So lets do some quick math here. Lets just add up the time involved for the photographer. And I'll be conservative.
Scout the location (a good photographer will - includes travel time to location) - 2 hrs
Prep equipment (clean lenses, charge and/or install new batteries, etc.) - 1hr
Load equipment and get to location - 1hr
Shoot wedding - 5hrs
Tear down, load equipment, and go home - 1hr
Upload and edit 1000 images (conservative) - 2hrs
Process and sort images - 4 hrs
Artwork on 600 images (lets just use an average of 5mins per image to keep nice round numbers) - 50 hrs
Create a slideshow - 4hrs
Burn backups - 2hrs
Upload images online for viewing or printing a proof book - 1hr
Collect orders and retouch images (retouching is time consuming so lets say there are just 50 different images @ 12 minutes each) - 10 hrs
Sending to the lab - 1hr
Receiving prints and packaging for clients (could be assembling albums which takes a while but we'll just figure basic packaging) - 2 hrs
Delivering and/or shipping prints - 1 hr
Cost of a proof book (600 images - 100 pages w/6 images per page) - $300
That alone is a total of 87 hrs (conservatively) for one wedding. Divide that into $2200 ($2500-$300) and you get a little over $25/hr. Not a bad wage. But wait, I've probably left stuff out and I was conservative in my numbers. Photographers also spend a large amount of time marketing which we don't get directly paid for. We spend a lot of time on education which is not only time we invest but often times money. Then there are capital expenses like equipment. We often pay assistants. We buy insurance. The list goes on. Suddenly that $25/hr isn't looking so healthy. Then we have to deal with clients who think we should give them their images for free - eliminating our ability to generate more income.
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