dustin_hatcher

Great info guys! I definitely do realize that the shots can have improvements and I am

continually working on that. Tana you will have an email coming your way shortly. :)

My wife and I going to be re-doing the prices over the weekend and updating the web

site to hopefully something a little more reasonable based for our skill set.

Again thanks all so much for the help!

Kenzi, definitely appreciate the comment. My wife and I have truly been thinking

about the prices really do seem a bit high for us being so new to this. We are

actually also scouting Craigslist to find jobs [wedding] where people would just like a

photographer to show up for 2-4 hours and shoot mostly the reception or just the

ceremony so that we can definitely add to our experience levels and put more

content out there.

My wife does most of the second shooting (although she is not actually as

experienced as me even, she is learning quickly). Don't get me wrong either. I have

covered more events, but they don't pertain to weddings. Some sports events,

some publicity events that the company she works for uses.

Primarily we don't advertise 2 shooters because if something were to happen where

one of us would need to attend a family emergency then that person can go and

we're still ok "contractually." Although, if that were the case I would still try to find a

2nd shooter to help me/her out. The reality is though that the majority of the time

there WILL be 2 shooters working the wedding, just in case.

The other thing to note is that with our wedding packages we wanted to offer a bit of

some high quality things like albums and prints, so we're working on calculating the

costs of those into the package that the bride and groom can purchase as one big

thing. What we're effectively trying to determine I guess is how much profit we

should be looking to make after the album, prints et all is done and paid for.

Once again, thanks so much for all the help everyone. It's definitely very

informative and like I said, we're really trying to go about this slowly and

methodically before "diving right in."

Paul thanks again for the response! I'm definitely going to check out that wedj.com

place. Oh and yes have checked out craigslist and continue to do so on a regular

basis. The main problem we run into is the second photographer is generally

required to be Canon and equipped and we're Nikon users heh :)

Tana, definitely thanks for the input. To answer, no we're not only going to shoot

weddings, we're hoping to do a lot of weddings, but here in the bay area we noticed

photographers are really branching out with being able to do portrait work, kids work,

events etc. So we're in the process of adding content to those areas. :)

Re: The kids shots. I think there's a bit of a style coming through where people sort

of want that look as opposed to traditional studio quality pictures. We've seen A

LOT of children photography of a similar nature that has been done outside at

different locations or at the parents homes where the background is anything but a

studio velvet back drop. Much like wedding photography has changed from medium

format and formally posed brides and grooms to a photojournalistic style, I think

children's photography is experiencing a shift right now as well to get more of a

natural look with them. I definitely wouldn't consider those snap shot quality (but

then again I'm biased :) ) as I have seen a lot of snap shots and they look nothing

like that. But to each their own I say. As photographers we're hired because of our

style of images. :)

Are the EF-S lenses similar to the Nikon DX lenses in that they represent a true 17-

55mm range on an APS-C sensor? I read that is not the case and a reason why I have

stuck with my Nikon gear largely.

Thanks for the reply Paulsky! To answer your question, definitely not! It did take

me quite some time to get where I'm at today. Which is frankly, why, I'm seeking

the advice of everyone here.

To share my experience a little bit with the "find a pro to tag along with" commentary

(that I no doubtedly knew was coming) I have TRIED AND TRIED to find a pro to tag

along with. I've offered mine and my wife's services to help with menial (and the not

so beautiful side of photography, such as paperwork, filing, moving equipment

around) and not a one of them has wanted anything to do with it. The most

response I've received was "here come take my next $300 work shop!" So by all

means, if there are some pro's you know of in the bay area who would enjoy the help

my wife and I can lend on the weekends or the evenings, please let us know! We've

been looking :)

In regards to the contract; I think we have a pretty solid one. I stumbled across a

really good one that was posted here I believe by one Simon Revill that I used a lot

from as well as from the book written by Tad Crawford.

So I believe this is the part of my contract that you are talking about...

"23. FAILURE TO PERFORM: If TRUE BEAUTY PHOTOGRAPHY cannot perform

this Agreement due to a fire or other casualty, strike, act of God or nature, or other

cause beyond the control of the parties, or due to Photographerﾒs illness, then TRUE

BEAUTY PHOTOGRAPHY shall return the retainer to THE CLIENT but shall have

no further liability with respect to the Agreement. This limitation on liability shall

also apply in the event that the photographic materials are damaged in processing,

lost through camera or equipment malfunction, lost in the mail, or otherwise lost or

damaged without fault on the part of TRUE BEAUTY PHOTOGRAPHY. In the event

TRUE BEAUTY PHOTOGRAPHY fails to perform for any other reason, TRUE

BEAUTY PHOTOGRAPHY shall not be liable for any amount in excess of the retail

value of THE CLIENTﾒS order. "

And yes, we're going about getting quotes for business liability insurance as well as

equipment insurance in case anything is broken, stolen or other wise ruined. :)

Hello All,

I'm new to posting here (although I've lurked quite a bit). I thought I'd come out and introduce

myself. I'm Dustin and I'm looking into getting into wedding photography. I'm a full time IT tech

by day and have always been a photography enthusiast since I was young.

I was turned on to doing [paid] wedding photography when several people mentioned to me I

should charge to do weddings. I love to photograph people and I think weddings are generally

fun because everyone is usually in that happy go lucky but tossed with a side of chaos mood. It

tends to make quality moments for the camera. :)

I've officially shot 2 weddings in my life. 1 when I was about 15 and taking photography in high

school and my Mom took photography at the local community center. She [Mom] was asked by

a co-worker to photograph her daughter's wedding because they had no money for a "real"

photographer. So we did it and the pictures turned out quite well and they were happy with it.

I'm sorry to say unfortunately I was young and just handed over the negatives [wish I'd kept

them now darnit heh].

The other wedding I shot was a couple years ago for a friend covering as a backup photographer

for his cousin who was doing the main photography on Leica equipment. My buddy asked me to

cover with digital so they could upload stuff to the web right away for family & friends who

couldn't attend.

Anyways, not to make this post much longer than it really has to be, I've been trying to go about

all this very methodically and slooowly. My wife and I have been putting together contracts, our

website and trying to add to our portfolio. We pretty much have everything in place including our

pricing packages... which is what brings me to this post (thanks to all those still reading :) ).

I crossed over another post here about someone asking if they're seeing the price of wedding

photography drop due to an influx of all us newbies. I was recently told by another person that

our prices were a bit high for wedding photography and I wanted to get some of the more

experienced people here to take a look and tell me what I should do to adjust our packages.

Following is the link to our website where all the pricing packages can be seen and small amount

of our portfolio for those who are curious.

www.truebeautyphotography.com

Please let me know what you think in terms of pricing (and for all those who don't think I should

be charging a dime because I didn't go to school for this, please keep out. I didn't go to school

for what I do now professionally for IT and now I'm pretty highly sought after for what I do

because I do it well, so I don't buy the argument that if you didn't go to school for this you

shouldn't charge).

Thanks again for all those contributing constructive criticism!

-Dustin