The value of thank you notes – hand written ones – should not be under-estimated. You’ve spent a great deal of effort cultivating that great client of yours, one you’ve wanted to work with for so long, and they’ve finally entrusted you with your first assignment. After you’ve delivered the images, and the invoice, what’s … Read more
It has come to my attention that some readers would rather I not post items about how bad spec is, or what Getty/et al are doing to damage the business, and that, somehow, I should just ignore it, and instead, just do pieces about how we can improve our own businesses.Not gonna happen. But….What I … Read more
One of the challenges of being self-employed, and especially as a photographer, is the presumption of how our time is spent. Few, if any, photographers know how their day is spent. We can all say, with near certainty, that it’s not spent shooting every moment of every day. I would go so far as to … Read more
It seems that my post “From the ‘Are You Kidding Me?’ Department” (October 15, 2007) has engaged a great many photographers in the debate over at Sportsshooter, with 75+ people going back and forth on the subject in this and this message series.Many of the folks who were writing on the subject opposing speculative photography … Read more
Allowing Spec photographers to clutter the sidelines is not the same as allowing the AP, Reuters, AFP, Gannett, Knight-Ridder/McClatchy to be there. Each shooting position is, and should be considered, an asset by the leagues and maximized. If you have speculative photographers taking positions that could be better monetized by the team to greater coverage … Read more
A common practice in business is to carry liability insurance. I certainly carry a $2m policy in the event that an incident takes place on an assignment and I am sued to determine liability. Every time there is a major event at the US Capitol, they require me and all other press organizations to provide … Read more
There is a continuum of those needing credentials to cover sports and news events, they are:Employees of media outlets on assignment – these are actual employees of the company being paid their normal salary to cover the assignment.Retained Contractors of media outlets on assignment – these are contractors who regularly serve the company, and the … Read more
“… I don´t have to do the assignment if I don´t want or don´t need to….” “…I never thought of sticking with them in the long term, really…I´m already in the changing process, since I need to shift my focus to more reliable assignments/clients. Time to grow up…”Gone are the days where your ability to … Read more
The frequent defense of spec photographers’ actions is the “intangibles” defense. Some sentiments that might be being expressed could be – “I can get more work if I can just show that I can shoot well in the big leagues”, or, it was actually said that ” For me it’s a great trade off and … Read more
Simply put – aside from storage and server space, and a phone call/e-mail, there is little effort required to procure images from a free source. Yes, after the assignment, there may be an edit done of the work, and a rating of the photographer’s overall ability – relevant to potential future assignments. But spec agencies … Read more
