I will be doing a dog Santa shoot Nov 4. Santa will be the guy who owns the training center, it will be held during a dog match there. He wants to know how much I charge. I have no idea. I don't know what the "norm" would be, how to split the cost between me and the owner/santa? Can anyone give me some guidelines, I was planning to not charge a sitting fee, but getting paid when they placed an order (I know many of the folks and I know most will be ordering). Just not sure how to split with Santa??

When I did "Santa" shoots, I paid the Santa an hourly wage, I gave the shopping mall 10% and I kept the rest.

Hey good to see you posting David how are you feeling?

Thanks for this, can I ask about how much the hourly wage was? Since Santa also owns the training center, maybe I should give him a percentage of sales?

If he owns the venue, I think I would be inclined to just give him a percentage and no hourly wage.

Dee Dee,
when we do out Xmas shoots, I only charge a product fee (prints or merchandise) and no sitting fee since the venue is essentially letting me set up there for "free".

I give the owner of the venue 10% of my sales or, if they prefer, donate it to their specified charity.

Keep in mind that most folks only want a 4X6 print in a folder so that should be your "primary" product.

Jim

Thanks David, I think that's what I'll do, I'll offer him a percentage of sales maybe 10%?

Oh geez Jim I'm sure glad you mentioned that, I wasn't even thinking of the folders! 4 x 6 is the most popular size then, would you get folders for more than one size? I doubt this will be a huge match with tons of dogs or anything so dont' want to put too much $$ into folders I'll probably never use again. (don't see myself doing this kind of thing much ). Do you know of a good place to get the folders? Sounds like 10% is the magic number than I'll offer that.

Thanks for all the advice!

I get my folders from Economy Plaques .

You might want to also have cards available so they can order more 4x6 and send them out for Christmas cards.

Peggy Sue,

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You might want to also have cards available so they can order more 4x6 and send them out for Christmas cards.

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Or convert them to Xmas cards. You might want to have some samples of photoXmas cards there so they can see how that would work.

Jim

Thank you so much for the tips, there are things here I had not thought of. Thanks for that link too David. I will be much more prepared now than I would have been!

I was asked to do a couple more shoots this week but my Aunt (who was more like my Mom having lost my Mom when I was 13) fell ill very suddenly and unexpectedly last week, and we lost her yesterday so I am taking off from shoots for a bit, but the Santa shoot isn't until next month. My Aunt was an incredible person we will miss her a lot.