Barring sunburn, things blowing over and achy feet, the show last Sunday went well. I don't have an exact count yet, but there are about a thousand pictures I need to go through to make selections for processing. This will probably happen Wednesday, and with any luck I can narrow it down to about a hundred pictures to process for catalogs and about seventy-five for the show album. We had one order at the show, but they're all 4x6 prints so they won't need any resizing, just logo-ing.
A few updates:
Effective some time next month, Virginia state sales tax goes up. If you didn't know about this, make a note of it.
And speaking of taxes, there's been an under-the-hood change to the way taxes are applied to CDP purchases. For the first time a picture is purchased by a customer, tax is NOT APPLIED. This is because what I am actually charging for is the time and effort of processing taking and processing the image in the first place while reducing the cost of the physical print to zero. If it doesn't prove to be too confusing (it only applies to the first print of a particular picture; after that, the processing and whatnot has been paid for. so normal taxes would then apply) I'll be making this change permanent.
It works out this way because what I'm charging for is actually labor, to which tax is not yet applied. I'm sure Obama will get around to fixing that after he finishes golfing, vacationing and confiscating firearms (no, I kid, sales tax is mostly a state thing, not federal. I think I'd actually rather deal with the IRS than the Virginia Department of Taxation). In order to continue this, I have to make it less confusing for the costumer, include the process in my business plan, and keep separate records on which customers have made which purchases. For now, we'll see how it works.
Also, a base price for custom horse photography has been established. It isn't anywhere in writing, and I reserve the right to modify it as circumstances may require, but the base price is $100.00 per horse plus (if applicable) travel expenses and (if desired) digital modification fees .
Custom pet photography won't be quite as expensive, but will be more complicated to work out fixed prices for. In this case, I'd reserve the right to charge a 'misbehavior fee' in addition to the potential travel and digital modification fees mentioned above. Also under consideration is an 'attacked and/or mauled by the subject' fee.
Wedding photography will require a huge amount of research before I come up with a fixed price, but I'm thinking somewhere in the neighborhood of four hundred for now, plus any necessary expenses in the way of travel or materials. This is extremely low, but I've never done wedding photography before and the first time would be a learning experience. Also, I lack a lot of the equipment that, say, the Lifetouch people have. After I've done one, I'll re-evaluate the pricing scale.
We don't have a fixed scale for general portrait photography yet, erotic photography, event photography, ect. yet either. I'm not proud of this, but then again I haven't been asked to do any of these things yet, either personally or professionally. So all in good time?
And just how does the new tax policy apply to custom photography? I'm glad you asked. Custom photography is considered labor, and 'cost of materials' charges are considered reimbursement, and so are not taxed. If there's a photography package -a pre-agreed number of X pictures at Y,Z and A sizes, this is considered to be covered under the base custom photography cost and as such are not taxed. Any prints ordered outside of a pre-agreed package, however, are treated as a normal print order and are subject to CatsPaw Digital Photography's standard pricing and would or would not be taxed as if they were a normal print order.
A few updates:
Effective some time next month, Virginia state sales tax goes up. If you didn't know about this, make a note of it.
And speaking of taxes, there's been an under-the-hood change to the way taxes are applied to CDP purchases. For the first time a picture is purchased by a customer, tax is NOT APPLIED. This is because what I am actually charging for is the time and effort of processing taking and processing the image in the first place while reducing the cost of the physical print to zero. If it doesn't prove to be too confusing (it only applies to the first print of a particular picture; after that, the processing and whatnot has been paid for. so normal taxes would then apply) I'll be making this change permanent.
It works out this way because what I'm charging for is actually labor, to which tax is not yet applied. I'm sure Obama will get around to fixing that after he finishes golfing, vacationing and confiscating firearms (no, I kid, sales tax is mostly a state thing, not federal. I think I'd actually rather deal with the IRS than the Virginia Department of Taxation). In order to continue this, I have to make it less confusing for the costumer, include the process in my business plan, and keep separate records on which customers have made which purchases. For now, we'll see how it works.
Also, a base price for custom horse photography has been established. It isn't anywhere in writing, and I reserve the right to modify it as circumstances may require, but the base price is $100.00 per horse plus (if applicable) travel expenses and (if desired) digital modification fees .
Custom pet photography won't be quite as expensive, but will be more complicated to work out fixed prices for. In this case, I'd reserve the right to charge a 'misbehavior fee' in addition to the potential travel and digital modification fees mentioned above. Also under consideration is an 'attacked and/or mauled by the subject' fee.
Wedding photography will require a huge amount of research before I come up with a fixed price, but I'm thinking somewhere in the neighborhood of four hundred for now, plus any necessary expenses in the way of travel or materials. This is extremely low, but I've never done wedding photography before and the first time would be a learning experience. Also, I lack a lot of the equipment that, say, the Lifetouch people have. After I've done one, I'll re-evaluate the pricing scale.
We don't have a fixed scale for general portrait photography yet, erotic photography, event photography, ect. yet either. I'm not proud of this, but then again I haven't been asked to do any of these things yet, either personally or professionally. So all in good time?
And just how does the new tax policy apply to custom photography? I'm glad you asked. Custom photography is considered labor, and 'cost of materials' charges are considered reimbursement, and so are not taxed. If there's a photography package -a pre-agreed number of X pictures at Y,Z and A sizes, this is considered to be covered under the base custom photography cost and as such are not taxed. Any prints ordered outside of a pre-agreed package, however, are treated as a normal print order and are subject to CatsPaw Digital Photography's standard pricing and would or would not be taxed as if they were a normal print order.