Thus, the point of this article. In this post, we’re going to briefly cover why you need to think carefully before signing a WFH agreement, when it might be acceptable to agree, and how to push back whenever a client asks you to sign one.

I transitioned to commercial work back in 2018 and it’s easily the best decision I’ve ever made for my business. 

In the last five years, I’ve been fortunate to shoot some amazing projects for notable brands, small clients, and everything in between. At times, it truly feels surreal that I get to do this for a living. But I couldn’t have gotten to this point without help along the way.

Last summer, I decided it was time to upgrade up my gear. The previous year had been the most successful year of my career — I was picking up more commercial work and landing bigger projects, it was time to invest in a tool that would deliver the very best image quality. That tool, of course, was the GFX 100.

It wasn’t an easy decision. A GFX100 kit is practically a small down payment for a house. But I justified my purchase as an investment -- this camera was going to represent the pivotal point in my photography career where I took things to a new level.

A few months ago, I licensed some of my editorial work to Patagonia.

A couple of weeks ago, I was awarded a five-figure commercial job where I’ll be shooting across various cities in North Carolina and Virginia for a large company in the healthcare industry.

In that same week, I officially became represented by Wonderful Machine, an art production agency with a network of 608 photographers across 41 countries.

In this guide, I’m going to break down five important factors you need to consider so you can finally figure out how much to charge for your portrait photography services.

Then I’m going to show you what I charge my clients. (Seriously.)

And finally, I’m going to suggest what I believe are fair rates that photographers should charge depending on their experience level and market.

Whenever I’m scrolling on Facebook or Instagram, it doesn’t take very long before I run into the inevitable “huge discount” post.

You know the one. Where photographers excitedly promote their services for about the cost of a can of refried beans. Every time I see posts like these, I can’t help but wonder, “How the hell are these people making any money with a pricing strategy like that?”

The answer: They’re not.

It’s no surprise that I’m a Fuji enthusiast. I’ve been shooting with Fuji since 2016 when they released the X-T2. It’s hard to criticize their cameras, they have a vintage form factor, a nostalgic selection of film simulations, great image quality, and (depending on the camera) some very impressive video features.

If there’s one criticism that I read all too often though, it’s the complaints that Fuji files look “horrible” when they’re processed in Lightroom. Maybe that’s more of a reflection of Adobe than it is Fuji, but in any case, I’ve come across this complaint so often that I felt it was time to address it.

The same people who have been complaining for years about how terrible Instagram has become are the same people complaining about Instagram’s decision to hide the ability to see how many “likes” a post has. How exactly is not being able to see likes making the platform worse?

I’ve read and heard some common objections, which I’d like to address in this article to set the record straight on why Instagram hiding likes isn’t the end of the world.

From 2016 to 2018, I posted on Instagram every day.

When I first decided to do this, I didn’t have a particular strategy. It just seemed like that was what you were supposed to do if you were a photographer. The more active you are, the better, right?

But eventually, posting every single day became a chore. When I finally took a step back to evaluate the fruits of my labor compared to the time and effort I was putting into posting on Instagram, I discovered the point of diminishing returns was anything past a few times a week.

In late 2014, while hanging out with one of my entrepreneur friend one day, he came up with an idea:

What if I started a car detailing business?

Here was his premise: there were already plenty of cheap car washes in town, but what if I created a service catered towards luxury vehicle owners? Not only that, what if I made it super simple by going to them instead of requiring them come to me?

Mind you, I knew absolutely nothing about cars at the time. (I still don’t.)

After legitimizing my photography business a couple years ago, I realized that my overhead was a lot bigger than I thought. Like, a LOT bigger.

There’s no pressure when you’re doing photography as a hobby, but as soon as it becomes a business, everything changes. Suddenly, your main priority is to operate at a profit — something that’s hard to do if you have zero idea what you should be charging your clients.

After leaving my full-time job in higher education a few years ago, I quickly realized that I couldn’t reasonably expect to grow my business by only taking on projects that were creatively fulfilling. 

This is a quandary most of us are familiar with: As a business owner, your first priority is making money. As an artist, you long to exercise creativity. 

The problem? The two don’t always overlap.

Too many people spend their lives counting down the days until the weekend so they can bask in their temporary reprieve. Then it’s right back on the hamster wheel.

Some live their lives in comfortable ignorance, unaware of their true potential. They have it good; you can’t agonize over anything you don’t value.

But then there are those who know better, that feel like life is passing them by because they have so much to offer. Plagued by the fact that all of their creative energy is going to waste, they are tortured souls.

If this is you, I have good news: You can change that.