The Young Tog

Photography Pricing Made Simple

9:26 PMCaroline Ann

Making Enough Money To Profit

2:55 PMCaroline Ann

Disclaimer: This is my personal opinion and experience, and is not to be taken for legal advice.

Remember the post on Starting a Photography Business on Budget? If you haven't read it, waltz on over and take a glance between diving in here.

To summarize just a little bit though, we said that paying for the costs of starting a photography business with your earnings (which are taxed, so that is included in the figures below) would look something like this:

Total Basic Expenses: $464

Basic Expenses Plus Equipment Investment: $864
Basic Expenses Plus Lightroom: $649
Basic Expenses Plus Equipment Investment and Lightroom: $1,062

Recurring Yearly Expenses: $560

Now let's go the extra step and say you want to be profitable as well as covering your overhead costs of operating (which obviously you do). A good business model is typically that your overhead is 30% or lower than your total cost of goods sold.

So, we're going to take the numbers above, and figure out how much we need to make for each of them to only be 30% of what we're actually making.

So our $348 of operating expenses after taxes was actually $464. Now let's say that's 30% of what we're actually making.
So we'll divide by 3 (representing 30%) again, and then multiply that number by 10 to bring in the extra 70% we hope is our profit).
Here we go:

464/3 = 154.66 154.6 x 10 = 1,546

And if you want to know exactly what the profit was, just multiple that already divided by 3 number (154.66) by 7. 154.66 x 7 = 1082

So if you make roughly 1,500, you'll be able to not only pay your expenses, but also make a $1000 profit.

Here are the rest of the numbers with the math done for you:

Basic Expenses Plus Equipment Investment: $2880 (70% profit of 2,016)
Basic Expenses Plus Lightroom: $2,163 (70% profit of 1,514)
Basic Expenses Plus Equipment Investment and Lightroom: $3,540 (70% profit of 2,478)

Recurring Yearly Expenses: $1,866 (70% profit of 1,306)

So those numbers are what you would want to be aiming to make and have a "profitable" business.

Let's look at one more question to look at though: Is would it be worth it for you personally?

Let's look at the recurring yearly expenses number of 1,866. Making that you'd cover your overhead and have a 1,306 profit. Let's say you're shooting at $75 per hour shoot. In order to make 1,866 you would have to have 25 shoots (just over two a month, not bad).

So those are an hour each, let's say you edit for 3 hours a piece, you spend another hour total in commute there and back from the shoot, and you might spend at hour going back and forth with the client before and after the shoot. That's a total of 6 hours per shoot.

6 hours times 25 shoots is 150 working hours.
Your profit is 1,306, so let's divide that by 150 hours. The result is that you're making about 8.70 an hour... Not a whole lot, but at least it's above minimum wage.

I'll let you do the math on your own for the other numbers, but just some food for thought.

The nice thing is, as you get better, you can continue to price yourself a lot higher and make it more worth your time. Sometimes making less on the front end is a long term investment. It certainly was for me.

Be sure to like our facebook page, subscribe to TheYoungTog, and join our community so that you don't miss out on a thing as we all learn and grow together! Have a question you want to ask, or a thought you'd like to share? Comment below!

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5 Reasons To Choose Community Over Competition

12:05 PMCaroline Ann

The photography world can be competitive and down-right mean sometimes. I think with the nature of art, it is often very personal to the creators, and people get very prickly very quickly. There is also a lot of competition out there, and when you're a young photographer feeling on the bottom of the totem pole, it isn't a great feeling. So take yourself out of the competition and start building community. That is the very heart of TheYoungTog, not just having a place where people can learn, but a place where photographers can learn and grow together, with joy and encouragement. Here are my top 5 reasons to choose (and create, we'll talk about that in another post another day) community.

1. Other Photographers Can Inspire You
While I don't suggest going out and duplicating someone's shoot, take what you see other people are doing, what's working in their photos, and learn from it. Whether it's a certain pose you liked, a neat prop idea, a feeling or concept they communicated well. Use it to get inspired about your own work! This is a great way to get out of a rut when you don't feel your creative juices flowing.
Even better, work on a shoot together. You'll both bring something to the table, and create a better product in the end.

2. Learn From Each OtherRunning a business goes FAR beyond taking photographs. Since I've become a photographer I have learned a lot about communication, customer service, legal contracts, SEO, website building, marketing, social media marketing, graphic design, and taxes just to name a FEW. Having photographer friends to help each other out is so much better than having to totally recreate the wheel by yourself. That's another reason TheYoungTog is here, I want to give you the wheel so you can go somewhere with it.

3. Celebrating Each Other Helps Eliminate Stress
Running a business can be stressful, and you don't need the extra stress of being in competition with the photographers around you. When you are friends with people, you can be happy and celebrate their accomplishments with them, rather than feeling threatened by those accomplishments. And hopefully when you've got something to celebrate, they'll be right there. A group cheering you on is a lot more fun than a party of 1.

4. Photographers are Great Networking Connections

When you've got a community of photographers, it's a great way to get other jobs and clients. Most photographers running a successful business can take all of the inquires they get. And when they have a trusted friend and photographer to recommend, they will usually happily do that. It comes off well for their business to be helpful, even if they can't shoot a client themselves. And it's nice to know that someone else they like is getting the job.

5. You've Got a Support System

With any business where you are dealing with people you can end up in strange situations. Photography is no different. As hard as you try, there are always going to be crazy people and weird circumstances that you'll find yourself dealing with. And sometimes due to the nature of photography, other people just don't get it. Knowing other photographers though provides you a support system in a different way, because we all get it. And more often than not have dealt with a similar situation and probably have some sort of advice or feedback to help.

With that, I know sometimes these things are easier said than done. So I'll be back on how to build community.

7 Reasons to Buy a Yongnuo Speedlight

7:05 PMCaroline Ann

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7 Steps To Organize and Produce Creative Photo Shoots

12:26 PMCaroline Ann

Today we have Melanee Kate from M'Kate Photography sharing how she pulls large-scale shoots together. Melanee is a young children's lifestyle and editorial photographer who has been published online and in multiple magazines.

To dive right in, let's define large-scale. When I say large-scale, I mean something where you are dragging in people, props, costumes, sets, animals, ect. These are my most favorite shoots to do, because to me, this is how I get to make art. Don’t get me wrong, I like photographing clientele. It’s fun! But when I do shoots that I can create, it’s like making a drawing with a camera. I get to choose the place, the face, the outfit, the expression, ect. This is going to surprise those who have seen my work…but I like being creative and artsy. ;)

1. Envision.
You can’t plan if you don’t know exactly what you want. So imagine what you want to photograph, and go from there. Even if making it happen seems unlikely, don’t limit yourself! You’d be amazed at the things you can come up with when you start networking and getting crafty. I’ve done crazy things from mermaid tails to flying carpets.

2. Write it down and organize!Once you have in your mind what you want, get a notebook and write down everything you’ll need to make it happen. I then organize in order of most important, and start contacting people. (Example of importance hierarchy – models, location, clothing, minor props, ect.)

3. Don’t do it on your own!
There are so many vendors and artist out there that can help you achieve your photographic dreams! For casting, I have casted many kids from mutual model friends, I use Backstage.com all the tie, and sometimes I even work with local kids I know! I also LOVE etsy.com for costuming. Sometimes I work with seamstress that have what I want, and often they’ll even design something for me! Right now, (though as I continue to climb in the industry, this will change.) everyone helps me out just for getting the images in return! So you can have a crazy cool shoot, without tons of money coming out of your pocket! Other people I often work with are makeup artists, prop providers, and often...if I need something super random and don't know where to get it, I just put an add on craigslist.com. It may sounds funny, but that's often where I get many of my animals for shoot and random props. With that though, if you are still a minor, never put an ad on craigslist without parental permission. When you meet up, always bring other people with you and meet in a public location.

4. Story board and Image planning.
For me personally, if I don’t have every single image drawn out in stick people illustrations on a story board, I may completely forget to shoot it! For shoots that don’t have a story line, this isn’t terribley important. But for those that do, a missing image could kill the shoot! For example, recently I had a crazy three hour shoot, with eight models, 11 slightly different locations, and 26 outfit changes! This is a lot to sort out without a storyboard! And for this, I actually had two story boards! One for the images in order of the story that I was telling, and the other for the actual order we were going to shoot in. These also help, because you can look at the sketches and see if you're missing any props or things of the sort.
How I personally do story boards, is I do a super quick sketch on a queue card of each image I want, and then I tape them all in order onto a poster board. Super cheap, and super easy! For this past shoot, I also took each queue card off as I took the photos, to make sure nothing was missed!

5. Communication Organization
When communicating with your models, always send a follow up email with all the details together, and ALWAYS have their phone numbers! (I unfortunately learned this the hard way...a couple times.)

6. Shoot and have fun!
Make sure to let your models know what you are trying to convey in each picture, even have them replicated your facial expression if need be!

7. Don't Stress and Have a Backup Plan
When working with people I find almost always, at least one thing goes wrong. A model gets sick, and vendor backs out, it rains…But DO not freak out. It’s something you’ll have to learn to deal with, and it’s really not the end of the world. You can always recast, postpone, run to the closest store for a clothing item, do something slightly different, and so on. These mess-ups will just push your creative limits and teach you a lot about staying cool in frustrating situations.

As you can see the hard part is not the shooting but the planning and getting everything together. If you are doing a large-scale shoot, you will spend HOURS on planning, and you might start pulling out your hair. ;) It’s a bit of a juggling act, but it’s a fun one, so enjoy it!

All photos and material in this article are the Copyright of M'Kate Photography.

9 Important Elements of an Effective Photography Website

11:53 PMCaroline Ann

Your website is usually the first impression clients have of you and your business. Are you making a good one? Here are 9 important elements to consider when building (or updating!) your photography website site.

1. Easy Navigation
Can visitors to your site immediately find what they are looking for, or do they have to dig around through a bunch of different pages? Sometimes photographers go overboard on trying to creatively name their pages. Are the names of your pages simple and easy to understand? Is your menu simple and straight forward and not cluttered with too many links? You can always use sub menus if you need to. Are the most important elements on your menu listed from left to right or top to bottom?

2. Readable Fonts
Are your fonts consistent and legible? This is another place where sometimes photographers can go overboard. Certainly, you can use unique fonts to stand out. But make sure the bulk of the text on your page is something relatively simple and easy to read. Also, choose 1-3 (2 is a pretty happy medium) fonts that go well together, and don't bring in any more than that.

3. Content With A Clear Purpose
Does the content on your website clearly demonstrate what "is in it for me" for your potential client? Do you clearly outline (in not too many words) how the product that you offer will benefit them personally?

4. Call to Action

Do you have a call to action on most of your pages? Subconsciously people often need to be told where to "go from here". Something even as simple as, "Love what you're seeing? Contact us!" can go a long way. The more pages you have a call to action (naturally woven in) on, the more likely people will be to contact you.

5. Niche Portfolio
Do you have a specific niche portfolio? A portfolio that specifically illustrates what you do, and that you're obviously so darn good at this specific type of photography they don't need to look any further. Read more about how important it is to find your niche, and the critical assets of a powerful portfolio.

6. About Page
Do you have an "about me" page? If you don't, you need one. Connecting with clients on a personal level is important--Not only should you be marketing your work, but you need to be marketing yourself. If a client is looking at two photographers with similar styles, quality of work, and prices--Who are they going to pick? The one they feel a personal connection to.
About me pages shouldn't be too long, you want people to read the whole thing ideally. And focus on making the words you use count towards displaying a little picture of who you are. In this paragraph, don't worry too much about how you got started with a camera, or how much you looooove photography. Mainly just talk about you. :) It's a selling point.

7. Contact Page

If you don't have a clearly marked contact page, you need one asap. A contact page should include a straightforward (not overly complicated) contact form, as well as at least two other ways to contact and connect with you. Ideally an email address and a phone number. It's not also a bad idea to have links to your social media on this form.

8. Pricing

The best way I have personally found to display pricing, is to give people my starting point. If you don't give people any sort of numbers, they are less likely to contact you, especially when they can see what other photographers are charging on their website. But if you have absolutely all of your pricing information listed on your website, they also are less likely to contact you. I have found that giving people my starting point for my prices on my website gives them a ballpark idea of whether or not I am in their budget, and then they go ahead and contact me which gives me a chance to interact with them on a much more personal level than them just looking at my website. The more I am given the chance to interact with clients and make a personal connection, the more likely most are to book with me.

9. No Music
This might sound kind of trivial, but so often photographers really do just try their hardest to be as creative as they possibly can on their website. Music is a whole different outlet to do that. But don't go there. A lot of the times people are looking at your website while they are at work, and they don't want music to automatically start playing as soon as your site loads. That's a real good way for them to not even get past your homepage, so don't do it.

Did I miss anything? What are some important things you have learned about building a website?

Photography Pricing Made Simple

Aperture Made Simple

5 Steps to Taxes Made Simple

Making Enough Money To Profit

5 Reasons To Choose Community Over Competition

7 Reasons to Buy a Yongnuo Speedlight

7 Steps To Organize and Produce Creative Photo Shoots

9 Important Elements of an Effective Photography Website

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