image/75838419/original.jpg
http://www.pbase.com/bruck/image/60047741/original.jpg

thank you.


~ Lou

[Bruck]

did i ask incorrectly?

[Croasdail]

Hey neighbor.... actually, $50 an hour is a pretty high price for a small independant. The N&O nor Herald Sun don't pay this high for hourly. Now if you were doing business work for like Glaxo, IBM, Red Hat, SAS or the like, your price would not be an issue. But these little papers just usually don't have the operating budget. But you never know. If it is a family friend, perhaps you can sit down and have a more honest conversation with her and see what you all can work out. You just never know. Maybe your photos will make the paper unique and she'll be glad to make it worth you while.