This is a topic that many photographers have written about, and in order to properly inform you, my readers, be you other photographers or my favorite customers, of what it is that I really do.

Back when I first discovered photography, I was already in college. I never had a camera when I was younger although I always had a longing for it. I got engaged to my lovely wife, and we started to look for wedding stuff. Many of you know the drill… flowers, dinner, drinks, photography, venues, table settings etc, and your head starts to explode! In my situation we had very little money, and finding out that photographers charged upwards of $2000 for a wedding just blew my mind!

I remember thinking the very thoughts so many have: “I have a camera, how hard can it really be to take some photos”, and “How much can those products cost? There’s no way that album is worth $700!”

Needless to say my opinions have changed quite a bit over the past few years.

Now, I am not really in the wedding business anymore, so I am not going to go into a lot of the details of weddings specifically, but hopefully my musings about my own pet photography will give you some ideas of where the cost comes from, and helps you to realize that I really want to serve you, and we photographers aren’t out to get you (=

The first thing I want to break down is the process of doing a photo shoot.

• First comes the booking time, and the free consultation I offer if you want to meet and discuss your expectations of the photo shoot. I like to take a look at your house and where you want to hang your photos so I can have it in my mind to prepare products just for you. This generally will take about 1 hour for me including drive time.
• Than I have to prepare for the actual photoshoot, which involves about 30-45 minutes to clean equipment, format memory cards, charge batteries etc.
• In order to do said photo shoot, I have to drive to the location and back, perhaps even to other locations, so you’re looking at an average of 45 minutes to an hour drive time per photo session.
• My sessions typically last about 1.5-2 hours, and I capture about 300 memories (photographs).
• It takes me about 20-30 minutes to upload and backup my files. In order to this, I have to have a hard-drive, a backup hard-drive and discs so that your precious memories have no chance of being deleted or lost.
• Next comes the editing. It typically takes about 45 minutes to narrow down to a reasonable number of photos (about 45 on average) and another 2-3 hours to do the actual editing.
• Next I have to prepare high-resolution files for printing, low-resolution files for Facebook, and make sure that all the finalized images are backed up on aforementioned backup devices taking about 30 minutes.
• I than prepare products for you, based on my examination of your home/office/wherever, typically about 1 hour.
• Next comes about 30 minutes of final preparation, getting your print release ready, burning your discs, preparing invoices etc.
• Than comes the actual ordering session. We sit down and figure out the products you want, and where you wish to place them. This fun and awes part of the session will most likely take about 1.5 hours.
• So, for one photo session you’re looking at about 12 hours of work. So when you pay my creative fee, you’re not just paying for me to come and photograph your dog, I’m working to give you the best possible value for the time I put in.

Whew!

Next comes the Cost of running a business

Now it may start to be apparent that in order to accomplish all those steps, I need to have some serious equipment, among which being cameras, lenses, a computer, editing software, accounting software, office space, memory cards, hard-drives, discs, and on and on.

Cameras alone can run upwards of $2500.00 and I am saving up for one of those as I write this (=

With all that equipment, and running around with it photographing pets, rolling around on the ground with them, I gotta have insurance on all of it. Just the other day a wonderful pup broke the plastic screen cover on one of my Camera LCD screens. A small thing for sure, but anything can happen when you’re rough-housing with puppies (=

I won’t bore you with a bunch more numbers, but I hope you have the idea that chasing this dream of running my own photography business incurs a whole lot of costs. It is a business after all, I do have to make money. I am trying hard to be able to support a family with this job, my wife and I desire children, want to be able to move into a house (build a photo studio inside), not to mention having more money to be generous with, helping our church, and eventually having more time with each other as well. So after general expenses, cost of sales for products, time of designing and branding myself, it gets up there.

So why should you pay for all this?

Let’s face it. Photography is not nearly as inaccessible as it once was. Anybody can pick up a point & shoot or even a Digital SLR and with some time start to take pretty good pictures. And on top of that, who hasn’t taken pictures of their pets? Or their children for that matter! Whatever part of your family it may be, you’re going to photograph them, and most likely make photo albums that you’ll treasure.

You could even go to a local portrait studio, something like a mall studio, or  one of those portrait places in wally world, {you know what I’m talking about} and purchase some very inexpensive session and prints, and it may feel pretty awesome, and you’ll have some decent pictures of your child/animal. If that’s all you want, I’m not gonna try and stop you, in fact I believe those places are necessary! Not everyone has a lot of money to spend on photography, and if you think my prices for instance are too high for you, you should at least have something right? But it’s all about what you value.

I know people who have had little to no money for a wedding and yet managed to spend $5000 on their wedding! If you truly value something, you’ll make the time, or find the money. And I can guarantee you that if you decide to value what I offer, you won’t regret it.

Small portrait places are cheaper yes, but they are based on volume. They photograph tons and tons of people in order to lower their cost of sales, and thusly they are able to offer such a low price. Their systems are streamlined to be fast, cheap, and under total control. Most of the time the photographers don’t even have control over the camera, they are locked out to produce the Exact Same Results, Every Single Time. Again, if that’s what you’re after, than more power to you! But I’m here to offer something different.

I specialize in pet photography. I have spent most of my life around dogs, and have a passion not only for my photography, but for bringing my photographic skills to make your animals shine. I base my business on valuing each and every customer that I work with. When you book with me, and decide to value my work, and my vision, I will supply you with spectacular images of your pets that will make you giggle, aww and geek out over how your pets distinct look has been captured. Than I use my design expertise to provide you with products you won’t find at wally world, and I’ll actually come to your house and help you decide where to hang prints, and not only that, I’ll bring a level and help you hang them!

My goal here at White Patch Photography is to bring you a truly wonderful experience with your pet, and come away with some awesome captured memories that you can treasure forever! Thanks for taking the time to read this, and if you have any questions feel free to comment here or just send me an email at info@adamkoenigphotography.com (=