happy new year

"save the last dance for me"

New Year's eve is like every other night; there is no pause in the march of the universe, no breathless moment of silence among created things that the passage of another twelve months may be noted; and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights. ~Hamilton Wright Mabie

technorati tags:new, year, mabie, quote, dance

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a little slice of life at Christmastime

one night down, two more to go

well, it's 9:12, and I'm sitting down in front of my laptop with a cup of tea, brownie cookies, and ready to write. I've got a message to finish up tonight, made all the more pressing because I'm on my own for this weekend. Yup, that's right, N is away at a conference in Calgary, and won't be back till late Sunday night. So I NEED to finish this up tonight, or I'm not going to be very happy.

a photography update: I got accepted (finally) by iStockphoto. I'm ambivalent about this, because the return on the images sold is miniscule, but I'm proud that I got accepted after numerous attempts and a stern LAST CHANCE warning. If anyone has gone through the process, you know that they are very picky about quality and technical excellence now, so you can't just submit anything. Anyway, between the time I first applied (May) and now, things have changed. I changed cameras, I inherited a strobe flash, I started paying attention to 'sharpness', I calibrated my monitor (^_^) but mostly, I've learned more. I've learned to suck it up and keep trying. I've learned that failure is a great teacher. I've learned that when things come easy to you, you don't appreciate how much there is to improve. I've learned that with hard work, I can become the greatest ninja in Konoha! (OK, too much Naruto)

ok, i'm weird. time to get to work! see ya!

how much to charge

Legend has it that Pablo Picasso was sketching in the park when a bold woman approached him.

“It’s you — Picasso, the great artist! Oh, you must sketch my portrait! I insist.”

So Picasso agreed to sketch her. After studying her for a moment, he used a single pencil stroke to create her portrait. He handed the women his work of art.

“It’s perfect!” she gushed. “You managed to capture my essence with one stroke, in one moment. Thank you! How much do I owe you?”

“Five thousand dollars,” the artist replied.

“B-b-but, what?” the woman sputtered. “How could you want so much money for this picture? It only took you a second to draw it!”

To which Picasso responded, “Madame, it took me my entire life.”

I had my fourth photography gig today. When I sat down to plan out my pricing structure, I took all my experience in the studio and applied it to a photography business. Don't undervalue yourself. It's hard to raise your price later if you start into it at a really low price. Your rate must have more than just your wage built into it, so that you can cover: rentals, assistants, post-processing time, client facilitation time, phone time, administration time. It's not likely that you will be able to separate all those things out and bill a client for each of those jobs. These must be reflected within your pricing. If they aren't you will eventually become bitter and will find that you are working for next to nothing. Don't flinch when you name your price to your prospective clients either. In your mind, you must believe your price is fair, and that is what you are worth. In no way shape or form am I comparing myself to the great Picasso, but artists need to be equally bold to stand up to the incessant forces of downward price pressure and insecurity/low self esteem.

Which brings me to the point of this post: pricing prints. As of yet, I have not sold a print to anyone. I haven't tried. I have been working on a strictly commissioned basis. A recording artist commissions me to provide photos for their publicity materials or their CD artwork. I take the commission, and produce files ready to be used in print or on the net. So when, recently, I was discussing the possibility of doing a family portrait for someone, she asked me how much a print would be, I had to admit that I hadn't gotten my pricing together for that yet. At that point I probably lost the job. But who knows, we'll see. She told me a horror story about the Sears portrait studio... anyone have a mall portrait studio horror story?

But I digress.

I guess print pricing is for the "fine art" photographer, the ones who produce gorgeous landscapes or unique macros. For me, I haven't had to come to terms with it yet. I rarely print anything. When I start, you'll know.

please test out my new website

I recently launched my photography website, please check it out and test it out for me! Thanks!

E

Oh yeah, it's the first link on the right there... eugenehuophotography.com