Birthday Party Photographers in New York City - A guide to Hiring and Pricing
Joe Jenkins Photography 2014
Table of Contents
Introduction
In New York City, birthday parties are a big thing. I know this because I’ve attended (either socially or professionally) dozens. Upon Dozens. Upon Dozens.
What can I say, New York City has a thing for parties. Just as there’s something in the water that makes Brooklyn’s pizza dough the finest in the world, there’s something in the water in Manhattan and it’s surrounding boroughs that makes people want to don a pointy hat and walk around in cocktail attire.
As per the New York Post, the average American spends $1,422.65 hosting and planning for parties yearly ( they spread these figures out between seven parties thrown annually, and not on any one singular event). What this means is that the average American spends $1,422.65, spread out amongst several different parties. I can tell you from experience that the average party-throwing New Yorker that has chosen to host their event outside of their apartment and at a venue will have usually exceeded this figure in one evening alone (storefront.com estimates the average venue rental in NYC to be $3500).
And so, this being said, when investing this kind of money in an event that you hope to be the grandest of the year, and surely grander than your neighbors, how do you hire a party photographer that’s going to properly capture it? What is that person going to cost? And what should you look for when hiring him or her?
Let’s take a look at a few things to consider.
Price
How much does a Birthday Party Photographer Cost in New York City?
Entry Level:
The cost of a birthday party photographer in New York City starts at $100/hr. It was $100/hr when I began shooting events 10 years ago, and it is $100/hr now. It’s always been this rate and, for years to come, likely will continue to be. Why this number is so apparently sticky with is beyond me, but that’s what you should expect to pay someone that fills out the word ‘Photographer’ in demographic questionnaires and has some far-flung aspiration to one day be culturally influential.
For people that moonlight as photographers (ie have a 9-5 but own a reasonably decent camera and have an interest in photography), you should expect to pay between $50-$100/hr.
One major factor to consider is this: ‘How does this person set their cost?’
Photography is full of people that do the ‘monkey see monkey do’ thing and set their prices simply because that’s what they see another photographer is charging - and to be honest I don’t think those people really have a genuine understanding of what goes into the occupation or even really take it seriously. If you’re charging $250/hr-$350/hr as a photographer, it should be because you have at least either a half-decade to a decade of experience under your belt, or it should be because you’re just that naturally talented. If you’re charging $250/hr as a photographer simply because it seems like magic money and because you see other people charging that, it shows you not only have a lack of respect for the profession but as well as that a lack of understanding of it.
My advice is to take a hard look at someone’s portfolio. If they’re charging a premium rate and you see some semblance of quality and experience, you’re good. If not, stay away. If they claim to have a decade of experience, ask them for photos from 2013. You’re about to pay that person more money per hour than most Americans make in a day - they shouldn’t mind. I wouldn’t.
Intermediate to Advanced:
Joe Jenkins Photography 2016
Intermediate-Advanced Party Photographers
A good, intermediate-level birthday party photographer cost in New York City should be anywhere from $100-$175/hr. And hiring at these rates you can expect to comfortably get good services. For advanced and on you can easily spend $200/hr-$350/hr but once you hit those costs, my advice to you would be to, once again, really ask yourself where that person is getting their pricing from. If you look over their portfolio, does it reflect a level of experience to command a rate like this?
$200/hr is objectively a very respectable rate and, as a result, should be quoted at by photographers that have built up the experience and the equipment to command it.
To Sum Up Your Birthday Party Photographer Costs:
Beginner/Entry-Level $100/hr
Intermediate-Advanced: $100-$250/hr
Advanced: $250/hr and up
Joe Jenkins Photography - 2014
Type
The Freelance Birthday Party Photographer:
A birthday party photographer of this type is where you’re going to get the absolute best quality and most value for your money. I don’t say this because I myself am a freelance photographer ( I’m not going to claim that there isn’t at least some bias, though ) but because, really, it’s common sense.
Photographers are people that are mostly self employed. Who becomes self employed to work for someone else, be it a production company, a staffing agency, or a tech company? I’ve no desire to give someone 50% of my earnings, whether it be an app or a production house.
This being said, when hiring a freelancer, you can be confident that for every cent you spend, you’re getting one cent back of photographic value in return.
The Birthday Party Photographer You Hire Through a Photography Company
If you’re hiring a photographer through a company (say, gruberphotographers), for instance, this is where you’ll tend to find the best photographers available that are willing to operate under someone else. Many of them are nearly fully freelance themselves and just need a little bit of an extra oomph per month to sustain themselves, and as well companies like gruber typically have more hiring requirements and higher standards than what you’d find on a hiring app.
When you hire a photographer through a photography company, you’re getting about 80 cents on the dollar of photography, and 20 cents on the dollar of company upkeep.
Snappr Photographers
Snappr is a service that started a few years ago that billed outself out as ‘the uber for photography,’ back when everyone was billing themselves as the uber of something.
Initially, the rates they offered for a birthday party photographer were beyond low but, after recent review, seem to have since gone up a little bit (apparently they couldn’t keep quality photographers willing to work for 80% below the industry standard. Who knew)..
As of this writing, they’re offering a three hour party photographer party package for $389. Given that Snappr.com takes half of the fee, that means that, while you’re spending a little over $125/hr on a photographer, what you’re getting in return is a $60ish/hr party photographer. The other $60ish goes to snappr.
As well, you don’t really get much of a selection to choose from, and they usually just pair you with whoever’s available.
This being said, if you want to hire a $60/hr photographer that you’re going to pay $125/hr for, be my guest, but I’d say its a bit of a waste of money, since $60/hr photographers are usually moonlighters and pre-entry-level.
I as well really don’t feel like they have a tremendous amount of respect for the very photographers they employ, as well, as I once viewed an advertisement they were running that started with a good looking young actor, hired to play a photographer, exclaiming into the camera
“Hi. I’m a photographer. When I’m not taking photos, I’m just sitting around, wishing I was taking photos.’
How they don’t see that as beyond insulting to hard-working photographers everywhere is beyond me, but I wish them luck.
Thumbtack Photographers
I used to be on Thumbtack and got quite a bit of business from it, prior to being able to branch off on my own. Their business model matches photographers with clients and many of the photographers on it aren’t all that bad. Thumbtack’s cost for leads though is extremely steep, and so this sort of service is once again mostly inhabited by party photographers that are not quite there in terms of being able to exist on their own.
One thing I will say is that they’ve an incredibly smart closed system of making the consumer feel like they’ve shopped around. For instance, if you go to thumbtack, and it provides you with five photographers to choose and compare from, and you hire one of them as your birthday party photographer, you’ll oftentimes feel like you’ve done just the right amount of shopping around - when in reality all you’ve done is just hired from an extremely limited pool of photographers living within an expensive closed system.
