Jasmine Star had some advice for newbie photographers a few days ago. It was a good reality check, but it left an important question unasked. Basically she says: • It doesn't matter how good you think your photography is (or the guy's down the road), it's what the customer thinks. • It doesn't matter whether you think you're "worth" what you want to charge, it's what the customer thinks. • It doesn't matter whether you're entitled to charge what you're "worth", it's what the customer thinks. The takeaway? You're better off taking what you can, and getting some runs on the board. (Jasmine famously started off charging a thousand.) Hard to disagree with, right? Yes indeed, but here's my question: How do you stop charging a thousand? The truth is only a few people climb the price ladder. Most get tarred with that thousand bucks or whatever, and spend their career shooting cheap weddings, or quitting. You can see why. First, the people you made happy for a thousand keep sending people your way who want the very same thing. And second, there's a constant stream of photographers coming at you who think a thousand bucks looks pretty damn good - in fact, hey, they'll do it for less! What do the few do to succeed? (And obviously Jasmine knows.) It boils down to asking yourself how you are going to stand out from the crowd, which is the point of all marketing. Because if you go with the crowd you get what the crowd's getting. And if you're not sure what that is, look up the average stats on the Wedding Report. • Don't follow the crowd. • Don't start shooting weddings for a thousand dollars without a clear idea how you're going to stop. It won't be easy. Every step in the wrong direction will take you two steps from your goal. So how do you avoid the $1000 trap? Cheers, Ian PS $1000 is just a number. Insert your own :) Edit: We've noticed a lot of traffic on this post but haven't heard what you think yet. Don't be shy, sound off in the comments! We'd love to get the discussion going.