I told myself it was temporary, that "I'm new."

I told myself it was how you “get experience,"how you "get clients."  

I told myself "I’ll just raise my prices later."

What I didn’t realize back then, was that charging the next to nothing price wasn't helping my business grow — it was quietly burning me out. 

Cheap Pricing Has a Hidden Cost

I was shooting constantly, editing late into the night, saying yes to everything and still struggling to make it make sense financially. The math never worked, because it couldn't work at those prices I was charging. It was quickly becoming an expensive hobby that was taking up a lot of my time.

The “All-Inclusive” Mindset

In the beginning of my career (when this was still just a side gig), I thought the answer to gaining and keeping clients was to give more photos. Bigger galleries. Everything included.

30+ edited images, delivered every time.

But here’s the question no one ever really asks:
How many of those images actually get shared, printed or displayed?

Most don’t. I've seen it personally.
They sit on phones, hard drives, and cloud storage — all those images carefully edited, thoughtfully captured, to be rarely seen or thought about again.

When images are handed over in bulk, they lose their intention. They become something to scroll past instead of something to live with. Editing dozens of photos just so they can sit hidden on a device doesn’t serve the work, the client or YOU (the photographer.)  

Burnout Isn’t Sustainable

A business that isn’t profitable isn’t sustainable. Truth: It's just an expensive hobby that you have.

A photographer who never stops working, may quickly find themselves not enjoying the work at all.

Once I shifted my pricing — and my approach — everything changed.
I focused on creating fewer, stronger images. Images meant to be printed, displayed and revisited over and over again. Images chosen with care instead of buried in  excess gallery full of similar or the same images.

I worked less, but better. I showed up more present for my family. The work itself held more meaning.

And my expensive hobby became a sustainable and profitable business.

Undercutting Hurts the Entire Industry

You may not realize it, but charging next to nothing and giving your images away doesn’t just affect one business. It plays a part in reshaping expectations across the ENTIRE photography industry - the very one YOU hope to be profitable in.

It gives clients the message that photography is disposable, not a luxury. That someone will come along who will always do it cheaper. That education, experience, and talent don’t carry any real value.

And eventually, when you need to raise your prices to survive and be profitable (and you will!) , you’ll be left undoing every single one of those very expectations.

Price With Purpose From The Start

Fair pricing isn’t about greed. It’s about longevity. It’s about building a business that allows space for creativity, for family and for a life outside of work — while honoring the value of the images themselves.

It's about building a sustainable business and keeping this industry sustainable.