24/07/2026
I’ve seen a few posts lately looking for “cheap photographers.”
Which is cool I get it we are all trying to save money where we can, luckily there are photographers at every price point, and that’s awesome.
Everyone has different budgets, different goals and different levels of experience.
But If you’ve never worked in photography, you’d have absolutely no idea what goes on behind the scenes to get your photos, so let me explain!
For one average session, it usually looks something like this:
• Around 1 hour of admin (messages, emails, invoices, contracts, questionnaires and planning).
• Around 30 minutes getting all my gear ready.
• Around 1 hour photographing your session.
• Around 1 hour culling through hundreds of images.
• Around 15–20 minutes editing each image.
A 25-image gallery alone can take around 6 hours. (Yes I may be in my pjs when I do it but it’s still hard work 😂)
BLAH BLAH BLAH
So about 10 hours work
So that’s $59 a hour but that’s before everything else:
• Around $5,000 in camera gear
• A $5,000 editing computer
• Around $250 a month in subscriptions and software
• Insurance for me, you and my gear
• Studio costs
• Props
• Tax
•Workshops and education
• Five years of learning, practising, making mistakes and improving.
I don’t get sick days, holidays and all the rest!
Isn’t that bloody wild, just not something you consider when you are on the other side
Now i also love my job! It works around my kids and my family I get to meet you all and it’s literally the best job in th world but when people are like “WHOA $595 for a hours work” DUDE I WISH!
And if I’m not in your budget, dude I GET IT, cheese is $20 we are all merely trying to get by haha
I just wanted to share why my pricing, so you didn’t think myself or even other photographers are sitting on top of all of our gold, diamonds and moneys laughing about being so rich and not working much at all hahah
