“Affordable photographer near me” – Breaking down photography pricing and expectations for different budgets.

I love this conversation because I think it's so important for people to understand why photographers are as "expensive "as they are!

Photographers aren't ripping people off by charging a few hundred dollars an hour - it comes down to the cost of not only our skills but also our equipment, our editing time, our time on site, our prep time, paid sick time, income taxes, travel and a few other aspects of running a business that gets factored into the cost of doing business. AKA the cost per project and while there is flexibility in pricing when you own your own business (and you can offer discounts for various services) often times photography gets sidelined for other aspects of a project. 

It's fine for everyone to not care about photography and not every event does need a photographer I know you might not believe that a photographer is telling you that not every event needs to be photographed but it's true! And sometimes a cell phone really is your best option for a small scale event. However, sometimes it's not and sometimes you do need actual good footage if you were going to be hosting an event again, you’ll want content. If it's a really important event honoring a specific person you want to capture those moments of that person in that specific time.

So when you are getting a quote from a photographer you can be really clear with your expectations; is it a photo shoot or is it an event? Each photography scenario is different because an event Photographer does not charge the same as a fine art photographer.

As someone who does both event photography and fine art photography - I don't charge the same for both services because one of them (event photography)  I'm capturing the experience and it's not so much about me directing. Whereas, if I do a proper photo shoot I have to be in a lot more control of a lot more aspects because I need to be controlling the poses and the lighting a lot more aggressively than documenting.

Same for content creation or videography - content creation is a really fun way to capture what's happening at an event or within an experience and it's used for most often social media or short term, small scale sharing whereas videography is more done in a professional manner that is going to be used either on a big screen or something really important like a wedding - where are you actually might have a dvd or in cases where you’re presenting to a much larger audience where the quality needs to be more like fine art or major motion picture quality.  

Here’s an example of an Outdoor family photoshoot North Phoenix, we’ll technically Scottsdale, i suppose. But we were in a private community center area which is always a great option for people looking for outdoor photos you could choose a nearby park or if you have a community center within your neighborhood often the grass is really green there and you can get great clean backdrop photos.

I love to capture all of my Holiday family photos in Phoenix outside because the weather is finally so nice it's a little cool but it allows for us to be a little more active and to move around and I feel like it gives a nice representation of the beautiful weather we have here year-round so whenever I'm booking clients I always ask if they want to do indoor outdoor and if they choose indoor we can rent a studio and if they choose outdoor we can find a really beautiful space nearby.

It is such an honor when a family asks for me to take their photo and I’m trusted with capturing memories like these images by Scottsdale photographer Jennifer Lind Schutsky (that’s me!)

Anyway, the next time you are thinking about hiring a photographer or videographer and you get a quote just know that there's a lot of elements and aspect that get put into that amount and if you do want a break down of what you’re paying for you could ask for that but TRUST that the photographer has already decided on what they can and cannot offer potential clients and if you're not comfortable with their quote then you probably should just find someone else and you might be able to find someone by asking in facebook groups or asking friends and family but be sure to tell them the actual budget not just a photography who ‘doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.”  that is literally my biggest pet peeve when I see people in various platforms asking for a photographer but they don't see the actual dollar amount that they're looking to spend it is impossible for me to send referrals if I cannot help them I love to offer other photographers that are within their budget range however if they don't even see what their budget is I can't stand the people I know that charge less than me their way because no quote is gonna be low enough. No one is charging an arm and a leg - they just don’t want to spend ANY money.  That phrase alone is a red flag and I will never send anyone their way.