The glorious life of a photographer

I'm sure you've all seen those photos that poke fun at different professions, take photography for example. They show 6 or so frames, one of what your mom thinks you do (taking pictures of babies) what your friends think you do (photos of half naked subjects) and so forth on to the reality of a photographers job..... last frame a pic of an overtired mom or pop at the computer till wee hours of the night. I didn't understand it until I was a good solid year into the business. I love absolutely LOVE what I do and wouldn't change it for the world, but there was many things I didn't expect.

Image handling;
I learnt very fast the importance of backing up images when I lost over 5 years of my own personal photos. My eyes filled with tears and I immediately called my BFF (who has a passion for photography too) and broke down. I was backing up my clients images on my external hard drives, then I put mine on my personal hard drive, then deleted the whole 20,000 of them off the computer. Only I forgot to take out the USB drive and deleted all my personal photos clear off my computer and off the hard drive. I'll never forget it.

My point is that to make sure all your images are handled correctly I have 3 external hard drives, online storage for my files, I burn a copy for client and 1 for myself plus I have 16 x 16GB memory cards and never overbook myself. I'm so terrified of losing another special moment that I do not delete anything off of my cards until your images are in your hands.

All this peace of mind comes with a price, one I didn't expect when first diving into this on my own.
That is only a little notch in what a photographer (big or small) does for their clients. We also have website fees for hosting, countless hours editing, insurance, equipment costs or rentals, equipment maintenance fees, computer upgrades and editing software, packaging, DVD's, shipping and the list goes on.

My whole reason for all this explaining is that I need to justify to you and myself for an upcoming price increase. I hope you can see how terrible I feel about it. Sick to my stomach worried but it is something that I just kept putting aside because I don't want to. Believe it or not but when I add up all the fees I pay and hours put in I am barley making minimum wage.

You know what I forgot to include a HUGE part too. My props! All my findings from thrift shops, antique markets and photography retailers. I love them all and update them regularly to keep things new and fresh for all of you. I will not start crunching numbers again because that will mean I am actually far below minimum wage. I don't care though, its honestly all TOTALLY worth it when I have clients in tears over how much they love their images. I remember all of you (maybe not by name) I remember all of your adorable babies and children and all of the funny moments that came out during the session. As Im editing my children often comment on how HUGE my smile is on my face. I say "its love, come have a look" and share some of my experiences with them.

Please consider this my apology letter for the upcoming price increase.
All my love to you and your family,
Terra XO