In 1990 George Bush, the elder, was president. The cost of a first class stamp was $.25, the cost of a gallon of regular gas was $1.16, a dozen eggs cost $1 and the cost of a gallon of milk was $2.78. We opened a photography studio in Winder, had our first child and Atlanta found out that it was going to host the Olympics. Oh what a great year that was! So many new beginnings and dreams!
We will be celebrating our 21st anniversary in April. Just what made me think about all of this? Last week while looking through some things in the office I came across a couple of books from 1990 about photography studios. One book was on pricing and had price lists from all across the country and one was on running a photography studio – what was needed, what to expect, how to prepare and how to figure out just how much it really cost to get that portrait ready to go out the door. In 1990 the average session fee was $40, that is what ours is now! The average senior session fee was $60 for a basic session and $100 for a session with multiple locations and more changes of clothes, ours is $45 now. Business sessions including a 5×7 was $75, ours is $75 now and it also includes 4 wallets in addition to the 5×7. Commercial hourly rates was $75 per hour and $600 – 700 for a day, same as ours now. The price of an 8×10 ranged from $35 – 175 with the average price being $65, if you buy a package from us ours are $37.50 now. For years our peers in the photography business and several of our customers have told us that we needed to go up on our prices and that we are too slow about doing that, yet we always hear from some people, who have never even been to our studio, that we are sooo expensive. In case you were wondering this past year we did go up on our single 8×10 price. If you came in and only purchased one print, you paid a premium price for that one print. However, we did keep our other prices close to the same. About 12 years ago we did a survey of portrait prices in Athens, Gainesville, Lawrenceville and Snellville and the prices ranged from $65 – $200 for an 8×10 at that time.
Wow, in 21 years just look at how much gas and other prices have gone up yet you can still get portraits done for about the same price! In the last 21 years our electric bill has gone from $144 up to $268, our gas has gone from $1.16 to $3.25 per gallon, insurance we won't even talk about and we for sure won't talk about heating cost or I will really get depressed! So it seems that the thing that has stayed most consistant over the last 21 years are portraits from Bentley Photography.