In the past few weeks i’ve been making some portraits for people. More for fun and to keep my eye sharp. The day before, i had a client email me that she “loved, loved the pictures!”
Made me feel great.

That said, I do this for a living. Making money is part of the job. I’m not Joe Asshole with a camera and the least bit of knowledge. I know what the hell I’m doing. My work has appeared all over the world in many, many publications. If you hire me to make pictures, I’m all in. I do my best to give you as many picture possibilities as I can. Just because the package you purchased says you can have prints of only one image in package, that doesn’t mean you can not have access to purchasing additional prints. And, quite frankly, if I do my job correctly, you will want more. So, I was taken aback by a comment I received after the nice comment.
The “client” wrote, “The photographer was nice but I didn’t realize that I would only have access to just prints of only one image.” That’s called a package deal. Isn’t that the way school portraits work? You choose one image and receive a bunch of prints of that picture. And fancy this, you pay a certain amount of money for that package.

Sounds like this person wants more images, but doesn’t think I should be compensated for my work. I don’t get it. A package deal is just that. And believe me, this was a great deal.

I agreed to shoot on location. This means I have to drive there. Half hour maybe. The shoot generally takes an hour. Then the drive back to the office. Two hours of time. Then an hour of post production. Uploading. Emailing the client. Setting the website up so they can order and have the prints shipped directly to their home. Here the client is thinking this only takes an hour. Sure, all you’re doing is posing. you pose for an hour, I work for 4. Here’s the big difference, I make environmental portraits of the subjects. Distinct to each group or person. Never the same setup or images.

What the package price doesn’t include is mileage, storage of the images, the printing fees for that one image, the percentage that I get charged when someone pays with a credit/debit card, oh, and the wear and tear on my gear.
So, excuse me if I’d like to make some profit on my work. I’m actually in business to give you free pictures because you should get more then paid for in he package deal.

How about I try that when it’s time to gas up my car or pay the lab for prints. Mr. Gas dude, I think you should let me have more gas then I paid for, because I deserve it. Hey lab dude, how about you give me ten prints and I pay for two? Just because I deserve it.

Better yet, maybe I should just apologize to the client for doing a good job.