so whats a good pay rate?

So my question is a simple one. I have been shooting baseball for a local college in my town. To cover an entire game is about 3 hours of actual shooting the game and another hour and half going through picking out the ones i like, making color correction in photoshop and what not. So how much should I charge for my time. I want to it to be priced fairly but i'm not cheap and i dont think I should be? So how much should I charge. by the hour or one flat rate. what works for you guys?

Who's paying, and what do they want?

Where are you located, and what are the rates of some competitors in your market area?

Is your work better than the next GWC who will happily work for free?

Yes my work is better than a gwc. I am getting request for my work and the question that keeps coming up is how much do you charge to cover an event and I'm trying to come up with a reasonable price. I simply have no idea what the next guy is charging. Hence the reason I am asking for your opions here...

$175hr

On the hourly or per event, I think you will do better with per event. Someone asking "how much for this", wants a number not a formula with an unknown.

Thank you Electricme for your simple and direct answer. Just found out that they want me to shoot for 2 days this weekend. Both tournaments days for golf and track and field. So there a minimum of at least 8 hr per day. They both are fairly close to my house so travel won't be an issue.

tennfan, there is no simple answer. A person in NY may command a higher price then say where you are. The budget of the team is going to play a role as well. You need to ask them what their budget is to see if you can even fit inside it. Last, you need to figure out for yourself how much you need to make, after you factor in taxes, gear costs, and profit for your business. I can guarantee you that the rate for a guy who lives in my area will probably be slightly less than the rate for a guy who lives across town in a very expensive area. He will command a higher rate as he needs to make a given dollar per hour to keep himself and his business afloat.

Get a contract!!!

tennfan1125 wrote in post #17527705
Thank you Electricme for your simple and direct answer. Just found out that they want me to shoot for 2 days this weekend. Both tournaments days for golf and track and field. So there a minimum of at least 8 hr per day. They both are fairly close to my house so travel won't be an issue.

Well your welcome... I have to say that I do not charge this. Your question in the title is "so what is a GOOD pay rate" my answer is 175 hr. I find that in my area i could never charge this much but that is a good rate. I charge based on the demand and what I can get in that situation. Honestly in my area and what I NEED to make my rate is more around $75 an hr. But only you can determine this based on your "COST TO DO BUSINESS" (see factors involved in cost to do business)

I've been getting more and more business just through word of mouth. I just shot photos for a mom who wanted photos of her daughter at a track/field event, and at a soccer game.

I told her $150 for each, and she was happy to pay. For each event, I figured that covered 40 min round trip, 1:15 or so of shooting, and about 30-45 minutes of processing, for "my time" rate of ~$50/hr. That's less than my day job, but enough for it to be worth my time.

I also told her that I'd shoot additional kids at the same game for $50 each if anyone else was interested, and two took me up on that. Then the word of mouth thing got going, and I'm now looking at action shots of another swim team ($30 per kid, about 5 minutes total with each, plus about 15 minutes of processing for each).

All of my photography provides full-size digital files for all keepers to the customer. I don't care to manage anything else to do with the final images. Well, one exception is swim team full-team shots, where I sell only 8x10 prints, and use that as a fundraiser for the team (since I'm profiting off of the individual action shots). The swim teams have been bringing in about $1700 - $2200, plus a $500 - $1000 donation for the team photo.

So, if I was asked to shoot a HS or lower basketball game, with only available lighting, I would probably say $500. If I get more requests to shoot soccer, I'll go in with the whole team for $300, or do the $100 + $50 per kid thing.

Hope this helps. My prices may go up in a few months, depending on how swamped I'm feeling vs. my day job.

Sweet, seems you've got it down. I'm just getting started myself, Had an athletic director told me to come up with a hourly wage that way he could write off on the school budget. So i'm trying to figure things out for myself. Thanks for the job info, very helpful...

That's a tough decision. Good luck with it.

Another pricing strategy I have used was to get a sense for local photographer rates. I was asked to shoot some headshots for a dental office, and they wanted to do them with TX bluebonnets in the background. I discovered that the least expensive local (Austin) headshots were around $150 each (looking at web sites). I was planning to charge $50-$75 each until I saw that, then I moved to $100 each. Seems like a lot to me, but tempers the risk of my inexperience a bit, while really making the job worth my time (1 hour location scouting, 1 hour commuting, 2 hour setup and shooting eight sets of headshots, and 3-4 hours editing, for 8 hours at $800).