How much should I charge for taking pictures?

I'm not a professional, but I know what I'm doing and that I do good work. I've been contacted by quite a few people to take pictures for them. (Weddings, Couples, Children, Senior pictures) But I'm not sure what I should charge and I don't want to over charge because like I said, I'm not a professional, but I want to be able to grow as a photographer.

Any input or opinions will help, Thanks.

Also, I have a Nikon D3100 if that matters at all.

Added (1). I'm pretty sure I don't need "a business license, a tax ID, and good liability insurance" for something that is a hobby and not a main source of income. Especially since the money I'd get would be used mainly for printing the images.

Unless you have a business license, a tax ID, and good liability insurance, you should not be charging anything. You might not consider yourself a professional, but in the eyes of the law, if you charge money, you are a professional and are therefore obligated to pay taxes, register your business, and can be sued if your client does not think you fulfill your business agreement in terms of the services you provide.

Around $200 sounds about fair, since you are not professional.

The answer from "Hondo" is 100% accurate and correct. If YOU are one of the fools that gave a thumbs down, then you deserve anything that happens to you.

One entry level camera, no back up equipment, no contracts, no insurance, no proper accounting. You charging ANYTHING would be like a kid selling lemonade from a sidewalk stand charging $50 a glass. In other words, … Absurd.

Do some work for others if you want, but do it to gain experience, NOT for hire. You open yourself up to all manner of consequences when you start taking people's money.

One way to sum up an answer to you is that if you have to ask what to charge, you are not ready to be charging anything.

Words to the wise.

Have to agree with Hondo and Steve. It is not a question of how good your photos are or are not; it's a question of shifting the focus of your photography from "pleasure" to "profit". If someone offers you money upfront, cash in hand, to shoot for them then you might get away with it, but anything involving contracts, promises of any kind or other potentially binding agreements puts you into a different frame, pardon the pun.

And when you bring up the "w word"' as in "weddings"' that's when the alarm bells go off. Nobody but a professional should really shoot a wedding if the couple have any kind of expectations of photographic standards.

You can grow as a photographer without insisting on being paid for it. That doesn't imply "professional" as much as it implies "in it for the wrong reasons". Van Gogh, it is said, never sold a painting in his life…