FAQs
- What should the customer know about your pricing (e.g., discounts, fees)?
We don't have preset "packages" at set prices. All of our work is completely custom. The customer drives the process by describing their goals, their ideas, their experience and their preferences and taste. Once I fully understand the objective I can use my experience and creativity to offer a range of solutions. These solutions may be scaled by cost. The buyer should always make a business model for an expense to be sure it is profitable, either in the short term or in the long for that business. I offer my clients a complete written "hard" quote before beginning any project. The quote includes all work, fees, expenses, rights and any additional options. If some elements are to be determined later (additional retouching, prints or display murals, DVDs or other media) those expenses and options are always discussed at the beginning of the project. My goal is to deliver a top shelf product and in doing so present the customer with a clearly superior value. As Thumbtack changes their means of presenting professionals to prospective customers and costs to those professionals they've requested more straightforward pricing structures. For myself that's difficult as you've read above so here's some information you may (or may not) find useful: We can shoot product photos as low as $25ea. cleaned up, prepped, ready to use in quantities over 1000. Low quantity finished product photos start at just $99ea. ready to use. Typical jobs studio & location) bill out at $750-3000. My "dayrate" is based on $2400 so that makes my hourly rate $300/hr shooting which most times includes both preproduction and post production. Photoshop, design and other "digital services are based on $90-125 rates. As you can see that quickly becomes both confusing and perhaps intimidating. We cannot bid jobs under about $500 due to our overhead. We dont shoot weddings. We dont shoot senior portraits, nor babies, not pets or any kind of events. I shoot marketing photos for advertising, catalogs, brochures, annual reports, billboards, tradeshow display, websites, Amazon & eBay eCommerce, executive portraits, manufacturing processes, architecture, food and aerial photography from drone and helicopter platforms. Having said all that please see my work. I believe we offer the best value, the best "bang for your buck", your best investment if quality impactful effective marketing images are what you're looking for.
- What is your typical process for working with a new customer?
The process starts with understanding the customer's full scope of goals for the project. I want the photos I make to not only look amazing, but to meet all of the marketing goals in their intended use. Who the audience is and what are the priorities are important so I understand what the focus is for a given project. I need to know if there are specific deadlines, if we will need to obtain permission to access a property, if we need to arrange for additional staff like models, assistants, a pilot, etc. or if we will need to be flexible to work around the weather or other factors. I like to shoot to a layout so we can design the photos to lead the eye, but we can also shoot with the intent of designing on the backend as well. If the deliverables need to conform to any specs such as file size, image orientation, color space, etc. it's best to know that early in the project. If the client has a specific budget or target cost we can review options that scale both up and down as needed to keep costs contained.
- What education and/or training do you have that relates to your work?
In the old days (I'm in my early 50's) it was enough to learn the basics in school, perhaps mentor under an expert for a while and then practice your craft doing new work, and I did that, but... Today it's all changed. The pace of technological change requires not only frequent updates to both camera and computer equipment but it also requires ongoing training and staying in touch with our changing culture. To do this I am always upgrading to the newest versions of the software I use. I build on my experience using the previous versions but also utilize online training and make time to experiment and practice using the new and improved tools. Likewise I am in touch with the culture on a technical level as well as staying up to date on what is important to people. I also tend to be an early adopter of many of these trends so I can better understand them and how they may or may not become part of the "big picture". Embracing change makes you better adapted to respond to change. There's no hiding from it so why not participate in it fully?