Not a Pity Post

I'm sure you're not doing anything wrong. You're good and you have a good reputation. 

You say that you're selling out when you're on tour but you're quieter when you're in your home area. That's not unusual. When you're working in a different area, photographers might think 'this might be my only chance to work with her so I must book her'. Whereas in your home area, photographers might think 'I can't do anything right now but she's local so I'll have plenty of chances to work with her in the future'.

At least, that's my guess. 

Orson Carter said

I'm sure you're not doing anything wrong. You're good and you have a good reputation. 

You say that you're selling out when you're on tour but you're quieter when you're in your home area. That's not unusual. When you're working in a different area, photographers might think 'this might be my only chance to work with her so I must book her'. Whereas in your home area, photographers might think 'I can't do anything right now but she's local so I'll have plenty of chances to work with her in the future'.

At least, that's my guess. 

Thanks for the comments, I really appreciate it.

The enquiry's I have had for home shoots all say that £35ph is too expensive and want lower rates. I feel that £35ph including full use of my home and my lighting is reasonable. I also get a lot of enquiries where we message for a while then they go quiet and just stop replying and sometimes feel like people message me just for something to do. I've been working endlessly scouting new locations near my home, investing in amazing outfits and props etc so I'm just getting a little disheartened at the moment. X

Perhaps it's a case of simply exhausting the photographers nearest to home. In terms of photographers talking down a reasonable rate , it's true £35ph for an experienced model is reasonable but it's still a good sum of money when you consider some could be shooting tfp. I think photographers for whatever reason could be doing a bit more thinking in today's market. Everyone also knows economy wise it's not like it was before.

The rate of £35ph rate is expensive depending on a person's outgoings even if reasonable on its own. Some models would look down their nose at that , at least you have better thinking in your rates.

Edited by Wondrous

35/h is an entirely reasonable rate for your experience, the levels you work, and your versatility. Anything about your portfolio that would put me off booking you? Yes - your location. I don't know what the NW scene is like, but the fact that your are well utilised on your tours further south I think is the nub of it - not just the novelty factor.

While I suspect that my work wouldn't do you justice (and my paid shoot opportunities are fully booked until the end of the year), if I was further north I would seriously consider booking you

Edited by JonC

JonC said

35/h is an entirely reasonable rate for your experience, the levels you work, and your versatility. Anything about your portfolio that would put me off booking you? Yes - your location. I don't know what the NW scene is like, but the fact that your are well utilised on your tours further south I think is the nub of it - not just the novelty factor.

While I suspect that my work wouldn't do you justice (and my paid shoot opportunities are fully booked until the end of the year), if I was further north I would seriously consider booking you

Edited by JonC

Thank you so much.

Im actually pretty lucky where I live, The wirral has it's bad parts but we are in a lovely area with miles of green belt land on the door step, 7 beaches and 2 country parks plus I live on the boundary of Port Sunlight, a vintage village that's part of the national trust and is picture perfect so there are hundreds of location opportunities nearby.

I do have spare rooms so can always offer BB to photographers travelling from a fair distance, I will update my port notes to reflect this.

Again thank you for the feedback :) x

Wondrous said

Perhaps it's a case of simply exhausting the photographers nearest to home. In terms of photographers talking down a reasonable rate , it's true £35ph for an experienced model is reasonable but it's still a good sum of money when you consider some could be shooting tfp. I think photographers for whatever reason could be doing a bit more thinking in today's market. Everyone also knows economy wise it's not like it was before.

The rate of £35ph rate is expensive depending on a person's outgoings even if reasonable on its own. Some models would look down their nose at that , at least you have better thinking in your rates.

Edited by Wondrous

Hi

Thank you for taking the time to reply. I haven't worked one to one with that many local photographers for quite a long time now. I do run group shoots and events that local photographers attend but they are completely different to shooting one on one with me.

I agree to some £35 can be a lot of money but I even accept one hour bookings and can set up sets lighting in advance and I'm always styled with hair and makeup ready to shoot before the photographer arrives so even in one hour can achieve 3 to 4 different sets. 

It's hard to put everything I can offer into my notes without them being too much to read or sounding too contrived so it's a hard one, I don't want to bore people before they reach the end of my bio but I also have so much more to offer than is currently written there.

Edited by Everly Rose

Everly Rose oh I know it is a great part of the world (I’m a Mancunian by birth, went to school in Blackpool and worked in Liverpool) - I simply meant not sure how many local photographers there are who pay for models on your part of the world. For me coming up to shoot with you would be an 8 hour round trip and an overnight stay.

I agree with the comments above in that I think it's more about location than anything else.  For any given model, there's a finite number of photographers interested in paying to shoot them on their home ground, and once that number is exhausted work will dry up.  It probably doesn't matter what the location is, although some will obviously have more photographers than others.  So there's nothing specifically wrong with the North West (I used to live in Urmston!), the same issue will eventually apply anywhere in the country.

For those photographers challenging your rates, please don't indulge them in a race to the bottom.  They probably aren't people you really want to shoot with anyway?

Gothic Image said

I agree with the comments above in that I think it's more about location than anything else.  For any given model, there's a finite number of photographers interested in paying to shoot them on their home ground, and once that number is exhausted work will dry up.  It probably doesn't matter what the location is, although some will obviously have more photographers than others.  So there's nothing specifically wrong with the North West (I used to live in Urmston!), the same issue will eventually apply anywhere in the country.

For those photographers challenging your rates, please don't indulge them in a race to the bottom.  They probably aren't people you really want to shoot with anyway?

Thanks, I appreciate you taking the time to reply.

No I don't indulge them, I do offer a discount for half day and full day bookings , As I told one person recently you get what you pay for, if your willing to haggle for the cheapest price you may not get the best quality. xx

Everly Rose said

Gothic Image said

I agree with the comments above in that I think it's more about location than anything else.  For any given model, there's a finite number of photographers interested in paying to shoot them on their home ground, and once that number is exhausted work will dry up.  It probably doesn't matter what the location is, although some will obviously have more photographers than others.  So there's nothing specifically wrong with the North West (I used to live in Urmston!), the same issue will eventually apply anywhere in the country.

For those photographers challenging your rates, please don't indulge them in a race to the bottom.  They probably aren't people you really want to shoot with anyway?

Thanks, I appreciate you taking the time to reply.

No I don't indulge them, I do offer a discount for half day and full day bookings , As I told one person recently you get what you pay for, if your willing to haggle for the cheapest price you may not get the best quality. xx

Absolutely!

Gothic Image said

Everly Rose said

Gothic Image said

I agree with the comments above in that I think it's more about location than anything else.  For any given model, there's a finite number of photographers interested in paying to shoot them on their home ground, and once that number is exhausted work will dry up.  It probably doesn't matter what the location is, although some will obviously have more photographers than others.  So there's nothing specifically wrong with the North West (I used to live in Urmston!), the same issue will eventually apply anywhere in the country.

For those photographers challenging your rates, please don't indulge them in a race to the bottom.  They probably aren't people you really want to shoot with anyway?

Thanks, I appreciate you taking the time to reply.

No I don't indulge them, I do offer a discount for half day and full day bookings , As I told one person recently you get what you pay for, if your willing to haggle for the cheapest price you may not get the best quality. xx

Absolutely!

Thanks matey, It was a pleasure to work with you, it's shoots like that that make it all worthwhile for me, thanks for listening to my little rant, I'll keep doing what I'm doing and being my own unique weird little self lol

Incidentally, if local photographers come to your group shoots, do they then shoot with you later? If not, do you know why?

The immediate thing which would stop me messaging you to enquire/book would be your rates not being on your portfolio. I know this is the same for some others too. 

I appriciate you saying it varies depending on some factors but for me there's nothing more awkward than discussing then finding out it's out my budget! 

Rates wise I don't think £35ph is at all whacky for an established individual who relies on modelling for their income. But it's probably £5 per hour more than most other models who offer the same levels and whilst I personally wouldn't give it a second thought if I wanted to work with you, some other photographers are likely to.

I guess it depends how dependent you are economically on photographers who always top out at £30 (regardless of the advantages you mention) - I think there's likely to be quite a few of them. There's probably very little you can do to get them to pay more than they're accustomed to, and from what you say you're running into those guys at least occasionally.

Some models might welcome additional local bookings albeit at a discounted rate if their circumstances demand it. Other models might remain comfortable without those bookings. A photographer who sticks doggedly to a top end rate isn't terribly different to a model who sticks doggedly to her rate. Both are right and both are wrong, depending on how you look at it!

A Shot in the Dark said

The immediate thing which would stop me messaging you to enquire/book would be your rates not being on your portfolio. I know this is the same for some others too. 

I appriciate you saying it varies depending on some factors but for me there's nothing more awkward than discussing then finding out it's out my budget! 

I only removed them today when I updated my notes, I'll re include my hourly rate however if I travel and tour it really depends on where it is and if I am booking a studio, hotel air bb etc so I put the rates for each tour or event in that particular one in my events and castings on my portfolio x Thanks for replying though and I will update my notes to include my hourly home rate :)