UK- 'middle man' and photographer's fee

<p>Hi,<br>

(It is my first post, please be kind :)<br>

I have been approached to be hired as a (main) photographer on an 3 days wedding in the UK.<br>

The hirer is a videography firm who also 'provides' photography services by outsourcing when required.<br>

The wedding is in 2 locations: Day 1 and 2 in one and Day 3 in another<br>

day 1 - 4-5h coverage, driving time 2.5h-3h one way assuming some leeway for traffic <br>

day 2- 7h coverage, driving time as above<br>

day 3- 12h coverage, driving time 1.5h one way.<br>

Given the travel time would take me up to half day in total I requested an accommodation but I will only have it for night day2/3.<br>

I have been offered a total fee of £500. No travel time paid, perhaps fuel cost at actual rate.<br>

What pay would you expect to get for this? The rate i have been offer is almost 2nd shooter rate, but I will be the main and only one. Of course I did not have to deal with the client so the business side is taken off me. Trying to figure out what would be fair.<br>

I am tempted to get the experience, as never shot Indian wedding, but I think that this is going to be an extra ordinarily challenging task to shoot 3 days in a row, carrying all my stuff, with no assistant and also be expected to shoot lots of creative shots like night time on my own etc and be paid little. And I would need to pay for an accommodation for the first night as driving on Friday eve is a nightmare.<br>

I do not have a booking for this weekend and it is rather unlikely I would get one, but on the other hand two portrait sessions would cover 2/3 of this fee....<br>

Please help me make this decision.<br>

Thanks</p>

<p> </p>

<p>24 hours of shooting and about 15 more on the road. Presumably many more hours of post processing all using your equipment. Minimal overnight accomodations and don't forget you have to eat out much of the time. Cost of gas, wear and tear on the car. If you just feel like doing it then have at it but I believe I'd pass. You aren't really making any money.</p>

<p>Rick H.</p>

I would think four to five times that much. Stay home and relax with your family. It sounds like you're being well taken

advantage of. JMO

<p>Not nearly enough money. I would pass. That offer borders on the insulting.</p>

<p>Dear Videographer,<br>

Many thanks for your offer of £500. For information, our current rates stand at £1650 for wedding coverage of approximately 8 hours and the full collection of photographs on disk (with no hard product). This fee includes the pre-wedding Administration and consultations, the photography itself, reasonable time in transit, and the post wedding phase entailing editing, processing, retouching, proofing, and finally product delivery. On average it takes anything from 45-70 hours to fully administer and deliver the average wedding.<br>

Your project entails approximately 3 times the effort and hours described above, however since we are engaged with the same client I am happy to discount the full fee by 30%. Therefore my rate for carrying out the work as set out will be £3465.<br>

Kind regards,<br>

xxxx</p>

<p>You have to take into account the fact that for the huge amount of time you are involved with this wedding you are obviously not available to other wedding clients - you're going to miss out on probably two other weddings if you take this job, given the amount of preparation and post-work. Not to mention if the various family groups require albums and other products.<br>

If they are so insultingly cheap then obviously they are not going to pay anything like a reasonable rate - they are not going to get a professional photographer but may get somebody gullible who dabbles. </p>

<p>"Not nearly enough money. I would pass. That offer borders on the insulting."<br /><br />Agreed except that I would take out the word "borders." This definitely is insulting. I haven't done the currency conversion but here in the U.S. this would amount to about minimum wage at best. Keep in mind that the "partial" days the first day is really a full day once you include travel time. The second day is a long day even without the travel and the third day -- 12 hours -- is a job for two photographers, one taking over from the other at some point, not even considering the travel time. An appropriate fee would be something like what Lindsay suggests. And no way I would be driving back and forth -- I would insist on them paying for me to stay overnight both nights, including room and all meals.</p>

<p>That price is a total joke.</p>

<p>It isn't much money for the work that is involved - but -</p>

<blockquote>

<p>"I have been approached to be hired as a (main) photographer on an 3 days wedding in the UK."</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Before commenting in any more detail I'd be interested to know the exact details of this bit, including the back story, as to why they approached you. </p>

<p>WW</p>

 

<p>HI All,</p>

<p>Thank you so much for the replies. I did indeed declined this 'offer' few days ago.<br>

I could not figure out how much would an Asian/Indian wedding cost in the UK and could not estimate what budget he proposed to the clients. As I have not done this type of wedding before, I was tempted to do this for my portfolio, but not with that travel, accommodation and unpaid costs associated with travelling. Too much stress, hassle and effort for little reward.<br>

Again thank you for your help in grounding my thoughts.</p>

<p> </p>