Email wedding request

fredjclaus

This past weekend I received an email from a man who saw an ad I had posted for event photography. Now I don't actively do wedding photography but I have in the past and will if someone asks. My specialty is event photography.

This man emailed me because his photographer bailed on him and his wedding is less than a month away. He wanted me to photograph a 10 minute wedding, then the reception afterwards, total shooting time about 4 hours. After the wedding I was to give him a CD with all the pictures on it.

We were conversing via email all day on Sunday since I was not able to get a phone number from him to call and talk in person. After finding out that all I was going to be able to do was sell him a CD of all the prints, I worked up a price of $400.00, which I think was a good deal considering it's not even a month away and it's a one time sale. That was the last email I sent to him, he has not contacted me since. I'm assuming it was the price that turned him off.

What do you all think? Did I just price myself out of a job or was my price fair, and he was just not looking to pay that much?

Jeremy Winterberg

I think $400 is VERY reasonable. Especially for such short notice, and loosing the money from print sales.

I'm not sure why he's not contacting you back, but you might try emailing him again to check up on him. He might have emailed you back but something went wrong? I know I've sent emails that never arrived to the other end. kinda frustrating.

Sventekoz

To be honest, I think it's too cheap. How could you make a profit out of all the time involved? It makes me wonder why the other 'tog bailed on him.

Still, you never know - he may just be drafting his reply right now.

Art Scott

fredjclaus wrote:

This past weekend I received an email from a man who saw an ad I had posted for event photography. Now I don't actively do wedding photography but I have in the past and will if someone asks. My specialty is event photography.

This man emailed me because his photographer bailed on him and his wedding is less than a month away. He wanted me to photograph a 10 minute wedding, then the reception afterwards, total shooting time about 4 hours. After the wedding I was to give him a CD with all the pictures on it.

We were conversing via email all day on Sunday since I was not able to get a phone number from him to call and talk in person. After finding out that all I was going to be able to do was sell him a CD of all the prints, I worked up a price of $400.00, which I think was a good deal considering it's not even a month away and it's a one time sale. That was the last email I sent to him, he has not contacted me since. I'm assuming it was the price that turned him off.

What do you all think? Did I just price myself out of a job or was my price fair, and he was just not looking to pay that much?

Yes your price is very fair....Approx 100 $ / hr for shooting is about right without doing any pp and just handing off a CD.....I would not do it for any less.....

Sounds to me like maybe he owed his last photog the final payment for his up coming services and was too cheap to pay..........just my gut feeling.............

Jeremy Winterberg

Art Scott wrote:

Yes your price is very fair....Approx 100 $ / hr for shooting is about right without doing any pp and just handing off a CD.....I would not do it for any less.....

Sounds to me like maybe he owed his last photog the final payment for his up coming services and was too cheap to pay..........just my gut feeling.............

Agreed... if everything does workout and he does accept your offer, make sure you have all of the money before you shoot. Refuse to take a single picture untill you have all of your money.

This guy sounds kinda fishy, but then again, some people are just absent minded.

Did he tell you why the other tog bailed? I would ask...

Swartzy

This looks like a migrane ready to happen. Run from this. No way a client should ever see the light of day of untouched images..what's he going to do with a RAW file? And why would you leave your reputation to a clueless client?

bmoreshooter

I have to agree with everyone else. GET YOUR MONEY UPFRONT. Only accept a check if it has time to clear the bank before the wedding. Professional photographers don't bail out without a good reason and your only going to get one side of the story. Clients have the right and opportunity to check out perspective photographers, shouldn't we have the right to check out perspective clients. See if you can find out where the reception is being held. Call them and explain that you have been hired to be their photographer and ask if there are any issues that you should be aware of. They should have a good feel for what the couple is like. It's not just the money that you should be concerned with. Are they going to expect more than promised? Are they going to be a total pain to work with?
Is it really going to be worth $400.00? Remember that you said yourself that you are not a wedding photographer, are you ready to provide a good quality wedding that someone is paying for?

kres

Swartzy wrote:

No way a client should ever see the light of day of untouched images..what's he going to do with a RAW file?

+1 on this.

Magazine shoots and printed media are one thing - They will often preform very specialized color balancing and various manipulations to get copy ready to hit the printers... It's about the only case that handing over the RAW files has merit in my experience.

JPG exports are about as far as you should go IMHO - and even then you should make sure they are something that you would want to be associated with. This kind of thing is in for a penny, in for a pound.

At the end of the day, your closer to this then any of us here on the board - I guess the over arching message is: Be Careful.

WillCAD

Fred, I'm not a pro photographer, just an ameteur (and not a very good one at that), so take my comments with a grain of salt.

I think $400 is a very reasonable price for a 4-hour shoot with no possibility of print sales. I don't think you've priced yourself out of the job, unless the guy was looking for a super-cheap, Uncle-Marv's-Instamatic photographer.

But your time will be less than $100/hr if you include post-processing time; if you take two hours to do basic color-correction, weed the shots down to the contracted number, rename the files, and burn them to disk, your total time is up to 6hrs, making your rate $67/hr. If you take 4hrs to post-process, you're down to $50/hr. And so on.

I do have a few recommendations, however, for whatever they're worth:

A) Get contact numbers for the client, home, cell, and/or work.

Do nothing without both a signed contract and a non-refundable deposit. For short notice, a cash deposit is not out of line. Checks bounce.

C) Meet him in person to sign the contract and get your deposit at the same time. I recommend at least a 50% deposit, with balance due at time of shoot in cash, not check. Checks bounce.

D) State in the contract an exact number of images expected for this shoot, as well as what the deliverable includes, the date and time of start and stop, and the approximate date of delivery.

E) Specify in the contract whether the package will will include posed shots after the ceremony or just action shots of the ceremony and reception.

F) As everyone else has said, get paid in full before snapping a single frame.

Swartzy wrote:

This looks like a migrane ready to happen. Run from this. No way a client should ever see the light of day of untouched images..what's he going to do with a RAW file? And why would you leave your reputation to a clueless client?

Actually, I didn't get the impression from Fred's original post that "after the wedding" meant right then and there, more like, sometime within a few days to a week after the wedding Fred would deliver a CD. This would give him the time to post-process the pics and delete any flubs.

Many photographers offer CDs with full-res files as part of their wedding packages, but of course, the files on the CD are always post-processed and edited by the photographer before presentation to the client. Typically, there is a surcharge for this, since it means that the photographer will lose out on any print sales.

Photog4Christ

fredjclaus wrote:

This past weekend I received an email from a man who saw an ad I had posted for event photography. Now I don't actively do wedding photography but I have in the past and will if someone asks. My specialty is event photography. ......

What do you all think?

Run Forrest! Run!!!!

Moogle Pepper

Photog4Christ wrote:

Run Forrest! Run!!!!

Definite +1!

cdonovan

It'd be interesting to hear why his photog fled on him in the first place.

CD's with images ready for print is one thing, cd's with unedited, as they were shot images is another.


Interesting, if his photog bailed on him, he shouldn't owe that photog any money... vice versa would be a different story. Don't feel bad that he hasn't been in contact since... just leave it be!

fredjclaus

Thanks everyone for your thoughts. It's exactly this reason why I'm not an active wedding photographer anymore. I did email him back to see if I just missed his email but have not heard from him yet. I'll keep you posted if he ever does right back. I did get the name of the reception venue so maybe I'll see if I can get some input from them, but I was not told why the last photographer bailed on him.

Photog4Christ

fredjclaus wrote:

Thanks everyone for your thoughts. It's exactly this reason why I'm not an active wedding photographer anymore. I did email him back to see if I just missed his email but have not heard from him yet. I'll keep you posted if he ever does right back. I did get the name of the reception venue so maybe I'll see if I can get some input from them, but I was not told why the last photographer bailed on him.

They haven't "officially" booked you correct? In order for a booking to be "official" (at least to me) I need two things... a contract signed by BOTH the Bride and the Groom and a retainer payment. Without that, there's no contract and they don't have a photographer.

At this point, I would just let it alone. I'm sure you have better things to do than chase after this guy.

fredjclaus

Heck no! I need a payment and a written contract before I'm officially hired by a client. None of that has been done yet.

VayCayMom

email him one more time and tell him you require a 50 % cash deposit no later than...10 days or whatever...before the wedding, then you will know whether he is serious or not, and stick to it. and your price is a great deal !!!