Expert: Don Wood - 4/26/2005

Question
Hello! My question is: What is a reasonable price to charge for photographing a high school class reunion. I am a scenic photographer and have no idea what to charge for a service like this. This request came to me out of the blue after being talked up by a relitive. I have been asked to simply take a "portrait" shot of those attending and to take "candid" shots during the evening. They would then like me to later place these photos along with past annual photos into a slide show and mail out DVD's at a later time with the original photos included on the disc.
I am well versed in slide show creation, but have never sold them. I know that one reason they have asked me to do this is because they beleive I will be more affordable than a seasoned professional and are willing to accept a product without the "polish". What would a resonable charge be for these services? Thank you in advance for your answer.

Ken Hudson

Answer
I used to take group shots of attendees at class reunions, I would then sell an 8x10 in a folder with a label identifying the event. You need to sell this and get the money up-front. Too many times they will buy the picture to impress their friends and then forget to send in the payment. I would approach the candid shots on DVD in the same fashion. Obviously if you were to sell only 5 DVDs out of a class of 300, you've lost money. It sounds as if they want something for nothing. They want you to put your time into it taking pictures that very likely they won't want to buy. I think I'd stick with taking the group shot, selling those, (be sure to include postage and handling in your price). You might even have to take two pictures if the class is large enough. When I had this situation, I'd divide it into Men and Women.  They could then buy the picture they're in or both in a double folder. You will find that the older classes will be the best customers. 50th Reunion, 25th Reunion, etc. The 5-10 year reunions are mainly too much involved with their families, education bills, etc to waste it on pictures.
I wish you the best of luck, I would approach the DVD with trepidation that it will not pan out with enough returns to pay for it.
That being said, I have used an album program found at http://www.inalbum.com  which does have a limit of no more than 50 shots. You can download music to go with the show, define how each of the pix will open, you can caption each shot. You can burn the show to a CD which will automatically start playing when inserted into a computer. I would recommend this program. There are other good slide-show programs so you can pick and choose.
Tread carefully, get your money in advance of your sending the picture. It's easy to get burned by someone ordering a picture, offering to pay it when they receive it and then forgetting to pay for the picture.
If there is enough time to do so, perhaps the committee setting up the celebration could include your services in their literature, possibly they could even prepay your services. I charged $20 for the 8x10 folder print, a double folder would be $35. Keep the price so that you don't have to make any change more than a dollar amount. $15.00, $20.00 etc.
Good Luck, please keep me posted.