What to charge for aerial golf course pictures?

I do real estate photography. Any time I do aerial pictures of a house it adds $150 to the cost of the house which is based on sq footage. Aerial images alone with no house pictures are $200.

I have taken some aerial pictures of the golf course in one of the neighborhoods where I do a lot of houses. I have shown some examples to the country club and they are interested in buying them. They have 54 holes and 3 restaurants. It's a big country club.

I was thinking of a few pictures for each 18 hole course (their "signature holes") and charging X per picture with a minimum number of pictures they would have to buy but I'm not sure how to price it.

$3,000 +

your prices are so ridiculously low, how do you pay rent, liability insurance, gas, retirement savings, etc..

put on your big boy pants and license for the usage they want. This is an advertising/marketing job not for some home owner.

$3k seems ridiculously high.

Not at all, cheap drone ops in VA & MD are $1,500 per day without factoring in the usage license. Landscape/exteriors is all about "time of day" and that means waiting until the perfect light and should be billed as a full day. Commercial drone insurance should be billed for.

A major golf course is going to advertise these images and if anything my number was very very low. The simple fact is a lot of photographer's who have rushed into the business (because of the lcd screen) didn't take time to learn the standard business practices and what others (pros) were charging.

If you think $3,000 is low for advertising/marketing photography then you need to educate yourself. I highly recommend reading a book or two on the subject. I'll bet if you read the one linked below it will pay for itself within the year because you obviously don't know this profession

https://www.amazon.com …fRID=EXFV3XX4TG​EBCD2VB5T1

Well I am new to the business of photography but am not new to real estate photography. I have been doing it for 6 years for a brokerage.

Unfortunately that's the going rate for aerial real estate pictures around here. I wish I could charge more but realtors have champagne taste and beer budgets.

I appreciate the link. I will look into it.

Are you sure? Do those realtors buy cars below the going rate to manufacture the car? Do they wear clothes from Goodwill? Do they have iPhones and make over $6,000 on a single house sale? I know for a fact realtors use to pay much more and never questioned film and lab costs.

What is your CODB? How much are you paying in commercial drone liability insurance? Just because they say that's what they pay... You set your own fees not them. You know your costs to produce it. Are you paying drone liability insurance?

That all said this job is not real estate photography it is advertising for a major golf course. Go to getty and pretend to buy an landscape image for a resort facility and see the licensing costs.

Finally I love how you post a question I give a reasonable answer from someone who has way more experience than 6 years shooting homes and right off the bat you dismiss. I know your market I've shot down there - the problem is you don't know your market, you didn't take the time to learn the basic business principals of the photography field and you let your clients tell you how much to charge. Does that work anywhere else in the US economy?

im just chuckling to myself...

such a very similar situation i was in (in a different thread), where i tried getting a price idea for selling a Hi-def digital file so a customer could make their own prints, prints that i offer on my website and i was told basically to "just give it away" because it would generate more business for me...

lol.


seems posts and responders got mixed up....

I'm not going off what realtors tell me they will pay. I didn't dismiss anything you said and never questioned your amount. You don't know my market.

Back to the golf course question....

1. What will the usage be? Website only? Website + brochure? + ad campaign (if so across what media and markets)?
2. What is the likely viewership for the above?
3. How much does the club charge per year? Assuming 1.5% of viewers who see it become members how much revenue will it generate?

Ltdave wrote in post #18636049
im just chuckling to myself...

such a very similar situation i was in (in a different thread), where i tried getting a price idea for selling a Hi-def digital file so a customer could make their own prints, prints that i offer on my website and i was told basically to "just give it away" because it would generate more business for me...

lol.

Not a valid comparison.

A mom wanting a digital file for a print of her kid is MUCH different than a company wanting digital files to use as they please for advertising.

fordbjr wrote in post #18635998
Well I am new to the business of photography but am not new to real estate photography. I have been doing it for 6 years for a brokerage.

Unfortunately that's the going rate for aerial real estate pictures around here. I wish I could charge more but realtors have champagne taste and beer budgets.

I appreciate the link. I will look into it.

This is a different business and you have to treat it differently.

A realtor wanting aerial photos of one house is different than a business wanting photos to use for perpetual advertising of their business. Much different target audience, viewership, usage duration - and much different value.

archfotos wrote in post #18635793
$3,000 +

your prices are so ridiculously low, how do you pay rent, liability insurance, gas, retirement savings, etc..

put on your big boy pants and license for the usage they want. This is an advertising/marketing job not for some home owner.

Side note, drone insurance through Verifly is not horribly expensive. It varies depending on the geographic location, proximity to schools and airports, and flight time. Usually you can get an hour of coverage (which is all you need for a real estate shoot) for 15 or 20 bucks.
https://verifly.com/dr​one.html

OP, if you don't have your FAA license and carry appropriate insurance, you gotta start.

Charge as much as you possibly can. Negotiate for the biggest rate. Find out from the golf course have they had professional aerial photos? Find out what their budget is for this. When you set a price like $200 they will want to negotiate. Learn to negotiate and how to do so and win. You do not want to undersell yourself. When you set a low price your value is then low.

It is strange but when you set your prices high you tend to get more respect. Set yourself up for success. Best of luck!

1. Most people don't respect stuff they get for free/cheap - they assume it can't be good quality.
2. The more expensive it is the more they try to self-justify the purchase (by thinking it is of higher quality).
3. When pricing try to come up with several packages. Option 1 the cheap one with less stuff, Option 2 the one you want them to pick and Option 3 the expensive one that isn't as good value as option 2 (has more stuff but the extra isn't very good/not worth the additional cost). This will make people more likely to pick Option 2.

Seems I recall when my wife was printing golf course images there was a lot of expensive retouching involved to remove unsightly content. Re pricing if you do commodity level work charge commodity prices otherwise charge for the extra value you provide.

Dan Marchant wrote in post #18639339
1. Most people don't respect stuff they get for free/cheap - they assume it can't be good quality.
2. The more expensive it is the more they try to self-justify the purchase (by thinking it is of higher quality).
3. When pricing try to come up with several packages. Option 1 the cheap one with less stuff, Option 2 the one you want them to pick and Option 3 the expensive one that isn't as good value as option 2 (has more stuff but the extra isn't very good/not worth the additional cost). This will make people more likely to pick Option 2.

This is what I had planned on doing. Offering a few options.

I only see 1 or 2 aerial pictures on their marketing materials/website and they are not the holes I would've chosen. Their dining venue pictures aren't that great either and I'd like to redo all the interior pictures as well. I actually used to work at this place and still know some of the management people there so I have that as an "in". I know the building and the golf courses extremely well.

I do have insurance and I do have my FAA license so no worries there.

My main question was how to price pictures that will be sold to them to use for anything they want and forever. My real estate pictures are owned by me/my company and are just licensed to the realtor for the life of the listing.

fordbjr wrote in post #18639584
My main question was how to price pictures that will be sold to them to use for anything they want and forever. My real estate pictures are owned by me/my company and are just licensed to the realtor for the life of the listing.

You work out a cost and then multiply it by 2,000 to cover every possible eventuality. Or, more sensibly you don't. Instead you license them just for the usage they can identify now and have a clause that allows them to add additional usage later (for an additional fee).