I really do hate this undercutting talk, I’ve been seeing it for 20 years now and it’s complete bs.
Take weddings for example; someone charging £400 for a wedding is not undercutting someone charging £2000 a wedding, because the person spending £400 on a wedding photographer likely couldn’t afford £2000 for one.
There are different clients with different budgets. If this restaurant is paying a low cost photographer it is doubtful they’d pay someone twice the price to do the same thing.
I’ve done most types of photography, and still do a few subjects I enjoy like weddings. I’ve trained my wife up who is slowly taking over my business, it sounds like the OP folded under the pressure, if they’ve done previous jobs that have been fine.
As for your bakery analogy… Doesn’t really work does it because you wouldn’t sell the client the burnt ones, you’d bin them.
Your right they need to up their game, but things like this are great learning tools. I remember photoshopping a drain pipe from the top of someone’s head when I first started because I hadn’t noticed it. It taught me to fully check the background as well as the subject… That was 20 years ago. Mistakes are a great teacher.
If your definition of undercutting is just working cheaper than anyone else, then aren’t we all undercutting the guy charging the most? 🤣
For me and photography I’d likely say it’s asking what someone else is charging and offering to do it for less. But I guess both are right in some sense.
I think what you’re getting at is that being a professional photographer is only 15% about taking and editing photos and most people don’t realise it’s about so many different things, from advertising to accounting, from people management to handling stress. In which case you’re spot on.
They were ready for the original job, just not experienced enough for the stressful situation. It’s learning. Id have you laughing with the crap I’ve had to deal with over the years. And that only comes with experience which you can only get on the job. No one is ready for it until you’ve experienced it. I’m yet to have a bride or groom do a runner… That’ll be interesting 🤣
Maybe I’ve just been around so long that first name last name photography with full kit worth less than I’ve paid for just on batteries or memory cards, no contracts, no insurance, just doesn’t faze me any more. Theres a local girl to me who I’ve known for years who had started pushing it hard into the photography world, her images are all dark, out of focus and if I took them I’d think I’d just a stroke. She calls it a style, like that of the wedding photos and paid for at her wedding.
My wife is stressing about the competition, whereas I just laugh because she isn’t. She’ll likely not be around in a year like most others, including the girl who used a photo from a wedding where she was a guest to advertise her business… It was my pose and I was half in the photo 🤣