How much to charge for one hour of photography?

If you were me, how much would you charge for an hour of photography at a party?

A friend at work asked me to take photos for her grandmother’s 90^th birthday party 10 days from now. She expects an hour from me, plus 30-50 of the best photos on a CD.

Of course, she’ll hook me up with free food.

She would probably have various relatives take photos with disposable and/or point-and-shoot cameras, but she loves my photography. I’m stoked.

So, factoring the drive[1. I think the drive will be at least 60 miles round trip.], taking the photos and processing them, what would you charge?

Thanks in advance!

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Bryan Villarin

Bryan is a Trust & Safety Wrangler at Automattic. He's also a photographer, card magician, and cat whisperer. (Thanks to my friend and colleague Steve Blythe for the sweet photo!) View all posts by Bryan Villarin

4 thoughts on “How much to charge for one hour of photography?”

John says:

April 23, 2008 at 4:44 pm

For every hour shooting you might spend 4-5 processing. Aim for an hourly wage higher than you would get working at a McJob. 🙂

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Bryan Villarin says:

April 23, 2008 at 11:06 pm

@ John:

Thanks for the input. Despite my optimism and processing quickly, that’s sounds accurate. I’ll probably calculate the cost that way.

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Chris says:

April 24, 2008 at 1:56 pm

Have you checked out photography websites like fredmiranda.com to see what the forums users might charge?

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Bryan Villarin says:

April 25, 2008 at 12:49 pm

@ Chris:

I hadn’t, but I just tried. Search function stinks, so I resorted to Google. Needle in a haystack. 🙂

I’ll probably go with what John said. Yep.

Thanks man.

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