Photography Research Institute Carson Endowment

Many times conversations will drift toward using a "Home Based Professional" to purchase services without paying high salaries and fees to cover costly overhead.

The buyer’s predicament is, as simple as the statement sounds, the cost the client incur for a photograph is a matter of demand. Home-based professional, high salaries, and fees are red herrings terms to get you to think that high salaries and fees (another word for costs to the buyer) has anything to do with the reason to buy the services of a professional photographer.

If the photographer is in business, the photographer is self-employed unless the photographer is a corporation. Then the photographer is an employee of the corporation. When the corporation is paid, the corporation pays its employees with "high salaries". It is the corporation that usually has the "costly overhead."

However if the photographer is self-employed, then the buyer pays the photographer or the photographer's business for services rendered. To illustrate the photographer did one job during the year and had a profit of $10,000. That is what the photographer worked for, profit. The photographer did not get wages, salaries or anything else than the profit.

Similarly, if the photographer was an employee of the corporation that earned the $10,000 profit, the photographer could have received $85,000 in salary. The $10,000 profit could also be distributed to the photographer as sole stock holder of the corporation.

In conclusion, it does not matter what kind of business organization from which the photography is purchased. If the photography meets or exceeds the expectations of the buyer, everybody is happy.