What to charge for shooting a Swimming Invitational?

I did this same Invitational last year when a parent asked I'd shoot photos of her son. The venue is an hour away from studio and I only charged her $75, but I was there for maybe 6 hrs....which was just long enough to shoot her son's events, which were spread out.

Having said all that...I've been asked to do this again and thinking of charging an hourly rate. I need to reply to this client ASAP, and thought she could pool with some other parents to off set her costs...I know the rate depends on region, (My wedding rate is $150/hr. after package time expires)....so I thought of asking $60-$75 per hour and they can tell me how long they want me for. Any thoughts?

Good luck at getting her to accept a 600% increase in one year.

Would it be possible for you to approach the organisers with some of last years images and bid for the commercial rights to shoot the event.

This would allow you to shoot all participants and sell to all parents - quite an undertaking and yu'd probably need multiple shooters but it could be very profitable.

Yeah, I know, my thoughts exactly. I just can't go there again for that length of time for on $75....time is a valuable commodity as anyone on this forum knows!

The $75 you made from her last year probably equates to what you would have made from here in print sales on the day.

If it's a 6 hour event then I'd guess there are in the region of 2-300 kids attending.

An average sale of $10-$20 per child would make it a very wothwhile day.

Shoot - sell - print on the day and walk away with the cash would definately be how I would tackle it.

How did this work out?

I have 2 options available....

#1 - A DVD of unlimited shots which are unedited for $275.

or

#2 - $150 to get me to the event and shoot it and regular print prices for whatever they select from my shots...which I put in an on line gallery.