Cost of Being a Photographer

Being a photographer without an agent is quite a challenge. Mainly because I don't have someone seeking jobs for me where pay would be 5k+. I have to go out on my own and find clients and convenience them that I am worth the price I market myself at. And i get asked often why my price is where it is. Where I'm going to break down my cost for you so you can better understand why i charge what I consider a fair amount.

Equipment

• Nikon D40x SLR Kit with 17-55 Lens - $ 600
• Nikkor Prime Lens- $200
• Sigma Telephoto Lens- $ 200
• Nikon Flash- $400
  
• Basic Filters for 3 lens $60
• Advanced Filter- $35
  
• Extra Battery for Digital SLR- $50
• Camera bag to hold gear- $80

Only in hardware so far, and this is 3entry level hardware I've already hit $1600. Now lets talk software.

Software

• Adobe Photoshop CS3- $500
• Adobe Lightroom 2- $200
• Plugins For Photoshop and Lightroom- $300

Software is at $1000 bring my total to 2600. But wait, I need a digital workspace.

Computer Equipment

• Apple Imac- $1800
• External Harddrives- $250

Computer Equipment total is $2050 bringing my Grand total to $4650.

Now while $4650 is a large amount I have other friends who have also started photography companies and their upstart cost are around 8000. They've purchased more advanced top of the line gear and hardware.

Ok i've spent 4700 dollars. I'm ready to start yes?...no. I have to let the local market know about me and show samples of my work. But if I'm just started I can't charge for something no one has seen yet. Would you buy a car if you've never seen it, heard of it, and none of your friends have? So now you have to talk people into paying you for a blind service, or do a few shoots for free to show what you can do on a constant.

So now you're out and you're marketing. You now run into Marketing cost.

• Domain name - $20
• Website hosting $100
• Business cards- $30

And there's always Gas and Time spent which can't be put into a cost.

Getting into Photography isn't just a quick hey i'm gonna do this and it's gonna be cash cow industry. While yes with the switch to digital the cost of being a photographer has gone down since you no longer need to buy film and pay to process it. But it is still a very costly industry to get into, just like any other profession. You wouldn't walk into a 5 star restaurant and say, "You know this is awesome, but we only wanna pay you this much for it." Just becuase I dont have a set building downtown with a whole staff doesn't mean you can lowball me for what I do. This is what I do and order to try and pay my bills. I don't walk into your job asking for discounts and haggleing prices, so why do you do it to me?