Crazy Times Lead to New Prices
A wedding photographer must adapt to crazy times
I take pride in my work as a wedding and portrait photographer. A person should be paid what they’re worth. But honestly, wedding and portrait photography aren’t essential for peoples lives. It’s a really nice extra. Right now we’re having some crazy times with a war, rising gas and food prices, an uncertain future, an out of control president. These events aren’t moving slowly, they’re moving at supersonic speed. One day we have a set of expectations, the next makes those expectations look like old ideas.
My work results from my love of photography and making people happy. It’s a skill I’ve spent years honing and pushing the limits of personal ability to make better. I’m very proud of the body of work in my portfolio. I should be charging top dollar for the skill and expertise I bring to a wedding or portrait session.
Along with the crazy times, I have one really big weakness in my work: marketing. Posting on the social media, getting the reviews done in the right places, working constantly on the SEO - all of these activities really are outside of my skill set.
This morning my wife, who’s a physician, was on my case about making more money. Filling the tank of my small hybrid Toyota cost an extra $10 yesterday. I can’t imaging what it’s now costing people with trucks and big SUV’s. People are short of money for the nice extras like quality photography. This year with all the insanity I haven’t signed up enough weddings. So I decided to drop my prices down to what they were a few years ago.
I can’t give a discount to the people who’ve already signed me up. That money has already been budgeted.
It will be an interesting experiment to see how this works over the next couple months. Do people still want photography?
My hope is this war ends soon. My hope is Iran doesn’t start making nuclear bombs. My hope is democrats win the midterms so we can start righting the ship and bringing crooks and murderers to justice. Yes, I am a proud fighting democrat. But my biggest sources of political news are former Republicans. You might see me at the next No Kings protest carrying an American flag and rooting for our Republic to stand.
