Why You Only Pay for the Photos You Love
Go look up five photographers right now and try to find out what they charge. Most of the time you will hit a contact form, or a "pricing guide" that wants your email address before it will show you a single number.
My prices are on a public pricing page. Real numbers, every package, no email gate, no phone call required. Today I want to go one step further and explain not just what I charge, but why the model works the way it does, because I think how a photographer prices tells you a lot about how they work.
The model in one sentence
You pay a session fee to work with me, and then you only pay for the photos you actually love.
That is the whole idea. The session fee is $190. Final images are $195 each, and photo packs bring that down when you need several. There is no minimum purchase hiding in the fine print and no package of "20 digital files" where you pay for volume instead of results.
Why not one flat package price?
Some photographers charge one price and hand you every photo from the session. In my opinion, that is a disservice to the client. A big folder of files looks generous, but most of them will never be used, and you paid for all of them.
Being a specialized headshot photographer, my job does not start when you schedule and end with the click of the shutter. My job is not done until your photos are delivered. That means I am here to guide you through narrowing your photos down to the best of the best. I do not talk you into photos. My job is to craft a selection of stellar images, then help you narrow down to only the ones you want to leave with. If that number is two, I will help you get to the best two. If it is ten, I will help you get to the ten with the widest variety.
I do not like to waste my own money, and I certainly do not want you to waste yours. Not on my watch.
What the session fee actually buys
The $190 is not a sitting fee for someone to click a shutter. It covers the part of the craft that makes the images worth buying in the first place.
You get a session with no ticking clock and unlimited outfit changes. You get my expression coaching the entire time, which is the real difference between a photo of you and a photo that looks like you on your best day. I have been photographing people since 2009 and I am one of fewer than twenty mentors worldwide under headshot photographer Peter Hurley, and every minute of that training goes into directing you. You see your images on a big screen as we shoot, so you leave knowing we got the shot instead of hoping we did. And before any of that, your client portal has already helped you plan outfits and looks so no session time is wasted guessing.
What each image price includes
When you choose an image, $195 covers everything that photo needs to actually work for you. Professional retouching, done by me. Every crop you need, the LinkedIn square, the vertical, the full portrait, delivered ready for the places your face is about to show up. Web and print resolutions both. Delivery within a week, with faster turnaround when you are on a deadline.
There is no second invoice for "the retouched version" and no upsell maze. The number you see is the number.
If you need more, the math bends toward you
Some people genuinely need a set. New business, full rebrand, acting portfolio. That is what the photo packs are for, six images for $1,050, nine for $1,490, twelve for $1,890, each one saving you more per image than the last. And for companies, team sessions work on an on-site fee plus a per-person rate, so a business pays for exactly the number of people photographed, nothing more.
The honest cost of a cheap headshot
One more thing, because it is the question underneath every pricing question. Yes, you can get a headshot for less. But your headshot is doing a job most photos never do. It shakes hands with every recruiter, client, and casting director before you ever get the chance to. It is often the single most-viewed photo of your professional life.
When that photo is doing its job, you stop thinking about it for years. When it is not, you pay for it quietly, over and over, in first impressions you never got to make. Priced against that, a session where you only buy the images that earn it is the least expensive option I know.
See the numbers for yourself
Everything is on the pricing page, sessions, packs, makeup, and team options, in plain sight. If you are ready, book a professional session or an actor session. And if you are still comparing photographers, ask each one the simple question my pricing is built to answer. Am I paying for photos I will love, or photos I will get?