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What do you charge for photos or video?

Joined
Apr 23, 2020
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Location
Salt Lake City, UT
I have a large commercial real estate client I’ve got on the hook and the issue of compensation has come up. They are using Drone Base pricing to come up with what my compensation should be and obviously that’s not gonna work. I now have to go back to them and explain the difference between somebody off Drone Base using a Mavic Mini and somebody shooting with an Inspire and editing RAW footage.

It would really help me out if you guys could tell me what your pricing is like so I can get a composite of what other people are charging. I have been doing this for a long time and have been photographer most of my life but so far I have been flying for my own firm and now my work has been noticed and other companies are asking me to do drone work for them so I don’t quite know what to charge. And you don’t have to shoot in RAW, I just like shooting in RAW cause I think it’s easier to grade.

Anything and everything you can add is much appreciated and really helpful.

Thanks!
 
I don't mean to be rude or come across harsh and I am by no means an expert. With that being said, if you've been a photographer "most of your life" and you still don't know the value of your work, that makes me wonder.

There's holes in how people can answer your question. What is the end product your customer wants? Do they want graded/finished photos or videos, or both? Do they want a RAW product? Are they going to produce a product from your material or are you going to do it? How much time is involved on your part to complete the job? Hours, days, weeks?

How much is Drone Base charging the customer to what they pay you? Is the mini quality acceptable to the client? To help defend your angle, can you show them the difference between an Inspire and the Mini?

Do you typically charge by the hour or by the job? I would personally charge by the job based on the environment, area, scope, production, authorizations etc.

I learned a valuable lesson recently. I posted an ad on Craigslist (believe it or not), and was contacted to do a job. They told me it was a video shot of some property. I said sure, $65. When I got to the site, I then learn that it was 215 acres of land they wanted video of. I asked a whole slew of questions except how big was the property. After the shot, I told my client, I'm honoring my price of $65 because I failed to ask how large the property was and that I would have charged more. Luckily, my client was an honorable man and paid me double regardless of the deal we made. For 215 acres of raw, unedited video, I probably would have charged at least $300.
 
Trying not to sound harsh, but I stopped doing real estate stuff years ago. I still do a few jobs for some quality companies, but I quickly learned that real estate shots are simply not worth my time. They nickel and dime you to death, and then you are the last on the list to get paid. And then they always find ways to save on the shots, like letting a relative do it, or a neighbor kid, or simply buy a cheap Mavic. Their stills do not need to be all that good (as far as they are concerned) and are easy to shoot. The biggest frustration is that they typically thumb their nose at the FAA for commercial use. I was initially really disappointed, since I thought this was going to be a great tool to improve their business.
 
if you've been a photographer "most of your life" and you still don't know the value of your work, that makes me wonder
I currently work for a firm where I get paid a salary so I get to take my time and make things perfect. I’ve never had to price something out on a per shoot or per hour basis.

Someone I know from another firm saw my work and wants to have me do work for them on the side. They want me and I want to do it. We have agreed that I would get paid “market rate.” Now it’s a matter of figuring out what that is.

Thanks for your input it is really helpful! No need to have what I think it should be, or for it to be perfectly similar to what I am doing. I am really just interested in knowing how other people do it in this day and age and what they charge for what even if it’s totally unrelated. By the hour, by the photo, by the shoot. These are all things I’d like to know so I can come up with a schedule that works for us.

I will doing all the photo and video editing because I just wouldn’t let work out the door that wasn’t edited. Maybe that’s my problem.

The bulk Drone Base cost they were given was $150 for 15 high res photos and another $100 for 5 video clips. I can see for someone with a $400 Mavic Mini or even a $1500 Mavic 2 Pro this is a pretty good return on investment especially if you don’t have to do any editing. But I just don’t see me wanting to take out my $10,000 Inspire 2 and putting it into harms way just to make $150.

Maybe I’m ignorant/arrogant and coming from a place most people would kill for, having a salaried job flying drones and taking photos (I do other things too.) Font be afraid to tell me that.
 
Trying not to sound harsh, but I stopped doing real estate stuff years ago. I still do a few jobs for some quality companies, but I quickly learned that real estate shots are simply not worth my time. They nickel and dime you to death, and then you are the last on the list to get paid. And then they always find ways to save on the shots, like letting a relative do it, or a neighbor kid, or simply buy a cheap Mavic. Their stills do not need to be all that good (as far as they are concerned) and are easy to shoot. The biggest frustration is that they typically thumb their nose at the FAA for commercial use. I was initially really disappointed, since I thought this was going to be a great tool to improve their business.
Was this residential though? I already learned that same lesson.

This would be for commercial sites like high rise buildings, hotels, and resorts that kind of thing.
 
$65 all I can say is WOW!!!
after you point out all the well reasoned examples of the intricacies of pricing and mention "what is your time etc worth" you give an example of shooting a 200 acre job for $65 - WOW...
Our birds don't even lift off the ground for less than $350 then post production charges and if detailed video with call outs, fancy grading, titles in 4K is called for the price goes up proportionately...

We would never risk a $1,800 Mavic or $6,000 I2 for $65 - that just blows me away... even drontebase or whatever they are called pay you $150 (I think)...

I totally agree with S White... Early on when we were establishing our business we thought the real estate market would enable us to get started... soon however we realized that they are phenomenally cheap... and "I have someone who does all our drone work" to which I reply "gauging by the quality it looks like a kid" - "yes my son does it for us for $50/house" - "you do realize that your son needs a Part 107 certification from the FAA to engage in commercial drone work, right" "yeah but this is just a house, he does it in his spare time, it's not a business" "And you do realize that the pilot AND the client are liable for fines up to $11,000 each, right" "thank you for that now get out" - not worth my time or headache working with these people.

Like S White, we do do some real estate but we have come up with a "Package Contract" where the price per residence is substantially below our published rates, but they have to buy (and pay for) a package of 5-10-15 homes... and we guarantee a shoot and deliverable within a week of the request. One of our junior pilots will fly/grade it and keep 80% our company keeps just 20% as a referral fee. This gives the client a cheaper product and gives our junior pilot (we only have one right now) more practice and our company more exposure. (This contract stipulates for homes up to 300k, over that and a standard rate applies)

We like to have contracts for long term projects. Most of our work is construction inspections, documentation for archival purposes and so the principals on the mainland can follow along with the progress... also the engineers, architects, landscape architects etc can keep track. We normally provide: Weekly Stills, Bi-monthly video, bi-monthly Panorama, monthly orthomosaic. depending on the size of the project this can run from $20k - $45k / yr

We have never advertised and our revenues keep climbing - good service, quality - professionally produced images & video, and a willingness to achieve the clients goals serves you well.

Placing 1st in the HawaiiCon 2020 drone video festival didn't hurt either.

Likewise if you can get footage on your localTV that helps in establishing credibility...
A great web site is also paramount. With plenty of examples... we are visual creatures... we like to "see what we are paying for"

When I was traveling around the world consulting at SCUBA resorts and Dive Shops... the first thing I did when an owner was complaining about the competition undercutting him/her - was RAISE their prices... this seems contradictory, but the trend to lower your prices just gets you into a price war until all go under... by raising your prices you are saying my "services" "products" are WORTH that... all we want is "good value" "worth" sell benefits/quality not price...

Ok, it's stopped raining so heading out to mark an inundated lava lots' 4 corners up on Fissure 8 here in Hawaii... seen in the video above... (to record 4 corners $350 - we tried a drop mechanism to drop chalk bags but it proved to hazardous, any slight movement causes the dangling chalk bag to gyrate and whirl around puling the drone all over the place and making it impossible to pilot - if it had worked it was going to be $650)

Aloha all, and safe flying.
 
$65 all I can say is WOW!!!
after you point out all the well reasoned examples of the intricacies of pricing and mention "what is your time etc worth" you give an example of shooting a 200 acre job for $65 - WOW...
Our birds don't even lift off the ground for less than $350 then post production charges and if detailed video with call outs, fancy grading, titles in 4K is called for the price goes up proportionately...

We would never risk a $1,800 Mavic or $6,000 I2 for $65 - that just blows me away... even drontebase or whatever they are called pay you $150 (I think)...

I totally agree with S White... Early on when we were establishing our business we thought the real estate market would enable us to get started... soon however we realized that they are phenomenally cheap... and "I have someone who does all our drone work" to which I reply "gauging by the quality it looks like a kid" - "yes my son does it for us for $50/house" - "you do realize that your son needs a Part 107 certification from the FAA to engage in commercial drone work, right" "yeah but this is just a house, he does it in his spare time, it's not a business" "And you do realize that the pilot AND the client are liable for fines up to $11,000 each, right" "thank you for that now get out" - not worth my time or headache working with these people.

Like S White, we do do some real estate but we have come up with a "Package Contract" where the price per residence is substantially below our published rates, but they have to buy (and pay for) a package of 5-10-15 homes... and we guarantee a shoot and deliverable within a week of the request. One of our junior pilots will fly/grade it and keep 80% our company keeps just 20% as a referral fee. This gives the client a cheaper product and gives our junior pilot (we only have one right now) more practice and our company more exposure. (This contract stipulates for homes up to 300k, over that and a standard rate applies)

We like to have contracts for long term projects. Most of our work is construction inspections, documentation for archival purposes and so the principals on the mainland can follow along with the progress... also the engineers, architects, landscape architects etc can keep track. We normally provide: Weekly Stills, Bi-monthly video, bi-monthly Panorama, monthly orthomosaic. depending on the size of the project this can run from $20k - $45k / yr

We have never advertised and our revenues keep climbing - good service, quality - professionally produced images & video, and a willingness to achieve the clients goals serves you well.

Placing 1st in the HawaiiCon 2020 drone video festival didn't hurt either.

Likewise if you can get footage on your localTV that helps in establishing credibility...
A great web site is also paramount. With plenty of examples... we are visual creatures... we like to "see what we are paying for"

When I was traveling around the world consulting at SCUBA resorts and Dive Shops... the first thing I did when an owner was complaining about the competition undercutting him/her - was RAISE their prices... this seems contradictory, but the trend to lower your prices just gets you into a price war until all go under... by raising your prices you are saying my "services" "products" are WORTH that... all we want is "good value" "worth" sell benefits/quality not price...

Ok, it's stopped raining so heading out to mark an inundated lava lots' 4 corners up on Fissure 8 here in Hawaii... seen in the video above... (to record 4 corners $350 - we tried a drop mechanism to drop chalk bags but it proved to hazardous, any slight movement causes the dangling chalk bag to gyrate and whirl around puling the drone all over the place and making it impossible to pilot - if it had worked it was going to be $650)

Aloha all, and safe flying.
Thank you for your input! That’s more in line with what I was expecting.
 
I don't mean to be rude or come across harsh and I am by no means an expert. With that being said, if you've been a photographer "most of your life" and you still don't know the value of your work, that makes me wonder.

There's holes in how people can answer your question. What is the end product your customer wants? Do they want graded/finished photos or videos, or both? Do they want a RAW product? Are they going to produce a product from your material or are you going to do it? How much time is involved on your part to complete the job? Hours, days, weeks?

How much is Drone Base charging the customer to what they pay you? Is the mini quality acceptable to the client? To help defend your angle, can you show them the difference between an Inspire and the Mini?

Do you typically charge by the hour or by the job? I would personally charge by the job based on the environment, area, scope, production, authorizations etc.

I learned a valuable lesson recently. I posted an ad on Craigslist (believe it or not), and was contacted to do a job. They told me it was a video shot of some property. I said sure, $65. When I got to the site, I then learn that it was 215 acres of land they wanted video of. I asked a whole slew of questions except how big was the property. After the shot, I told my client, I'm honoring my price of $65 because I failed to ask how large the property was and that I would have charged more. Luckily, my client was an honorable man and paid me double regardless of the deal we made. For 215 acres of raw, unedited video, I probably would have charged at least $300.
Man, how did you even arrive to $65 in your mind? No matter how simple the job, $65 after paying for milleage to drive to the job, depreciation of batteries and drone and paying taxes you would have not enough left to buy yourself a sandvich!! Just ridiculous! I hope you've changed your pricing structure since then...
 
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Hourly rate? Think about what your local plumber is charging.
If a customer isn’t willing to pay what you think is reasonable, you don’t want them for a customer.
 
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I have a large commercial real estate client I’ve got on the hook and the issue of compensation has come up. They are using Drone Base pricing to come up with what my compensation should be and obviously that’s not gonna work. I now have to go back to them and explain the difference between somebody off Drone Base using a Mavic Mini and somebody shooting with an Inspire and editing RAW footage.

It would really help me out if you guys could tell me what your pricing is like so I can get a composite of what other people are charging. I have been doing this for a long time and have been photographer most of my life but so far I have been flying for my own firm and now my work has been noticed and other companies are asking me to do drone work for them so I don’t quite know what to charge. And you don’t have to shoot in RAW, I just like shooting in RAW cause I think it’s easier to grade.

Anything and everything you can add is much appreciated and really helpful.

Thanks!

I do a fair amount of dronebase missions and most clients are looking for 20 mp cameras. I figure mileage based on the IRS deduction. For a quick estimate I use .5 cents per mile. So roundtrip for 65 miles cost me roughly $65.

Warning: Theses are real costs that catch up to you in car and drone maintenance.

Real estate photography seems to be a race to the bottom anymore especially with the glut of pilots and automated programs.
 
If you're client is has Drone base in there mind, I would politely tell them to find someone else. I've been there done that. Its not even worth your time to figure out a price. My base package of 10 to 12 pics, I charge $495 per property, and for video I start at $895 and go up from there baed on edits, callouts, special effects etc.

With equipment, insurance, gas and other overhead, its just not worth it, for me, to go any cheaper.

Thats me and in my market, and I have lots of regular clients. But when I started, my prices weren't that much less.

Ps, I dont do private realty, there's ZERO money there. When I do real estate its commercial.
 
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You don't indicate whether you do other video production or just the drone work. I'm a professional broadcast and documentary filmmaker and have avoided pricing work specifically for drone photography for just this reason. My rate is the same per day whether I'm shooting on the ground or in the air and my clients understand and have no issue with my rate. That said, you must have established credentials and references to support whatever the rate is you charge. I also have an I2 with all licensing, multiple lenses, and many other accessories. I probably have easily over $12K in the drone. I would never even consider putting my bird in the air for the rates you are describing. Sure, someone could go to Drone Base, or buy from Pond 5 or some other stock agency and if the cost is the over-riding most important issue then just let them. If you are FAA licensed (and you certainly should be to be doing commercial work) you need to let your clients know you are licensed and insured. (another requirement for commercial work) These are additional costs and expenses that you provide as a professional. Clients should know when hiring a professional that not only will they receive a high-quality product, they do not have to worry about liability or legality of the operation. Anyone can throw a Mavic or Phantom up in the air... but do they know what they're doing? Are they flying legally? Have they done shoots like the previously? Do they know the regulations in that specific area? This is all part of the equation.
 
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If you're client is has Drone base in there mind, I would politely tell them to find someone else. I've been there done that. Its not even worth your time to figure out a price. My base package of 10 to 12 pics, I charge $495 per property, and for video I start at $895 and go up from there baed on edits, callouts, special effects etc.

With equipment, insurance, gas and other overhead, its just not worth it, for me, to go any cheaper.

Thats me and in my market, and I have lots of regular clients. But when I started, my prices weren't that much less.

Ps, I dont do private realty, there's ZERO money there. When I do real estate its commercial.
Thank you so much! This very close to my exact scenario!

I have two projects in the pipeline with this firm and they are both large commercial properties. One is a skyscraper asking price >$80 million and the other is what I can only describe as a large private hunting/fishing/convention resort complex for the elite with private golf course asking price >$25 million.

For the skyscraper they just want photos so that is relatively easy but for the they want a 60-90 second video for the castle, and another 60-90 second video for the amenities (golf course, hunting lodge, fishing lake, grounds etc.)

It’s an hour drive each way and I went out there this week and it took me 2 hours and all my batteries to get what I wanted for the main residence video.

This company doesn’t do residential real estate so I don’t have to worry about that.

TO BE REALLY CLEAR this is a good company and good people who I know will treat me fairly. They asked me what I charged and when I didn’t know what to tell them I asked what they are currently paying for drone work, that’s when they sent me the Drone Base pricing.

They aren’t happy with overall quality from Drone Base and the inability to have direct communication with the pilot. They understand the quality of my work is better. That’s why they contacted me. The challenge now is getting an idea of the range of real costs and a pricing structure that I can feel good about for the quality of my work and they can feel good that they aren’t paying too much.
 
You don't indicate whether you do other video production or just the drone work. I'm a professional broadcast and documentary filmmaker and have avoided pricing work specifically for drone photography for just this reason. My rate is the same per day whether I'm shooting on the ground or in the air and my clients understand and have no issue with my rate. That said, you must have established credentials and references to support whatever the rate is you charge. I also have an I2 with all licensing, multiple lenses, and many other accessories. I probably have easily over $12K in the drone. I would never even consider putting my bird in the air for the rates you are describing. Sure, someone could go to Drone Base, or buy from Pond 5 or some other stock agency and if the cost is the over-riding most important issue then just let them. If you are FAA licensed (and you certainly should be to be doing commercial work) you need to let your clients know you are licensed and insured. (another requirement for commercial work) These are additional costs and expenses that you provide as a professional. Clients should know when hiring a professional that not only will they receive a high-quality product, they do not have to worry about liability or legality of the operation. Anyone can throw a Mavic or Phantom up in the air... but do they know what they're doing? Are they flying legally? Have they done shoots like the previously? Do they know the regulations in that specific area? This is all part of the equation.
Thanks for the response! It’s is very helpful.

I am just getting into the ground based and interior video production work but as you know it is much more involved (lighting, dollies, even higher end cameras and lenses) and I don’t yet have the confidence in that side of things to do that kind of video for other organizations but I hope to practice and get experience at my own buildings to maybe do that some day but for now the aerial stuff is more fun and less stressful for me. I have never done broadcast and . I don’t have the credentials you speak of yet. I will certainly be taking that into consideration with the pricing. I do ground based photos and interior photos for my firm.

I would put myself somewhere in the high end “semi-pro” to entry level professional level trying to solidify that “professional” title. I have been doing work for my firm for several years which, if it weren’t for me, would have had to be outsourced to a “professional” and my company is very happy with my work. In fact the long term project I have been given is to replace all the photos of all our properties which was originally done by professional photographers. I do benefit from not having time requirements and living/working near most of our properties so I can go take a perfect shot when the light is just right and the clouds in the perfect position so I’m not putting those other photographers down.

It still helps to know what the top tier people are charging though so I can establish a range though. If I can say “X this is what the top tier guys charge, I am not at that level so I think it should be X” that’s really helpful to me.
 
Let's all do ourselves a favor and raise our prices so we can scratch out a decent living doing what we enjoy. Drone pilots have been commoditized by the "drone networks." I let all the low bidders knock themselves out competing for the low hanging fruit knowing they won't last long at the prices they charge. With all due respect, unless you're independently wealthy, $65 per job will have you seeking a new career very soon. I agree with Steve@AerialImagesPro above, charge what you're worth for the deliverables you provide. I distinguish myself by politely declining low-budget clients and catering to well-funded clients who recognize the value of a professional. That's not to say I won't occasionally take an intriguing job at less than my market rate, but it's the exception rather than the rule. For a simple dozen-shot photo shoot in my Jax Beach neighborhood, I won't charge my battery for less than $250. Let's all raise our prices and value collectively.
 
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Let's all do ourselves a favor and raise our prices so we can scratch out a decent living doing what we enjoy. Drone pilots have been commoditized by the "drone networks." I let all the low bidders knock themselves out competing for the low hanging fruit knowing they won't last long at the prices they charge. With all due respect, unless you're independently wealthy, $65 per job will have you seeking a new career very soon. I agree with Steve@AerialImagesPro above, charge what you're worth for the deliverables you provide. I distinguish myself by politely declining low-budget clients and catering to well-funded clients who recognize the value of a professional. That's not to say I won't occasionally take an intriguing job at less than my market rate, but it's the exception rather than the rule. For a simple dozen-shot photo shoot in my Jax Beach neighborhood, I won't charge my battery for less than $250. Let's all raise our prices and value collectively.
Love it! Thanks for the input!
 
I also do 3D logo animations. I can do some motion tracked callouts but if it’s a shot with lots of different motion tracks or other heavy VFX we will send my footage to a post production company in Texas. They have a $3000 minimum for VFX work per video (max 90 seconds) so we reserve that for special occasions.

Here’s a 3D logo animation I did that was well received. This about as complex as I can do at the moment but always getting better. This is a property that was neglected by the pervious owner which we did major renovations to when we bought it so it’s suppose to loosely symbolize the chaos before and being put back together.

 
$65 all I can say is WOW!!!
after you point out all the well reasoned examples of the intricacies of pricing and mention "what is your time etc worth" you give an example of shooting a 200 acre job for $65 - WOW...
Our birds don't even lift off the ground for less than $350 then post production charges and if detailed video with call outs, fancy grading, titles in 4K is called for the price goes up proportionately...

We would never risk a $1,800 Mavic or $6,000 I2 for $65 - that just blows me away... even drontebase or whatever they are called pay you $150 (I think)...

I totally agree with S White... Early on when we were establishing our business we thought the real estate market would enable us to get started... soon however we realized that they are phenomenally cheap... and "I have someone who does all our drone work" to which I reply "gauging by the quality it looks like a kid" - "yes my son does it for us for $50/house" - "you do realize that your son needs a Part 107 certification from the FAA to engage in commercial drone work, right" "yeah but this is just a house, he does it in his spare time, it's not a business" "And you do realize that the pilot AND the client are liable for fines up to $11,000 each, right" "thank you for that now get out" - not worth my time or headache working with these people.

Like S White, we do do some real estate but we have come up with a "Package Contract" where the price per residence is substantially below our published rates, but they have to buy (and pay for) a package of 5-10-15 homes... and we guarantee a shoot and deliverable within a week of the request. One of our junior pilots will fly/grade it and keep 80% our company keeps just 20% as a referral fee. This gives the client a cheaper product and gives our junior pilot (we only have one right now) more practice and our company more exposure. (This contract stipulates for homes up to 300k, over that and a standard rate applies)

We like to have contracts for long term projects. Most of our work is construction inspections, documentation for archival purposes and so the principals on the mainland can follow along with the progress... also the engineers, architects, landscape architects etc can keep track. We normally provide: Weekly Stills, Bi-monthly video, bi-monthly Panorama, monthly orthomosaic. depending on the size of the project this can run from $20k - $45k / yr

We have never advertised and our revenues keep climbing - good service, quality - professionally produced images & video, and a willingness to achieve the clients goals serves you well.

Placing 1st in the HawaiiCon 2020 drone video festival didn't hurt either.

Likewise if you can get footage on your localTV that helps in establishing credibility...
A great web site is also paramount. With plenty of examples... we are visual creatures... we like to "see what we are paying for"

When I was traveling around the world consulting at SCUBA resorts and Dive Shops... the first thing I did when an owner was complaining about the competition undercutting him/her - was RAISE their prices... this seems contradictory, but the trend to lower your prices just gets you into a price war until all go under... by raising your prices you are saying my "services" "products" are WORTH that... all we want is "good value" "worth" sell benefits/quality not price...

Ok, it's stopped raining so heading out to mark an inundated lava lots' 4 corners up on Fissure 8 here in Hawaii... seen in the video above... (to record 4 corners $350 - we tried a drop mechanism to drop chalk bags but it proved to hazardous, any slight movement causes the dangling chalk bag to gyrate and whirl around puling the drone all over the place and making it impossible to pilot - if it had worked it was going to be $650)

Aloha all, and safe flying.
Perhaps you ought to read my lessons learned paragraph again. Why wouldn't you charge that much more. Your cost of living is 106% higher than where I live.
 
Beginning on January 1, 2020, the standard mileage rates for the use of a car, van, pickup or panel truck will be: 57.5 cents per mile for business miles driven (down from 58 cents in 2019) . That doesn't include your time to do the drive, just reimbursement costs.
I am also looking to figure out what to charge in my new endearvor
 
Ok so here is a draft of the "castle" video. I am still tweaking color, correcting horizons, sharpening etc. but this should give you a pretty good idea where of what I can do. I made a very basic 3D logo animation but to preserve the privacy of the client I have decided to leave it off for now till I get their approval.

What would you charge for something like this at this quality?

If you have any input I am also all ears.

Thanks!

 

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