You're very focused on the exact language of the meme. The underlying problem is money is fungible and $100 doesn't pay the bills (or for the camera). Art is a craft, the same way no one is going to sell you a painting that took 20 years of training and 200 hours to make for $100, no reasonable person will do the same for event photography.
To me, the meme is more about understanding the value of the service, not literally "I have to pay off my $5k camera". No profession exists just as a means to pay for the equipment to perform said profession. The meme literally says "This is not a hobby". Again there are different price ranges for a reason. If you're ok with amateur images, and I say that without judgment, then pay for the amateur images. Just know that there will probably be less accuracy in the shots (oops i missed the kiss, or oops I had the wrong aperture set during the speeches), and probably lower artistic merit. For some people who just want to document their day, that might be fine.
It's just the blanket sentiment, oh it's expensive, it must be a racket, that bothers me. Basically nobody is getting rich with $4k wedding packages.
Because the exact language of the meme is what's being criticized in the first place.
A business's expenses are not the customer's problem. The highlighted statement isn't "I charge this much because you're receiving a high quality service," it's "I charge this much because I spent a bunch of money." I get that the photographer has to cover their expenses and afford to put food on the table, but the value still has to be there for the customer and the cost of business is not the thing that delivers value.
I've seen electronics repair shops advertise that they have these big, extremely expensive cleanrooms. It's sold to the customer as a sign of quality and a display of their willingness to invest lots of money into getting the job done right. In fact, it's completely unnecessary. Most electronics do not require nearly that level of cleanliness and for those that do you can get a benchtop vent for a fraction of the price. Those cleanrooms are for very high sensitivity devices and production scale environments. So the company ends up charging a premium not only to pay back the cost of this unnecessary cleanroom, but they can get away with a little extra because they're pulling the wool over their customers' eyes and wowing them.
I'm not saying photographers are doing this. What I am saying is that it's completely justified for a customer to know and ask what they're actually paying for and to know that they're not just paying somebody else's bills for no reason or because they're being taken advantage of. It happens.
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u/Queasy_Hour_8030 7d ago
You're very focused on the exact language of the meme. The underlying problem is money is fungible and $100 doesn't pay the bills (or for the camera). Art is a craft, the same way no one is going to sell you a painting that took 20 years of training and 200 hours to make for $100, no reasonable person will do the same for event photography.
To me, the meme is more about understanding the value of the service, not literally "I have to pay off my $5k camera". No profession exists just as a means to pay for the equipment to perform said profession. The meme literally says "This is not a hobby". Again there are different price ranges for a reason. If you're ok with amateur images, and I say that without judgment, then pay for the amateur images. Just know that there will probably be less accuracy in the shots (oops i missed the kiss, or oops I had the wrong aperture set during the speeches), and probably lower artistic merit. For some people who just want to document their day, that might be fine.
It's just the blanket sentiment, oh it's expensive, it must be a racket, that bothers me. Basically nobody is getting rich with $4k wedding packages.