Professional photography isn’t all about F stops, Shutter speeds, dragging shutters or hyperfocal distances, in fact by definition a professional should by the time they are in the market place understand all that stuff plus a whole bunch more. Below are some simple truths you should know about shooting for a living before you plunge blindly into a career as a photographer.
Firstly you will have no trouble at all in finding work as a photographer. The whole world is looking for someone to create images for them. Your job is to exchange your shooting skills for money. Which is a whole different kettle of fish. Suddenly all those people wanting you to shoot for them begin disappearing.
Beware the prospective client who approaches you and is full of praise for your work. ” Wow I love what you do, your work is amazing.” Translated, means that you’re and average shooter who I could use, so if I pander to your ego enough I reckon there is a chance you’ll shoot for me at a greatly reduced rate. Especially if I tell you that if you that “looking after us” on this job could mean lots of repeat business.
“Money is no object, we just want a great job done.” Means money is no object because we have no intention of paying you for your work.
“We haven’t got a budget for photography on this project, but it’s a prestigious job and we will give you a credit, plus do a good job and we’ll use you in the future when we have a budget.” Ok, you can bet the person telling you this is getting paid, as it the designer and the printers and anyone else who happens to do anything on the project, they just haven’t a budget for photography. But a credit is a good thing right. Yup sure is, but I’d like a dollar for every time I’ve been promised a credit or byline and somehow it was accidentally left off the final job. Or worse still the byline appears with your oppositions name under your picture.
Don’t get me wrong here, photography is a great career and I love it madly. People are generally great and business is business, but because we’re often to close to our work, we leave ourselves open to being ripped off. A job comes along that we would simple love to do and we are prepared to negotiate to get it. We have to weigh up whether we really need to do it for our own personal development or we just want to do it because it will be good for our ego.
Today’s picture has zip to do with any of the above but I just gotta post pictures because that’s what I do. Maybe I’ll organize a photo credit for myself. Better still I post a link to excitations stock archive with pictures of grape harvesters.
Harvesting white wine grapes with a grape harvester in a vineyard in South Eastern Australia.
