Hi APers,

I'll start this by saying - I do NOT consider myself a professional photographer and I refuse to be one of those people who have a DSLR, takes kind of nice snapshots and calls themselves professional. This being said however, I am often asked to do shoots for people. They offer to pay, but I turn down that part of the offer and do it for free, chalking it up to experience for me. I ensure they realise that I am only a beginner (well, intermediate according to this site now! WOW!), that I will try my best, but my results will in no way compare to that of a professional. For some reason, they still want me to do it, which I happily do for them.

In the last week there was a family shoot for a friend last Saturday (which was great fun), another two family shoots requested off that, one for a friend and one for my cousin, and now the request for a WEDDING for another friend!! I love doing these shoots, but I am also very time poor, working full time, being a mother to a 2 year old, a musician and running after my daughter with her every day commitments. This, I suppose, it not the fault of my friends and family, but time away from them and then the time editing the photos, is a lot of work for a favour. Is it time for me to start charging a nominal amount? Not much, but a little something for my time? How much would that be?

I am not planning on actively seeking people to pay for my services, but if people are coming to me and are offering to pay - maybe it's time to let them? What are your thoughts on this? Is it too soon? Or appropriate?

Please give your honest thoughts.

Thanks,

Erin.