If you’re anything like us, part of the reason you got into photography is because you love serving others. Sometimes it’s putting out fires on their wedding day or creating beautiful images of their family that they’ll cherish forever. But us photographers often double as people-pleasers! So it can be incredibly hard to know when to say no to a job. And this goes double for photographers who are just getting started in their businesses. They need all the money they can get! So let’s talk about why it sometimes makes sense to say no to a photography job.

 

It’s Okay to Say No to a Client

If you spend enough time in the photography world, you’ll start to hear the phrase “ideal client”. The idea is that there are clients out there that are ideal for you AND you are ideal for them. In your photographic style, personality and budget, they are perfect fits for you. The goal is to attract as many of these ideal clients as possible and as few un-ideal clients as you can. (More on ideal client here). Theoretically, when you connect with an un-deal client, you will actually both be better off if they don’t hire you. Instead, let them find a photographer who is a better fit for them!

 

However, when you’re first getting started in photography, everyone has the same ideal client… It’s anyone who is willing to pay you for photography! Maybe you’d love to only photograph expecting mothers at sunset. But when you’re first starting out, you’ll photograph that anniversary dinner at the community center if it pays. Or maybe you dream of shooting joyful and smiley brides on their rustic farm weddings all year long! But when you’re starting out, you’ll do every family session if it’ll buy you that next lens.

 

However, over time you’ll start to get the opportunity to do something really exciting: say no!

 

 

When to Say No to a New Job

Last year, Hunter and I made a mistake. We said yes to a job that wasn’t a good fit for us. We didn’t realize it when we first booked the job. But in retrospect, we identified a few warning signs that showed us that we shouldn’t have accepted the job. And this is even though our client was an awesome guy and his desires were totally reasonable!

 

 

1. When It’s Not Your Type of Photography

Hunter and I LOVE photographing weddings and portraits of all kinds – seniors, families, maternity, and especially couples. So when an Orthodontist hired us to capture a series of family and senior mini-sessions for his clients, we thought it was a dream-come-true! He was going to pay us one lump sum, then hand us 6-10 of his past/present clients. We figured we could knock out all the photoshoots in two or three afternoons of mini-sessions!

 

However, if we had been paying closer attention, we would have realized that what he and his practice really wanted was commercial photography, not portrait photography. Their goal wasn’t to create timeless memories for the family and seniors. They wanted photos that displayed their product (beautiful teeth and smiles) and the benefits of their product (confidence and joy).

 

They would largely be “candid” rather than camera-aware (something new-ish to us at the time). And because these images would be used promotionally, there were specific requirements for size and blank space so text and graphics could be placed on top of the images. Yes, these probably sound like very small and nuanced differences. But most professional photographers would know immediately that this would not look like your average family session. Of course, hindsight is 20-20 for us now!

 

 

2. When You Can’t Meet Their Expectations

The key to a successful local business is making your customers happy. How do you do that? In the most general terms possible, meet (and exceed) their expectations. If you know from the very beginning that you won’t be able to meet the expectations of your client, it’s better to let them know up-front. That way, the two of you can adjust expectations. Or, they can find another photographer who will be a better fit! Otherwise, you risk leaving them with a feeling of disappointment at the end of your time together.

 

With the job we mentioned before, we were expected to schedule and shoot all 6-10 mini-sessions in only about a month! However, each session on average required us to coordinate the schedules of four busy adults and high-schoolers. And this was in the middle of the summer! Vacations, camps, and college tours were constant! Add that to our own busy summer shooting schedule, and we should have known from the beginning that this wasn’t a four-week job. In the end, it would be more than four months before we delivered the final images!

 

 

3. When You Don’t Feel Like You’re Earning Your Worth

When we accepted the job, we had in our minds that we would line up 2 or 3 of these mini sessions in a row on a few Sunday afternoons. That way, when we photographed them all back-to-back, we’d get paid almost double what we would for a typical session of similar length!

 

However, scheduling complications made it impossible for us to coordinate multiple families at the same shoot. So we ended up shooting six separate mini-sessions. 🤦‍♀️ When we factored in travel and prep time, each of these sessions took almost as long as a normal session. But we were being paid far less than our normal rate! Plus, we gave up peak weeknight and weekend slots where we could have been serving more of our ideal clients at our full price!

 

 

Over the course of this job, we did our absolute best to serve our orthodontist client, and his families and seniors. What he desired for the shoot and the price he wanted it at were completely reasonable. We still respect him and his practice immensely!

 

However, hindsight shows us that taking the job in the first place was a mistake. By the end of the 4 months it took to finally capture all the sessions, we felt like we were being underpaid to deliver work that we knew he wouldn’t ultimately be that excited about. Now that we know when to say no to jobs that aren’t right for us, we certainly won’t make that mistake again!

 

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