What a shoot
actually buys you.
Pricing in photo and video is a black box. People quote you a number and you have no idea what is behind it. So here is the line item breakdown of what each tier actually delivers. Using my own pricing as the example.
Cheap content is more expensive than no content. It teaches the algorithm to skip you.
The Intro Session. $350 flat.
75 minutes on-location. One scene. You get back 20 hand-edited photos in a private gallery within 5 business days. Hand-edited by me, not run through a preset and shipped.
What it is for: getting started. A first product shot. A founder headshot that does not look like a headshot. A gym atmosphere pull for the website. Anything where you need real photos fast and want to see how we work together before committing to something bigger.
The Intro Session is productized on purpose. Fixed scope, fixed price, fast turnaround. You know exactly what you are getting. It is the lowest-friction way to find out whether we are a fit.
The Full-Day Shoot. From $2,200.
Full day on-location. 60 or more hand-edited photos plus 5 to 6 vertical reels. Commercial license included. Delivered in 10 business days.
What it is for: campaigns. A brand launch. A fighter promotional push. A facility hero content refresh. Anything where photo and video work together and the same footage needs to run paid and organic.
The value of a full-day shoot is in the range. You get enough variety to run a campaign for 60 to 90 days without repeating yourself. Short-form video is included, not bolted on. I shoot both stills and reels in the same pass so nothing is an afterthought.
The Content Retainer. From $1,500/mo.
One shoot day per month. 25 or more photos plus 4 reels delivered monthly. Priority scheduling, rolling delivery, quarterly strategy check-in.
What it is for: brands that post consistently. Gyms with a daily programming feed. Athletes building a public profile. Any business where the feed is a sales channel and going dark for a month actually costs you.
The retainer is not about volume. It is about cadence. A consistent visual presence compounds over time in a way that one-off shoots cannot. The quarterly check-in keeps the content strategy pointed at the right goal as your business evolves.
Where the line is.
The line between content that earns its keep and content that does not is not about budget. It is about intent. An Intro Session shot with a clear use case beats a full-day shoot with no plan. A retainer with monthly cadence beats four one-off shoots spread randomly across the year.
What I tell every client: tell me what the content is for before we shoot it. The reel, the campaign, the brand refresh, the sponsor deck. That answer changes the lens choice, the location, the edit pass, and the deliverable count. Without it, you are paying for output without a target.
One filter to use before booking anyone.
Ask whoever you are hiring: what is the use case for this content?If they answer with a deliverable count ("you will get 30 photos") instead of a use case ("these will run as your spring brand refresh on paid and organic for 90 days"), keep looking. The first answer tells you that you are buying photos. The second tells you that you are buying outcomes.