Value... Can't Put A Price On It

"Wow... you're expensive!"

I've never heard that said to my face when meeting with potential clients. But I wonder how many are thinking that or saying that after I'm no longer in earshot. :)

Admittedly, I'm not the cheapest photographer out there. But for some reason, I do have a lot of clients. There's got to be a reason, right?

I've asked many of my past clients why they hired me. Many said "Great Value." Others said "Personality."

Great Value? AT MY PRICES?? :)

Apparently, after checking other photographers out, extrapolating the cost of all services offered, products given, and estimating future products needed, I actually came out cheaper than a lot of other photographers! I've heard this from many of my past clients.

What was reported back to me is that many photographers try to re-gain their lower initial cost by charging a lot for things on the back-end. Reprint prices are the number one thing mentioned. At $30-$80 per 8x10 print, it started to add up. Even the lowly 4x6 reprints were running in the $6-$12 range per print. Outrageous! Many of my clients who have their digital files given to them after the wedding get their reprints for as low as $0.16, not $6-$12 !!

When calculating the final cost of prints, albums, initial service prices, lower time spent at the wedding (some photographers offer 4 or 5 hour packages to "cover" a wedding) , I came out with the best value. And, they mentioned that I have a fast turn-around time to get prints back to the client (often around a month or so). Some others take several months to finish the work.

Here is a list of some things I offer to clients:

1. Choice of 250 prints or prints of "all"images shot at the wedding
2. Full wedding day coverage (often 8-10 hours or more at times...)
3. Low on-line reprint prices
4. Even lower reprint prices for the client for use in their albums
5. Option to receive all digital files in color and B&W so they can print their own images to save money
6. Album choices - also, not required
7. Experience since 1990
8. Constant contact with clients throughout the year via email, phone and Blog Site
9. Flexibility in handling requests in retouching images (if it's easy to do, I often don't charge extra for simple and reasonable requests.)
10. A pleasant deameanor - comes with the territory :)

Put that all together and I suppose THAT is the value my clients see in me and my services.

What's THAT worth to you?