Korean designer, James Kim has created picture frames that look like airline windows for framing photographs. Could this be your next hot product for your fine art business? You can purchase these at DesignBoom.
… Continue Reading
We are almost a month into 2012 and I have been pondering what I want the year to look like and which goals I will set for myself.
I have read many posts and articles from other photographers with some emphasizing that 2011 goes down as their worst year ever and I can relate to some degree. It sure was not my best!
While the economy is certainly the main reason for many, it is the changing world of professional photography that has played a large role in the downturn for many photographers.
There are others who write that this new era requires a new business model and they are right, but just what is that business model?
I am not sure myself so I have brainstormed this issue for sometime and compiled my own list of challenges and how I plan to address them.
2011 was my lowest year of shooting that I can ever recall. I need to do that for my peace of mind and to rejuvenate the artist in me, and of course, to produce images for license. But I will change my strategy when it comes to what and where I shoot.
15 years ago I had a six figure income from stock image sales and today only a fraction of that. My shooting then fit the business model of the times: production! I traveled and shot the Lower 48 three times in 15 years and added adventure and recreational sports into the mix as well. … Continue Reading
Talk-A-Phone Co. needs quality photography of our products in the field. We manufacture the emergency phone towers and wall mounts that can be found on thousands of college campuses, hospitals, and parking structures. We need someone local to the Newberg, Oregon area with a good camera (over 10MP).
We need them to travel to George Fox University and take 20-30 photographs of a few of our units. Good work will make us consider you for more work in the future. We require no post work, just the photographs (we will do post work). We expect this job to take 45min-1hour of your time.
We are offering $50 for this first job (very easy work) and possibly more if we choose to use you for more work in the future. Please reply to us via email and we will go over more details.
eBay Classifieds – 17 hours ago – save job -
When good photographers require expensive equipment to create ‘quality images’ as this posting requires, insurance, gas to get there, and enough money to ‘have a life’, assignments like this wont get you there nor keep you in business. When clients ask me for ‘quality images’ then that includes lighting gear and the tools to create quality indoor images in locations that often have poor lighting, I light the product and create a quality image. 20-30 shots would take all day!
During 32 years in the business shooting exactly this type of assignment and on occasion being promised more work if I did this first assignment on the cheap, I can only recall getting all the gravy stuff once. Most of these offers never happened and it was not because I provided inferior work since the images I shot were all published and on some occasions, published widely. It is a ruse to get things cheap by making a beginning or hungry photographer ‘hope’ for more.
I think I will call United Airlines and offer $50 for a flight to Maui (it’s freezing here) and promise them I will fly United again.
Would you accept this assignment? … Continue Reading
For nature photographers who compete in the business of licensing stock photos, the question should be asked regularly: “what should I be shooting?”
With more photographers than ever competing and the markets saturated with nature imagery, photographers should be researching the markets to assist in determining what subjects will have a fighting chance in those markets.
I ask myself this very question when I plan each year for the locations and subjects I think will succeed in the markets.
While I answered this question I also wonder just what subjects and locations I should not shoot and the easiest way was to search various websites and evaluate the results.
So, I randomly selected 5 locations that I have seen widely published and regularly online when I look at others websites. These locations are: … Continue Reading
There is always some worthy reading on aPhotoeditor by Rob Haggart, former photo editor at Outside and Men’s Journal. Here is a post about working for magazines and their contracts. If you are in the magazine assignment business, or interested in working for magazines, this is very informative.
Have you ever had a client buy something from you and then not pay? If you have not then you are very lucky.
I got a call a two years ago from a small ‘one-person’ calendar publishing company who had seen my work around and needed some pictures for next years calendar. We talked briefly about what he needed and he threw out some names of other photographers he had worked with, names I knew.
I sent him thumbnails and he picked two shots for the calendar and we settled on price.
I next sent him the two high resolution versions by ftp and followed two days later with an invoice.
A year and a half later I FINALLY got paid. Was I stupid by trusting a total stranger? Yep! These situations make me want to quit trusting the client and instead ask them to trust me. So I’ve changed my strategy, demanding as much as I can to get paid up front and here is how I handle it now. … Continue Reading
If you are an assignment photographer, you know how assignment rates are getting pummeled. It’s a buyers market!
*Rob Haggart of aPhotoeditor.com, has taken an interesting look at the trend of photographers working essentially as Camera Operators and at rates lower than minimum wage. In Wanted: Camera Operators, Rob discusses the trend of low ball pricing and how to really achieve success in photography: building relationships.
*Do you ever wonder just how you should develop your portfolio? Zack Arias has posted an in-depth analysis on Editing Your Portfolio and how he goes about doing just that. A must read!
*Paul Melcher, who is always a joy to read, writes in this post: For A Buck Or Two, about the ‘pauperization’ of photography and how technology has forever changed the business of photography.
Have a great weekend!
Today is Labor Day. A holiday instituted in the late 1800’s to honor the contributions of the American labor workforce. In fact, my home state of Oregon was the first to make it an official holiday in 1887 and 7 years later it became a Federal holiday.
The original federal holiday was not conceived to honor workers but rather was quickly proposed and passed into law to avoid conflict with workers following the Pullman Strike.
Today it is observed as a day off from work, a three day weekend, and the last blast of summer in many areas. In my neck of the woods, school starts tomorrow. Although the original holiday was created to avoid conflict, Labor Day has become the official day we honor the labor force; American workers.
Today on this Labor Day, I wish to honor my colleagues: the professional nature photographer and their contributions to America and the World. … Continue Reading
Many amateur photographers dream of being a professional and making their passion for photography pay enough to live that dream.
It’s the allure of traveling, exploring, and photographing the landscape, wilderness areas, and far off travel destinations that drives many to take what they love to do part time and turn it into a full time business.
Pros and amateurs have the same passion: to be out there exploring, experiencing, discovering, and documenting with a camera.
It is the idea that being paid doing what you love to do will allow even more photographic opportunities, including travel to exotic places and that in turn will earn enough money to fuel the same cycle.
In reality, that idea, that dream, may be more of an illusion. Going pro brings a whole new set of challenges and hurdles.
Dreams are free, reality has costs. … Continue Reading
As more photographers look at jumping into the video business to supplement their creative energy and their photography income, new and unforeseen challenges have occurred for a few.
In the business there is a difference on how photographers price assignments and how videographers price a production. Over a Rob Haggert’s aPhotoeditor blog, a reader asked that questions: “Is it a director’s fee or do we tag a usage fee? According to the agency, when they hire a Director for a broadcast commercial; he/she will get paid a director’s fee and the client will own the commercial outright.”
Former art buyers Amanda Sosa Stone and Susan Sease jumped into to answer the question and it was educational to read their input on all the intricacies of commercial video production. “Videos shot for broadcast vs. videos shot for non-broadcast purposes require adherence to different rules and regulations. Either way, hire the appropriate motion producer to help you navigate through this complexity.”
It is not so simple a process as taking pictures and getting paid. Their are agent fees, directors fees, and union rules as well. If you are thinking of entering commercial video production then this is a worthy read.
