A Professional Photographer & Filmmaker's Annual Costs

We know many of you are involved in planning your nonprofit’s annual budgets. And we also know many of you are mystified about why photographers and filmmakers charge the rates that they do. 

We created a graphic, based on one of our editor’s actual expenditures and value of her gear, in order to shed light on this topic. We also hope this graphic will help dispel any belief that photographers living outside the U.S. and Europe have a lower cost of living and therefore should be paid less. The truth is that all photographers and videographers have the same overhead costs — costs that are often much higher outside the U.S. and Europe due to import duties and a lack of professional camera stores and services in many countries. We believe professional photographers and filmmakers producing quality work should be paid equally.

Be sure to check out our update to this post as we wanted to clarify a few things.

Do you like this post? Do you have questions about setting annual budgets for nonprofits? Comment below or send us an email at hello@ngostorytelling.com. We'd love to hear from you!