The wedding season is in full swing and many newly engaged couples are now looking to their wedding providers for their 2013 weddings. Many couples choose to have their weddings photographed by professional wedding photographers, but they don't know why the photography of Weddings cost what it costs and what the work involved for them entails. This article hopes to outline how much work, time, and financial investment wedding photographers put into the final product provided to couples. This is meant for couples to understand the value behind the art that photographers are creating.
Our work as photographers has been highly glorified by the media and shows like America's Next Top Model. Everyone seems to have this glorified view of what our jobs are like. We all sit at our computers all week in our pajamas, then we work 8 hours a day on our wedding day and suddenly we make a ton of money. Unfortunately, this is not how the world of photography works.
In addition to photographers, we are small business owners. We have a responsibility to market our businesses, manage clients, create our own websites, be our own IT department, advise others, constantly learn, blog, post to Facebook, do research, and the list goes on.
There are a lot of Uncle Bobs and moms with cameras who claim to be professionals. Wedding photographers spend thousands of dollars and even more time on education, training, attending seminars, etc. to give our customers the best creative genius we can. This is just the beginning.
So once we have all this knowledge, what happens next? That beautiful album couples get, the software used costs around $ 500 just to design. Those beautifully edited photos that require programs like Photoshop, which costs thousands of dollars, and photo management programs like Lightroom and Aperture. Why not add some effects with OnOne Perfect Photo Suite too? None of this is cheap. Every year or a couple of months there are updates. Yes, wedding photographers are always up to date and that also costs money depending on the program.
Wedding reception venues require miami wedding photographer to provide proof of insurance. That professional liability insurance is not cheap. Not to mention equipment insurance because replacing one of those Canon 5D Mark IIIs would be the cost of a wedding shoot for many photographers and then some.
Photographers who take themselves seriously register as businesses in their state. They also owe Uncle Sam taxes.
Couples may have found their photographer through a wedding directory through a Google search. It costs money to advertise on those sites. That beautiful website where photographers host their images is also charging an annual fee. There is also an annual subscription fee to the site that hosts the website and product orders.
That's just a quick rundown of what wedding photographers need to maintain to keep their businesses running. This is where the fun part begins.
Before the wedding, couples typically email and speak with their wedding photographer for an average of 10 hours. Often times, photographers will also visit locations with couples to ensure the best possible experience.
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