I do photography/videography as a salaried employee with my personal $5k camera and singular 50mm lens, so my paycheck is technically what I'm paid.
I made my work buy 4 other specialty lenses and continuously growing inventory of accessories. So probably push that number up around $10k+. My services at my job equals like $50ish an hour. With my $10k+ worth of equipment. But I get health benefits... yay...
When I do side jobs, I don't charge much. Corporate headshots for example are about $100 per person or $300 for a certain amount of time for everyone on the same day. So depends how much of a pain in the ass they'll be.
I also have worked with scheduling external photographers by the hour, photo journalists, not your wedding/graduation people which she looks like based on her images style. Costs are regional and based on demand/completion in that area. So someone can cost $1,000 for 2-hours on-site in Boston and someone can cost $400 for 2-hours in middle nowhere Kansas.
So what I'm saying is equipment costs a lot obviously. Yes it's fair to charge more than $300 a session, but you better be damn good to ask $1,000 for 2-hours of your time.
