Being a photographer is one of those jobs that when you tell people what you do they raise their eyebrows and say “oh really? Cool! What kind? Then you tell them and they think you have an airy fairy job that you probably just fell in to.

Truth!

Its bloody hard work!! You start photography because you love the creative side of it and you enjoy learning the skill. Then you're inspired by others and you are constantly evolving. 

When it becomes a business its still amazing but its not easy making a living from it.

The photography you master and love but then theres the sales and the marketing and the accounts and the SEO and the list truly goes on.

With the way our phone cameras operate now every one takes thousand more photos than they use to. We are all photographers and the actual value of what a photographer does is lessened. 

God! whys it so expensive? 

How can they charge so much for something that costs them nothing?

Why is it more for a digital image than a print?

How can they charge £20 odd quid for something that costs 70p in boots!

I like many other photographers could write all day about this subject. There are famous comparisons that we use on a regular basis,

Do you go into Bella Italia and ask why they are charging you £14 for pasta that costs you 50 pence to cook at home?

No of course you don’t because you know your not just paying for pasta ! Your paying for the seat your sitting in under the roof of the building that has very high rent and business rates they have to pay every month

Your paying for the wages for the waiter or waitress to bring it you at your table

You're paying for the chef and the several years he spent training to be able to come up with the dish he has cooked for you tonight. You're paying for the gas and the electric and the insurances. You're paying for the accounting software and the accountant. You're paying for the table clothes to be dry cleaned and the decoration on the walls. The cost of doing business is endless and its the same for photography.

When you decide to get some professional images done of  your family or your new baby or your wedding. You aren't just paying for someone to spend an hour clicking away and then clicking a button to send you the images and charging you an awful lot of money for it.

Its so much more than that!

Its years of training which any decent photographer is constantly investing in. I personally try to do at leat two course a year which is an average of £500 a go.

It's the equipment you need to take the photos.

This includes the camera £3000

The lens £2500

The lighting £1500

The backdrops paper £25-£40 per session

The rent of the studio £1200 per month

The computers where we do all the editing £2500 every few years

The editing software £10 per month

The hard drives to back up all the image to £200 every 12 months

The online backup software that we pay for to be double sure we don’t lose your images

The public liability insurance 

The accounting software

The accountants fees

the props that we constantly invest in

The usb

The printing costs

Advertising costs

Camera repairs when things go wrong

I

All this before we even think about taking any wages because as much as we love our job! It is a job and we cant pay our mortgages feed our children with love!

It isn’t free to take beautiful images of you and your family, its costing us money before you even step into the studio so please don’t think we are ripping you off or charging the earth! 

Most of us are just charging what we need to operate as a viable business, most of us are doing it because we love it but also because we have a family to provide for