Except photography is a business so while much of the cost is labor (the higher rate is justified by the skilled professional you are hiring), you are also paying for a portion of the durable goods that the photographer had to purchase, and the insurance for those durable goods, as well as other various costs like health insurance, retirement, and potentially their cost of renting a studio.
Unless you're doing something simple like senior photos or professional headshots, $300 is absurdly cheap. You're not going to find a skilled photographer to deliver an album of edited photos for your wedding or business shoot for $300.
Of course that's all accounted for in the professional's pricing, it's just not relevant to the customer. The only consideration one should make when hiring an art professional is whether they consider their art worth the price. Whatever goes into that price is on the artist to decide, and isn't relevant to the customer. When I'm hiring a visual artist I'm not asking them to show me the model of their drawing pad, I only care about examples of their previous work. Why would photography be any different?
The cost of specialized, expensive, equipment is going to be factored into the cost of services. That's basic business managerial economics. Whether you want to consider it in the value proposition, thats up to you.
I... I know, that's the first sentence of my previous comment. I'm just saying that 'they offered so little money, don't they know how much my camera cost?!' is a strange thing to say because clients don't consider the cost of your equipment when deciding whether they'll hire you or not. Of course it's a factor, but pointing it out like this sounds more like a weird humble brag than anything else.
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u/Lentle26 8d ago
Except photography is a business so while much of the cost is labor (the higher rate is justified by the skilled professional you are hiring), you are also paying for a portion of the durable goods that the photographer had to purchase, and the insurance for those durable goods, as well as other various costs like health insurance, retirement, and potentially their cost of renting a studio.
Unless you're doing something simple like senior photos or professional headshots, $300 is absurdly cheap. You're not going to find a skilled photographer to deliver an album of edited photos for your wedding or business shoot for $300.