“However, under the circumstances of freelancing, Work for Hire becomes less of a reasonable deal and more of a cynical way for companies to manage overhead at the expense of the people who provide the component pieces for the product that they sell.  Unlike employees, freelancers must provide their own equipment, insurance, and retirement.  Sick days and vacations become an expense along with things that are easy to take for granted like office space, transportation, utilities, etc.  In short, Work for Hire wants to treat you like an employee without incurring the hidden costs of having you as one.”

Matt Slaby via Luceo Images.

I have just started reading Luceo Images Blog posts. This extract comes from a section called Legal Left, Meet Creative Right, written by Matt Slaby. I have never read such a good account of Work-for-Hire and what it really means to the freelancing photographer.

If you are a freelancer and you have encountered WFH agreements (who hasn’t?), then I encourage you to read this thought provoking post.

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That statement might sound pretty stupid, but I know there are readers out there that can relate. After all, how many positions for photographers have you seen advertised in newspapers or online?

Exactly.

For some time it really did remain a mystery to me. Photography – professional photography – was like a black box. Closed and out of reach.

With time though, that changed. I read, talked with other working photographers, thought about my target markets and began going about getting work. I still do it to this day and given my client list is growing, I figure I must be doing something right.

I recently read a post by a person wanting to get into photography asking how one goes about finding editors and pitching story ideas for potential publication. This post was on a moderated forum of working photographers and it sank like an anchor.

No one responded and that didn’t surprise me.

You see the thing is this – it takes time and effort to connect with editors and to develop working relationships. I really believe that the post in question went unanswered because as a photographer wanting to break into a market, there are some things you need to figure out for yourself and how to find magazines and editors is one of them.

If this is you, then remember this: it doesn’t matter how you do it, as long as you find a way that works for you and which gets you connected with the right people at the right publication.

You have to back yourself, learn from your mistakes and enjoy the wins.

No one can do that for you.

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1. If an image is on the Internet, then it is in the public domain and I don’t require the photographer’s permission to use it?

2. The photo you want to use doesn’t contain a copyright notice, so it is okay to take a copy of it from the web site?

3. You are not going to profit from the usage, so it is A-okay to use the photo in question?

4. You found this great photo online and are going to use it as a base for a graphic, which you will use as a new logo on your web site. Because you are altering it so much, you don’t need to pay the photographer?

5. You stumbled across a photographers’ online stock archive and you can download low-res photos for free! Surely it must be okay to use them if the photographer lets you do that?

1. False.

Do I really need to explain why this is false? Just because it is on the Internet does not make it available for free usage. And that is all I am going to say on this one.

2. False.

Photographers are not required to have a copyright notice on an image for it to be copyrighted. In fact, if you ever find an image that you want to use for personal or business, you should always assume it is copyrighted, contact the photographer and pay for a license to use it.

3. False.

Just because you aren’t going to make any money doesn’t give you the right to use an image created by a photographer without their permission. Far from it.

4. False.

5. False.

The reason the photographer is providing low-res downloads is so you can view an image for review purposes. This doesn’t give you the right to use the photo in any way.

For more information on copyright, get the Getty Images Copyright 101 PDF.

Lesson number 5 – If you expect the phone to ring, then people need to know that you exist

A couple of weeks after finishing photography school in November 2005, I boarded a plane with my wife-to-be, bound for the Maldives. In terms of photography and work, I had no idea what lay ahead for me work wise in the Maldives.

What I did know was this – I needed a web site and a I needed to get my name out there.

Getting a web site was easy enough. I was bootstrapping, so I took a canned, off the shelf product. So now I had a web site, only problem was, I didn’t really have any content! I went out and cobbled together some content – not as easy as you might think given how hard it is to actually get around to the other islands in the Maldives.

Lastly, I found some larger photography sites where you can list your business profile.

And then I waited.

Two weeks later, I received an email from a potential client asking if I was available for a four day assignment down in the southern atolls of the Maldives.

Now I will be the first to admit, there was more going on here than just being listed in a major photography directory. At the time, to the best of my knowledge, I was the only western working photographer living in Male’, the capital of the Maldives. While this is a case of the right time, right place, it is also a lesson in getting your name out there as best you can when first starting out, because you just never know who might call you.

Today my marketing approach is a little bit more sophisticated than what it was back in 2005, which is a good thing.

Don’t expect to knock up a web site, list yourself in some directories and live happily ever after. Far from it. Today, photographers everywhere are becoming more and more astute with marketing their businesses.

One of the key prongs of your marketing approach has to be Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) of your web site. If you are not convinced, then you should read this article about stock photographer Randy Santos and how he generates 20-30 work inquiries a week thanks to Google.

There are plenty of resources for photographers wishing to learn more about marketing. Two of my favourite books on the subject are:

All Marketers Are Liars, by Seth Godin

This isn’t specific to photographers – rather it is marketing in the new age. (If you haven’t read any of Seth’s work, then get over to his blog and get ready to think)

Successful Self-Promotion for Photographers, by Elyse Weissberg

Though this book is a bit dated, the content is quite timeless. If you were to buy only one book on this subject, then I would thoroughly recommend this one. It is specific to photographers and has great chapters on creating your portfolio; meeting with potential creatives (Photo Editors; Creative Directors) etc..

On the web there are numerous sites with marketing related information for photographers. One of my regular reads is a site called Burns Auto Parts Consultants. Run by Leslie Burns-Dell’Acqua, this site has some great content, including a number of free, short white papers. If you are into the podcast thing, make sure you subscribe to her podcast feed.

Whatever you choose to do when starting out, do this: sit down and think about the purpose of your marketing strategy. Sure it might be tempting to bang out some tweets on Twitter or update your Facebook page or even start up a blog, but unless these are part of your marketing strategy, you are probably wasting your time.

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Lesson Number 4 – Learn the Value of Your Work

Or put another way, don’t give away imagery or your photographic services for free.

A couple of months back in the blogosphere, a storm rolled in about the whole ‘free photography’ debate. It started innocently enough with this post by David Hobby at the Strobist - Four Reasons to Consider Working for Free. Then uber photographer, Chase Jarvis chimed in with this post - Will Work for Free? Lastly, Photo Business News & Forum chimed in with this post - Working for Free. All these posts provide a variety of view points complete with counter arguments and are worth a read if you are unclear on where you stand with ‘free’.

I learnt this lesson the hard way, and I learnt it early on. Yes, I allowed an organisation – which wasn’t short on money – to use a number of my images to help promote their product and service. In exchange I was suppose to receive a photo credit.

A photo credit!

It is unbelievable to read that all these years on. A photo credit!

The crux of the matter is this: if an organisation comes to you asking for free usage of your work, then it is for a very good reason.

Your work has value. And the organsation wants to use your work to boost the value of their product or service.

Make NO mistake about this. At some level, the organisation in question is looking to take advantage of your hard earned work, by using your imagery in promoting their product or service.

So what do you do when the organisation in question says ‘we don’t have any money to pay you?’

That’s easy. You understand the value of your work and how it will benefit the organisation. And because of this, you say:

‘No, you cannot use my imagery for free. I am a working photographer and I understand the value my imagery brings to your requirements. If you wish to use my imagery, then you will need to license my imagery accordingly’.

If no money is forthcoming, you simply walk away.

Yes, this is a lesson about learning the value of your work and sometimes you will have to remind people about the value of your work by saying ‘no’ to requests to use it for free. Remember, what I am talking about here is an organisation approaching you and specifically asking to use your imagery for free.

It is okay to say ‘no’ sometimes and to stand up for your work and your business. If you don’t do it, no one else will. That’s just how business works.

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This is a direct quote from a blog post over at Seth Godin’s site titled: Should this be about school or about learning?

Let’s take this quote and replace ‘learning’ with the word ‘photography’.

School was the big thing for a long time. School is tests and credits and notetaking and meeting standards. Photography, on the other hand, is ‘getting it’. It’s the conceptual breakthrough that permits the student to understand it then move on to something else. Photography doesn’t care about workbooks or long checklists.

When I was studying photography at college, all every one seemed to worry about was getting good grades for their subjects. The rationale being that if you produced good photography, then you would receive a good grade as a result.

The problem though is this: some times as a student you can play it safe, meet the requirements of the brief and still get a good grade.

This is a problem because a big part of studying photography should be taking risks and trying new techniques and new ways of shooting things. Photography courses are the ideal place to do this, because there is no client that you are producing the work for. It is essentially risk free.

Getting great marks is one thing. Experimenting, making mistakes and learning more about photography and technique is something else. It is the ‘getting it’ part of the quote above.

While passing your subjects is important, remember that no client will ever ask for your report card.

A client will ask you for your portfolio.

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Lesson number 3 – The gift of rejection.

This post follows on directly from Lesson 2 – Closing the creative gap, in which I had my first application to Aurora Photos rejected.

No one likes being rejected. It is just one of those things that most people would rather live without. As photographers, it can be especially hard, particularly when you are starting out.

There is nothing quite like putting together a body of work, sending it off to some potential client and either:

1. Not hearing anything back. Or
2. Receiving an email (lucky you!), with a ‘thanks, but not thanks’ response.

I have experienced two main types of rejection with photography.

The first relates to the quality of imagery you are producing and the fact that your imagery isn’t up to the standard for the publication / agency / insert photo buyer name here (my previous post about my first application to Aurora Photos was a good example of this). In this instance, your aim is to take the rejection and learn from it.

Your strength as a photographer doesn’t come from working on your strengths. It comes from working on your weaknesses.

If you can accept the rejection and look at it objectively, you will probably find that yes, you do need to work on the style and quality of imagery you produce. The crux is getting to this point and then doing something about it.

Looking at rejection in this way does two things.

Firstly, it takes something that is negative and turns it into a learning opportunity. Secondly, it should serve to help improve some aspect of your photography, which will ultimately make you a better photographer (remember: working on your weaknesses will make you a stronger photographer).

The second type of rejection that I have experienced is more about bad timing, than anything else.

Earlier this year I put together a tight pitch for Islands Magazine, a publication that I would like to work for. I included a one-page letter with a short, snappy pitch about my proposed article, along with 6-low resolution photos to help sell the overall package.

I received a response from the Photo Editor within a couple of days – a great response by any standard, given how much e-mail everyone gets these days. The response was positive and upbeat, but unfortunately for me, Islands Magazine wasn’t go to go with my proposal.

Why?

They have a 6-month to 1-year lead-time on stories and they had already scheduled a story on the Maldives into their schedule for the coming year. For a magazine that is only produced 6-times per year, you are not going to see two-feature length articles published on the Maldives. Despite this, the PE gave me permission to keep her updated of new work on my web site and to keep pitching stories that I thought might be suited to Islands Magazine.

If your pitch isn’t accepted, this is the outcome you want – permission to market and stay on the radar of the photo buyer.

Lastly, if you are starting out in photography, don’t take rejection personally. Instead, learn from it and become a better photographer.

While I realise I am pretty late to the party, I actually sat down and watched ‘Transform’ yesterday. And boy, I’m glad I did.

‘Transform’ reminds me of two other pieces I’ve read this year.

First up is ‘How to be Creative’ by Hugh MacLeod over at the Change This web site. With over a million downloads, this manifesto has since been turned into a book titled ‘Ignore Everybody‘. How to be Creative has been one of the most important things I have read in a number of years. I am yet to get my hands on Ignore Everybody.

The second one is by Doug Menuez. Titled ‘On Chaos, Fear, Survival & Luck: Longevity is the Answer‘. Like Arias and MacLeod’s work, Menuez reflects on the creative challenges of being a photographer and what it all might mean.

If you are looking for some inspired and thought provoking reading in relation to being creative, then any of these three items are as good a place as any to start.

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What have you read about creativity that has really turned your head? Please add your recommendations to the comments section.

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Lesson number 2 – Close the creative gap

When you see an image and you think to yourself ‘I wish I knew how to produce an image like that’, you have a large creative gap.

In my mind, you should always be closing the creative gap.

This means that the image that you visualise in your mind, you can actually go out and create. If you can’t, then you have a large creative gap. If you can – and this is where you want to be – then you have a small creative gap.

I learnt the lesson about my creative gap the hard way back in 2005.

While I was happily living and breathing photography 6-days a week at the college I went to in Christchurch, I came across a call for submissions for the newly launched ‘Outdoor Collection’ with Aurora Photos. Aurora was looking for stylish and unique outdoor imagery for its’ newly launched Outdoor Collection. I reviewed some of the imagery on the site; reviewed some of the imagery I had been producing and convinced I would get in on the ground floor, sent off a submission.

A number of weeks passed. Then one day an email popped into my inbox from no other, than Jose Azel, one of the founders of Aurora Photos.

The email was a page long and it was a rejection email (more about rejection in my next ‘Starting out in photography’ post).

What made it different though, was the fact that Jose had taken the time to actually give me some pointers as to why my submission had been rejected. One line in particular has always stuck with me:

“Our jobs as photographers is to show the world to people in a different way”.

While I didn’t realise it at the time – I was pretty bummed about not being accepted – I would go on to learn just how valuable a piece of advice that was. To this day, I still remind myself of this sentence when I am out shooting.

The underlying problem of course, was that my creative gap between what I saw in the Outdoor Collection and what I was producing was a world apart. Yet I couldn’t see it.

One of the reasons I couldn’t see it, is because as a photographer starting out, I was not very objective about my work. And like most photographers, I was a terrible editor of my work (that has since changed, but editing your own work is still a talent in itself).

While this is a lesson about closing the creative gap, it is also a lesson about learning to be objective about your work.

If you are starting out and you are putting together a submission for an agency or even your own portfolio, seek some feedback from your peers.

They will be able to look at your work and give you good, honest and (hopefully), objective feedback.

[Three years later I signed with Aurora Photos to represent my work in their stock collection. If this isn't proof that you can close the creative gap, then I don't know what is].

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