Yippee, it’s time to work out how much money we are going to make and how much profit we are going to get from our pictures, well gosh I wish it had been that easy. It was as if it was a trade secret or something, how to work out costings and how to work out profit and how to work out how much to charge. Yes sure, I’d had a look around some photography websites and been a little scared at the prices people were charging as they seemed so low.
I read an article in an art magazine that said you price accordingly depending on whether you are full or part time in your creations. Now for me I don’t see why that makes any difference; the chances are you’ll spend the same amount of time taking a photo whether you are working full time or part time and why should working part time mean that your picture is worth any less? And if you are working part time looking to become full time and you work on that philosophy you are eventually going to have to increase your prices so you can afford to live and maybe scare away loyal customers.
For me, it’s important to find a price that I am comfortable with and that I think is a fair price for my work and one that will support me. I asked so many people how to do pricing, I went to my local chamber of commerce and got a very long winded answer but it never gave me the answer that I needed, it seemed like that there was no set formula, I asked everyone I could think of until finally a friend suggested I list all my costs put on my profit, take the total and divide it by the total number of days in the year to get the total cost of one unit. It seemed like a perfectly simple idea to me so that’s how I’ve done my pricing.
Strangely enough since doing my pricing I’ve been talking to people and discovered that’s exactly how they’ve done theirs too. I really don’t understand why it’s such a secret. You don’t have to reveal what your costs are, you don’t have to reveal what your profit margin is but I think it’s helpful to explain to a novice like myself that this is one way of working it out, I’m sure there are plenty of others ways too. Read More→
Living in the beautiful rural county of Yorkshire it was perhaps natural for Ruth to have an affinity with the countryside and its wildlife. Creativity is Ruth’s driving force finding an outlet in television & radio she worked for many years as producer for BBC & ITV.
However a love of photography and for being surrounded by nature called her to go back to her photography training and bring pleasure and joy to people through her connection with our planet.
Staying in the moment when taking her images allows her to experience the natural magnificence unfolding before her eyes. It is this moment of mediation, of gratitude, that she evocatively conveys through her images.
