Shoot Kansas City, Missouri

KCmike wrote in post #18258962
Guy B Clark Conservation Area, Platte County Missouri

There's a sunrise and a sunset every day, and you can choose to be there for it -- you can put yourself in the way of beauty.
Taken from the book "The Wild".

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/REwy​zz Believe in Tomorrow by Mike Day, on Flickr

Beautiful!

Thanks Tracy. I stumbled upon finding this place a year or so ago and caught it on a great evening.

Question for my fellow photographers out there.
I've been approached about doing a Valentine's Dinner event (taking photos of attendees and the city skyline). It's about 5 hours of work involved. I am thinking of charging $100 per hour but this is something I haven't done before. Usually as you all know I'm more of a landscape person.
One do you think the per hour fee is to expensive?
Secondly the group wants a website for people to be able to download their photos after the event. What website to you recommend for people to be able to download their images for free?
I'm worried about the space as the event will probably be dark. I am thinking of renting a flash or just going ahead and out right buying one. I had a basic one years ago but decided to sell it off.

Thanks for any insight and help you might give this amatuer.

Mike

Boy, I certainly don't want to scare you off and truly applaud you for considering branching out. You are much like me in that I'm almost strictly a Landscape photographer. The main reason I don't consider shooting events or portraits is my colorblindness although I have taken several portrait lighting classes and work constantly with off camera flash.

With that said, that would be my number one concern, light or lighting. To simply say you would go out and buy or rent a flash and that would cover it, I think would be a mistake. Learning lighting, at least to me is quite extensive. To do it properly, you would need multiple flash units on stands and a transmitter of some type to fire them. If you try and use one on camera flash unit, your light will be so harsh and the shadows will be way to hard.

From what I've read that price seems right but only for a professional photographer.

I've always wondered if I shouldn't even offer to shoot an event or events for free (not saying you should) if for nothing more than practice, experience and to build a file of photos I could showcase.

Good luck if you choose to do it. I definitely think you have the skills.

Thanks Darrell those are the words I needed to hear. I was telling my wife the same thing and I really didn't feel comfortable at all doing the event, at least not now. I didn't want to do it for a money grab. In fact I don't want any of my photography to be about chasing dollars. I really enjoy getting out and shooting. If it turns out that I get published then so be it. If not then alright as well. I've been fortunate enough to have have been published by several companies now and am happy with that. I think I would like to do portraits someday. Who knows what the future holds.

Back to try narrowing down my summer vacation plans.

You probably made the right decision, not being comfortable with flash. I suggest you buy a speedlite now to acclimate yourself to it so you'll be ready at the next opportunity. Lighting isn't rocket science, it just takes a little study and a lot of practice. For event photography, you don't need light stand, but it would help to have an assistant. (Disclaimer: I've never shot an event.)

Your price seems reasonable, but not necessarily as an hourly rate. By that, I mean that $100/hr seems high for a first-time event photographer, but the overall price of $500 is probably reasonable since you'll spend additional time in travel, post processing, etc. See disclaimer above...

Parkville, MO

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/S4CT​fv

Angles are Everything

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/RSQV​9u

I like the angle. Many a time I have driven past the WA on the freeway, but never on the very street. Oddly, I never took a single photo in my 5 yrs of living in KC. You have shown me that I missed so much.

Parkville's Kiss Goodnight

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/QX8H​Te

Wow! How did I not know about this thread? I've been a member of this forum for several years and just found this thread tonight. Great photos everyone. I'll try to add a few every now and then.