Freelance

No, not Free Lance. He's fine. I mean Freelance Photography. My sister bought me a book for Christmas on how to become a Freelance Photographer. Would that not be cool? To make a living as a photographer? The only problem, of course, is me. I have sold one or two of my prints before. And I've been the photographer for 3 weddings (one as an assistant), 1 birthday party, 1 Company Aniversary Party, and quite a few dinners and events for a charity. And too many portrait sessions to count.

But since most of these were for friends or family, I didn't charge much, if anything. A family friend who built up a very successful business has said that I don't put enough value on my work. That if I want it to be valued, I have to charge what I'm worth. The problem I have is that I usually have so much fun doing this stuff, that I find it hard to charge someone for my fun! But I realize that has to change. If I want to be successful that is. My stepmom was telling me about some friends of hers who just had a sitting with a photographer. They paid her $500 for the sitting. Guess how much I charged for my photo session with my friend Mo and her family last month? Five Zero. Yep, $50. But hey, they bought me dessert too! And really, they've given me countless rides places so I think it was fair. Mo told me they chose these to blow up to 16x20 and that the grandparents loved them. These are not the ones I would have chosen but I haven't had a chance to ask her why these. They had about 120 shots to choose from. I'm curious.



Sure, one day, I would like to see my work hanging in a galery or The Getty or LACMA (dream big!). But until then, I will have to figure out how to make my photography pay for itself.