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By Root 4021 0

price you're willing to shoot for is— perhaps photography/expenses only, and the client can review the proofs (although they are not a part of the package), and they must be returned after the order. Or, perhaps they can only view the photos via an online service that carries watermarked screen-resolution images for their review. What would you charge? If your $3,500 package includes a 15-page album and 10 8×10s, plus eight hours of your time, are you backing out $800 for the album and $400 for the 8×10s and making your rock bottom-rate $2,300? Consider this as an option, or at least a point for negotiation. Perhaps the rock-bottom price is $2,600, and if they were to order the prints/album after the fact, it would give you a $200 premium. Many people order these in the end, so the extra work is compensated for with this premium.

You can expect that people are more interested in negotiating when it's their own after-tax money they are spending for you.

Protecting Yourself from Liability

When you sign a contract to render your services, most photographers take the approach that, "They signed, the deposit's arrived, great. That's one more locked assignment for the year to make my annual goal." What these photographers are not focused on, however, is their obligation to provide those services. Yes, there's the clause, "However, in the event that Photographer fails to comply with the obligations of this…the Photographer's liability shall be limited to a refund of all payments," that may protect you, but in the end you'll have to refund the monies and suffer a loss of your reputation.

Many families will ask the question, "What happens if you're sick and can't come? Do you have a backup photographer?" What this question is really asking is, "Do you have someone as capable as you, who you are guaranteeing will be available at the last minute and won't be booked themselves, to cover for you just in case you fall sick?" That's a fair question. You can say all you want—"I've never missed a ceremony in 10 years"—but that won't make them much more comfortable because their fear is about their ceremony. Engaging the services of someone capable or maintaining one or two regular assistants you work with and who, in an emergency, could step in could mean saving yourself and your clients a great deal of angst.

In addition, you'll want to look into insurance that would cover you in the event that something goes wrong. We discussed Errors and Omissions insurance as well as Umbrella policy insurance in Chapter 10, and this is one place where those types of insurance will cover you. There have been legendary stories of photographers having their film go bad and then paying to fly every wedding party member back to the wedding site, renting tuxedos for them, and reshooting the photos. Would this happen today if a Flash card was to crash? Establishing a system (which I will go more into depth about in Chapter 24, "Office and On-Location Systems: Redundancy and Security Beget Peace of Mind") will give you a workflow to point to when, after the fact, someone calls into question how serious your protections are to make sure that valuable photos are not deleted/corrupted/ruined.

Multi-Photographer Events: Calling the Shots and Taking Control

One thing I often find funny (yet understandable) is when I am at a news conference or other event where there are multiple photographers, and they all have gathered/clumped themselves into one area—all essentially getting the same photograph from a nearly identical perspective. I find it understandable because in many instances, that is the best view/angle that juxtaposes multiple elements into the frame. Of course, I encourage photographers to think beyond the expected and do something unexpected. That will be how you differentiate yourself. Sometimes that means forgoing the best angle for something offbeat or unique. For a rite-of-passage ceremony, such as a wedding, the kiss is usually followed by the "down the aisle" procession, so when you're a one-person show and that's such an expected