HGG Community Forums

I’m always someone who is rather cheap by nature, but when I decided to buy something I want the most quality and bang for my buck. But my mom is a professional photographer for people, and we are family friends with at least three others, so that changes my expectations.

The most important thing to me is quality. The colors need to be nice and sharp, and if I decide I want a 50” by 60” print I don’t want it to turn out grainy.

I’d personally probably want a mix of still shots and movement. Often my mom would take 300+ photos pick maybe 50 of the best edit those, and let the client pick which they wanted as prints, and which on a hard drive. She also had a preferred printing company that didn’t screw up the photo that she recommended her clients use if they decided to print any photos on the drive later. There is often a difference between the editors computer and what a printing company prints, a good editor will work to minimize the difference with a specific company they like. Aka if you want professional quality photos don't print at walmart.

All in all if I was going to pay for photos of me and my horse I’d be looking to spend $200-400 with 1-3 prints and at least 20 photos on a drive. But I also know you put in the 20-45min camera session, then hours of editing. You can’t just make money for the shoot you also have to count hours of editing.

But that said I know too many professionals with nice camera’s wanting practice, and I know the basics so I haven’t had to pay for pro photos.

Edit: You can see the difference in quality between these two photos. One was taken by a professional camera and has probably had some editing (I’m not positive I didn’t ask) The other is taken with an IPhone 6s and edited on the phone.

It’s been a few years since I’ve had a photo shoot with my girls but what I take from them is that a mix of still and action shoots are great with a “candid” or 2 thrown is probably my perfect mix, (Honestly one of my favorite pictures is of me and my barrel racer just walking on halter tooling around before a show. Were both just relaxed and in the bond moment.)

In my area I would expect pricing to be between $2-300 for 1-2 hrs. (horses have off days too. We as horse people understand this.) I would figure 10-12 prints with maybe 10-12 more as a 2nd option (back up options for prints are always a good thing. Owner/rider may think other pictures are more what they want).

Hope some of this helps.