Taking photos today of my 2 kids with wife’s bro’s kid ( all the cousins) to give to wife’s parents/sister as Xmas gifts.
For some reason wife’s bro’s wife’s cousin (my sister in law’s cousin) while not a photog has decided she no longer wants to sell wraps /scentsy/whatever the new thing to sell is and wants to add to her income by taking family photos. She offered to take these photos and it was believed it would be free since she just needs/wants experience.
Come to find out she’s charging $100 for the “session.” I’m not so cheap to not pay BUT who charges family for something like this? When I was a solo attorney I did and still do plenty of family work. Never charged for any of it because it is family. (I’m still confused why someone else is taking the photos anyway because we have a nice camera. Bro in law has same camera so we’re perfectly capable of taking these but I guess the thought was to give the cousin some experience to help her 5th side business take off.)
Am I wrong on this? I guess if it was her job, she was bringing serious equipment and was processing/ preparing the actual photos, I would be less surprised but it just seems wrong to me to offer to take photos and then charge for it.
I won’t be offended if I’m told this is customary but just curious where others fall on this.
Unless fees were discussed and agreed to prior to the “session”, she is out of line. Sounds like you didn’t sign anything agreeing to pay for her services.
We’ve had family photos done and the only charge is for the pics. Nothing for the session. The pics are somewhat expensive, but that’s how they make their money.
a former neighbor, an acquaintance/friend who was a wedding photographer wanted to get into family individual portraits . . . with some kind of story thingy behind it. He asked if he could photo and interview our kids . . . and he put together a great product. There was no charge to us.
You’ll have to decide if paying the $100 is worth not having family relationships spoiled . . . mindful of how this relative might respond to not paying the $100
She wants to be treated like a pro. Ask her for her portfolio. You’ll want some idea of what you’re going to get. When she can’t produce or it sucks. Tell her no thanks.
You really can’t charge until you have a product to sell.
I’m assuming you didn’t hear her offer to take the pictures, so probably got the story third or fourth hand, maybe. So you may not be sure of the context of her offer.
$100 split between two families is not worth the headaches it will cause you. It’s your wife’s family. Let your brother in law or wife chase it down and battle it if you need. You can stay out of it.
ETA:
Is the cousin less well off than you? If so you should definitely pay her and help them out. That’s also how families work.
Any fee should be negotiated up front. You don’t offer to perform a service without mentioning it will cost anything, and then suddenly charge $100. My wife’s sister asked me to take pics at her wedding, which I was completely happy to do. I’m definitely not a pro, but probably better than average. It would have never, ever crossed my mind to ask for $$$ in return.
I also agree with the other reply that said to ask for her portfolio. If she’s a professional charging $100 a session, she better be able to produce a pretty damn good portfolio.
Dealt with the same situation at my wedding. Sister-in-law that owes me **A LOT **of money and had never done anything other than take pics for fun, figured that since she had a nice camera she could do our pictures to begin paying us back. We discussed it several times, even rented her some fancy lenses. When it came down to actually getting our pictures, she asked us to pay. We told her that we didn’t want the pictures. Eventually, like 6 months later, she provided the files to my stepfather and he touched them up for us.
I had two close friends and a stepfather who are way better amateur photographers who offered to do it for free, we thought we were helping her out. I’d tell her screw herself.
Everyone with an SLR thinks they are a photographer. The capabilities of the microprocessor on the simple auto function will take better photos than most photographers could have 20 years ago. Although there is something to be said for having an eye on the right back around and knowing what zoom to use etc.
If you truly think her pictures are better than the ones you could’ve taken give her the hundred dollars but tell her it would’ve been nice to know upfront. It’s not worth the family argument for years to come.
If her photos are not better than yours then don’t pay her. Anyone in business knows the customer asked to be happy with their product or you don’t get paid.
That’s just crany. Even more if they are brand new at this. I do a large amount to of free stuff for family a day good friends, to the point where I remind them that they have me over for many dinners for free, and do more than enough that if it was a barter society I’d owe them [
Thanks to all. I am glad to know I wasn’t out of my mind.
We did the pics yesterday and she was fine, bordering on good with my kids. My son is nuts so that’s saying something. We’ll know better when we get the photos but she did a fine job and maybe this side job will be her calling. If that’s the case I’ll remind her down the road how much more we’re entitled to the “family discount.”
I chose not it balk at pricing because my wife wanted to get this done and over and while she was bothered by the charge too she wanted the photos. Happy wife= long afternoon ride post photos!
Why does she need another side business? I heard that those multi-level-marketing companies make everyone fantastically rich, with guaranteed retirement in 10 years or less!
Why does she need another side business? I heard that those multi-level-marketing companies make everyone fantastically rich, with guaranteed retirement in 10 years or less!
They most certainly do!! That said, I asked mrs OCTri why they needed her to run so many side biz’s. She’s a teacher. He’s a medical device sales rep. Then her husband pulled up in their brand new Denali. They came from their brand new way too big house. Even when both were teachers they lived way beyond means. Part of me hated paying anything toward funding their wastes but whatever. As noted, happy wife -happy P2.
My wife is working on getting into the photog on the side business. At first the hardest thing is to just find people to take pictures of so you can learn and gain some experience. In that period the photog should take pictures of anyone who will let them and do it for free. Once the photog has a decent portfolio to show then they can start charging for their work. Any idiot can stand behind a DSLR and push the magic button, you pay for the expertise and the eye of the photog which is shown in their portfolio. If they don’t have one, they should do it for free until they do.
My wife is just starting to get into paying gigs. She is still doing family for free to continue to learn and built the folio. Even the paying gigs she is up front that she is new and is gaining in experience, she is not pro level and thus does not charge pro level. She did a 5 hour wedding for $100 last weekend. Not great pay but she learned a lot and was happy with the outcome. The decent money will come later.
The issue now is trying to make some money so she can upgrade her equipment. $1,500 for a good full frame camera, $2k for a lens, lighting, props, etc. it starts to add up.