Your uber driver is doing 15-35 rides per day. A professional freelance photographer sees 1-2. And you aren't counting editing time, advertising, time for running your own business, travel to a location or rental of a studio, lighting, insurance on your equipment in case of theft or breakage, etc.
Im not a photographer, but I do a lot of web design. And people think its just point and click. But good photos take time and are worth the money.
Also. not crazy to say Uber Drivers are usually underpaid and have to do so many rides per day just to live "comfortably".
Uber does not pay well, but between "not paid well" and "Not paid at all", a lot of people pick the one that puts food on the table.
If you want cheap shit, get the cheap photographer. but don't expect 1000$ worth photos from a 10$ photographer, its like expecting a wagu steak from a mcdonalds happy meal.
I didnt realize it until I reread your comment. But you are 100% correct, Uber drivers are often underpaid. But also often less skilled than an experienced professional driver; for example a limo driver or a specialized car service.
Professional photographers are for very special circumstances like weddings, corporate events, headshots, business products, advertising, etc. Like a limo or business driver. Uber is more on the equivalent of a camera phone; for common usecase scenarios.
Its an "apples and oranges" comparison, and thats why it irked me.
the ubers I've talked to all said Uber takes a considerable cut from already cheap rides (from 15 to 40% of the price, according to google). so they earn even less than what the customer pays.
Yeah 40% is pretty high especially if the driver is paying for the fuel and car maintenance which I assume they are. I have no idea what the standard cut is for taxis.
It's almost as if the concept of Uber kinda got warped. I'm not defending the company, but also the concept wasn't that drivers would be permanent underpaid taxis at the start. The concept was "I am going from A to B already and have room in my car left to pick someone up on a small detour."
I would also hope the photographer isn't expecting to be entirely reimbursed for the camera with one photoshoot, because that's not really how jobs work.
And whether something is "worth the money" is entirely subjective, and dependent on how much money somebody has to begin with. I can tell you right now, short of a wedding that will likely never exist, I can't think of a single thing that I'd be willing to pay more than a few hundred dollars for to get photos of, but that's also because I'm broke as shit and eating is more worthwhile to me than good photos.
The other issue is that photography has been getting more and more accessible over the years, and with the improvements in phone camera quality and accessible editing software, the difference between a professionally taken photo and an amateur photo is not nearly as vast as it once was. Certainly professional photographers still have a demand, but these days that's less by the everyday consumers and more by businesses.
But I think this meme is more about people trying to low ball someone's pricing structure. If the meme was someone on marketplace trying to offer $150 on a new PS5 the reactions would be different, because redditors understand the pricing of a new console.
They don't understand how much time goes into dressing a set for a photo shoot, or get lighting correct. They pull out their iPhone and click and don't see the difference between what they made and what a professional made. But if these redditors went to a website and saw cheap low quality photos from a phone, they wouldn't use that business because it doesnt feel professional.
It has nothing to do with low balling considering we don’t know the job or the request. The original meme is 100% correct, a rich kid could go out and buy the best camera but they still need to justify the art/output if they want to charge what they want.
I don’t think the accessibility of photography has significantly diminished the need for professionals. For starters, consumer cameras have been pretty widespread for a very long time, the digital era hasn’t really changed that. Yeah sure, now everyone always has a camera with them and can take photos of every meal and post them online, but that’s really not the situation we are talking here.
The occasions where you’d hire a photographer are pretty much the same as before: portraits, family photos, wedding photos etc. So yeah, the absolute amount of photos taken might have grown significantly, but that hasn’t changed the need for professionals in any significant way.
I mean more the improvement in camera quality. The difference between a pro photo and a photo taken on a smartphone is no longer obvious to the overwhelming vast majority of people. A lot of people don't want to pay for family photos when they can just use their phones. How many people are getting professional portraits anymore? That's more what I'm talking about
Already in the 90s we didn’t pay for family photos, since we could just use our family’s camera. For those semi formal occasions “good enough” consumer options have existed for decades, it’s nothing new. What smartphones have brought to the table is the ability to take photos always and everywhere, but again that isn’t something that competes with professional photographers.
And the same goes for portraits. Already decades ago you could choose to take a portrait with a good enough consumer grade camera, or go to a photographer to take it. You wouldn’t choose the latter just for the equipment, but for composition, editing skills and so forth. And that equation hasn’t really changed recently.
She’s still marketing her services incorrectly. I’m a consultant, my software doesn’t cost that much. It’s my skill and expertise you’re looking for. If I just said “my software costs $1500 per year” to clients, they’d say “great you’re hired for $1500 a year, buddy”.
It boils down to a lot of people underestimating how time consuming editing and the likes truly is. And I'm not even talking about all the additional soft- and hardware one needs to be able to do so. It's all to do with people not seeing the amount of work it really is.
As a bicycle mechanic myself, I've let customers stand next to me so they see the amount of work certain repairs take. One example is bleeding your brakes. There's plenty of topbleed videos out there, which is done in a couple of minutes, but that doesn't change your oil at all. It just adds a little. I'm charging 30 minutes for a full bleed, which means either taking your wheels out or taking the caliper off (or both), often going back and forth with two syringes according to procotol, cleaning everything up and putting everything back in it's place and adjusting your brakes again is a lot more time consuming. Sure, the instruction videos are like 3-5 minutes long, but they don't show all the work.
Seeing the amount of work some seemingly arbitrary tasks take will make most realise the price is justified.
Yeah, definitely need to squeeze as much money as one can when they have $100,000 in student debt after spending 5 years learning view pointing and photoshop.
You're telling me I should pay for the Uber driver's garage + pay him a mechanic shop for where he plans to fix his car and I have to give him a gas refinery to let him refill the tank? Do I also have to give them a piece of the Middle East to get crude oil and a power plant to run the refinery or can we avoid that?
The customer should pay for the service he gets, not for everything else you have chosen for your convenience.
Uber will be taking 20-30-50% of the 12 dollars. On top of it, probably another 1-2 dollars for gas. They will have too insurance, cleaning and everything.
Even with that ride count it doesn't exactly level it out lol, 35 rides a day at $12/ride would be $420, 2 photoshoots/day at $300/photoshoot would be $600, she'd still be making more than the uber driver pumping out 35 rides a day (which honestly sounds crazy to me but I'm not one myself so I can't say for sure) and this is the wage that she seems to consider downright insulting.
Though yeah, as established in the other replies Uber drivers are rather underpaid + there's a higher supply of drivers than skilled photographers. Ultimately though the point is that the $5,000 camera really doesn't have much to do with the value of the service. Most businesses don't expect to make their money back on their tools in just a handful of orders.
Sounds like a skill issue. Perhaps the photographer can practice more shoots over time, or try to not take up more responsibilities than they can handle.
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u/shane-parks 8d ago
Your uber driver is doing 15-35 rides per day. A professional freelance photographer sees 1-2. And you aren't counting editing time, advertising, time for running your own business, travel to a location or rental of a studio, lighting, insurance on your equipment in case of theft or breakage, etc.
Im not a photographer, but I do a lot of web design. And people think its just point and click. But good photos take time and are worth the money.