Because cameras are accessible to everyone people have the misconception that they can be professional photographers. Sometimes I just want to say, “Here, you take my camera and let’s see what my end result it compared to yours. I guarantee it’s going to be better.” Why? Why would it be better? I’ve been doing photography for 6 years. I’ve been in business for two years. I have an education in graphic design and photography as well as various certifications and a degree in business. Not only do I have the technical education to run a business and understand photography but I’ve studied under two amazing photographers and have learned to develop into my own photographer. Not only that but I’ve developed the “eye” for it. Sure, anyone can take a photo, but it takes skill behind the camera to make an amazing photo. It’s not how good the camera is, it’s the skill behind the camera that makes a good photographer.

Ok, now that my little rant is over I want to post something that many many many people came across yesterday that has become a bit of a viral thing in the photography community. I’ll share my thoughts below. You can read it directly on the link by clicking here. I might add she must not value photography very much. If you look at her site, she rants about the below yet her and her fiance’s photo is out of focus…

I feel like my second post SHOULD be on something still more broad-scale about my wedding – our venue or color combos or something – but there’s a topic I need to discuss first: photographers. Because I have a lot to say!

For background: I was at a bridal fair this weekend – the Davenport Jaycees Bridal Expo, which I believe is the largest annual bridal show in the QC area – and it was really great, overall. My mom and sister went with me and we gorged ourselves on cake samples and cream puffs dipped in the chocolate fountain and even a mini wine tasting so obviously it was fun! I got to wear a sticker that proudly proclaimed me as “The Bride!” and 100 vendor booths later, I left weighed down with a large bag of pamphlets, price lists, DVD samples, and even a candy ring (score!). Now that I have a date and venue secured, I found it very helpful to ask some of my specific questions about that site to some potential vendors (like “Hey, DJ, would you also be able to hook me up with sound for the ceremony if it’s taking place in that courtyard area at Black Hawk State Park?”) Good stuff, invaluable really.

So I came home and started sorting through all my newly acquired information, dutifully separating everything into its appropriate category in the wedding planning binder that my cousin Susan very thoughtfully made for me. But the binder wasn’t shutting well and I realized the biggest culprit was the bulging photography section. I realized I’d received many more photography brochures than any other type of vendor so I decided I should sort through them briefly and weed out the ones that were obviously not going to be a good fit for Mike and I.

And I learned this: I should have become a photographer.

Wedding packages that START at $2,500 – and go up to $7,500 or more? Are you serious? Now, let my be clear: I’m not trying to undervalue the skills that a very good photographer must have and the extreme importance of having a very good photographer (as, after all, there are no ‘do-overs’ on the moments they are capturing!). I also understand that their equipment is expensive, they are sacrificing their Saturday night, and it is a job that requires a high level of mental focus and intensity. So I could understand paying them a couple hundred dollars an hour for this job.

But something like $500 an hour, or more? Hey guys, my job requires a lot of mental work and precision and sometimes I work on Saturday nights too. So I’m just saying.

On the other hand, I don’t really blame them for their high costs because, clearly, they wouldn’t have those prices if brides weren’t paying them. And with the average cost of a wedding at something like $22,000, I guess it actually totally makes sense since all my wedding planning guides suggest putting between 10-15% of your wedding budget toward your photographer. But I think every part of that is just entirely insane.

Anyway, once I’d weeded out the insanely expensive photographers (about half), then I started actually looking at what packages the rest offered. And sweet Jesus, here’s the second point of insanity with photographers: I don’t need your fancy leather bound books and $300 print credit and three 8 x 10s and eight wallets. No thank you. Photographers, listen: I want you to come to my wedding, take a lot of really good pictures, and then give them to me on a CD with a personal use copyright release. It’s that simple. Hell, I don’t even care that much if you color correct them and crop them and fancy them up for me – I’m a 21st century girl who is pretty computer-savvy, so I know my way around editing a photo. And I know of about 700 places where I can get them printed on my own, almost always with the aid of an online coupon code. Yes, it would be nice if you offer an online gallery so my family and future in-laws can check them out and order the ones that they would like to have prints of. And I’ll order some from you, too, in all likelihood – like the big ones that I want to frame for my future house. But I definitely don’t want your coffee table leather-bound book that costs $400. I want to print my own 4×6s and go to town with my scissors and my stickers and my massive collection of scrapbooking materials. Many aspects of my wedding will be Do-It-Yourself projects, which I like, so why would I not have a DIY picture album? I like scrapbooking and I like personalization and I want a hand-made book of love to be what’s on my coffee table, even if it’s not quite as fancy-looking as the one you’d “give” me as part of my $7 million photography package.

In conclusion: Now that I’ve weeded out the Wedding-Packages-For-Billionaires and the Wedding-Packages-For-Uncreative-People (no offense intended to billionaires or uncreative people!), I am left with about three potential options that all seem pretty solid. So I’m actually very happy with that process of elimination! I feel less overwhelmed and now am able to more deeply investigate what these three can offer me and what would fit best. And, as a bonus, my planning binder now closes as it’s supposed to and my trash can is instead a bit more bulging

Next up: Caterers. I’m putting it off because it’s so overwhelmingly beyond me… but I gotta suck it up soon and take care of it. I’ll keep you posted, Engagement Diary!

This is a common thought and frustration among brides. They don’t understand what goes into doing their wedding photography. Let me give you a little glimpse of end-to-end processes that justify why we charge so much.

1. First we get the phone call or email of interest which of course takes time to responsd to (this is more of a minute detail but is important).

2. We drive really far to meet with the bride and groom (or whoever she brings) on the chance that they might book us. There’s the gas cost of a gas guzzling SUV that get’s 14mpg city and 17 mpg highway.

3. At this meeting we lug all of our studio samples to them. These studio samples are not free. Sample albums still run several hundred dollars. Folio samples also run several hundred dollars. Gallery wraps run several hundred dollars. We usually buy our clients coffee which is only a few dollars but that is still an expense we incur on the chance they might book us. We also have print samples that can run us around $50, business cards that cost several hundred dollars (I like quality cards, you can get them cheaper but in my opinion a cheap quality card is an indicator of someone who doesn’t pay attention to detail or care to show quality in their business).

4. After the meeting the bride books you. Yay! That’s fabulous. To book we drive way out yonder to meet our clients again (more gas), we print off two copies of the contracts (paper costs), we print off our pricing sheets for their references (more paper costs), and we give them a nice shiny black folder to keep all of the info they need in (we keep the other signed contract but again, cost of the envelopes). Then I come home, scan everything, and back it up to an external hard drive and an online server. Then I enter the info into Quickbooks (a software expense and time).

5. Then we correspond back and forth with the bride on anything she has questions about. We also reach out to her other vendors to introduce ourselves and understand the order of events for the day (that way we don’t have to stress out the bride with these kind of questions). That involves a lot of time. Let me make a statement here. Time is money. Heaven forbid we should get paid for our time. Well, we need to get paid for our time just like everyone else who works any other job gets paid for their time. Moving on… We also scout out the location (which involves more gas for driving) and do research on great shooting locations.

6. Then there is the complementary engagement session. It’s free for the bride and groom and the package doesn’t cost less if they don’t want it because it’s complementary for them but for me it’s another cost that I eat out of pocket. I do this because I like to get to know my couples before their wedding and it builds my engagement portfolio. I drive out to where they want to do their engagement photos (again, more gas) and spend an hour or two taking engagement photos of the couple. I drive back (more time and gas) and I spend hours on the back end culling the best photos and editing them. That takes about 4 hours of work. Then I spend another hour posting them to my blog, facebook, an online gallery (which is paid for monthly), etc and then send an email to the bride and groom letting them know the photos are ready to be viewed. Then we back up all of the images to DVD’s, an external hard drive and an online server so we don’t lose any photos should something happen (so there’s the cost of our online back up service which is a monthly fee, the external hard drive expenses, and buying DVD’s to back up to).

7. The week before the wedding we finalize all of the details of the wedding with the bride. Again, time is money and it can take quite a bit of time to finish all of the last minute details.

8. The night before the wedding we spend an hour or so cleaning all of our gear, charging our batteries, and getting all of our equipment ready to be loaded into the car.

9. The day of the wedding we wake up super early, pack up the car and head out to the location I need to be dropped off at to catch the girls getting ready. That’s more in gas. Then my husband, who second shoots for me, drives to where the guys are getting ready and starts getting photos of them. Again, more gas. Oh, and don’t forget the fact that I have a second shooter that typically comes with all of my packages that I have to pay for his time. Just because he’s my husband doesn’t mean he doesn’t get paid for his work. Not to mention the gas we use going all over the place to get pictures.

10. We spend all day at the wedding working hard to get the great shots our brides expect of us. Whether that’s 8 hours or 10 hours they still get the day. We get a 30 minute break to sit and eat and that’s it. Yes, we need to be fed. We can’t spend 12+ hours prepping for your wedding, traveling, shooting, and traveling back home without getting fed. We also use this time to create a small slideshow of a few of the best images from the day to play on a screen at the reception, so we are still working despite it being a break.

11. After the wedding we pack up all of our gear and head home to relax after a long day. That’s only the half of it though. Every other vendor (except videographers) get to render their services at your wedding and that’s that for them. After the wedding, for us, begins the other half of the work we do for your wedding. First, we back up all of the images to DVD’s, an external hard drive and an online server so we don’t lose any photos should something happen (so there’s the cost of our online back up service which is a monthly fee, the external hard drive expenses, and buying DVD’s to back up to). This takes a day or so. Then we cull all of the best images from your wedding. This can take a few days in an of itself to do because we take thousands of photos (literally 3-4k) at the wedding between the two of us. We cull them down to under 500 which is challenging and takes a long time. Then we find the ones we like the most, edit them and post them on the blog which can take a half a day or so. Then we go through and edit every single photo to reflect our style of photography which can take a week or two. After that we export the full set of color images into a folder, then reload them into a new Lightroom folder and turn them all to black and white, again this takes about a half a day. Then we export those and burn them to discs. Again cost of time, discs, programs, etc. Then we upload them to an online gallery (which we pay for monthly) for you to view the images. If your package includes a disc of images we then order the DVD folio (the DVD folio itself costs quite a bit because they are hand made) and burn your images to a disc. Then we print the image on the top of the disc. We also include a set of watermarked images for online use. Then we mail it to you. That’s a cost for shipping materials and shipping costs.

12. If your package includes an album then we start the album design. Because I have a background in graphic design I custom design all of my own albums so you’re getting a unique album. Not only does the album cost us hundreds of dollars but the time to design an album takes about a week. So right now you’re looking at around 3-4 weeks of work already, averaging 40 hours per week. You might ask why we say the photos will be ready in 8 weeks. You have to remember your wedding isn’t the only wedding we’re doing all of this for so it may take some time to get to yours.

13. Here are some things I’d also like to mention that are a cost to us but a benefit to you. We must carry liability and equipment insurance. This costs around $350 per year. We also must maintain a proper business license. This costs about $100 every year. We must have good equipment. Just for the basics with an “alright” camera costs $5,000 and some equipment only lasts a couple of years. We also maintain several professional memberships such as Pictage, the [b] school, etc for continuing education in order to provide you with the best products, experience, and photos you can get. We also have monthly fees for our websites so you can see our portfolio and read about us so you can get a good feel of what you’re getting before you even meet with us. We also have to pay to advertise which is thousands of dollars a year. We also pay entrance fees at bridal shows. That doesn’t even include our overhead costs for office supplies such as batteries, ink, paper, folders, staples, etc.

Many times we don’t get to spend time with our families because we are busy editing photos and processing images. We spend more time in front of a computer than an average 40 hour a week IT support person, we spend less time behind the camera than we thought we would, etc. But these are all things we do because we love what we do and we want to succeed. Oh! Don’t forget taxes! Those are a killer!

And please feel free to leave a comment if I missed something here! You can also read a similar article from another photographer, Kathryn Lymburner, here called, “You want me to pay you how much?”

Basically what I’m trying to say is even though many of these costs are smaller costs, they still add up. Sure there are people who will eat these costs to build their portfolio and there is always someone out there who will do it for less but just like any profession, you should get paid what you’re worth. When all is said and done we profit very little. If it were enough for us to live off of I would have quit my day job a long time ago, but I’m not at that point just yet.

Going to what the bride said, she’s right. I understand not every bride has the money to spend a couple of thousand to $7,000 on a wedding photographer, but before you go telling us we are crazy for charging what we charge, I think you should have a little more insight to how things have to be done and what our costs are in order to run a successful photography business. Not everyone can do it. Most people who think it’s easy and jump into it right away are out of business in a year. In photography you get what you pay for.

Jen Shannon Photography, Chicago Wedding Photographer

Last week, however, Colby an I dropped our wedding rings and my engagement ring off to have them re-dipped (rhodium) because they are white gold. They turn yellow if you wear them for too long without having them re-dipped so we get them done about every six months or so. This process takes about a week and a half. Our left ring fingers are naked without our rings so we bought cheapy fake rings to wear until our real ones come back. Well, my cheapy one not only turns my finger green, but it tarnished really bad and I couldn’t get it off, not to mention, it looks really fake. So last Friday, when we went out to Chili’s for Colby’s birthday lunch, I realized I didn’t have my ring on. There happens to be a Target by Chili’s so we decided to stop in there to see if they had any cheapy rings that I could buy to hold me over until my new ones came in. For once, Target did not have ANY cheapy rings at all! So I looked at a couple of nice rings that caught my eye but they were way more than I wanted to spend… I was not about ready to spend that kind of money on a fake wedding ring… So I kept walking around the counter hoping to find something else… But the more I passed by this one heart shaped ring, the more I loved it. So I paged someone to come to the counter and tried it on and it fit… So, I caved and bought it, but bought it with my business account. I kept feeling really guilty about it and contemplated taking it back because I didn’t want to spend that much, but then a thought came to me that put me at peace with it… I’ve never bought anything for myself with my business money. I’ve never technically “paid” myself to do the work I do for my business. I work SOOOO many hours during the week (at least 80) between my day job and my business and I never pay myself for the 40 plus hour I put into my business every week. The money has always gone back into the business, whether that be buying new equipment, supplies, monthly fees for monthly subscriptions, etc. All of a sudden, this ring began to represent so much more than just a fake wedding ring.

So here is what it has come to mean to me. The ring represents my passion for photography and my love for what I do. It represents the love that is shared in the photographs I take of two people in love, people who love their children, animals, etc. It has also come to represent my love for my business and my commitment to sticking with it. It also represents the love I have for the people that encourage me and the people who have helped pave the way for people like me. It also represents how far I’ve come from the beginning to now and my reward for working so hard without paying myself. So I guess you can call it my “wedding” ring to my business LOL!

So, without further ado, here is the ring. It’s a 10k white gold moonglow mystic ice topaz heart shaped ring with 2 accent diamonds on each side of the stone… Phew! That’s a lot of description. Someday I’ll invest in a macro lens so I can get a more up-close shot of it…

Jen Shannon Photography, Chicago Wedding Photographer

1. I shoot with a Nikon D80.

2. I love my new Shootsac! Jessica Claire rocks!

3. A year ago I used to say I sucked at photographing people. Now I think I’ve got mad skills! hahah!

4. Jayda loves to pose for my camera.

5. My eyes are too bad (even though my vision is 20/25) to shoot in manual focus… But I will use manual focus if my camera has a hard time focusing on something. Must be my astigmatism.

6. Although I’m devoted to Nikon, I don’t have anything bad to say about Canon.

7. I’ve had a passion for photography and have been shooting for 6 years.

8. I love it when a Client becomes a friend.

9. I hate using a flash. I prefer natural light.

10. I keep my portfolio on my iPhone.

11. My favorite lens is my prime lens (Nikkor 1.4D). It’s my secret weapon

12. I hope to one day quit my day job to be a full time photographer.

13. Photography runs in my family. My uncle, Ken Settle, is a well known rock photographer. My dad also did photography for awhile, not professionally though.

14. I enjoy black and white film photography.

15. I never get tired of seeing the world through my lenses.

16. I clean my camera with a puff of warm breath, a cloth to clean glasses, and canned air.

17. I have the AWESOMEST custom camera straps EVER! Thanks be to my mom who got them for me as a birthday gift

18. I hate having pictures taken of me

19. I don’t think my family thinks of me as a professional just yet. They will learn!

20. Most people don’t understand the value of photography and why it costs what it does. I intend to help people better understand why it is of such great value

21. Maybe one day I’ll be one of those people on the Photography Mentor Q&A videos or weekly Pictage podcasts

22. I’m still waiting for a “defining moment” in my photography career.

23. When I was a little girl, I used to wish I could be a photographer for National Geographic so I could travel the world and see things in person that only lucky people get to see. Everyone else would get to see it in a magazine.

24. I love blogging and it is an important part of my photography business.

25. I couldn’t do any of this without the love and support of Colby. He’s my rock. I love him soooo much!