Hey guys! I kind of need to vent a bit, hopefully you some input and advice for me. So as some of you might know from my previous thread(s), this past Christmas season I worked with several pet stores and did photos with Santa. Customers paid $5 to $10 and in return they received a 4x6 photo (one store even offered them for free by donation). The money made went to the local humane society (just for the record I don’t really work with my local humane society as a photographer). I set up from 9-5 and it was all walk-in traffic. Some days I had as little as 30 people other days it was over 150! I received a $75 store credit for my time but it was totally crazy and when it was over I swore that I would never do photo fundraising days again in this manner.

So a few of the stores asked if I would come back at Easter to do photos again. I told them that I wasn’t going to be running "free" photo days like that for this year. I made the offer to take appointments and charge a sitting fee, splitting the profits with a local recuse that I do work with rather than the humane society etc. . . . but I guess they didn’t like my idea because I see that the stores are still going ahead with the Easter photos and they must have booked with another “photographer.”

So be honest, did I completely blow it? Should I have just done the Easter photos for another $75 store credit? I really wanted to get away from that "free" stuff and wanted to present something more along the lines of what Jim Poor suggested to me a while back. And many of you even brought up the point that just because something's a charity event sponsored by a pet store doesn't mean I have to give my time away for free.

Not sure how to feel right now. Input?????