Photography

sorry, but the majority of people no longer see the value of the photo, few can appreciate the skill in getting a decent pro photo.. or even just a basic event photo. Unfortunately it's a side effect of the digital era... camera phones that do a brilliant job (under typical conditions only), and the very short term nature of the image. For most.. an image now only has value so long as it's trading on their feed. I'm surprised you have not encountered mums thinking they can just use your santa clause and setup to take a pic on their smartphone.. so don't need to pay anything. It's certainly not the industry I entered... can hardly be called an industry now. Sadly I have watched it's slow painful death, especially on a local level, as I was part of it.

It's a shame it is so inappropriate.. woulda loved to make an album of kids just freaking at Santa. I was shocked there were so many. Almsot as shocking as it was hard to find a half decent santa. I'm still wondering at this point if Bad Santa was a movie or a documentary

A real professional won’t charge that low and anyone wanting photos for that cheap won’t receive professional images is the reality…

Because you probably think of your "high quality skills" in a far higher light than most around you do, especially in 2023. No offense. You don't need to give them for free, but this is the answer to as to why.

‘Good enough’ mentality at play.

My friend, understand that photography has approached true art more than most art forms. By that I mean, it's so ubiquitous that many people would not be willing to pay fair prices and there's enough people hungry to learn willing to take those «jobs» for practice, and more over most people who pick up a camera do so as a past-time. If you'd like to make money from this, I see that the most successful ones either embark in these greater than life projects (Salgado, Iturbide, ...) or have a patreon-like model of funding. Also, I'm a strict amateur and a novice so there's 90% I don't know what I'm talking about, just general impressions.

IKR instead of picking me and dragging me down to your level, why don't you call someone who's already down there with you or like you said DIY.

I'm a hobbyist photographer and a parent. In my local area, there are quite a few different Santa photo options (and I haven't even looked into hiring a professional photographer for a whole personal session). Many of the public Santa's include a free photo these days, and I believe there's even one or two that allow you to take your own picture as well. There are a few that still charge $10-20 for a print, with the option to buy additional prints. And I'm sure there are probably photographers offering Santa mini sessions that they put together themselves (at higher prices) as well.

Anyways, I personally would not want to pay more than $10-20 for Santa photos. Many of them aren't amazing photos to begin with, tend to be rushed, and half the time you can't even get the kids to smile. These photos are shared around christmastime and maybe used on a Christmas card, and that's it. Although if I was really interested in having a whole photo session where we'd spend more time with a photographer (like family or senior sessions), I do think that would be worth more- I just really don't need all of that.

I'm just saying that when I think of Santa photos of my kids from the past, there's no way I'd look at those images and think they are worth $50+ lol. And we typically spent more time waiting in line than actually having photos taken. So I'm not really surprised that other parents aren't wanting to spend tons of money. That's not necessarily to say that your time, skill, and equipment are not valuable- but there's really only so much most people are willing to spend on these things.

And as a hobbyist photographer myself, I have just started to take our Santa photos most years anyway. My father-in-law likes dressing up as Santa, so boom. Easy.

The internet.

Entitled people. I like shooting cars, space and occasionally wildlife. I got suckered by friends into doing newborn shoots and weddings for exposure and while the shots were great and I was proud of it, it wasn't shared nearly to the extent I thought they would have, if at all so I stopped that.

I did go to a car show recently and took photos of the classics I liked, edited the photos on my laptop right then and there and then printed on my mobile little 4×6 printer and people seemed pretty impressed and while it was intended to be free for promo in a sense, one guy shelled out 20 bucks and was adamant I take it just because he saw the process and got a physical print out of it just because I liked his car.

Just saw a girl on a Facebook photo group that wants a photoshoot for her 30th bday. She wants pics of her getting ready, out to dinner, and shots of her and her girlfriends out at bars. Wants it done TFP 🤦