Freelance assignment. How much $?

I was asked to do some freelance work for a company my friend works for.

"One would be a restaurant w/ a food shot and an interior shot. The other
would be a exotic furniture store shoot. They are both located in downtown
Chicago, not too far from each another."

He asked what my rates were for this type of thing. I've never done anything like this for money before. What would be reasonable. I would have to drive ~60 miles to Chicago and back. They are to be used for a website or advertising or something like that.

On a job like this I would certainly first sit down (or even over the phone) with the customer and find out exactly what they want.

Some of my customers want the option of a per hour price or a per job price. The restaurant would probably take a minimum of two hours and the other one you haven't given enough information. Are you shooting just an interior shot or are you actually going to do be doing pieces of furniture individually.

You must have an idea as to what you think your time is worth. Add to that any direct costs (travel, etc.) and you should be able to come up with a charge. Spend some time looking around the other photographers websites for that area and see if you can glean from them what they are charging.

The kicker in here seems to be that your friend is asking and do you approach this as full commercial job or as a favor to your friend. This is a business asking you to do a job and I see no reason to low ball the price. This is supposedly a business expense that they feel justified in doing and if you feel that you are capable of giving them top quality work then by all means they should be charged appropriately. If you are doing this just to get something to add to your portfolio so that you have something to show others in the future you can always come in low enough to cover your costs and a little something for yourself and guaranteeing that you will get the job (this is not something that I would recommend though). Is there a chance that you will lose the opportunity if you charge market rates?

You have some options available to you. You are the only one that can decide which way to go. It depends on how your friend presented it to you.

Final use makes a big difference!
ASMP Pricing Strategies (American Society of Media Photographers_
http://www.asmp.org/co​mmerce/digitalps_6.php

See "Day rate against space" in NUJ Freelance Fees Guide. This is oriented toward UK photographers, but the info should be of general interest to everyone.
http://media.gn.apc.or​g/feesguide/photo.html

NPPA: Cost of Doing Business Calculator
http://www.nppa.org …t/business_prac​tices/cdb/

Have you done it for fun? In other words, do you have any idea what you're getting into?