05/24/2026
A little honest small business reflection this early AM.
One thing I’m learning as a self-employed photographer is that being accommodating and being taken advantage of are not the same thing, even though the line can sometimes get blurry when you genuinely want to help people.
Over the course of a recent commercial project, I rearranged my schedule multiple times, held dates for weeks, researched studio spaces, helped with logistics, travel planning, setup planning, timing, shot flow, and adjusted quotes as requested. I was happy to do it because I believed in helping the client and making the project successful.
But eventually the conversation shifted from collaboration into reducing the value of my time, travel, preparation, and experience down to only the minutes spent physically taking photos.
That part hit me harder than I expected.
As photographers and creatives, we are not only charging for pressing a shutter button. We are charging for the planning, preparation, problem solving, travel, flexibility, experience, editing, scheduling, equipment, and years it took to know how to make the shoot successful in the first place.
I think many of us in creative industries struggle with this because we are helpers by nature. We want to be kind, flexible, understanding, and easy to work with. Especially as small business owners ourselves. We understand financial pressure.
But accommodation should never become permission to undervalue someone’s profession.
Being kind should not require someone to continually absorb the cost, stress, time, and sacrifices of someone else’s business decisions.
Still learning. Still growing. Still trying to find that balance between compassion and boundaries.
