first time getting paid.

[flowremix]

Ok, a couple of weeks ago i went to a dog show with my friend. My friend knew one of the kennels at the show, the owner of the kennel just bought a 30D with the 24-108mm lens. He noticed i was shotting with the 20D with lens kit and asked me to take some shots with his camera. So i didn't think it was a problem, took a bunch while noticing the differences between the 20d and 30d. I posted some of my pictures on www.flickr.com/photos/flowremix and showed them to the owner, he loved the pictures off my camera and the shots i took with his. He really liked them a lot and asked me to shot some other events he attends. He wants me to big the photographer, he knows I am an amateur photographer. So my question is....

What is the best way to determine my fees for my services. I'm not sure if i want to charge by the hour or by the event. I honestly do not expect a whole lot. I'm sure he'll use me for other local events as well. I told him i will shot the event, do some post processing, and burn them onto a disk. I'm pretty sure whatever i make will go straight to photo gear. I am very confident in my skills (good enough for the client's expectations), i can handle my camera well, i have the gear needed.

Thanks for any advice.

[JSPhoto]

Look in the business forum, this question has been discussed a lot there. :thumbsup:

JS

[Mr Yuck]

I'm in a similar situation, only with Real Estate.

I lose track of time when I get into taking my photos and editing them, so I kinda doubt charging by the hour is a great idea.

I was scouting a lot today and got some shots of their dogs too, hehehe.

*count me as someone else that could benefit from any words of wisdom

EDIT: I think I'm gonna see what the Business forum has in that department, as per JSPhoto's suggestion

*not meaning to hijack the thread, answer flow first

[another view]

so I kinda doubt charging by the hour is a great idea.

Good for both of you for finding these opportunities. Charging by the hour usually IME means by the time you spend actually shooting at the job. The idea is that the number of shots you take will increase with the amount of time spent on the job. One hour = an approximate number of shots; four hours = probably somewhere around four times that number. Say you spend two hours doing downloading, post processing, backing up and burning CD's, etc for every hour you shoot. If you charge $100/hour, that would work out to $33/hour for your time. If you spent one hour, that works out to $50/hour, etc.

If you're trying to do this to start a business, that's one thing but if you're just trying to be reimbursed for your time and don't see doing this often, that's something else. Not that the dollar amount needs to be much lower with one choice or the other - if you do the job, you do the job...

I can't recommend an hourly amount and your client might choke at that figure - maybe not. Maybe you could barter for services - if you have a dog, maybe trade for grooming for a few shots - something like that. I haven't done much of this type of work so as JSP says, check the business forum for more ideas.

[Mr Yuck]

hehe, maybe I can barter a house for photos? :lol:

[another view]

hehe, maybe I can barter a house for photos?

Well, yeah, may be a bit of a stretch in this case but just another way of handling it in the future. Could work out better than cash for both people involved. To me as a guy who is not trying to do this professionally, the important thing is to get something for your work. They're asking you to do it because either they don't want to do it, don't have the time (for example the dog breeder at the show) or know you can do a better job. There's a value in providing that service...