I charged her $[ ]!!! too much?

[jairoscz]

Alright, well I had a photo session for a high school senior who wanted senior portraits. It all went good during the session, but I made a big mistake by not setting a price for the session before I shot.

These are the pictures:
#1


#2


#3


#4


#5


#6


#7


So, when it came time to charge, I told her it was going to be $40! For some reason I feel bad because I think that she thought I was going to charge less, on the other hand, I had to drive about 20 miles to pick her up, then another 20 to get to the place and then back. That's a total of 80 miles!

I'm also going to give her a CD with JPEGs so she can get as many prints as she wants from walgreens or something.

So, my question, do you think I charged her too much given the quality of the pictures?

By the way, the shot took about an hour only.

Thanks in advance!
--
Jairo

[Silvernic]

Well, you should have discussed it first for sure, but that is by no means too much!

[HotHolly]

No, $40 was a steal. She should be beyond happy with that.

ALWAYS do paperwork and payment ahead of time...any you are so worth more than $40. These are good!

[robert t]

by no means, that is not even a sitting fee for some places, way more for prints and even more for a CD.

[jagphoto]

I personally don't know how she could complain. I know you forgot to discuss it first, however there is nobody I know that would do that. I know I don't charge alot because I am still not as confident in my work as I'd like to be. I am definitly not as good as alot of photographers on this forum, but not even I would do that deal! (Put it this way, my friends pay me more than that to take pics of them at the park right outside my front door.) I guess what I'm saying is it's a great deal!

[CobyPhoto]

For what you did, you probably made close to 8-10.00 an hour, figuring 1 hour for the shoot and 1 hour post processing, once you minus out all the other costs you have in this session.

Agreed, you should have talked price first, but it should have been more than 40.00.

CJ

[AndrewCCM]

Tell her it's really only $35. $5 was for gas.

Unbelievable how people don't value someones time. Ask her...how much she think your time is worth per hr... Add up all the time spent, planning, shooting, driving, editing, delivering. I'd be surprised if you made minimum wage.

Sorry to hear this.

[jairoscz]

wow, thank you all veeeery much, I feel so much better!! ...or should I feel bad because given the amount of time I've put into it, I'm probably making somewhere between $8 - $10 /hr...hmm... not very promising :(

But hey, we all learn from our mistakes! :)

again, thanks a bunch!!

--
Jairo

[HotHolly]

People charge all sorts of different rates. You pick something your are comfy with. I think she would have paid more. And since she's a kid, she probably didn't think to ask ahead of time. If it were an adult, they would ask.

This is kind of an aside, but did you pick her up alone? Be careful - people are nuts.

[jairoscz]

Holly, yeah I picked her up alone, but she's a friend of the family, so I wasn't worried :P ...pfft! either way... she's got nothing on me!! I can take her!! hehe

[jairoscz]

btw, I added you on myspace :)

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

Also as discussed elsewhere you may want to ditch any shots taken on a railroad track.

$40 is beyond reasonable for a location shoot, should be more in the $75 range especially since you had to drive more than 10 miles to the location. It's not that you were able to do the shoot in one hour, heck some people could have done it in under half that, it is your skill in shooting.

She may have been thinking that she was going to get Wallyworld/Stears Portrait Studio Special prices and not what your super discount rate was.

If she is mad about $40 ask her to check around to see what her friends are paying for studio shoots much less on location shoots.

You actually made less than $10 an hour on this shoot-heck mileage costs/fuel/insurance/wear and tear are over $33 per the tax code!

[jairoscz]

Paul, thanks you for you comments but I don't understand what you mean by the railroad track shot? Is that illegal?

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

There has been a discussion about railroad property and shooting on it. Technically unless it is abandoned raillines or a private spur it is trespassing and you could get in trouble.

(I believe the thread was in the open discussion area last week).

[AndrewCCM]

Originally Posted by jairoscz

Paul, thanks you for you comments but I don't understand what you mean by the railroad track shot? Is that illegal?

Yes.. it's illegal (so I have read).

I understand why it is.. but it sure stinks as some really cool images are shot there..