What not to say to a Photographer
- Yes you're invited to the wedding! Can you bring your camera and take a few quickie snaps?
- Why don't you try this angle?
- Can my daughter/son shadow you for a few days? They want to learn what you know.
Well, of course, these are pretty innocent-sounding until you dig into them a little and you see how incendiary that they actually are.
First off, we don't do 'snaps'. My cowboy shirt does though :-). Seriously, this makes what we do sound absolutely trivial. Few are aware of just how much time and money it costs to do well in the commercial field.
- Rent
- Insurance
- Cell phone
- Internet access
- Computer costs
- Archiving costs
- Software
- Subscription costs
- Vehicles
- Accounting/Legal costs
- Advertising
- Repairs to equipment
- Taxes and licensing
- Continuing education
Quite a list isn't it?
So to have someone want you to do something like 'snaps' because they don't want to pay a photographer to cover their wedding or event is pretty insulting. Likewise to have someone tell you how to take and from where to compose a photo is also crapping on our craft. And having someone leech off you in hopes that you'll reveal the holy grail to you on how to basically 'take your job' is not anything we need to be ok with
There's never a really good response to questions like these. Those where folks want you to do something for free. Just smiling and looking stupid generally works for me
~Chuck St John - July 28, 2021
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