no one will ever see this, but...

Why Photographers Charge So Much

10 Reasons Why Professional Photographers Charge What They Do!

Written by Martin McElligott on January 14, 2010 — 10 Comments

10. Professional photographers are in business, and as a business they need to make a profit. Since they make photography their career, they dedicate themselves to becoming the best they can be and share that knowledge with their clientele.

9. Professional photographers have to buy professional equipment. Nope, they don’t just pick up a point-and-shoot from Harvey Normans and declare themselves a professional. They spend thousands upon thousands of euro getting multiple camera bodies, the finest lenses, flash equipment for every situation, tripods, light stands, backdrops, props, carrying and storage cases. Then when you think you have it all – you need to get backups for everything to make sure you never miss an image.

8. Professional photographers always continue their education and learn as much as they can about the business. They join groups like the Irish Professional Photographers Association. They attend seminars and training by some of the best names in the business. They concentrate on becoming the best they can be. This is not free.

7. Professional photographers don’t just snap a picture, they create a photograph. They understand positioning. They understand lighting. They understand placement. You’re not just paying for the ability to place a finger on the trigger and snap a picture. You’re paying for the years of experience it took to create the perfect image.

6. Professional photographers can spend hours producing one professional photograph. Time can include:

• Creating the marketing
• Answering emails and phone calls
• Meeting with the client to talk about the event
• Setting up for the event
• Drive time to and from the event
• Time for the actual photographing
• Running to and from the lab
• Meeting with the client for previews and decisions
• Processing the image
• Retouching the image
• Mounting the image
• Framing the image
• Packaging the image
• Dropping off final images
• Production work
• Follow up work

Add it all up, and you can see why one portrait session may include hours worth of work. It’s impossible to stay in business if you only make a few pennies per client.

5. Professional photographers have to be more than photographers. They have to be CEOs and marketeers, accountants, salespeople, production workers, janitors, buyers, negotiators, networkers, drivers, organizers and photographers. That’s a lot of skills for one person to master.

4. Professional photographers will do it all. Want to get married at the top of a 14,000 foot high mountain where the only way up is a 30 minute ski-lift ride? A professional photographer will be there. Want a portrait running through the waves on a Mediterranean beach? A professional photographer will be there.

3. Professional photographers aren’t just order takers, they provide total customer service. Professionals photograph dozens or even hundreds of clients a year. They understand what looks good, how to put together albums, and how to group multiple photographs together. Their goal is to provide you with what you need and what’s best for you – not just have you sign on the dotted line.

2. Professional photographers watch for the newest, most innovative, creative products available. They stay up to date on industry news, and find things that perfectly match their clients taste. They don’t try and fit you into something you don’t like – they find out what you want and search the world over for the perfect things. They are the professional.

1. Professional photographers have the knowledge and the skill to make you look the best you can be. I can buy a hammer for a few euro at the hardware store. Yet I spent hundreds of euro for a handyman to repair my deck. I can buy a needle and thread for a few euro at the fabric store. Yet I spent over €100 on alterations at a local tailor. It’s not about the tools; it’s about the outcome. Sure, anyone can buy a camera and take a picture. You can head down to your local discount camera shop, wait several hours and have a minimum wage clerk place you on an X and snap a few pictures. But they can’t get what a professional can get. They won’t concentrate on expressions. They won’t advise you on outfits and locations. They won’t provide 110 percent customer service. You won’t get a professional portrait.

MAN, i need to update this more....

with pictures and such, i have a TON to get up, i'll get on that right away!!!

Cleveland Rocks!! (part 3) the ride home...

Sooooo, I took my time on my way home. I had to leave the hotel by 11am, so i had pretty much all day to drive.
I didn't really want to get home, so i tried to stay out as long as i could
(Oh yeah, before i left i got an Egg McMuffin from McDonald's because it was right outside the hotel. Let me just tell you, it did a number on my stomach, so the day did not really start out all too well, never again!!!)

First i stopped at Geneva State Park in Geneva, Ohio
There was a beach there, and i hung out there for a few hours, walked around and took a bunch of pictures
I kind of got back to my roots of photography, shooting objects in nature, not people
It felt good!


It felt really good to be out by the lake, on the beach with no one else around
Very relaxing

I didn't take too many pictures after this, i had had my camera around my neck non-stop since i left Rochester, and i felt like i needed put it down and just enjoy where i was instead of looking for a picture. I seem to miss out on a lot (in a way) when i have my camera. Although i also see things differently when i have it. But yeah...i needed to relax a little, so i tried to hold back.

But after that i left the park and i hung out in the town for a little bit. Got a sub from a little deli and ate it outside. It was such a nice day, and a nice little village/town. I walked around for a little bit before heading back out on the road.

I ended up stopping again in Erie, PA. I had never been there, and it seemed like an interesting place. I found some convention center on the lake and took what i had left of my sub out to the lake and ate it. After that i went up into some "skywalk" thing that connected the convention center to the hotel that was there right on the lake; it was kind of a cool view:



Then I left and went to look for a real park in the area. The GPS took me to some random street, with no park to be found. I drove around a bit, it was a bunch of little side streets. But i got chills driving around with the window down. Something about Pennsylvania gives me the creeps, ever since i started going down there with my family to see my cousins and grandparents when i was really little. It has ALWAYS given me a strange feeling. Maybe it's the smell, it has a smell to it, very distinct to PA. There's something about the houses too, the brick stairways up to everyones door, the rod-iron railings. I don't know, just creeps me out...i can't really explain it

Aaaaaanyways.
After THAT i headed back out. I was glad the GPS took me along the lake, and not back to the thruway right away. It was a much more enjoyable and relaxing drive. Before i got back onto the thruway i saw this abandoned restaurant and took a few shots in the parking lot real quick.


At that point it was around 5pm so i decided to just get back home.
I had a shoot the next day, so i didn't want to get home too late.
Soooooo, that's about it. I have a feeling i will be doing a LOT more of these trips in the future. It was quite an experience, and i look forward to exploring a little bit more!

Cleveland Rocks!! (part 2)

click on images to see them a bit larger

Oooook. This is going to be long, soooo....
I decided i needed to get out of Rochester and experience something new (for a bunch of reasons) and to just be adventurous for once.
I mean it's no traveling around the world (Rissa) but it's what i could do at the moment :)
I told no one about my plans, i wanted to just pick up and GO; by myself, to wherever it was i could find.
I planned it out a little, atleast the direction i was going, and i got Jodi's GPS so i wouldn't get completely lost.
But i wanted to just drive, and eventually find something. I left Rochester pretty early (for me at least) as you can see here:

I was a little excited, fake smile and all

It was very chilly when i left so i was a little worried it would be a shitty day.
Being on the road was awesome. Being completely alone, no one even knowing you are gone or where you are (even my parents), it felt great.
It was really a feeling i had never experienced before.

I stopped at a few places along the way for food at some shitty subway where the footlongs were $7!!! YEAH! For turkey.
AND they didn't take subway points, BULLSHIT!
Oh and this kid made the healthiest sub possible for his friend. It consisted of some kind of meat, cheese (EXTRA cheese), and a complete bag of nacho Doritos (on the sub), all toasted to perfection, oh and a ton of mayo. I wish now that i had gotten a picture of this, but it was disgusting.

So I headed back out and saw a sign on the thruway for a park or something a little bit later, so i ended up stopping again at "Concord Woods", somewhere in Pennsylvania i think.
Took a little hike through the woods, which was nice, and the weather had heated up by then, so it was quite enjoyable:

the pond

Ok, so after that i don't think i stopped again until i hit Cleveland.

Crossing into OHIO!

Cleveland
(i was driving, so excuse the low quality shots)

It was a bit of a drive, but it was very relaxing, enjoying some good music and the breeze made it pass like nothing, this song in particular caught my attention along the way:

Conor Oberst - Moab

They say the sun won't burn forever
That's a science too exact
I can prove it, watch, we're crossing the state line
See those headlights coming towards us?
That's someone going back
To a town they said they'd never, yeah
They swore it on their lives

You can't break out of a circle
That you never knew you were in
And there's nothing that the road cannot heal
Nothing that the road cannot heal
Washed under the blacktop
Gone beneath my wheels
There's nothing that the road cannot heal

Some will spend their precious time
Trying to decorate their lives
Taking measurements for some new look they want
So from 1-10, 10's exactly what I am
0 being everything I'm not

You can't break out of a circle
That you never knew you were in
And there's nothing that the road cannot heal
Nothing that the road cannot heal
Washed under the blacktop
Gone beneath my wheels
There's nothing that the road cannot heal


The drive gave me a lot of time to think (and not think at all) about a lot of things (i'll just leave it at that)...

So, I got to Cleveland and pretty much found the first place possible that i could park. I had no idea where i was! But i was on the lake and there were a bunch of cool looking buildings around so i parked there and explored a bit, i laid down on a hill and just relaxed after the long car ride:

Cleveland Skyline

Cleveland Skyline & Me


relaxing on the hill
(that's the hall of fame)

Eventually i walked down towards the lake and come across a sketepark. There were two kids there so i decided to ask them if i could take some portraits of them. They said "hell yeah" so i went back to my car, go my equipment, and hauled it down there for a few quick shots:

i've never shot any action BMX
i'll have more elsewhere at some point

After THAT i decided to just walk around where i was, around the lake and around the stadium. I don't know how i didn't realize it, but i was right outside the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame:

this is the back of the building, once i realized from the sign where i was...


Rock & Roll HOF front

Cleveland Browns Stadium

Then I decided to explore the city city. I put some more money in my parking meter and headed off downtown. The first thing i realized was that there was NO ONE around. The city was so empty it seemed, i was expecting a lot of people, especially since it was around rush hour, but it was so bare, less people walking around than Rochester. I also noticed that it was THE cleanest city i have ever been to, there wasn't ANY garbage ANYWHERE and the sidewalks were spottless, even the homeless people got all dressed up and looked nice. It felt very strange. The only thing that was dirty was this poor bird:

i don't know how the hell he managed that

Anyways, I walked around for an hour or two, the city itself was kind of small, not too much going on, but i walked around pretty much the whole place:

the inner city

found this little guy in some park in the city

So after that I went back to my car and wanted to see Jacobs Field and Q Arena, so i set off to find them. I got to them and there was a baseball game about to start so parking around there was $15 so i couldn't really park and walk around. But i drove by them, ha.
I was getting pretty hungry around then so i searched for food in the GPS. I walked to a few places, but it seems that the city closes its doors at 6pm. EVERYTHING was closed, not ONE place was open, it was really weird. So i got into my car and drove around for literally at least an hour and could find nowhere to get a sandwich or even pizza. So i stopped at some ghetto grocery store and got some turkey to make a few sangwiches with the bread i brought with me!

By that time the sun was beginning to go down so i headed back to the lake to watch the sunset and eat. These aren't exactly my "style" and i usually think sunset pictures are a little cliche, but it was quite a beautiful sunset, as you can see, after a long day, it's exactly what i needed:

these small renditions don't do it justice, click to see them a bit bigger

Soooo...i think that's enough for this post. I have a bunch of shots from the drive home. I stopped at a few places along the way that were pretty sweet. So i'll leave that for tomorrow or sometime later on! For now, after those sunset pictures, i'll leave you with a breathtaking view of my hotel room! Goodnight!

Cleveland Rocks!!

Monday May 11th 10:00pm

Soooo...i ended up in Cleveland OH. It was basically the first major city that i have never been to off of I90. No one even knows im not at my house, let alone not in Rochester (more on that in my next post).
So anyways, i stopped at a few places along the way, took a little hike, ate, etc.

Got to Cleveland around i think 3pm, i don't think i could have picked a BETTER day. Not too hot, not too cold, just perfect t-shirt weather. Walked around by the lake, and met some kids at a little skate park out by the lake who i took some shots of, which may be up tomorrow.
I didn't realize it at first, but i was parked out front of the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. Also the Cleveland Browns Stadium was right there too!
So yeah, it was pretty sweet, spent the whole day there basically walking around the city, met some people and just basically explored the whole city. I don't think i have ever walked so much in my life, even in NYC.

But i smell, carrying a lot of equipment, my computer and shit gave me a workout. I'm in some cheap motel, so im going to go shower with the spiders then relax and watch some HBO or something.
I'll have more on all this tomorrow, but it was a very liberating experience to say the least!

here's just a little sample of what's to come

Outside the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame
(yeah i know my arms look weird)

seeing where the road takes me...

...literally, see ya...