is dropping off prints, shipping a dvd, picking up another hard drive and then working on images from the three weddings I shot last weekend. 🙂

is dropping of prints, shipping a dvd, picking up another hard drive and then working on images from the three weddings I shot last weekend. 🙂

Over 100 times a month, I get requests for rate and package information. Gladly, I send the information to potential clients. Rarely do I get a response like the one I recently received. A mother of a bride, after reviewing my rates responded with, “I don’t feel that anyone deserves $200 an hour for any work.” 

That statement is couldn’t be farther from the truth.
When you factor in all of the preparation and post production time, in no way does that equal $200 per hour.

Starting with the initial meeting, which generally takes an hour. I try to find out what it is that the bride and groom are looking for from the photographer. I ask what will happen throughout the day? Do they need 3 hours of photographic coverage, 6 hours, or more? Do they want an album? What is their budget? Can I work within that budget?

If they book me, then I’ll give them a basic shooting script that details what images I look for while photographing their wedding. We’ll then sit down and go over the list, adding or subtracting what they’d like covered.
Another 2 hours here.

Then I scout out the location for the ceremony and reception, because I want to make the best images possible for a couple. That takes at least 3 hours.

What are we up to now, 6 hours? And I haven’t even made one picture.

Then comes the day of the ceremony. Factor in the fact that most weddings are at least one hour from me. There we have two hours travel time, to and from, of which I don’t charge. I arrive generally a half hour before I am to start shooting. Another half hour. Now I’m at 8.5 hours for a wedding which I have yet to make one image.

Let’s say it’s a 5 hour wedding shoot. I generally make about 1,500 images during a 5 hour wedding.

Then comes the editing. All of the images need to be toned, color corrected and ready for printing. Editing the images takes about 3 hours. Post production another 3 hours. Writing the DVD and placing the label another hour. Shipping takes about 1 hour. Uploading the images to the online archive for viewing takes at least 6 hours, and that’s on a good day.

And we have yet to begin working on the album. This is just for photographing the event. Album production takes another 8-12 hours.

Without even factoring in album production, I calculate 26.5 hours worked for a 5 hour wedding, in which all a couple wants is someone to photograph the wedding and reception and to provide a disc to print photos as desired. It actually works out to $7.50 per hour for an “average” 5 hour wedding shoot. 



Maybe I should charge $1 per image?

just finished shooting for the day. Two more long shooting days to go. 🙂

I received an email today from Wedspan.com, and can’t help thinking that this is an easy way for them top get free content to publish on their website.

Here’s what the email said:
WS Publishing Group is the largest publishing company of wedding planning books in North America. We have published over 30 of the best-selling wedding books, including Easy Wedding Planning Plus and The Ultimate Wedding Planner & Organizer. Our books are carried in 6,000 stores and have sold more than 3 million copies!

Now, WS Publishing Group and WedSpace.com are creating a new title in our line of top-selling wedding books – and we’d love your help!

Slated for release in all major bookstores in early 2010, OMG! Wedding Stories: Did That Really Happen? will be based on hilarious and shocking wedding stories from brides, wedding planners and guests on WedSpace.com, our social networking site for the wedding community. We know brides and wedding guests will love reading about other people’s crazy wedding tales.

We are currently taking submissions for crazy, funny, bizarre, and outrageous wedding stories. Share your story with us in detail (300 words or more please). If we choose your story for publication, you will receive a FREE “Starter” advertising package on WedSpace.com. We will credit your story to your company and invite readers to view your profile on WedSpace.com.

This is a great way to expose your business to the thousands of brides who will purchase this book.

Email submissions to [email protected], and tell your friends! Deadline for submission is November 1, 2009.

We look forward to your crazy but true wedding stories!

is wondering why every time I go to the supermarket some woman pushes her cart 900 miles per hour almost running me over (twice this time).

is @ Silk City w/ Mrs. C having beer and warm apple crisp. 😉

Miel’s w/Tina. 🙂

is at the NCC.

is editing images from Vina & Jeff’s Friday wedding and Rebecca and Bill’s Saturday wedding.

is filling out my credential application for this years Liberty Medal Ceremony at the NCC.

I just took over a photographic workshop. Any models or photographers interested in joining, learning. http://ping.fm/d5OAQ

is editing images from a USA Today assignment, then grading final projects from my Wilm U Biz of Photo class.

Someone must have royally screwed up. Just received this from the NY Times.

TO: ALL FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHERS

This is a reminder of The Times’s policies on digital manipulation or other alteration of photos.

As you know, under the contract you signed for The Times, you warrant that any photo submitted for publication “will be original and unaltered (unless it is a photo illustration, pre-approved by your editor and fully disclosed in caption information materials).”

The Times takes this obligation very seriously; the integrity of photographs and other material we publish goes to the heart of our credibility as a news organization. The prohibition on unauthorized alteration of photos applies to all sections of the paper, the Magazine and the Web site.

This passage from the newsroom’s “Guidelines on Our Integrity” explains our rules in more detail:

Photography and Images. Images in our pages, in the paper or on the Web, that purport to depict reality must be genuine in every way. No people or objects may be added, rearranged, reversed, distorted or removed from a scene (except for the recognized practice of cropping to omit extraneous outer portions). Adjustments of color or gray scale should be limited to those minimally necessary for clear and accurate reproduction, analogous to the “burning” and “dodging” that formerly took place in darkroom processing of images. Pictures of news situations must not be posed.

In some sections, and in magazines, where a photograph is used to serve the same purposes as a commissioned drawing or painting – as an illustration of an idea or situation or as a demonstration of how a device works, etc. – it must always be clearly labeled as a photo illustration. This does not apply to portraits or still-lifes (photos of food, shoes, etc.), but it does apply to other kinds of shots in which we have artificially arranged people or things, as well as to collages, montages, and photographs that have been digitally altered.

If you have any questions about what is permissible under the rules, please consult the assigning editor.

Sincerely,

William E. Schmidt
Deputy Managing Editor
The New York Times Newspaper
Division of The New York Times Company

rendendo i cookie per la mia bella moglie.

is archiving images from yesterdays wedding in Wilkes Barre, Pa. and preparing for theater and corporate shoots during the week. 🙂

is headed back to the city after a long day making pix in Wilkes Barre.

is headed to Wilkes Barre for a shoot.

Having Twizzlers and Tequila @ The Rusty Nail in Cape May. 🙂

is having dinner at the Blue Pig in Cape May with Tina.