Paying customer

I officially have my first paying customer! I'm both excited and terrified. What if I totally mess it up and they hate the pictures? Ok so I told them not to pay me if they don't like the pictures. It's a money back guarantee I guess. At the same time I've already done pictures for them so they know what to expect and they are willing to pay me for my time. We went back and forth a little bit because we both didn't want to take advantage of the other but we finally agreed they would pay me whatever they feel is appropriate and to be honest I'm just trilled that they think that much of my photos. I have to say it a real self esteem boost to have someone call you up and say they are willing to pay you for something you enjoy doing.

This made me sit down and go ok what do I charge people? I figure I probably needed a little push to figure this out. So last night I sat down and spent a few hours looking up different photography sites and different products how much does it cost to do x. I had been putting it off but actually it was kind of fun to figure out well if I'm going to x what are the cost I need to take into account. Everyone who I have already talk to about doing pictures please don't think you have to pay me. At some point I guess I will take to just say I'm charging people but I'm not sure I'm ready for that. I mean if I do that means I'm really really doing this. Ok so the fact that I order $200 worth of equipment might already mean that but that's beside the point. Maybe by fall I'll feel confident enough to say I'm ready to charge but right now I'm so worried people will pay me then hate the pictures. It's that whole I've never taken a class thing. Jared says it's silly that I have this little hang up...I suppose that's because he never took a college computer class and look at where he is. He does have a point that I can learn as I go and just not charge very much right now and as I learn more and get more experience I can up my rates.

I guess the next step is figuring out how to make the website I want...ohh and writing that photography essay everyone seems to have on there website about there philosophy or how they got started. I know exactly how I want things to look now it's just a matter of figuring out how to make that work.