Contact information and Rates
For Dreams To Keep Photography

Contact Info

My email address is the best way to contact me.     dreamstokeep1@hotmail.com

In your email message to me please include the following:

    * Your contact information.  Email or phone number is fine.  If you give a phone number
                please indicate when is the best time to call you.

    * The subject and style of photography you are interested in contracting;
                (Nature or Portrait or Product Photography,  Child Photo Guild, etc).

    * The location of the photo session (my studio or your location, and if your
                location, where that location is).

    * The proposed time period of the photo session - calendar date and time of day.

 Non-company/ non-business clients please scroll down to non-commercial info. 

Commercial / Business Projects      

Rates are negotiable.  There are so-called "day rates" for all day projects and that is discounted versus
the hourly basis of a shorter time period.  Some projects take all day on location, some projects literally
only take a half hour or so to take the actual photographs. 

However, its not just travel time and time spent taking the photographs that you pay for, even though
I realize that clients often want to actually witness some effort on the part of someone who they are
paying to do something!  However, I am willing to bet that you have never asked your dentist to take
an extra hour or so to finish your root canal just so you feel you got your money's worth for his time!

So what my fees also cover is professionalism - if I am there to take photographs of your business then
"time is still money" for you as well.  My job is to capture the images that you require and then get back
out of the way! 

My fees also include decades of experience in the graphics arts as well as photography and I know the
type of images that convey the ideas we will have discussed before the actual photography even
begins.  You are in fact paying for RESULTS and really nothing more than that in this type of situation.

You are competing against increasingly sophisticated competitors whose print and published materials will
be viewed against yours to see who looks more professional.   Amateur looking images of
your product, your people or your facilities will only work against you, so this is no time to hire someone's
nephew who got a camera for his birthday to try to convey your message or convey your own professionalism. 
My job is to help you, your product or your facility look its best.

For commercial publishing clients, standard industry usage fees and copyright practices apply as well. 

All clients

The Child Guild Photography projects are free, all other projects have rates.

Things that affect rates are:

    * Post-production time per image.  Obviously a Photo Art project is going to take significantly
            more post production than a Portrait.  A Portrait with blemish touch up will take more time
            than a simple ID photo.  (By the way, you can get simple ID photos for passports, etc, much
            cheaper at one of the national photocopy places than you can from me or most other
            professional photographers!)  As anyone who makes a living by working with both their
            experience and their labor, the more hours you work, the more you rightfully expect to
            be paid; I am no different in that way.  But as I have pointed out in the above paragraphs,
            you pay for skill as much as you pay for time. 

    * The number of finished images you are looking for will affect the rate.  For instance, during a
            portrait session we might take as many as 20-40 photographs but only pick out 2 to 6 to touch
            up and turn into keepsake photographs.  

            There is a minimum sitting fee of $100 to take care of the actual photo session itself and then
            additional costs per finished image with all of the touch up, blemish removal and even
            fine line wrinkle removal (if you desire it). 

            The more years you want removed from showing up in a Portrait, the more time it will
            take to make that happen and still have it look natural.  So many people have
            Photo Shop or some other digital photo program and terribly misuse them so that the
            end result makes skin look like plaster!  I have over 40 years of graphic design and
            arts background to make the finished YOU look naturally your best.  (Each and every
            professional model whose photo I have taken and whose images are on this website
            have had at least some touch-up!)
           
    *  Travel time and location conditions will affect the rates charged.

            I work in the metro Detroit and surrounding suburbs area.  I do not travel up state or out
            state unless it is a very significant job.  Past a reasonable distance to travel I do charge for
            expenses incurred. 

            "Location conditions" can be summed up by indoor versus outdoor, clean conditions versus
            dirty conditions,  difficult to get to instead of easy to get to places, dangerous versus "safe".

            Camera equipment is not fragile but it is also not something that deals well with dust, dirt,
            sand, grime, extreme heat or extreme cold.  It will have to be my decision to subject my
            equipment and myself to what I consider to be adverse conditions or harsh environments. 

Summing it Up

Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have.  There are so many different needs,
wants and desires that can be fulfilled by good photography that it is impossible to list them all here.
Most larger or complex projects will likely require a face to face meeting first instead of merely
relying on email.  I look forward to meeting and working with you. 

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