Photos for Golf Club Website - How much to charge?

im...LOST

I've been given the opportunity to take photos for a gold club's website. They want shots of each of the 18 holes on the course.

I'm only kinda building up my portfolio at the moment as I'm in college full time aswell. Kinda only been taking photos for 2 years and haven't done anything commercial before.

Question is, I don't have much experience in the field and I'm not sure how much I should charge for the shots. Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks lads!

Borderfox

Ask them what their budget is? depends on what you are comfortable with, you could charge €20 per hole?

im...LOST

Seeing as I've not done it before, I'm not comfortable making up a number, you know?

€20 seems fair enough seeing as I've to spend time processing them and travel there.

Don't want to get greedy either and lose them, you know?

Borderfox

If your happy with that, I know what you mean it should justify a larger price but they wont spend that money.

im...LOST

Honestly, I'd be happy with charging less either. It's a tough decision. Don't want to undervalue overvalue my work.

Decisions!

If it were offered to me, an (extremely) amateur 'photographer', I wouldn't be sure if I'd be capable of giving them the quality of images they'd expect from a Pro (as far as I'm concerned, if you're getting paid, you should be capable of satisfying your customer).

With that in mind; if I were to put myself in your shoes, I'd think the thing I'd do is get them to sign a contract. Pretty much cover that they must pay you X amount (to cover travel costs, say €20 for a simple number). Say a series of images given to them covering the 18 holes will cost €200 (again, off the top of my head number) but if the photos are unusable to them, then they don't have to pay, but they don't get the images.


That way, worst case scenario is you get to take photos and they pay for your travel and such and get a bit of a feel for interacting with people/a company, and if it all turns out well, then you get paid for images you took (and provided you enjoy photography, it's win/win for you, anyway, really).


My reason for the above, is that; if the images aren't what they want or aren't all that great, they won't get stuck with them. Them getting stuck with photos they don't want, will pretty much mean they won't use you again and obviously won't be rushing out to recommend you to anyone else.

If you're just starting out, I'd imagine it's important to be fairly flexible like that.



My mentality could be completely flawed, but if I were ever in a position where someone is paying me to take photos, i think the above is the route I'd take.

CabanSail

Borderfox wrote: »

depends on what you are comfortable with, you could charge €20 per hole?

Sounds like I place I heard of in Bangkok


Anyway .... I take it that the Golf Club is not looking for anything Arty but just record shots to show players what the greens are like and their layout. So it's not a difficult job. I would probably work out how much your travel will cost you and something to make it worth your while.

PCPhoto

CabanSail wrote: »

Sounds like I place I heard of in Bangkok


Anyway .... I take it that the Golf Club is not looking for anything Arty but just record shots to show players what the greens are like and their layout. So it's not a difficult job. I would probably work out how much your travel will cost you and something to make it worth your while.

heard of ....sure

with the golf course .... best angle for a golf course is from above ....but if their budget doesnt allow for you to hire a helicopter, best you can do is walk the course...taking pics of water hazards, the greens, the flags, golf balls on the cusp of a hole .... with a putter just behind it ...... they want stock shots of the course.

the best way to approach this is to agree to give them images suitable for web usage - and make sure you re-size after editing to make them suitable for web use - but not suitable for printing.....that way if they want larger versions they need to come back to you.....its business !! you get what you pay for.

they want a cheap job done (that doesn't necessarily mean a bad job) - so do all the shots, give them a selection (for web use) and your job is done - dont be afraid to set up shots, like I mentioned earlier - golfball on the cusp of a hole, or a set of clubs.... golf cart at the tee box etc etc.

€20 per hole + expenses would work out at approx €500 (assuming 18golf holes and some travel, post processing and food expenses.)....be prepared for a lot of post processing.

treat it like a wedding - take tonnes of pics..... and let them choose X amount...or give them some and tell them you have to pay for more !!!

Golf Clubs have/had a lot of money - each year members pay subscriptions .... that money is used to fund the upkeep and pay for things like photographers - so they can afford to pay full professional prices..... in my opinion they are just cutting corners trying to save a few quid.... make sure you get some money up front..... to cover your expenses.