The Wedding Files: You're Worth What you Charge... or ARE You?

[charlesu]

You know, one of my studiomates is a wedding shooter. She's trying now to reinvent herself as a commercial--portrait--wedding photographer. That's going to be TOUGH to pull off. But that's not the point of my post.

Wedding business has fallen off a bit here, along with everything else. Part of it is the economy. Part of it is the emergence of the $1,000 digital wedding shooters (anyone with a D70 and the stupidity to call themselves a wedding photographer). Anyway, my studiomate had noticed a fall off in business despite being one of the best in the city. She had a request last spring for a discount. She thought about it and then agreed, thinking some sale pricing might be in order.

So she goes and shoots the wedding which is at some big, downtown church. Then she shoots the reception which is at the big yacht club on the lake. As she is shooting she looks around and thinks "Wow, I'd like to be a member of a yacht club". Then she remembers the discount she gave.

That was her one and only ever discount. She didn't do it again last year and decided she'd rather work at Starbucks than put up with the stress of wedding photography.....at a discount. In other words, she'd rather work for $10 an hour and not have all the crap to deal with. I see her point. Everytime I quote my price to someone and they want to negotiate, I suggest they get their own camera and try it themselves.