When I photograph your session, I’m IN THE MOMENT. I’m not looking to stop at the number of photos your session fee pays for – that’s far from my mind. I’m in full-on capture the moment mode. I’m documenting the sweet interactions and genuine smiles as they happen in front of me. It’s my job to preserve these special moments, regardless of whether or not I’ve already hit the minimum photos your session covers.
If I see a moment happening, I’m going to capture it.
Because of this, I often over-shoot and over-deliver. I over-deliver galleries to my clients because I will never say “welp, I’m tired and I’ve hit their session quota so I’m going to call it a day.” Like most photographers, I refuse to do that to my clients.
But for a long time, all of this over-delivering was costing me. I spend HOURS editing every session, and I was starting to feel frustrated with myself for capturing so many beautiful moments – I wanted to keep delivering these precious moments to my clients but I was spending too much of my work time on edits that weren’t contributing to my family’s income.
Why couldn’t I just select the minimum, deliver them, and be done? Because when I photograph your family, I see little pieces of my family – that wonderful rich love and those sweet sincere smiles we have for one-another… I see it. I know that deep love in your heart that you have for your children and I know you’re savoring their every dimpled smile in the same way I feel this for my own children. I know that I would want those precious documented memories of my family so who am I to keep them from your family?
How I balance my knack for loving, editing & delivering more images than expected:
My sessions have a number of photo downloads included in the session fee. When you book a session with me, I tell you how many photos you will get.
Everything after that, is icing on the cake. Although over-delivering doesn’t always happen and isn’t something I guarantee since there are many factors that go into final image deliverables that I’m willing to stamp my name on, it is always exciting when I can email a client and say “hey the stars aligned, you guys were a blast and the weather was spot-on so look at how many photos you wound up with!”
From there you’re able to either select the number of images your session came with, or purchase as many additional images as you want. This way I can keep creating and not have to worry about ruining my business’ overhead simply because all the stars aligned and resulted in an epic session.
Purchasing additional images from your gallery:
I’ve created a tiered pricing list – of course the goal here is to strike a balance between creating a reasonable price for my clients while also making sure I’m getting paid for what my work is worth. I start at $5 per additional image and the more images you purchase, the more affordable it is per image. In increments of every 10 images, the price per image is $0.10 lower.
I also offer 15% off the total price if you choose to purchase your full gallery.
Note: as a general rule of thumb I aim to price my sessions so they work out to be $10-$15 per image, depending on the session type. This is an average price point for professional photographers in the midwest and low-average price point for professional photographers nationally.
Need to crunch the numbers? Here’s how to calculate it:
Of course you can always reach out and ask me for an estimate – I’m here to do this math so you don’t have to! But I also totally get it if you feel more comfortable being able to see and crunch the numbers on your own.
- Count how many images from your final gallery you would like to keep.
- Subtract from that, the number of images included in your session. Now you know your “Number of additional images” (see below).
- Look at my below price list and find which range your “Number of additional images” falls into and find your “Price per image.”
- Multiply your exact number of additional images by your “Price per image” (number of additional images x price per image = total)
- If you’re purchasing all the additional images in your gallery, then subtract 15% from your total (total – (total x .15) = new total)
