pricing

Anybody for nothing

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The 1969 American cult film Putney Swope, a satire about the advertising world, corporate corruption, politics and more, has horrible acting and lots of great quotes. It also has this scene which has been posted on many photography sites:

I can get anybody for nothing.

The running gag in the film is that the commercial photographer appears at inopportune times always showing his portfolio but not getting any work.

A satire is something that pokes fun at a vice, foolishness or human folly. Feel free to interpret what the photographer represents.

 

Photoburgers

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Do you enjoy eating a hamburger from a fast-food restaurant?

If you’re a teenager, you probably do. But if you’re older then you probably don’t.

The reason is that younger people generally don’t have sophisticated tastes or they haven’t experienced the hamburgers at higher quality restaurants. If they did visit a better restaurant, they would realize what a good hamburger tastes like.

A Big Mac costs about $5, a burger from a five-star hotel or restaurant might cost $35 or more, and other restaurants charge somewhere in between. But when you buy food, what’s more important, the cost or the taste?
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Mission Creep

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A potential commercial client e-mailed to say they needed “a few product shots” and they’d do all the post-production work on the images. Their budget for “a four hour photo shoot” was quite small but it could be doable if there was only a few products and the production value was kept low (no assistant, no big lights).

I called the company to get more information.

Yes they wanted a few product shots. In fact, they wanted all of their products photographed with full studio lighting. Since some products were big and heavy, the lighting would have to be moved from location to location within the building (i.e. at least one assistant would be needed).
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Electing a photographer

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In less than two weeks, the province of Ontario will have municipal elections. Here in Toronto, there are 65 candidates running for mayor, (19 others dropped out). In my area, there’s also eleven candidates for councillor and seven for school board trustee. With so many candidates, how do you choose?

Maybe it becomes a Paradox of Choice [and here]: the more choices you have, the less likely you are to make a choice. And if you do make a choice, it tends to be based on irrelevant criteria such as how a candidate looks rather than, for example, their economic policies.

Deciding on which candidate you should vote for can be like deciding on which photographer you should hire for an upcoming photo assignment.
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Don’t discount yourself

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(Sorry, another long post)

A newspaper article in The Province reports on a new Vancouver-based company that offers customers the chance to save money by booking a last-minute photo session.

The theory is that consumers can save money by booking last minute because photographers will discount their services in order to fill any spare time in their schedule. This company acts as a middleman between the last-minute customer and the not-busy photographer.

At first glance, this might sound like a win-win situation. But a closer look may suggest that it’s a win only for the company behind this. (For fun, check to see who is seemingly behind this).

A last-minute sell-off might be okay for amateur photographers, part-time photographers who have a day job, or those who like to do dump-and-run photography (more on this later). But if you’re a real photographer then this may be a bad idea for you. It’s somewhat similar to why discount sites like Groupon are bad for photographers.
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Check your focus

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When pricing a photo assignment or negotiating with a potential customer, the photographer’s frame of mind matters a lot. The photographer could be thinking along the lines of “If I get this job, I’ll make $4,000,” or they might be thinking, “If I don’t get this job, I’ll make nothing.”

The former train of thought (being “promotion focused”) is about trying to maximize gains. The latter (being “prevention focused”) is about trying to minimize risk and prevent loss.

Overall, neither type of focus is better than the other and we often switch from one to the other depending on the circumstances. But research has shown that when pricing or negotiating, being promotion focused tends to lead to better outcomes (e.g. earn more when selling or pay less when buying).
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More than meets the eye

Many photographers charge a minimum fee for their location work. This minimum might range from a couple hundred dollars to much higher, depending on the situation.

Before you scream “Unfair!”, keep in mind that most tradespeople and some other types of businesses also charge minimum fees.

Locksmiths, plumbers, electricians, furnace repair, moving companies, carpet cleaners, etc., all have minimum fees just for showing up at your front door. This minimum often goes up on evenings and weekends. My locksmith charges a minimum $90, my plumber has a $140 minimum. At a newspaper where I once worked, to get a technician to come service the film or print processor cost a minimum $600.

Businesses charge minimum fees to help cover the time and cost of travelling to the customer’s location, setting up equipment (if applicable) and providing at least a minimum amount of service.
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