Holy Spring. I only seem to write here when I’m gasping for breath at the end of another season or chapter. I had a bar mitzvah, a wedding, two schools, multiple seniors, a new baby, and somehow only one family photoshoot. Tonight it’s prom pics! Looks like june will be another mitzvah and two swim teams and between now and then a couple more families and seniors I think. Not to mention high school graduation, family in town, and a graduation party to plan! It’s CRAZY. We have college orientation day in June as well. My oldest has friends getting married in August. This transition to young adult is going to hit like a tidal wave.
Speaking of college, have you heard about the shit show that was FAFSA this year? Nothing like having a week to make a massive financial decision about your child’s future. Anyway, yeah. My prices will be going up in September. It will be a big jump for new clients and a lesser jump for my VIP and returning clients. I should do loyalty cards or something – 10 punches and you get a shoot for half off or something. It’s honestly not crazy. 5 shoots gets you 25% off one, 10 gets you 50%, over 15 you lock in 50% off going forward. I’ve got families I’ve seen for 10+ years so that’s not that crazy. I do love a good spreadsheet and would probably spend far too long on this so I think we’ll keep it simple. I actually polled my instagram followers and they all agreed they would pay more for my offerings. 100% across the board agreement. There’s a local photographer I’ve been having good friendly interactions with on socials, hoping I could build that relationship so I had someone to send clients to when I”m not available – then she updated her website and actually put prices on it and DAMN. She charges $950 to *start* for a one hour family session. I was looking at another photographer who does a lot of work at a location I have a shoot coming up at – and her rates *start* at $5400 without purchasing prints or image files. WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE that can afford this? I can’t! It’s weird to be in a business where you can’t afford the industry standard yourself. This may be the high end of the price ranges but at the same time I know I’m at the low end with my skills and experience. But I digress. Once again
TL;DR – rates going up in Sept. Mama’s got a baby going to college and she’s still looking for a muggle job.
Speaking of…any sort of graphic design/desktop publishing, template creation for proposals or white papers or that sort of thing. Writing/editing/researching…hit me up. Freelance or part time mostly remote. I had a couple regular freelance gigs pre-covid that all dried up.