Business Decisions

     I'm not exactly business minded.  I'd rather barter or give away than set a price.  This past year as Backwoods Photography has taken off, I've been forced to learn more about how I want to run my business.  That's what it is now, its not just a hobby anymore and that's so strange to me.  As I've moved more towards photographing the way I enjoy to and not pushing myself into a box to suit every taste, I've watched my pride and business grow.  I'm on the right track and it feels good.
     I get a lot of questions about what I do, and I'll tell you the truth, I wing it.  I've never paid someone to do what I do or even talked to another outdoor portrait photographer so I have no scale to base myself on.  Primarily, I try to think of what I would want as a mother, bride, grandma, ect. and deliver that.  Determining cost has also been a difficult choice, so finally, I sat down and decided to give myself an hourly wage for all the work I do that goes into a normal photo shoot.  When I did that, I realized my hourly wage IF I charged my regular rate (which at the time was not very often, as I've said I'm bad with talking pricing with clients) was $7.50 and with the massive amount of discounts I was giving, I was making $5.00 an hour.  That was not counting in the times I would spend an hour making one shot perfect or balanced my family time with dragging my kids to a new location shoot I needed to scout or the time I take to do paperwork and promote myself.  I'm getting better with the money side of things, frankly when I look at it that way, I'm worth more than minimum wage.
     To that end, after much consideration, I'm going to start uploading some of my new and favorite location shots onto facebook so that clients can decide where and when they want to do their photos.  I hesitated to do that because of the worry that clients or other photographers might steal the location or the idea.  I then decided I didn't care, its not like anywhere I shoot is a hidden location only available to me (except for the newer props here in my Backwoods)  and it goes back to my new business motto, if you like what I do, you'll hire me for my talent.  I'm hoping that doing this will build business even more, plus I like nature photography too!  Win, Win for me.
     Even with the little rain we've gotten lately, it is still very hot and dry in Northwest Arkansas so outdoor photography becomes very sweaty this time of year.   Even sundown is too hot for young children, they get cranky very quickly at nearly 8:00 at night.  Add in the heat and its too much for my little models.  To that end, I drug myself up and out of bed at 5:45 this morning to see about locations for early morning shoots.  It was a beautiful 68 degrees and the light was perfect.  My advice for any clients through August would be to wait until fall or do an early morning shoot.  By early morning I mean starting between 7-8am with the plan of finishing by 10am.
Here is an example of a photo I posted today

     Please check out my Facebook and let me know what you think of posting locations.  Will is help or hurt my business?


Thanks for hanging out in the Backwoods for a bit, have a great day!