"Event Photographers have a license to print money!"
If I had a pound for every time I've heard that said at an event, I'd be a rich man! Unfortunately, the statement just isn't true. Sure, some events can appear that way especially when you've a big crowd all waiting for your printer to spew out their favourite images. But what you need to remember is just what is involved in getting that image into the customer's hands.
A lot of the kit used varies depending on whether you are photographing equestrian events, dog agility shows, kart racing gold indoor charity events. However, we have to have the kit to cover any of these type of bookings - something that has to be reflected in the price we charge for our photos. Here's a rough breakdown of the costs that lay behind the price of a print, just to give an understanding of why they are the price they are.
Camera gear.
Clearly every photographer needs a camera and a lens. What most people don't made is that professionals need to carry spares of each, just in case of unforeseen circumstances. This, of course, double the unite on equipment. In my case I use Nikon Pro gear, which isn't cheap, but is incredibly reliable and gives excellent me image quality. As a ball-park figure, let's put a price of ?4500
Portable Studio Kit.
Depending on the type of event being covered, the photographer may need to use studio lighting and backdrops. Again, spares need to be carried just in case. A good set of studio lights can cost upwards of ?800, with backdrops being half that. We'll call it ?1200
Computer gear.
We need to be able to get the photograph in front of the customer as quickly as possible. For this, we generally use specialist software running on quite speedy computers. Personally, we use Apple iMac's as they have superb screens and are very compact, though they do come at a price! We also use wireless transmitters and receivers to speed things along. A single wireless transmitter is ?600, we need two of them. Lets add ?100 for the rest of the wireless networking gear (routers & cabling). Of course we also need some software to handle it all, so let's budget ?350. Total price for this lot - ?3150
Printers.
What's the good of taking photos if you can't print them for the customers? Therefore we need at least one printer. Of course, we carry two so that should one fail, we can carry on. We carry two different printer sizes - 9?6? and 12?8. Lets call it ?2200 for the printers.
Other stuff we need.
Marked - keeping the kit dry when we are covering out door events is essential. Our marquee cost ?800. Of course, we also need a generator - ?250, as well as tables and chairs for the staff ?250. That's another ?1300 gone.
Insurance.
I suspect that this is one area where people save. Well, the less reputable ones anyway. We are fully insured, for our kit, for public liability and for use ' s liability. Not much change from ?600 for that.
Credit card payment processing.
In this day and age, it is considered vital to be able to accept payment by card at events. Everyone expects to be able to pay that way but, of course, there's a cost involved to be considered. It costs about ?35 per month to rent the machine, plus the percentage taken by the card companies. For the purposes of this exercise, lets say the percentage adds up to another tenner, bringing the cost to ?45 per month - ?540 per annum.
Flight boxes and boxes.
All this expensive kit needs to be transported safely. A custom flight case for the printers was ?400 more ?200 for one for the iMac. We've also probably spent another couple of hundred on various boxes and cases for the remainder of the stuff. Total spend, ?800.
Electrical PAT Testing.
Again, this is probably another area where the unscrupulous event photographer will save a few quid. they won't bother getting their kit tested. We want to ensure the absolute safety of ourselves, our staff and our customers. This is an annual task and cost us around ?150.
Wages.
This is probably a dirty word, but we all have to eat! We encounter a fair few people who think we are profiteering from their pastime and that we should be doing it for the love of it In an ideal world, this would be great. Unfortunately I've a mortgage to pay, food to buy, a because to insure, bills to pay and retirement to plan for. So have those that work for me.
Account's fee.
Because we are a reputable, above-board company we have to ensure that our books are accurate. Since I am a photographer and not an accountant, I have to hire a professional to do this for me. It would be rather hypocritical of me to complain about 'non-professional' event photographers tackling jobs and then do exactly the same thing myself when it comes to accountancy! My bill is about ?400 per year.
Taxman.
Need I say more? The taxman always gets his slice - never nice, but it has to be paid. Again, this is where the "less-than-honest" event photographer probably saves some cash as they never tell the taxman about the income.
Travel Expenses.
All of this kit is heavy and needs to be lugged around the country to get to the event. Most of the time we tug a trailer behind the car which is hardly the most fuel efficient method. Currently, when I fill the tank on the car, it costs me around ?80 - which is good for 300 miles which equates to shower per mile for fuel alone - not taking into account tax, insurance, wear & tear, tyres, servicing and so on.
Website costs.
In the current times it just isn't possible to survive in business without a web presence. Even a simple site, capable of hosting photos, will cost upwards of ?100 (and that is really on the cheap!)
So there we go. Total spend so far ?14340. That's 1434 prints at ?10 each that need to be sold, just to cover the costs. In reality it is far more than that since the figures don't include the cost of the media, the mounts, the paper bags and so on. That figure doesn't include anything towards paying for our experience which is something that no one can pick up overnight. We are not born knowing how to photograph horses show-jumping, dog agility, dressage, how to build a set, light people, people - these are all things that we have to learn: things that take time. Again, this is something that has to be paid for.
So my retort to the "license to print money" statement is simple: "yes sir, we do." "And for the ?30, 000 it has cost us for that license, I'll gladly sell it to you!"
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