Will Robb Photography

Most countries enforce a minimum wage and basic standards for workers, but when it comes to photography, none of the normal rules seem to apply. Photography is one of the few industries where people are asked to work for a pittance and even sometimes for free.

In the last week I’ve been busy. I’ve had about 7 job offers come in, some media, some private clients and some events that need covered. Out of those 7, only 4 were offering up cash. Sometimes people can be nice about it and be very up front about it, they write saying “I’m really really sorry, we are a small new publication and we really don’t have a budget, but we would really like to use your photos. If you don’t want to to, I completely understand.” People like this I don’t mind so much, honesty goes a long way for me. I’m not likely to work for them, but I will send an email back and say that I would like to help out, but I won’t work for free as it sets the bar low for other photographers, but if their fortunes improve as it were, please get in contact. You never know, no point on being rude to people who have been polite to you. I’ve had cases of this happening in the past, I’ve politely refused, but then the editor moves on and goes somewhere with a decent budget and they get in contact in the future and I will sell some work on to them.

Then there are the people who aren’t so polite. Lately I’ve had a few good examples. Last week I got an email in the mid afternoon simply saying “Hi, we are organizing a really cool event in Tokyo tonight and want to know if you would be available to cover the event for us as an event photographer.” I just knew that the lack of details and the fact they were telling me it was a “cool event” rather than go into any specifics meant it wouldn’t be much of an event and they were probably just wanting a photographer along to make it look like they were important. You never know though, so I emailed them back, asked for some details and told them what my hourly rate would be and if that would be fine for them? I got an email back straight away saying “We can’t pay you, but you can use the photos for your portfolio this time. If you do this and make a good job of it, for future events we will get a budget together and pay you.” I really really hate it when people tell me “you can use the photos for your portfolio.” Like they are doing me a favour by letting me devote my time and money to doing them a service for free. Don’t think so. Promises of future payment in return for a freebie never come true. When I was starting out I was suckered into those type of jobs for some magazines, but their promises never came true. If I provided one set of free pics, next time they were in contact it was a different version of the same story again. “Things aren’t going so well at the magazine as a sponsor has pulled out, so we can’t make a budget for you this time, but next time we should be able to give you something.” Don’t think so. Once bitten twice shy.

In these situations, when someone wants something cheap or free I just say no. If I am trying to find a story on something interesting I don’t mind putting in the leg work to get photos and then try to sell them on, but when someone asks me to do something for them, I need to get paid. I don’t think there is anything wrong with that, I wouldn’t go to a restaurant and announce “I don’t have a budget to eat here today, but if you give me a free meal and it’s really good quality, I will tell lots of people and they will come, so actually it will help you by feeding me for free.” Yet many people seem to think it’s fine to ask a photographer to do it.

Recently I had a lifestyle website that is just starting up in Tokyo ask me to do some photos. They were honest and said they didn’t know how much they should pay photographers and asked me what I would charge to go and photograph somewhere and what I would charge for a stock image I already had. I told them my rates and explained that this would cover my travel, my editing time and the cost of a single use image. My quote was obviously too high for them, they wrote back saying they had photographers quote less, they preferred my photos and if I would work for a lower rate they would use me. I just wrote back saying I had already given them a more than reasonable quote, to work for the rate they were wanting was actually pretty insulting and if someone was willing to work for that, they weren’t likely to be providing a good service. A month later I saw their site and it looked awful. I wrote back to them saying their photos weren’t really looking good, they were kind of amateurish and it gave a cheap impression to their site. They agreed and hired me at my original rate. If I had agreed to their first offer I would have done a dis-service to myself and other photographers. Sometimes you just have to say no” to get the deal you deserve.

I saw this video clip on photoeditors blog which is about how photographers are getting shafted by the media industry. It’s funny, but at the same time it’s a pretty damn realistic take on how the industry is.