arthuryeo Posted January 15, 2006 Share Posted January 15, 2006 I saw a recent add for Gary Fong's motivational classes. In his ad, it stated that he used to make $700K doing 42 weddings per year. Of course, he's now retired. :) Go figure how much each of those weddings cost. That is surprisingly more than the legends (like the Marcus family in NYC) make per year. I guess, in his classes, he'll be talking about how covering weddings can be a gold mine. You wedding pross out there ... tell me how many wedding photogs you know makes $700K per year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaelmowery Posted January 15, 2006 Share Posted January 15, 2006 Thats only $16,000 per wedding. That is not an astronomical amount. Thats what the wedding cake costs at the weddings we do. By the way our studio is in the 4 million range, just to update your calculations. Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjogo Posted January 15, 2006 Share Posted January 15, 2006 My colleague /competition, up the valley a few miles >> is $12k per wedding. It can be done.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris m., central florida Posted January 15, 2006 Share Posted January 15, 2006 When I lived in CT 10+ years ago, we had two local photographers bringing in well over $500K per year. They're good at what they do, phenomenally good. Much of their financial success was from post wedding sales. We have photographers here in Central Florida dong extremely well. There are a few west coast photographers who stand out, as well as photographers from most major cities. Fong is a good businessman, plain and simple. And plenty of photographers feel that the advice he shares in his seminars has helped them to succeed. Sometimes you only have to implement one or two new ideas to seriously increase you earnings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fotografz Posted January 15, 2006 Share Posted January 15, 2006 I think 42 weddings is a lot unless you have a strong support staff and work flow system. That's quite a few 2 a week-end shoots. Averaging out our fees, we'd have to do 250+ weddings a year to make $700,000. There is one local wedding photographer that makes $350,000. annually pretty steadily. Someone just photographed Eminem's wedding here yesterday. Probably a celeb shooter set up by the PR agent. But you never know. Hope it was someone local. But I doubt it. Time to lean down the fluff, make a plan for penetrating the top end, and get those prices up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricM Posted January 15, 2006 Share Posted January 15, 2006 "Someone just photographed Eminem's wedding here yesterday. Probably a celeb shooter set up by the PR agent. But you never know. Hope it was someone local. But I doubt it." I wonder if it was another one of those "do it for the publicity" freebies? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nstock Posted January 15, 2006 Share Posted January 15, 2006 What you charge and how many weddings you book for what you charge is one thing to keep in mind when raising prices (we could ALL go to $10k minimum fees and most of us would not be working). Assuming you have the bookings and the high price, there is also quite a difference between what you gross (make) and what you net (keep). At $700k a year and $16k a pop this guy wasn't working out of a spare room in his house answering his own phones, maintaining his own website (and building it too) or working a second job. He has a pretty high overhead between facilities and personnel. That being said, he is (was) still doing very well and congratulations to him (or anyone) who is!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scott_p__boulder_co_ Posted January 15, 2006 Share Posted January 15, 2006 If you added the right clients to a strong self image and a large fee with plenty of reprints and a few top quality albums for each package, 16k/event would not be difficult at all. The hardest part however is step one, finding the right clients. If you ever saw Gary Fong's images, they are good, but not 10x better than most people who charge 1600.00 per wedding, it is primarily marketing in all of its many forms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon jacobson Posted January 15, 2006 Share Posted January 15, 2006 <i>I wonder if it was another one of those "do it for the publicity" freebies?</i> <p> Eminem is a performing artist and therefore an artist. He doesn't select just any sound engineer for his concerts. I'm sure his wedding photographer will be at the very least somebody he or his agent already trusts -- even for a small event. <p> Will the bride hyphenate her name? Kim Mathers-Mathers? Kayeminem? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruce_rubenstein___nyc Posted January 15, 2006 Share Posted January 15, 2006 Michael - According to an article in the NYTimes, the woman who delivers most of those cakes, charges more for that service than most of the people here do for shooting. Over time I've gotten the impression that more people here are interested in the fantasy, rather than the reality of the world of high end weddings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arthuryeo Posted January 15, 2006 Author Share Posted January 15, 2006 Amazing ... I guess I'm in the wrong field. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arthuryeo Posted January 15, 2006 Author Share Posted January 15, 2006 Michael Mowery, Sorry about my underestimation of the Marcus studio. How's AndyM doing these days? I'm a fan of his. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaelmowery Posted January 15, 2006 Share Posted January 15, 2006 Yes the woman who delivers those cake (Silvia Weinstock) makes more than most of us. Is that crazy? Arthur, Andy is doing very well. The sucess of the studio is amazing but what would you expect when you cater to the wealthy. just raise your prices and the cream raises to the top, or something like that. It is nice to dream hopefully that will motovate. Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brooks whittington Posted January 15, 2006 Share Posted January 15, 2006 Of course, he could also be lying. Don't forget, Gary's business is not shooting weddings anymore, it is selling crap to other wedding photographers. Don't EVER accept what a salesman tells you at face value, especially if there is no way to confirm it. YMMV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rich_dutchman1 Posted January 15, 2006 Share Posted January 15, 2006 Nancy -- Ironically, Fong was working a second job and doing web sites. Pictage was just him and an employee for a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yankfan Posted January 15, 2006 Share Posted January 15, 2006 Eminem's wife? Why "Slim Shady Lady" of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karenco Posted January 16, 2006 Share Posted January 16, 2006 > Pictage was just him and an employee for a while. < Not sure where you got that information, but it's incorrect. Karen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricM Posted January 16, 2006 Share Posted January 16, 2006 "Nancy -- Ironically, Fong was working a second job and doing web sites. Pictage was just him and an employee for a while." "Not sure where you got that information, but it's incorrect." I don't think anyone should hire who ever did Gary's site. It's awful. Can't see it belonging to a 16k per wedding wedding photographer either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjogo Posted January 16, 2006 Share Posted January 16, 2006 --- My friends, who are averaging 7-12k per weddings really have to work . And the overhead (staff - PS operators --just the standard front office employees ) and what they have to produce ( several albums,print packages, etc. ) > is very costly. Rather enjoy, working out of a room in the home ( for 25 year now) and just mailing out the prints & negs. My colleagues barely make $2k more profit > then my simple min.89% profit weddings! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul - Posted January 16, 2006 Share Posted January 16, 2006 "<i>In his ad, it stated that he used to make $700K doing 42 weddings per year."</i><P>Actually, it says <i>"his studio was <b>grossing</B> over nearly $700,000 per year on 42 weddings"</i><P>Gross sales and what HE makes are 2 very different things. A buddy of mine is a successful caterer whose business grosses millions of dollars a year in sales. That doesn't tell anyone how much <i>net profit</i> makes it to his pocket though, and it isn't anywhere 7 figures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rich_dutchman1 Posted January 16, 2006 Share Posted January 16, 2006 Karen -- I found it browsing through his web site: "In January of 2001, Pictage had two people working one Fuji Frontier, myself and Marci:" Link: http://digitalphotographers.infopop.cc/6/ubb.x?a=tpc&s=9196015511&f=6566066021&m=2246081372&r=2246081372#2246081372 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karenco Posted January 16, 2006 Share Posted January 16, 2006 I was a Pictage customer at the very beginning - I was one of the original customers they signed up before they were even doing production and at that time Gary was only an advisor on the Board when they started up, as was Denis Reggie and a few other people. The company was actually started by Jason Kiefer - a groom who was involved in the banking (venture cap) and tech in LA. If you look at the Pictage history page, Gary is listed as the lab co-founder, but the lab didn't come along until about a year after Pictage was started. http://www.pictage.com/xml/about/management.xml I've noticed that Gary has a tendency to re-write past history when he wants to. Factually, Gary was not a co-founder or a primary founder of Pictage. Pictage was started by Jason with a venture capital investment and then Gary got involved as the guy integrated the lab features. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael_juiliano1 Posted January 17, 2006 Share Posted January 17, 2006 At $79.00 if I bring 1 thing back from it it's more than worth it. Am I the only one that plans on attending? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshlitt Posted January 17, 2006 Share Posted January 17, 2006 I will be attending one on the 13th. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
susan_flewelling Posted January 30, 2006 Share Posted January 30, 2006 I am going to the Las Angeles one. I am interested in what he has to say about having an assistant and what their rights are to the photos they take. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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