Sunday, January 20, 2019

The Question Photographers Hate


I saw this photo the other day and made me think it would be a good topic for a blog.  I’m not sure about other professions but I know as a photographer I have had this question asked of me.  “Would I work for free for a business only getting Exposure as payment”

I love doing work for people and business that support me in one way or another, but being asked to work for free right off the bat is not something we like to hear.  I know from my point of view I have to pay to put gas in my vehicle, wear on my tires, motor, oil, adding mileage to my vehicle to go do work for someone that doesn’t want to pay and 99% of the time their going to take your exposure work and make money off of you.

When I make a eye appointment (which i did 2 weeks ago) I didn’t ask them to do the work without paying or telling them I would give them “exposure” I know their a business and businesses need money in order to stay in business.

The next time you inquire a photographer/videographer if they will work for exposure, please remember we have bills to pay too. Yes we want more work, but exposure doesn’t pay the bills and we don’t know if we will get work from the exposure.

I turned down a job this year that they wanted to pay me exposure, I did the math on all they wanted for the year and it was $5300 worth of work that they didn’t want to pay for.  I communicated to them I didn’t feel I would gain that much work from doing “exposure work for them” so I turned it down.

Something to think about when approaching someone to do work for you and you want them to gain exposure.

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