The Customer - Client Relationship and Pricing with Family and Friends

I've just engaged an old family friend who selected me to shoot his daughter's wedding. The feeling of setting a price for my work was not thoughtless or easy. In truth, I'd do the work to please my friend and his daughter. My friend is a professional photographer too. It is purely the relationship that will set the price of this job, but I had to respect both of our senses of business and the practical aspects of doing the work. I provided him with my price list and my logic of pricing jobs. I guess the relational aspects of photography here extend beyond the subject of the photographs to the context of the job. I'll keep this subtext in mind as I engage his daughter and reflect on how these relational concerns impact the relational dynamic with the daughter. My normal style of client/subject relationship with family is to see the beauty of broader relationship reflected in my construction of the photos and settings. My love of the family and friends extends to the commitment to pleasing the subject and creating a wonderful product for their memory; it's really not about the money; it's about pleasing and honoring a friend.