Ups and Downs of Photography

I need to put Barb on a payroll. All of my photography gigs seem to be coming from her.

Christina wanted portraits of her two older children and her new baby. Right up until the shoot, I was dreading it, and was so tempted to call and cancel. Why? Because my tools are for crap, leaving me with very little control over the situation:

• I only have about 6 feet of white background paper now, and it was turn and punctured by the high-heels from the Senior Portraits.
• I had no idea what the lighting would be in her house, and my strobe is unreliable and floppy, and my on-camera flash can often overwhelm.
• My laptop can barely get Photoshop to function, so doing my clean up takes hours and hours and hours.

I taped up the holes as best as I could, resolving myself that it would require additional Photoshop time (ugh!) to smooth out the background. Thank goodness they were kids. Had they been any taller, of if I had needed them to stand up, my backdrop wouldn't have been big enough.

I NEED to get a white, canvas backdrop. I go through the paper so fast, and the big roll is so awkward and heavy.

I worked through the lighting issue by bouncing my on-camera flash against a piece of white cardboard. That worked well. I still needed to brighten my images in Photoshop a bit, but at least the eyes had catch lights, so that pleased me.

Honestly, I need to invest money in this. I need to get a job so I can take out a small business loan and have guaranteed cash to make the loan payments. If I'm going to continue with this, I must have reliable equipment. Good, trust worthy equipment that is lightweight, since I will probably never have a studio, and will always need to travel to my customers.

And I need to raise my rates and feel more confident in what I do. I put in roughly 20 hours editing the photos from this shoot. Which means, for my $50/hr, I am earning $2/hr. Ridiculous. If my equipment was better, the Photoshopping would take less time, but unless I raise my rates, I can't afford the new equipment.....or even maintain it.

Also, I need to stick to my rules. Fees are due at the time of the shoot. But, Christina didn't offer to pay me, and I didn't bring it up. It made me too uncomfortable. Why??????

Also, Christina was saying that she wanted customized baby announcements, and I found myself volunteering to create these for her, with no mention of an extra charge. Why did I do this? Because, I don't feel that what I do has any real value, that's why. And if I don't believe, why should my customers believe it?

Yes, I'd be happy to create a customized announcement. But I shouldn't have to do it for free. I need to charge per hour for that service, just like my photography. I've got to get it through my head, and stop apologizing to my customers for my fees.....which are the lowest in the Des Moines area, for heaven's sake!!!!

Either I need to do this right, or quit torturing myself with it.

By the way, I was VERY pleased with how the photos turned out.