Who pays for photographer's travel expenses?

[jean-marcus]

very considerate of you to know that perhaps just the cost of the travel isnt enough. once again i agree with nic on this topic. because it wouldnt just be that he is giving you the wedding for free but he would loose out on money that he cant be photogrphing. you have to realize that us photographers really only have 50 weekends to make money and the rest of the time is editing and traveling and this and that AND trying to fit in some social time with friends and family during wedding season.

 

when it comes to this situation with friends i sometimes offer to do it for just the cost of travel if they are really good friends and sometimes ill just give a discount on the photography services.

 

if i were you i would just count on paying full price for everyting and whatever this friend does is up to him. if he is a good friend of yours he will most likely offer a huge discount if not even do it for free as a gift.

 

even if you pay full price you can count on that the photos will turn out even better then with another photographer because you will all be so casual and comfortable with each other. and that will carry through in your photos.

[KLK]

Some photographer's are willing to travel for trade of services! To build their portfolio and of course, enjoy a free trip, however, i would be nice to take home a little extra for the MANY hours of editing and post production done afterwards, just talk to him and ask him how he feels, BEST WISHES!

[mrsmark08]

Our photographer is a friend of a friend and we are flying him down from Southern California to Dreams. We are paying for him and his wife's air, hotel & r/t transfers. In addition we are paying him $1000. His packages for weddings here at home start at $5000 and there was NO WAY that would have fit into our budget. My friend that put us in touch knew that we didn't have a huge budget for a photog but he told me to call Joel (our photographer, anyway). Joel outlined what he was looking for (the room & air as well as the $1000) and even sent me an agreement just so we could make sure we were on the same page. He says it's a nice chance to see a new place and it's a mini-vacation for him & his wife, so he was happy to do it.

 

He does AMAZING work and we are getting A LOT more than what we would have got using a cabo photographer. We are getting unlimited shooting time on the wedding day by him and his wife who is his assistant, then the ayafter he will take us into downtown Cabo for some "fun" shots. We get all high res files and a flush mount album. Overall, we are spending less than what most of the photogs in Cabo were asking for and getting a lot more.

[monicaswave]

Guys!

 

Thank you so much for all your wonderful advice. Everyone made some really good points I hadn't thought about. A special thanks to all the photographers that gave me tips on how you handle the expense of photographing friend's events.

 

Nic-Even though my FI buddy has a full time Mon-Fri job and does wedding photography on the weekend, I still agree with you that I would hate to put him out of some money that he could be making if he stays in town that weekend.

 

I think I will discuss with my FI the option of us paying for his travel plus services. I will bring up the good point that Kristi made about him benefiting by having DW pictures in his portfolio.

 

Thanks a bunch!!!!

[RyanAmanda]

We're bringing a photographer with us. She is a professional photographer (meaning it is her day job) and she does almost exclusively weddings and babys. However, she is younger so it's not like she's been doing it for years. She's charging us the cost of the trip plus half for her assistant (who will be her husband or a friend). The cost of our trip is $1800 (including taxes) so her rate will be $1800 plus $900 for a total of $2700. For that price we're getting her the wedding day (from getting ready to dinner) plus a TTD session.