Quote:
Originally Posted by BenBirchall
Doing free work... Hmmm. Depends how you look at it. Doing free favors is ok, but free work, no. I used to do odd jobs for my local rag as favors, but they'd keep me stocked up with free film. Soon after that I was charging for images used. Getting your name known is a matter of doing jobs in the local area. However, you won't be very popular with the other snappers in the area if you do jobs for free.
|
I agree! Doing a job as a favour that you are going to get something non-monetary out of isn't necessarily working for free.
I recently gave some shots to eventingworldwide for their site. I didn't get any money for them but they got me into Blair Castle horse trials that I was going to with my wife anyway (free entry) and plugged my website. On the back of this I earned so much more money off the shots because my audience was suddenly so much bigger.
When I first started doing news/sport stuff, I needed experience so I contacted my local newspaper photographer and asked him if I could do some stuff with him and he got me along to a couple of football games and a remembrance day ceremony. Some of my shots were in the newspaper, but the most important part was that I got pictures for a portfolio and introduced to a couple of guys who gave me contacts. That in itself was payment enough.
Bob