WHY YOU SHOULDN’T GIVE YOUR WORK AWAY FOR FREE!

For this weeks blog, I will be giving you my opinion on that age old question in photography “should photographers work for free?”
Well, in my opinion, of course you shouldn’t. Why would you? And if you do, make sure that it leads to an opportunity where you will get paid in the future, and I’m not talking about the promise of it. The old “if you do this for free, I’m sure it will lead to other opportunities in the future” line.

Before I start, I’m going to admit that I’ve fallen foul of some of this myself, and its hard not to be flattered when a company comes knocking. I was just happy having people like my images, and enjoyed taking them. That is still the case and always will be, but why shouldn’t we all get paid for our talents? I mean, look at what we as photographers do and pay for to get to a position where we can sell our photography. I’m sure you can all relate to these.

Let’s start with the obvious one, YOUR camera. Now, cameras can vary in value, but on average at the time of writing a new DSLR or mirrorless camera will set you back anywhere between £1,000 - £5,000 (look at the new canon, ouch), and you haven’t even put any lenses on it yet! Lets just say, another 2 lenses at £2000 (for the pair), filters, camera bag, tripod etc etc etc…… Before you know it, you’re lugging around thousands and thousands of pounds worth of equipment around in your very expensive, and over priced camera bag. You then add things you don’t even think about on top of that, like petrol getting you to and from locations, laptops, editing packages, insurance…..

You get the idea, right?

This leads me on to my next topic. Its not just the money, its your time which some would argue outweighs the money. I’m not simply talking about the shoot itself. I’m talking about the time it takes to travel to locations and more importantly, the time it has taken you to get to the standard that you are at!! That is the most important thing. Whether you have studied for years at university, or like me, have spent hours and hours reading books and magazines. I’ve probably spent years watching YouTube, and the untold amount of time spent in the field learning and making mistakes. I still do, we all do. But, at the end of the day you have learn’t a skill that is hard to do WELL.

So, to sum it up. You’ve spend thousands of pounds on equipment. You’ve spent years and years on honing your talent. You’ve spent days scouting and researching where the sun will rise, or where the milkyway will be. The countless cold and wet mornings where you were unsuccessful. The thousands of pounds on equipment and hundreds of pounds on petrol. So why would you then give your work away for FREE, to a company for THEM to profit from it?

The problem we have as photographers, is EVERYONE is a photographer. EVERYONE. I bet you have a camera on you right now, either next to you or in your pocket, right? Its seen as such a throw away thing to be able to do, everyone can do it……….. But I think we all know the answer to that.

Would you walk into a tattoo parlour and ask the artist to tattoo you for free, if you tag them on Instagram? Of course you wouldn’t.

Would you ask a painter to give you his art for free? “You’ll get loads of likes, Sir”. Errrrrmmmm, no.

To me, and this is just my opinion, there is absolutely no difference whatsoever. Do you get that stunning shot the first time? Absolutely not, unless you’re extremely lucky. Do the best photographers in the world, Nick Page, Nigel Danson, Thomas Heaton, Simon Baxter, Charlie Waite etc etc get the right conditions EVERY time they shoot? No, they go back to a location over and over again. Which leads me back to time and money. That’s what people don’t see, and that’s why YOU SHOULDN’T GIVE YOUR WORK AWAY FOR FREE.

The amount of times I hear “god, you must have a good camera to take those pictures”. Do not devalue yourself and the art that you create. Just remember, your oven doesn’t make good pies, you do. Its the same for photography and your camera.

Don’t be afraid to put a price on your talent, your effort and your time. Everyone else does…