I suppose it might be a difference in philosophy. I see no point in mincing words or beating around the bush. Time wasting – and I don’t have much time. If you disagree, take it or leave it and get a second opinion.

Perhaps its why I get along well with clients in nyc. Less BSing, just lets get to where we want to go.

Funny how some people love it, others hate it. Oh well. :)

I have several photos plus VCR footage of a very unique, one of a kind phenomenon.
With extensive researching of the internet, photos of this nature cannot be found on the internet nor has this exciting discovery ever been seen or heard of by experts in their field. This includes experts at the Smithsonian Institute amongst others.

It would be nice to be compensated for many months of work to get these photos.
There are at least three magazines in the field of birds that I feel would be more than happy to publish these photos and a short article.

So, how do I find an agent that will protect me in dealing with them.

Just a barrage of strongly held opinions with the volume set to max.

I might explian to you how some place a value on sensitivity ….but that might distract you from sitting back and admiring ‘dem apples’ you are so fond of.

:)

You sound very sensitive. Do you handle criticism well? Or do you always want it to be put in gentle terms?

I’m a big believer in the 99/1 rule in the creative fields — for every sheep herder there are at least a hundred sheep.

My only thought was that I don’t see there ever being a need for rudeness. Thanks for illustrating the point though.

I’m sure reps don’t like being blanked by art buyers and agencies any more than photographers like it from reps.

I think you underestimate the ego of many young photographers.

Let’s get one thing straight here. If we’re approaching reps I would assume one would have carefully assessed their work and have come to the conclusion that it is good enough to play on a national and international level. By this point, we have seen just about everything this business can throw at us. All I want when I approach a rep is to get a quick and concise response as to whether this conversation is worth pursuing. Just as they feel their time is valuable so is ours.

Nonsense. Honesty is good. If your work sucks, you should know that it sucks.

You have two options at that point:

a. Give up.

b. Get better. Then have yourself a “how about DEM APPLES!” moment.

I was there once. I went with choice B.

…Nobody ‘has to’ be rude.

And Carlo has a point, who can argue with a few templates to deal with those answers too: “I’m sorry I just don’t have time to open dialog or offer feedback” or even ‘please feel free to email me again, if you have a new body of work’ but definitely not within the next twelve months as I won’t be able to reply and don’t want to cause offence’.

If you are too lazy to run a solid business why would you expect some “rep” to want to sell you?

Also why would any photographer that can run their own business really want a rep? There are few good reps out there. Just look at their sites. I think most reps would get an instant upgrade if they had sites that at min were like Livebooks or A Photo Folio.

Also most reps have artists with a similar look and rep way too many photographers.

Unless a rep has killer contacts and is business minded save your time and money and get a fresh college grad or intern and have them make sales calls. But then again you have to have your business set up like a business in the first place so a intern can perform properly and the majority of photographers can make pretty pictures but have no clue how to run a business.