Now we're ready

Ok, now it's time for a new topic. This one's been irking me for a bit now, and it's one of the reasons I wanted to restart with the blogging.

As a freelance photographer, I'm always looking for as many ways as I can to try to get work. Websites, word of mouth, selling prints, whatever. The next job is always on my mind. So I heard about a website where freelancers (not just photographers, but all kinds of careers) can sign up for notifications of jobs, and people looking can post what they need and get bids from the people interested. So every day or two, I get an e-mail where a photographer (or videographer, or editor, or photoshop master) is needed for a job. If I'm interested, I'll put in a bid and see if I win.

The one problem I've had with this set up is that people don't know what their jobs are worth. They want to hire a photographer to come do some shoot, and then they want all the rights and all the copies, and oh, yeah, you have to sign a non-disclosure (that one was new today). Now not all of the jobs are written up like that. I've taken bits and pieces from different ones from the past. But they generally all read the same. Oh, and the "budgets" are tiny. One recently was asking for a photoshop master to re-process some wedding images. That is not only stepping on the original photographer's toes, it's illegal. I wanted to write a scathing letter to this person telling them what for. But I didn't.

Let me be clear here. I know that sometimes budgets are tight. I know operations are small and want to save money. I know that people may not know how the pricing works. So here's my two cents.

You are rarely going to get a photographer who releases their copyrights on any images. Not without a lot, and I mean a LOT of compensation. That's our bread and butter. Depending on the job (specific products, name or brand recognition, people) I can take those images and use them as stock. Which means I can make money with any image I create, even after you're done with it. Even for events like weddings, I have a contract that has a clause allowing me to use the images as I see fit afterwords.

I'm not going to drag this out complaining about every little thing people request through this service. But I will say that if you're going to hire someone to do work for you, learn the pricing, structure and rules/laws governing that career. Be sure to be aware of how things work before you ask for some outrageous, potentially career ending request. And don't take for granted just how much a professional is worth, both in talent and in compensation.