Why Does Photography Cost So Much? The $9,000.00 Answer

There are many of these stories published online, so we'll spare you the endless dribble.  Why does photography cost so much?  Because if you are going to do it right, you need to buy the right equipment and software.

We aren't even going to count in the cost of design work, basic business expenses, or labor costs - just a plain Jane, basic photography set up for a landscape/wildlife photographer that may do some portrait work with two base cameras to keep it on budget.  We also are not including Adobe Creative Cloud in this basic photography bundle to due the recent debacle, so don't get us going on that one.

So let's get started...  If we were to start out fresh and build a semi-pro camera setup, here is what we would purchase.  Note: This isn't from some list on the internet that we lazily copied.  This is what we carry in our photography bags and shoot with ourselves.  While we didn't list some of our high-end equipment, we would choose these products to work at the highest levels of efficiency, quality, and budget-friendly prices.  Most links are to the Amazon store where we are an affiliate (and keep this site going because we spend all of our money on the gear below).

As of June 1, 2013 prices, this basic landscape/wildlife semi-pro photography equipment setup is worth approximately $9,000.00.

Camera Bodies:
Canon EOS 6D 20.2 MP CMOS Digital SLR Camera (Body Only)
Canon EOS REBEL T4i 18.0 MP CMOS Digital Camera (Body Only)

Lenses & Filters:
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM Macro Lens
Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM Telephoto Zoom Lens
Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM Ultra Wide Angle Zoom Lens
Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Camera Lens
1 B+W 52mm Clear UV Haze with Multi-Resistant Coating (010M)
2 B+W 77mm Clear UV Haze with Multi-Resistant Coating (010M)
1 B+W 67mm Clear UV Haze with Multi-Resistant Coating (010M)

Software:
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4
Photomatix Pro 4
onOne Software Perfect Photo Suite Bundle
Nik Software Bundle

Basic Accessories:
Canon Professional Gadget Bag 1EG
Canon Speedlite 430EX II Flash
Fotodiox 6"x8" Softbox for Canon Speedlite 430EX II Flashe
Davis & Sanford MAGNUMXG13 Magnum Grounder Tripod with FX13 Head
4 SanDisk Extreme Pro 16 GB SDHC Class 10 UHS-1 Flash Memory Card 95MB/s
LensPen New DSLR Pro Camera Cleaning Kit

And the list could easily go on and on.  Say, by the way, when is the last time you looked in your camera bag to figure out how much gear you are carrying around?  Do you have enough insurance on your gear?  Better call your insurance agent today.

Leave us a comment below, and let us know if you would trade out any of this gear for something else.  We would love to hear what you think a basic semi-pro setup looks like.  If you have a similar post, leave a link in the comments, and we'll check it out.

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by Richard S - Dakota Visions Photography, LLC