Why I won't do free photos

[Rhys Sage]

This is an excerpt from my blog...

Some people may be puzzled as to why I won't do free photos. That's because unless the photos have some benefit for me, they're not free.

My digital cameras cost about $1,000 each and the shutters last only 50,000 exposures. During a typical 2-hour event I will shoot around 250 photographs. That's 250 of 50,000 which is 1/200th of the life of the camera. Thus a true cost of solely the camera would be around $5. Add to that wear and tear on the other gear, lenses, flashes etc - none of which is cheap and each session works out at around $20 in wear and tear alone. Then there's computer time, processing time, electricity, transport to and from the event and you're looking at a real physical cost of around $30 excluding my time. The people at the school wanted me to:

1. Spend $30 of my own money to cover their event.
2. Spend two hours of my own time doing the photography.
3. Spend a further 5-6 hours of my own time doing the photo editing.
4. Pay for a CD and put the images on a CD.
5. Relinquish my rights to the images.
6. Not use the images in the promotion of my own business.

I think the correct response to that is BITE ME!

I made it perfectly clear to them that there was a cost involved - they could either pay upfront, allow me to use the images in the promotion of my own business or they could pay royalties. I received no answer to the royalties and refusals to the other options. I dismiss that school as a bunch of crooks.

Now that was my stepson's school. I have met the Principal and the deputy Principal of that school and both come off to me as people that would sell the mothers into slavery for $5. It all started because I'd been asked to help out. Sure - I don't mind helping out but I'm not paying them for the privilege. My helping out is maybe giving a lesson on photography, a talk or some help that way. It's not doing my normal job for no money and with all costs coming to me!

I can post some of the email exchange if anybody's interested.

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Rhys,

I think the correct response to that is BITE ME!

I suggest that an appropriate response for a professional would have been:

"I'm sorry, we do not offer that service".

But perhaps photographers work differently from engineers.

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Michael Fontana]

No Doug,

all I know, photographers are not so much different in that respect, but I suppose there's a story behind, we don't know yet.

Hi, Rhys,



I suggest that an appropriate response for a professional would have been:

"I'm sorry, we do not offer that service".

But perhaps photographers work differently from engineers.

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Rhys Sage]

As I said, that was a blog entry. My blog is entirely separate and unconnected to my photography business. It's on a different site and not linked.

My actual phraseology was more along the lines of:
"Without confirmation in writing that I can use the photos for my own business promotion both online and offline then any photography will be charged at my normal rates."

Essentially, the school wanted photography and wouldn't sign a waiver allowing me to use the images in my portfolio. That was the crux of it. If I could have put the photos in my portfolio then I'd have covered their event (as a parent) but since they would not then I gave them the choice of either paying upfront or royalties. I never received a response to that. Hence, I went to a meeting of the local art league instead and ended up joining them in order to get free gallery space :d

Interestingly, the Principal who is normally out every day being visible when children are dropped off and picked up was completely out of sight today.

 

[Matt Suess]

As I said, that was a blog entry. My blog is entirely separate and unconnected to my photography business. It's on a different site and not linked.

That means that it is only slightly more difficult to make a connection between your two sites. If you are using your name on your website, and your name on the blog, and are not taking measures to prevent google from indexing your site... And I am pretty sure this forum gets indexed by google...

Perhaps the school was not comfortable with your request/demand to "use the images in the promotion of my business". They may be concerned of any possible legal situations that could arise from parents and the use of their kids photos in advertising. I am no lawyer but if you are using the kids photos for advertising, you are most likely going to need a model release signed by the kid and legal guardian. Depending on the event a release from the school could be needed too. Too much for a school to deal with.

Schools have really cracked down on security and access lately. I used to be a photojournalist and for some schools before we could go inside to photograph for a story, signed permission slips from parents needed to be obtained - a school demand, not a newspaper request. Some schools had lists of which kids could be photographed and which could not be photographed. And this is for editorial use - not advertising use like you are requesting.

Matt

 

[Rhys Sage]

To be quite honest, I was not really that interested in the school photography.

Although it's possible to make reasonable money from school photography, when you're competing against the likes of Lifetouch etc who charge $15 for a photo package deal and pay $8 per hour with no benefits to their employees, it's not possible to do it on price. Of course school boards who hire photographers buy on price alone and will rehire the same company every time unless over 50% of parents complain.

While it would have been nice to have some school photography in my portfolio, as it's not something that I think it's possible to make money from given the cheap school boards, I'm not that bothered.

 

[Gary Ayala]

I shoot schools for free all the time. I have a few friends who work at Whitney High School in Cerritos. Whitney is the #1 public school in California (by testing) ... and the kids are great. I get volunteered for many activities ... from writing, (i.e. National Merit letter of recommendations ... this year Whitney has 29 semi-finalists), ... to photography.

Some things are more important than money ... memories is one such thing. I shoot, edit and toss up some of the images on my photosite and hand the school a free CD.

Some of my WHS snaps are here:
http://garyayala.smugmug.com/Whitney High School

My daughters were and are on the swim team at Santa Margarita Catholic High School, I shoot their meets, post a few imagers and hand them a free CD as well.

swim snaps:
http://garyayala.smugmug.com/gallery/753895_LE6nP#63273898_Wm5St
http://garyayala.smugmug.com/gallery/4550293_98KVR#268137217_d3HJR

Gary

PS- I've never sold a print in my life ... but I give away memories nearly every week.
G

 

[Kathy Rappaport]

Will work and pay for the privilege

I shoot charity events that pique my interest. This year I shot for an umbrella organization and volunteered to shoot a story where about25 people worked at hte local animal shelter buliding runs for the dogs, cleaned cat cages and did hours of cleanup and restoring the shelter. By happenstance, a dog was there needing to be adopted - a Cairn Terrier. Knowing some members of a local Cairn Terrier rescue club, I made a cell call and took a few snaps - some people drove 200 miles to adopt him - based on my images. Last year I photographed a different event for another charity at a different shelter. Over 100 dogs were adopted from the sheler in one day - almost empty - plus about 25 cats got homes. My photos were used for the next years event promotions and to raise money for the charity...all benefitting the dogs. I photographed a book drive earlier this year. A school in a well off neighborhood collected kids books to re-distribute to an at-need neighborhood school where the parents don't earn enough to buy their kids books to read. More books were donated because I gave them photos.

I will do other events - people related, kid related...the payment to me is priceless.

 

[Michael Fontana]

YMMV, but the core of the situation is IMHO a mix-up between commercial and private photography.

Personally, I prefer to make clear distinctions between these. Working commercially, there's a clear idea about, how much it costs, to rent me for a day, etc

If a friend asks me for a favour, I never think about counting minutes or the cost of a CD....

Your blog just hasn't the required professional mood.

 

[Doug Kerr]

In 1969, I began doing sound production work for the Albuquerque Little Theater, a mostly-volunteer company.

The next season, the owner/producer/impresario** said he wanted to appoint me Director of Sound Production. He said, in his wonderful Jack Benny delivery, "And there's a $35.00 honorarium for the season."

I said, "Chief, there are a lot of things I will do free for a wonderful outfit like this, but nothing I will do for $1.00 per performance".

** Old time ALT hands will know who I am talking about.

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Michael Fontana]

Doug

"Old time ALT hands"

what's ALT?
alternative?

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Michael,

Doug

"Old time ALT hands"

what's ALT?

"Albuquerque Little Theater". "Old ALT hands" would know!

So the billboard days, "National Psychics' Convention. You know when, you know where".

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Nill Toulme]

I do a lot of free stuff too, including quite a bit for the schools, and 100% of what I do for the church. (See this link.) I think any profession entails a pro bono commitment.

Nill

 

[Rhys Sage]

I don't mind free (as in not paid) as long as I get something out of it. I would get nothing out of free highschool photos. It's not good advertising as 90% of the parents are already married so why would they want wedding photography? Most parents are skint due to their money mostly going on their children. The only good thing would be that places like Lifetouch would be driven out of business.

 

[Gary Ayala]

I don't mind free (as in not paid) as long as I get something out of it. I would get nothing out of free highschool photos. It's not good advertising as 90% of the parents are already married so why would they want wedding photography? Most parents are skint due to their money mostly going on their children. The only good thing would be that places like Lifetouch would be driven out of business.

Then it really isn't for "free" is it ... as you are getting remunerated in some way for your efforts. Lookup magnamious.

Gary

 

[Ken Tanaka]

I wonder if photography, "professional" or otherwise, is really your cup of tea.

 

[Michael Fontana]

Let me add a true, but wonderfull story:

as I've a at home an artwork from an artist I'm working for, someone did see it, and was touched spontaneously by it.

It ended up, that we had a appointement in the artist's studio, and someone else, let's say George - not beeing into art - I didn't knew him very well, went with us.

After beeing about an hour at the studio, George wanted to buy some artwork, but couldn't decide. Finally I pointed to a recent, rather big work and George liket it straight away, even he saw a parth of it only.

Because it was George's first time in an artists studio, he took me out for dinner, for advise.
I didn't pushed George into any direction at all; I mentioned rather that George had to live with it, to travel with it (mentally) etc.... so to take a decision about buying or not, and which one. I rather talked what art can be, or its value's in my in my live...

Still it was hard for George to imagine the rather big artwork in his appartement, which I understood. Finally I proposed: ok, I'll come and take a photo of your living room and will mount the artwork into it, so you' ll see better, how this will look like. I had taken a photo of a similar artwork from the same artist, before, so that`s been easy, a few hours...

Finally, George did buy several works from that artist, (whithout my further °assistance°) and is very happy with it. He understood as well, that this has been a very good start into a new thing: living with art, entering in that adventure (in the good sense)
Off course, I never thought about writing a bill, I just did a favour to a situation - because I somehow was in it.

About two monthes later, George unexpected called me and asked me to offer for a contract of prof. photography; it was one of the most interesting (and well paid) contracts I ever signed. Later on, the artist had a important exhibition in a museum; the graphic artist choosed George's work for poster, catalog and invitation card, so he's been even more happy.

Everbody was happy by making gifts and beeing generous; did I mentioned already that the artist had given me the artwork - at the beginning of the story - as a gift, cause he liked the way I worked with him?