jeweler53

“Why should I have to pay for a picture of my own child?”

Well ma'am you don't! Feel free to take as many pictures of you child as you like. The people who buy MY pictures apparently think they are WORTH $15. If you don't, please don't buy them. Thanks you, and good day.

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

Now that was a nasty response.

It was not professional, so I now know not to engage your services.

armymsg

You got that right!

pesfls Loc: Oregon, USA

Pretty rude.

ron0987

People do take it for granted on the work that is put into a set up and shoot. You outlined it nicely in your presentation to the forum why not give them the same response and leave it up to them to decide. People will always ask for something for free and try and push it to get it. $15 is very very reasonable. Just my thoughts.

LWW Loc: Banana Republic of America

Make her as mad as possible and then take a picture of her and put it on the site hi res for free download.

Tom G Loc: Atlanta, GA

Sarcasm would be my first answer too; however, a person as dense as this woman wouldn't get it anyway.

I suggest answering her question with your own question, "Why do you ask?"

She will also not get that one either, but it might end the conversation.

LWW Loc: Banana Republic of America

True, but the opinion was free and worth every penny of it.

BebuLamar

The answer is simple because you can't have the picture if you don't pay. Why do I have to pay for anything if I can have it for free??

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

Now that is an oxymoron. And the response in question had no positive value.

FreddB Loc: PA - Delaware County

You were probably WAY too late with your advice 😈

BHC Loc: Strawberry Valley, JF, USA

Actually, your premise is not bad; if we could somehow educate people as to the facts of infant mortality over the twentieth century and propose a change of the expectations (pun not intended), maybe we could begin a dialogue as to the "cost of successful results" in other fields.

According to the CDC, of every 1000 live births in the US at the beginning of the twentieth century, 100 of these children died before the age of one year. By the end of the century, that rate had dropped to about 7 per 1000. Among the factors were better chemistry, better technology and more skilled personnel. None of these factors came free. Consider JUST these three factors and they might apply very closely to the success rate for photographic images; and that increase in the success rate of photos did not come cheap! Emotionally, the comparison is a stretch, but the very same type of effect in many factors of our lives parallel the progress in infant survival.

No mother is going to listen to this kind of argument; it strikes too close too home. Maybe some member can come up with a less ghoulish, but parallel comparison. We have some very wise members on this forum; some of you give it some serious thought. As technology and practitioner skill improve, this field and others will get harder.

In the early 1990's, I charged a company $100 for rebooting their computer (CONT-ALT-DEL). The manager was outraged. I told her she was being charged $5 for hitting the keys and $95 for knowing which keys to hit. Maybe the mother can understand that kind of argument regarding the photo of her precious little angel (and speaking of angels, that takes me full circle to my point about infant mortality).

Jaackil Loc: Massachusetts

It was rude but not entirely unfair. I don’t want to take this thread down a rat hole because this question is about how to repond to people who want our work for free but I do want to address it.
What a person charges may or may not have anything to do with the value of their work. There are a lot of things that go into what to charge. If we do a free shoot for a charity does that indicate how we value our work? I allow the free download of low res watermarked images because the audience downloading is mostly kids who want to post images of themselves on social media. These are kids I have known since they were mites and have coached most of them. I get enjoyment out of theeir enjoyment of my pictures. The going rate in my area for a full res no watermark sports image is $20-$25. My $15 is my family discount for my Hockey family. It’s what I choose to charge. It has nothing to do with how I value my work. However obviously the person who posed the comment is really of the same mindset as the woman asking the question. So my reply to him is why should I give my work away for free regardless of what the perceived value is? If I choose to to give it away that should be my choice she is not entitled to think I need to give it to her for free.

BebuLamar

When I did photofinishing for 30 cents a print I was willing to make 10 prints in order to produce 1 that the customer like. I would not give the customer any of the 9 they didn't pay but wanted. So even if the I want 1c for the price she either want it and pay for it or doesn't want it.

FreddB Loc: PA - Delaware County

That's not just rude, but total BS.
Give it to her is exactly what she was expecting from the git-go.