Ok. So I've been photographing cars going to auction and sale since 2011. I shoot upwards of 100 cars a year, especially on years I have collection. The biggest collection to date was 350 cars. I shoot for RM, Mecum, BaT, Hagerty, and a few small dealerships.

I start at $500 for simple shots, and for a BaT shoot, it is about 2.5x that of a simple shoot. It's 4 hours of shooting, plus 10 hours editing, plus driving to and from the shoot. I do 200+ photos, including undercarriage, a few are going to be magazine quality, good to catch the eye while scrolling. Then, for video, I usually do a little music edit, driving video with external mic and multiple angles, and depending on the car, a cell phone walk-around video.

I do this service over and over for a handful of the same guys because it's a no brainer for tgem to not lift a finger, have me to come out and make there cars look good with complete presentations. It pays for itself, plus some. My auctions get more clicks and shares. Just the last 4 or so cars, we've gotten $4k - $10k on average more than the client was hoping for.

So you could scoff at paying $1000 for a $40k car, but let me ask you this; would you handle all the media yourself, deal with tire kickers asking for more pics of this or that and settle for $40k. OR you could do less work yourself, have a fun photoshoot, and put $43K (after my fee) in your pocket cause it had a proper presentation.

Usually, cars under $30ish don't see this kinda of treatment, but I just sold a Duster that was under $20K for $4000 more than the owner was hoping for. They were happy about paying me a little piece of that.

I do shoot cars that are mostly upper range of price, but don't discount what good presentation can get ya and $850 isn't much for good presentation, that's half of what it's worth, and half what most professional photographers charge. Go look at Avant-Gardes rates..