Why are some photographers more successful than others?

“Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.”

― Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

You will never have someone hire you and say they don't like you. However, just because someone hires you doesn't mean they really like you.

It may come as a shock to you that there are people who will hire you just because of your price and not because of your quality.

Photos are just from the beautiful weekend we had here in Georgia.

It was so beautiful this past Saturday that my wife and I drove to Amicalola Falls in Dawsonville, Georgia to enjoy the day.  This is what we found after we climbed the 175 steps to the top.

What is difficult to also understand is that many of your present clients will never pay you more. It isn't because you cannot articulate your value and why you need to charge more. There are just people out there who do not value anything but price.

When you first start out in photography you may end up with price shopping clients. I had a few of these clients. I needed the work and was willing to take their low price just to get some money.

It took me some years before I realized I wasn't charging enough for my services to pay my bills. This is how I am defining success for this article. The ability to pay your bills for your household, pay your taxes, have healthcare and enough money to buy/replace equipment over time.

Sunday was just as beautiful in Roswell, GA as Saturday. We drove down Canton Street and stopped and enjoyed our time at Roswell Provisions.

Time to Educate the Client

My first thought when I learned I wasn't charging enough was to try and educate the client.  I would try and talk to my clients about the cost of doing business.  News Alert!!--they didn't care.

I was really needing to educate myself first. I was starting to learn what my operating costs were and that to cover these costs and grow my business I had to charge a minimum or loose money.

Day Rates

I discovered that day rates were really day labor. How I learned was quoting day rates and then showing up to be burned a new one.

Clients would hire me to come to there location and I would quote day rate. I felt like I was in the big leagues.  I had been going to professional photographers workshops where I was learning about the Cost of doing business.  The National Press Photographers Association even has a calculator to help you take into account all your expenses and basically generates a day rate.

It didn't take long before I felt abused by clients. "While you are here can you shoot ...?," was becoming too common.

Later I would get with other photographers and find out that for what I was doing they were getting 3 to 5 times more. They however were not quoting day rates.

Ken Touchton was the first to educate me that I needed to use project rates.

Project Rate

Unlike a day rate where I am pricing my self the exact same way as a day laborer the project rate was quoting a price based on the end deliverable.

Honestly, learning how to price a project so the client understood and appreciated the pricing structure took years and frankly I am still learning how to do a better job.

This is a peanut butter and chocolate cupcake with my mocca latte. It is a lot of sugar and tasted great.

GWC vs PS

My career was shifting to the Guy With a Camera to a Problem Solver. The client that is hiring a GWC knows more typically than the photographer and must direct them to get what they need. I cannot tell you a specific date that this happened, but overtime I discovered I knew more about what the client needed than the client at some point.

My step son is early in his career working in restaurants.  He doesn't know enough to do it all and is learning the ropes. Clearing tables is where he has had to start. After doing this for a while he then will move to helping the waiters and then become a waiter.

Hearing him talk about his work day brings back a lot of memories and reminds me how it takes time to become a problem solver. You need enough information and how things relate before you can find solutions for people.

Working for more than 30 years in the industry means that I more often than not am covering something I have done in some way in the past. While the exact situation is new, often it is similar to other things I have covered.

While ground breaking and check presentations seem routine, after 30 years I can tell you there have been times where I was challenged to make a photo. I remember walking into one business where every single wall, except for the bathrooms, was glass. Try and use a flash in this situation and you find yourself working harder than normal to not have a glare caused by your flash in the photo.

I was enjoying my coffee watching people walk by and look int the window. I was enjoying people watching that afternoon. I enjoy photographing little slices of life like this one.

Transition to clients who value YOU!

In time you will learn to communicate how you are there for your clients. You will no longer price things that make sense to you, but rather communicate value to your client.

However, I had to first go through what I thought were the reasons people would hire me. Most of these were “Fallacious Arguments” to justify my abilities in photography.

Some of “Fallacious Arguments” in photography I used

• The camera—If you own the right camera then they will make great photos. I wanted to be very sure the client knew I had the best camera possible.
• Use Composition Rules—Too many photographers will not only learn the classic rules of composition, but will judge their work and others based on these rules. You can hear them in camera clubs saying that isn’t a good photo because it is breaking a rule.
• Master the technical—Some photographers are obsessed with the technical details of photos. They will spend their time getting a “perfect exposure.” They will judge their work and others based on if the values of the photograph fall within what they determine as a proper exposure. They may argue the reason their photograph is perfect is they used different known values to assure perfection. They may use a GretagMacbeth® ColorChecker®.

I know that for the most part I am gifted with technical expertise, but so too are many of my colleagues who are working professional photographers.

It is my total package that separates me from others.

One day I had my photo assistant helping me with a job. I was photographing different managers in a company for profiles that were being done on them. I was doing about 20 of these a day.

As we were driving back from a long day, the photo assistant commented on the day. You are really good at getting people to relax and get good expressions. The assistant was surprised about my ability to talk to such a range of people and get them all talking to me about what they like to do.

The assistant was able to articulate what made my photos so much better than other photographers she had worked with. You get great expressions.

"How do you learn how to do this?," was her question. I talked about how I had majored in Social Work where I was trained on how to do interviews and get to know people. I then talked about how my mentor trained me to read body language.

I was able to talk about how my interest in people drove me to seminary where I studied education and how people learned at different ages.

What I also talked about is how it took many years of practice to develop these skills and that classroom alone was not enough.


Hired for my expertise beyond the camera

A few years ago I had one of the most remarkable moments in my entire life.

Greg Thompson, director of corporate communications for Chick-fil-A, called me to see if I could do lunch with him one day. We had only known each other a few months after my wife had met him and encouraged him to get to know me.

Greg read my bio and had done some investigation about me.  He went to Fort Worth, TX to the Southwestern Photojournalism Conference which I am on the staff.  He learned about my work with Youth With A Mission where I taught students how to use photography.

Greg also had been to some of the Christian in Photojournalism meetings in Atlanta that I help with regularly.

Greg had done his homework and knew me well. Greg had to do this with his work. He knew that whoever he was to work with he had to trust, because they represented the company and reflected on his management skills.

I will never forget that meeting in the corporate dining room. After we ate Greg talked to me about my corporate rates for shooting assignments. I thought he was getting ready to ask me to do a job for him.

Greg then went on to ask me to be a consultant and use all my skills beyond the camera to help him and be apart of his team. I have noticed how you teach, give of your time to other pros, and how you still do excellent work. Greg said why not hire the guy so many photographers go to for advice.

Couple enjoying a meal together on Canton Street in Roswell, GA.

Light bulb moment

While this was a light bulb type of moment, honestly it was more like I had someone turn on the light with a dimmer. I am still understanding all he said in that moment.

When I talk to other photographers who have been in business for many years, most of them have had a moment where they can look at as a pivotal moment. They had a client value them for more than GWC. They valued their expertise.


How do you communicate your value?

Everything you do is part of your brand. It takes time to develop a brand. It is the consistency of execution that will help you develop into a desirable brand.

Your photos over time will show your skills. When time after time you always come through and get a certain style of photo--your clients will come to expect this.

Some clients will need to try other photographers before they realize what they get from you. This is important to hear and understand. Sometimes loosing a job to another photographer may be the best thing for you. When that photographer fails to deliver what they were getting from you and they expect to get, they will come back to you.

This is when you realize you have value to that client.  In some cases this is the best time to raise your rates.  Sometimes you raise your rates and then they go shopping and then return to you.

There is no easy road

My conversation with Greg Thompson didn't happen until I had been doing photography for some twenty-four years. This is not something that happens overnight. It takes time to build a reputation.

You cannot easily talk people into understanding why they need to pay you the rate you need to be successful.  If it were this easy everyone would be a successful photographer.

It takes time for them to see your quality of work and to experience all that you bring to them. Sometimes the only way they learn all you bring to the table is to discover they cannot get this just anywhere.

Trust is earned over time and can be lost in an instant.

Grow your business by constantly looking for those clients that value you as a person and not just interested in the lowest price.