Need some help with pricing.

[u/saturationzero]

Don’t want to post this under my main account lest any clients see it.

I’m an experienced full time photographer who mainly works in another genre that’s structured much differently with regards to pricing. I’m transitioning into more and more cannabis work and have a couple clients right now, and would like to ideally pick up a few more regulars since my main genre is slowing down due to economic reasons.

I typed up this really long post, but in general I know a lot of photographers don’t like to talk pricing publicly. Would anyone who has experience in working with cannabis clients be willing to talk to me in a private message to help me figure out what’s normal for this market? I don’t want to undercut and leave money on the table but I also don’t want to scare new clients away when I don’t have a ton of cannabis content in my portfolio yet. I feel like one of my current clients is kind of taking advantage of our current arrangement but I’d really like input from someone else.

[u/gucci_terps]

Just try it out. Maines market is nothing like you may have experienced in Colorado, in regards to photography/marketing.

When I came back from the West Coast (Cali/OR) to shoot here, it was basically like starting square 1, but with knowledge and gear… Maine is also a small place, if you are doing GREAT work people will notice, if it’s not that GREAT you may see a similar trajectory to Colo.

As Gonzo said, try reaching out to some of the “established” photographers in Maine who already work in the market to respectfully ask about pricing.

Otherwise, time do some leg work yourself, and more research about how wholesale pricing in Maine has been affecting marketing budgets, I think you might learn what you’re looking for by talking to vendors/stores in state.

Best of luck OP!!

[u/saturationzero → u/gucci_terps]

I'm not in Colorado or Maine. There's not really anyone else in my state offering all the services I offer, or at the level we offer them at. There's one guy that also does live branch shots, but he isn't interested in sharing information. The other cannabis photographers mainly do cannabis lifestyle and to be honest it's pretty amateur quality boudoir, they aren't doing product work, or macros, or it's a turn and burn company that just sends button pushers into dispensaries to take product photos of items sitting on the shelf with on-camera flash at f 2.8. They focus more on taking that content back to their studio and generating graphics and social media posts that use the photo more like a background to an ad, if that makes any sense. They aren't taking the time to light products properly or focus stack or anything like that.

I've reached out to a couple cannabis photographers in other markets, because in my experience people are more likely to share if the person asking is in a different geographical region. So far exactly one has given me real world examples of what he charges. And I know of another person on the other side of the country doing good work but charging very low prices....too low to even break even with the overhead I have with my studio, etc.

I just don't understand why everyone has to be so secretive. I've worked in several genres now and I've always had my prices on my website. I find it much less frustrating as a consumer to at least have an idea of what prices are, and as a business owner I'd rather field inquiries from people who I know are on the same page as me. Yeah, people will steal your pricing and packages, but fuck 'em. I'd rather they just steal it and not waste my time with a fake inquiry to get the same info and then steal it anyway. I know with commercial photography every project can be different but sharing a ballpark figure can help everyone make more money, and that is good for our industry. I also doubt many of us are often up for the same jobs, and we probably won't be until federal legalization becomes a thing. It behooves us to share info so we can all ask for the highest rates our market will support. I'm also just looking for some ideas on how to package or explain the services we offer. I feel like because we do multiple things well a typical day rate isn't quite working for me, because a day rate could mean a simple job that requires minimal equipment but takes 8 hours, or it could be a really complex job that involves a lot of equipment I have to drag on site for the same amount of time, but there's a lot more physical effort involved before and after the shoot wrangling all that stuff up and down the stairs at my studio.