David Burnett talks about “The Stringer” and what he saw in Trang Bang when Nick Ut took the famous “Napalm Girl” image

For those who haven’t been following the major rift in the world of photojournalism a quick summary of what is going on: A film called “The Stringer” directed by Bao Nguyen (previously directed The Greatest Night In Pop) and produced/starring Gary Knight (VII Agency co-founder and ED) premiered at The Sundance Film Festival on January 25 claiming and attempting to prove that 53 years ago Nguyễn Thành Nghệ actually took “The Terror of War”  (AKA Napalm Girl) image and not Nick Ut. AP photo editor Carl Robinson claims his boss, Horst Fass, told him to switch the credit from Nguyễn, a stringer, to Nick, an AP photographer. The filmmakers find Nguyễn, and he says, yes, he took the picture.

Prior to the film’s premiere, the AP released a preliminary report disputing the claims of the film. At the premiere, the AP watched the film and followed up (May 16) with a 100-page report saying that there’s not enough evidence to remove Nick Ut’s credit.

Then, on May 16, World Press Photo released a statement saying they investigated (David disputes the characterization that they investigated and rather they simply got a private screening of the film and agreed with the conclusion) and are suspending Nick Ut’s credit on his 1973 Photo of the Year award.

This sparked outrage on social media with posts from what appears to me to be the VII camp (Ashley Gilbertson, Ed Kashi, Sara Terry) and the Nick Ut camp (David Burnett, Pete Souza, David Kennerly).

And the real zinger in the whole dust-up is that David Burnett was there! He’s an eyewitness to the events at Trang Bang, where the famous image was made.

Ok, one final note: besides the premiere at Sundance and private screenings, the film cannot be watched until a distributor is lined up. I’m aware of a screening in DC next month, but most people, including David and myself, have not seen the film.

I talked with David over the phone, and here’s a condensed and edited version of our conversation.

 

Screenshot from AP Report: Investigating claims around ‘The Terror of War’ photograph
Screenshot from AP Report: Investigating claims around ‘The Terror of War’ photograph
Screenshot from AP Report: Investigating claims around ‘The Terror of War’ photograph
Screenshot from AP Report: Investigating claims around ‘The Terror of War’ photograph

Rob Haggart: I want to start by asking if it’s really difficult for you to go back and rehash all this stuff.

David Burnett: No, I mean, I have these moments from not just Vietnam, but the jobs that I worked my whole life, French elections, Ethiopia, Chile, and it’s not really something that causes me great pain. There are so many of these things that I’ve lived through that the memories of them and what I was doing in them as a photographer is very, very clear in my head. And Trang Bang is really no different than almost anything else.

The first time I was under fire and had the crap scared out of me, it’s one of those things where you don’t just think, will I ever get over it? Because you don’t, they become part of what your life is about.

The running joke about Trang Bang and me was that, well, I missed the shot because I was changing film in my old screw mount knob wind Leica which is kind of a slow, kludgy film camera. It was not an easy camera to operate.

And yet, Cartier-Bresson shot with them for something like 20 years before the M2 and the M3 came along and made some pretty great pictures, so I mean, I think part of why I even bothered shooting with that camera instead of getting another M2 for 200 bucks, was kind of a historical thing with the old Contax and Leicas, you felt a little more attached to some kind history if you’re shooting with this kludgy old camera and um you know, and I was trying to reload it and anybody had ever owned one of the cameras knows that if you take a 35-millimeter film where you have the little cut-down tongue that you really need to cut an extra inch or inch and a half away from that one side that’s cut so that when you drop the film in the camera, it will seat itself perfectly.

I never bothered doing that, so I was always stumbling, trying to get the camera reloaded. So I was reloading it when the plane came in to drop the napalm. I was holding the open camera in my left hand and shooting with a 105 in the other hand. When the napalm hit right next to the pagoda, there was this Gigundo fucking fireball, Nick has that picture, and I kind of have it a few seconds later. But it was the in the days when you didn’t shoot with three motor drives, you know, you weren’t going out there to shoot 25 rolls of film. I think I shot maybe three or four rolls that day, and it was a fairly long period of time we were there because we were kind of hanging out waiting to see what was going on.

You could hear firing and shooting coming from the village. Then the planes came in, and there was that fireball, and then like three minutes later, the kids started running out of the field and onto the road toward us, and that is the moment, more than anything in my mind, where Nick was the one guy who was in a position to shoot the picture, and nobody else was. There was this line of journalists, and we were all within a few feet of each other lined up across the road. As soon as we could tell that, there were people on the road racing out toward us, and the kids were running as fast as they could run. Nick and this guy Alex Shimkin, who was killed a few weeks later up north, took off running towards them, and no one else did.

RH: When did you first hear a film was being made about this event and that there were questions about the author of the famous image?

I was sitting at a Walgreens parking lot in Florida 3 years ago going in to go get some stuff, and Gary Knight called me and said tell me everything you know about Trang Bang, so I spent a couple hours on the phone and told him everything I know and then said you know there’s this guy and he’s kind of a horses ass, ex AP guy and he says that Nick didn’t shoot the picture and I kind of think he’s full of crap as does everyone else but along the way you’re gonna run into Carl Robinson.

Carl had this real chip on his shoulder about AP, and he was never afraid to let people know how he felt like he’d been screwed over by the AP.

RH: So you’re telling me this rumor has been around for a while?

Yep, a long time. It’s not new. The last time I saw Horst Faas was in 2008. There was a gathering for a memorial wall at the news museum in Washington, and if you lived near the East Coast and worked as a journalist in Vietnam, you pretty much were there that day. Somebody at that point could have said, hey, Horst, let me talk to you about this thing that Carl’s been telling everybody that you told him to put Nick’s name on the image, and it was really some stringer’s film.

And no one ever, no one ever asked Horst.

No one ever just asked him point blank.

I guess Carl makes a pretty reasonable case for trying to talk about how the guilt of 50 years and being able to unburden his guilt when he finally met this guy. But you know, every crackpot theory that ever was has at least a 2% chance that it happened.

Could Horst have said it? I suppose he could have. But it would have been very out of line with what always happened.

If you talk to Neal Ulevich, who was in the AP bureau as a staff photographer for, I don’t know, six or seven years in Asia and was in the bureau the whole time, he will tell you about the sacrosanct policy of never allowing anyone’s film to have any name on it other than the actual photographer that shot it.

He said, “All the time I was in Asia, never once did I see anybody do anything like that.”

It just didn’t happen.

I was in that group of people who were looking at the first print of Napalm Girl when it came out of the darkroom, and I did what every photographer in the history of photography would have done, which is I look at this picture and I try and think to myself without having seen my own film, hm, I wonder if I have anything better. I’m thinking, yeah, that’s pretty good. That’s probably better than anything I have.

There were 3 or 4 of us looking at this little 5 x 7 print that was still wet, and Horst, without making a big deal out of it, just turned to Nick and said, “You do good work today, Nick Ut.”

I still have the memo I wrote when I went back to my office at the Time-Life Bureau. I said there was this accidental bombing in this village called Trang Bang, and I said, Nick from AP got a pretty good picture, and they tell me they’re shipping the negative to New York on what’ll be the same flight that my negatives are gonna be on, so you’ll be able to get an original print made in the lab rather than rely on a wire service photo.

So that’s what they ended up doing. It was in the front section of the magazine called the Beat of Life; there were always 3 or 4 of these big picture spreads.

Usually one picture, sometimes two or even three, and they ran one of mine of the grandma with the burned baby and Nick’s picture side by side, and when you look in the photo credits, it says page four and five, David Burnett, AP. I mean, it was the wire services in the 70s. They weren’t going to put a photographer’s name on it. It’s kind of funny that way.

RH: What are the chances, if you’re Nick, that you don’t know beforehand you made that picture?

There’s no way that either of those guys would not know they took that picture. It was such an enpassant moment, and I’m sure there was just one frame that was the one.

For sure, there are times when you’re surprised by something you’ve done when you move from wherever you shot it, and now, you know, we’ve kind of shut out the middle man, and you go right to the computer and see if what’s on there is anything like what you remember, but in the film days I would find it really hard to not know that you had something.

I can’t imagine that the camera wasn’t up at the eye; it’s not like a chest-high Hail Mary, although technically, it was never great, but maybe at the same time, some of the imperfections add to the raw reality of that moment.

RH: That leads me to this talking point I see from the film’s defenders saying that this is not a critique of Nick, but that would mean that Nick didn’t know he took the photo. But you think there’s no way he didn’t know he took the photo, so the film is saying he’s been lying for 53 years about this.

He’s a 21-year-old kid with a camera, and I think incapable of that. Yes, it was a good picture, but there were a lot of good pictures out there.

And, you know, some people have said, oh, but Horst knew right away that that was gonna be a great picture, and he wanted AP to have the copyright on it instead of a stringer. But the thing is, you’ve got all these little sub-arguments if you accept a certain premise, and you can walk yourself right off a cliff of trying to figure out what it is you believe or don’t believe.

Gary called me back at one point, and he said, you know, I think there’s really something to Carl’s statement here, but you know, once you get the first bit of the Kool-Aid, you just gotta drink the whole pitcher, and I just don’t see it.

I mean, like I said, it’s possible.

Everything’s possible, you know?

I mean, you know, once you start to believe part of it, you kind of end up believing the whole thing, or you believe none of it.

To me, it looks like Gary’s trying to make himself into a big documentary producer, and this is his launch pad.

Gary said you ought to be in the film, and I just said, Gary, I don’t wanna do a goddam Mike Wallace interview where I have no control over how you cut it or anything else. I’ve watched 60 minutes too many times where Mike managed to hammer somebody, and I had no confidence that it would be a fair representation.

Fox Butterfield was the reporter I was with that day working for The New York Times, and he got a call from Gary’s wife, a producer on the film, he started to tell her his version of what took place, and she told him everything you’ve said is wrong. That’s not a really good way to coax people into a discussion. She said he would have to sign a non-disclosure agreement, and he said, what the hell for? I’m the one telling you stuff; you haven’t told me anything.

Gary said to me last time I talked to him like six weeks ago, he said, well, you know, we’ve done all this forensic stuff, and we’ve proven that he couldn’t be down there to take the picture.

And I said to him, in my mind, because I remember the way he ran out on the road ahead of everybody else when the kids were coming down the road, he’s the only one who could have taken that picture because it was in the very first moments that the kids were coming down toward where the journalists were lined up, and it was after that everybody else started wandering around, but that was another five or ten or 15 minutes later.

And I just don’t see how anybody else was out there in front, and to me, that picture was taken out in front. It wasn’t taken right next to the press people.

It was out there away, maybe, I don’t know, 20 yards, 40 yards. 50 yards.

RH: How do you think the filmmakers should have handled this? What should they have done with the information they got from Carl?

You don’t ever want to get to a place where people are afraid to posit things, but I don’t know what the answer is, but you know, unlike a lot of people who don’t shut up about it, I’m not sure I have an answer to what the most perplexing question is.

And I never said I was right behind him when he shot that.

I saw him, I was changing my film, and it was a minute or two minutes later, and in those moments, that could be a long time. I offer it strictly as a witness to what happened that day and nothing more.

I find one of the most curious things of all, aware of the fact that Nguyễn probably had to leave Saigon with almost nothing, that he left everything behind, and  I totally get that.

But apparently, he never sold another picture to anybody, and in the last 50 years, no one has even seen one picture that he’s taken.

Other than the most famous picture of the Vietnam War.

That is a really weird leap of faith.

The state of the photo industry survey

Photographers! It’s here! Click the link below to learn more about completing the @aphotoeditor and @hmphotoprof 2025 State of the Industry Survey!

We’re recruiting photographers to participate in a massive, state of the industry survey. Open to all professional photographers from all genres and markets. Please share with your colleagues and within your photo network. The more folks that participate, the more accurate the information.

Results to come in summer 2025.

Link to fill out the survey:

Click Here to take the survey

Research conducted by: Heather Morton, professor at Sheridan College heather.morton@sheridancollege.ca and Rob Haggart, PhotoFolio

This research has been reviewed and received ethics clearance by the Sheridan Research Ethics Board. SREB number: 2025-03-001-005

Approximate time to complete the survey: 12 minutes.

The Photo Hustle – There Is No Magic Formula

This is an excerpt from The Photo Hustle by Karen Williams Buy your copy here: https://store.mangopublishinggroup.com/products/the-photo-hustle-1

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If you picked up this book, I’m betting you love photography enough to pursue a career in it, but you have no idea where to start. That’s where I come in. I want to be the resource and mentor I never had, so you don’t have to learn the hard way. I’ll be sharing the insider secrets of the photography industry that they don’t teach you in school. Because combining your passion for photography with a career can get a little messy. Being a great photographer is only half the battle. To thrive in this industry, you need to be a savvy entrepreneur, too. And that’s why I took it upon myself to fill in this much-needed gap. Instead of hoping things will change, it’s time we take control of our careers—and I’m here to help you do just that. This book will equip you with everything you need to know for a successful photography career. But you have to show up and put in the work.

The photo hustle is real. These days, it’s not enough to have talent. You have to know the industry—and it’s a tough one to break into. Most photography schools and workshops don’t teach you how to run a successful business. Rather, they focus on the latest gear and techniques. They’ll teach you about posing, directing clients, composition, and lighting. They’ll show you all the pretty editing tricks and how to set up a shot.

But actual business skills? That stuff rarely gets taught in the photography world. Marketing and branding? Not in most curricula. Sales and pricing strategies? I don’t think so. Client experience and retention? Doubtful. Financial planning and management? I’m not seeing it. Most photographers are expected to figure it out on their own, often through trial and error. But in reality, most photographers were never prepared for the “photo hustle” that exists on the flip side of their passion… I know I wasn’t.

Listen, I know you have the passion. I know you’ve dedicated your time to your craft. And I know you’re ready to get out there and share it with the world. Yes, photography is a tough road. But if you stick it out, get up when you get knocked down, and keep going, you can succeed. Keep pushing, keep creating, and keep capturing life through your lens. The world is waiting to see your visual eye.

There is no magic formula for making it in photography. If you’re hoping for a perfect path to success from Point A to Point B, I’m sorry to be the one to break it to you—it just doesn’t exist. No two photographers fall into success in the same way.

“I’ve done everything right, but nothing is working. How do I get in?”

It’s a question I get almost daily, but this time it came from a friend—let’s call her Michelle—over coffee. Michelle, an incredibly gifted photographer, had been struggling. Two years out of photography school, and she hadn’t landed her dream gigs…or anything close to them. Instead, she was building a business photographing families and pets. She was good—damn good—but it wasn’t her dream. Like so many photographers I talk to every day, Michelle had talent and drive, but couldn’t break into the industry. So, what gives?

I told Michelle what I tell all photographers: the industry has secrets they don’t want you to know. No matter how good you are or how many boxes you check, breaking in is tough. And if you don’t know what I’m going to share with you on these pages, then your chances of getting in are just as slim. Some photographers make it by luck, some hustle, and some are “discovered.” But believe me, there’s no perfect path, no magic formula—just straight talent and lots (and lots) of hustle.

When I was studying for my BFA, my dream was to shoot the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. That dream was shaken when, in September 2023, the president and founder Jan Wenner dismissed Black and female artists as not “articulate enough” for his book The Masters, a collection of interviews with rock’s greatest.2 His words hit hard, sparking the same frustration I felt following the George Floyd tragedy and the hollow promises made in light of his death. After fifteen years in the industry, I had become accustomed to being one of the few Black people on set, and I began to question why so many talented, hard-working photographers of all kinds were being sidelined. The answer is simple: the industry keeps a lot of information locked away. And I had become a part of the industry-wide gatekeeping that I hated so much. This book is the product of my determination to change that.

Spoiler alert: I’m not a professional photographer—I’m the person behind the scenes, hiring photographers, shaping art direction, and building brand stories big and small. I’m living my dream as a photo editor. Over the last fifteen years, I’ve had the opportunity to work for WIRED, Southern Living, Netflix, AARP, MasterClass, Square, and San Francisco Magazine. But the journey wasn’t easy—I faced a ton of job rejections that nearly shattered my confidence. But I refused to let them break me down—I chose not to let others dictate my worth or my future in the field. So, I took matters into my own hands and hustled hard for years. I even changed jobs fourteen times in sixteen years, transforming each of my setbacks into an opportunity to learn, grow, and improve my craft. My journey of hustle and hard work led me to where I am today. I even founded my company, Black Visual Queen, to change the industry and help photographers like you find their path to success in this highly gate-kept arena, where opportunities are often so elusive.

First, a word of warning: this is a tough industry, and brand photography isn’t for everyone. The road to that dream is a long one, paved with hustle, hard work, and lots (and lots) of rejection. But since you’re reading this book, I’m willing to bet that knowing this doesn’t deter you. You’re one of the photographers who have the determination to work with prestigious, big-name clients, and you’re not ready to throw in the towel on your dream just yet. If this is you, then listen up, because I’m going to teach you everything you need to know about the photo hustle—and how to get in. The photo industry is not just reserved for the elite; it’s for anyone willing to do the work. All you need is a little tenacity, talent (which you have), and the tips and tricks I’m going to spill in this book.

Through the years, I’ve seen top photographers ready to quit, exhausted by fierce competition and overwhelmed by technology. Many don’t know how to market themselves. So, if you’re frustrated by rejections, ghosting, or “we’ll keep your name on file” responses, just keep going. Keep hustling, keep honing your craft. The challenges are real, but don’t let them extinguish your passion. Embrace your uniqueness, stay motivated, and don’t fall into the comparison trap. Photography is rewarding, and the world is waiting to see your unique perspective.

In the following pages, you’ll learn everything photography school didn’t teach you and all the industry secrets the insiders don’t share. This is the book I wish I’d had back when I was starting out in photography: the tell-all (well, maybe not all—I’ve signed a lot of non-disclosure agreements!) about the photography biz, especially for editorial and brand work.

The book is split into two parts. Part 1 covers how to get in the room—in other words, how to break into the industry, how to pitch, how to market yourself, handle finances, and land the gig. We’ll be diving into your “why” as a photographer because knowing that helps you make the next right decision.

Part 2 explains what to do once you’re hired—how to navigate estimates, contracts, agents, photoshoot etiquette, avoid the dreaded blacklist (yes, it’s real), and how to redeem yourself if you find yourself on it.

Consider this book your trusted mentor. I want this to be the book you reach for when you land the gig and have no idea what an estimate looks like or what to watch out for in a contract. I want you to take this everywhere with you. Carry it in your purse. Stow it in your camera bag. Use it as a resource to help you navigate the tough business side of photography. By the end, I want you to feel encouraged, equipped, and confident to build the successful photography career you’ve always dreamed of.

Ready to find your “magic formula?” Let’s dive in.

Pricing & Negotiating: Food/Drink Product Photography For A Holiday Campaign

By Andrew Souders, Wonderful Machine

Each month, we explain a recent cost estimate, contract, or purchase order in the form of a Pricing & Negotiating article. By redacting the names of the photographer and the client, we can share useful information that would otherwise be confidential. You can read more about our Pricing & Negotiating services on the Consulting Services page of our website.

Concept: Product Photography for a Holiday Campaign in collaboration with a celebrity
Licensing: Publicity and Collateral use of 4 still photos and 1 animated GIF for 1 year
Photographer: Still Life/Product and Food/Drink specialist
Client: Sparkling beverage brand

Summary

I recently worked with a photographer to develop an estimate for a holiday-themed product photoshoot for a well-known beverage brand’s collaboration with a high-profile celebrity. The project involved creating still life images of a holiday table centerpiece featuring the client’s product alongside the celebrity’s co-branded food item. We considered the various creative needs, including product shots and lifestyle setups where hands would interact with the product.

The deliverables included up to four high-resolution still photos and one animated GIF intended for digital PR, social media, and the client’s website, with a one-year global license. The shots were primarily designed for web use, however, there was also the possibility of some print use.

Fees

The client provided a shot list outlining key visuals and requested Publicity and Collateral licensing for one year of global use. The creative and licensing fee was set at $5,500 for producing the still images and animated GIF, which we felt was in line with the single shoot day and somewhat limited use. Additionally, we added a pre-production day to help with coordination, studio setup, and creative planning, at a cost of $750.

Crew

Though the project’s production requirements were relatively simple, we decided to include the photographer’s preferred assistant to ensure everything ran smoothly. This covered the assistant’s day rates for both the prep/set build day and the shoot day, with a rate of $500 per day, bringing the total to $1,000 for two days.

Styling

The creative brief emphasized the importance of some festive styling for the tablescape, which would serve as the backdrop for the products. The photographer took on the basic prop styling, and we included $250 for 5 hours of prop sourcing and $800 to purchase props and décor items. We also brought in a food stylist for two days to ensure the products looked their best on camera. The food stylist was responsible for sourcing supplemental ingredients and food items to complement the products, so we budgeted $2,000 for two days of prep and styling work.

Casting and Talent

The brief called for a hand model to interact with the products in several shots, so we budgeted $360 for the hand model’s session, which included a $300 half-day rate and a 20% agency fee. The model’s usage fee for one year of global publicity and collateral use was budgeted at $1,200.

Locations

The photographer had a local studio they worked with regularly, so we included one rental day for the set build and one for the shoot. The studio rental was budgeted at $500 per day, bringing the total to $1,000 for both days.

Equipment

While the photographer was able to provide most of the necessary gear, we included a supplemental budget of $750 for any extra equipment rentals and their kit of cameras, lenses, lighting, grip, and a workstation.

Meals

We allocated $300 to provide light meals for the crew on the shoot day, ensuring everyone had breakfast and lunch.

Miscellaneous

We included a $250 budget for miscellaneous expenses to cover any potential additional costs, such as parking and mileage.

Post-production

For post-production, we allocated $600 for retouching four images, with each image receiving up to one hour of work at $150 per image. Additionally, we allocated $500 for editing a 15-30-second animated GIF to complement the still images.

Results

The photographer was awarded the project, and the shoot is slated to commence before the holidays!

Follow our Consultants @wonderful_at_work.

The Very Brief #MeToo Movement In Professional Photography

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This seems like a good time to remind everyone that the photography industry had a brief “me too” moment back in 2018-2020.

Several big photographers were named in a couple of excellent articles in the Columbia Journalism Review by Kristen Chick and Vox by A.J. Chavar.

I’m sure there are many who never came forward because while the initial outrage caused the named to disappear and delete all their social media, they soon crawl back. Two people I’ve been following are David Alan Harvey and Patrick Witty.

In the article by Kristen Chick, “Eleven women have described to CJR inappropriate behavior from David Alan Harvey over a span of thirteen years, ranging from suggestive comments to unwanted sexual advances to masturbating without their consent on video calls.” His agency, Magnum, was told about it and sat on the information for a decade before suspending him.

So what is David up to now? He’s very active on Threads, where he has 57,000 followers. On Instagram, his account is private, but he has 441,000 followers. On his website, he’s selling prints, has five in-person workshops slated for 2025, and offers online mentorships.

In the article by A.J. Chavar that talks about Patrick Witty: “I spoke to more than 20 people — some of them friends of mine in our shared industry — who said they experienced unwanted interactions with Witty, witnessed the inappropriate behavior, or were told details at the time the events occurred that corroborated the women’s stories. These stories included accounts of unwanted touching, kissing, and other advances at a variety of professional events during and prior to Witty’s employment at National Geographic.”

So what is Patrick up to now? Semafor is reporting that he’s been hired by the White House. Prior to that he was very active on Instagram with 72,000 followers, Threads with 12,000 followers, and has a substack with 3,300 subscribers where he lists his bonafides as a photo editor at National Geographic, WIRED, TIME, and The New York Times.

Do I think these people should be cancelled for their alleged creep-ass behavior that potentially ruined the careers of 30 women plus countless others who headed the other direction once the alarm sounded in their heads?

YES.

But you can do what you feel in your heart. When I brought Patrick’s behavior to the attention of “A Photographic Life” podcaster Grant Scott (former AD at Elle and Tatler) and his host Bill Shapiro (former EIC at LIFE), after they quoted him in a podcast, they refused to remove the quote or take down the podcast where they recommended people subscribe to Patrick’s Substack. Bill has subsequently become chummy with Patrick on Threads, engaging him in conversation on several occasions.

If that weren’t enough, in a subsequent podcast, Bill Shapiro quoted Bill Frakes who has a Wikipedia entry that states “The University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL) found that Frakes engaged in sexual misconduct and sexual harassment while he was a visiting professor. Frakes was found to have made unwanted comments about women students’ bodies and clothing according to a document obtained by The Omaha World-Herald.”

I think it’s important not to memory-hole what happened. Grant Scott told me he had no idea about Patrick since he works in the UK. Bill Shapiro just told me I was being mean. If industry leaders, despite their cranky old age, refuse to acknowledge the hard work of journalists and the women who brought this information to light, there’s no reason this behavior won’t persist. Personally, I refuse to forget that our male-dominated industry creates challenges for women, and we need to continuously work to rectify that. Lets not erase the work that has already been done.

Pricing & Negotiating: Portraits And Still Life Images For Cosmetics Brand

Concept: Portraiture and Still Life Images for Cosmetics Brand
Licensing: Unlimited use of all images captured for one year
Photographer: Beauty and Still Life specialist
Client: Cosmetics brand

Summary

I recently worked with a photographer to help them develop an estimate for a campaign promoting a cosmetic brand’s new product. The brand wanted still life images as well as images of the product in use by professional talent in a studio setting. The creative brief called for a mix of minimal setups against a white background, along with a few scenarios that involved prop styling and set design.

Fees

The client initially presented a shot list that included eight main shots. One of the shots was identified as a key visual while the others were considered supplemental. Although they requested unlimited use of all images, they were willing to limit the duration to one year.

I felt the key visual was worth $5,000, images 2-3 were worth $2,500 each, and the others worth $1,000, totaling $15,000. I had wanted to include an additional few thousand dollars as a creative fee. We understood, however, that we might be pushing the limits on the fee as it was. Ultimately, my goal was to keep the bottom line in check and stay under $50k total.

The agency, surprisingly, asked us to include a licensing option specifically for 110% of the one-year rate to include a pre-negotiated rate for a second year. In most cases, when pre-negotiating a duration extension, I’m accustomed to a request for a reduced rate compared to the original fee. I clarified this request on a call with the agency art producer. Sure enough, they explained that they’d be willing to pay 110% for an additional year, so I included that cost for the licensing and for the talent.

In addition, the client requested we present a firm bid, rather than an estimate. I noted this at the top of the document. In this scenario, the photographer keeps any unused funds if the cost of the production is less than anticipated. This also means, however, that they would need to cover any overages if expenses were higher than anticipated. Overall, we were very confident in these fees/expenses based on the working relationships with the specific crew members, styling team, casting director, talent agents, and locations we anticipated working with.

Crew

Although the production was rather straightforward, we included a strong team to help quickly execute the vision. To that end, we added a producer, first assistant, second assistant, digital tech, and production assistant, all at rates appropriate for the specific market.

Styling

The creative brief definitively called for a prop stylist to create a few background elements and manage the products. The photographer already had a local stylist they wanted to work with. We included rates we received from them, which included their prep, shoot and wrap time. There was a need for very minor wardrobe styling, and this prop stylist was able to take on both roles. Separately, we detailed the anticipated prop and wardrobe costs, along with their kit fees and miscellaneous expenses potentially incurred in the process of acquiring all of the necessary items. We included a hair/makeup stylist and, as there were a few shots that involved close-ups of the talent’s hands holding the products, we also included a manicurist.

Casting and Talent

I included a rate received from a casting agent to help us find one subject based on the talent specs provided by the agency. The agency planned to pay the talent directly, but I discussed an appropriate talent fee with the agency producer. I noted this in the line item without having that line item impact our bottom line since the billings would go through the agency.

Locations

We included $2,500, which would allow us to afford a generously sized studio in this particular market.

Equipment

We included appropriate rates for the rentals the photographer would need in order to execute the creative vision. In addition, we also included fees for the digitech’s workstation as well as production supplies to make everyone comfortable on set.

Meals

I based this on $80 per person for 19 people, which included breakfast and lunch.

Misc.

I added $500 to cover any unforeseen expenses. We also noted a fee for insurance, which the agency specifically asked that we include. I often calculate insurance fees based on 1-2% of the bottom line.

Post-production

We just included a fee for the photographer to perform an initial edit of the photos and help make selects because the agency would handle retouching. As a separate fee, we included a line for hard drives, delivery, and archiving.

Results

The photographer won the project. Shortly after, however, the shoot was postponed, and then quickly brought back to life with an increased scope that included two talent. This increased the shot list in addition to production expenses. As a result, we increased the creative/licensing fees by 50%, added a producer pre-production day to handle the changes, increased wardrobe, added another manicurist, added a hair/makeup stylist assistant, and increased casting and talent. We also were asked to include some extra equipment to help facilitate remote viewing by a few clients who would be unable to attend the shoot in person. Here is the final estimate, which was approved:

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Pricing & Negotiating: Brand Narrative, Lifestyle, And Product Photography For A Large Clothing Brand

By Bryan Sheffield, Wonderful Machine

Each month, we explain a recent cost estimate, contract, or purchase order in the form of a Pricing & Negotiating article. By redacting the names of the photographer and the client, we can share useful information that would otherwise be confidential. You can read more about our Pricing & Negotiating services on the Consulting Services page of our website.

Concept: Photos of Olympic-hopeful athletes modeling the client’s clothes at a university sports facility.
Licensing: Unlimited use (excluding Broadcast) of up to 10 images for 6 months, and Web Collateral & Web Advertising use of up to 65 images for 6 months.
Photographer: Brand Narrative, Lifestyle, and Sports/Fitness Specialist
Client: Large clothing brand with over 200 retail locations.

Summary

I recently helped a photographer build an estimate and negotiate a project for a client developing a campaign tied to the 2024 Olympics. Ultimately, the photographer nailed the creative, and the client licensed additional images.

The project involved a single-day photo shoot at a university athletic facility in a major US city. The shoot centered on four athletes, each modeling and using the client’s athletic products within their respective sports disciplines. This shoot was conducted simultaneously with video production, each team having separate creative objectives and crews.

The initial deliverables included a series of images that captured the athletes using the brand’s apparel. Most of the photos were intended primarily for use on the client’s website and social media feeds, with some images for print and web advertising, in-store displays, and potential OOH advertising.

The client was responsible for providing all production support, products, styling, locations, coordination, talent, and talent management. They also handled all insurance, payroll, and image retouching.

Fees

It’s worth noting that this RFQ came to the photographer less than a week before the anticipated shoot date. We learned that the client had been working with another photographer, but they were not moving forward and needed a replacement quickly. The photographer and I were on the same page that their availability and attention to the last-minute project would put upward pressure on the fees.

Considering the client, creative brief, shot list, the photographer’s past work with this client, and the intended uses, I estimated $19,750 would be on the higher end of what the client might expect for a one-day shoot. However, we felt the total fees were fair, especially considering the cost breakdown: $1,000 per image for the 6-month unlimited use and $150 per image for web collateral and web advertising. We made sure the client understood the per-image pricing during the bidding process, which helped later on when additional licensing requests came up (jump to the bottom to see the final invoice).

Also, we added one pre-production day at $1,000 to cover creative meetings, planning, and crew booking. We added a tech scout at $1,200, along with $750 for a single travel day home, since the first travel day overlapped with the tech scout.

Crew

We included a First Assistant at $1,000/day for the Tech Scout and Shoot days, along with a Second Assistant to manage lighting and camera equipment on the shoot day. The client asked us to exclude a Digital Tech in the estimate, which seemed a bit unusual given the scale of the shoot, but the photographer was okay with it. The client also requested two Production Assistant swings (crew that would work for both the photography and video productions) for the shoot day to help streamline the still and video shoots and save money. Initially, I pushed back on including shared crew, concerned it would inflate the stills estimate with unnecessary items for the photographer and lower the video estimate, which we couldn’t control. However, the client insisted on including these line items while noting our concerns about inflating the bottom line.

Equipment

We included $3,000 for cameras, lenses, lighting, and grip rentals. While the photographer planned to use their own cameras and lenses, they intended to rent lighting, C-stands, sandbags, and other gear from a local rental house. We also added $450 per day for the photographer’s personal digital workstation, which includes their laptop and other peripherals. Lastly, we allocated $320 for three hard drives, one of which the client would keep.

Travel

The client would book and pay for the airfare and lodging directly. We included the photographer’s out-of-pocket travel costs such as baggage fees, airport transfers, and per diems.

Miscellaneous

The client asked us to exclude insurance since they would take care of it. Having encountered this with them on previous projects, we included a note clarifying that they would provide insurance for the production to eliminate any ambiguity.

Post-Production

We added $500 for the photographer to do a First Edit for Client Review, delivered as a web gallery. We also included estimated costs for the photographer to handle light cleanup and color work on the 75 requested images at $150/hour. The client had initially requested that they would handle all retouching themselves internally.

Results

The photographer was awarded the project the same day the estimate was delivered! The shoot was a huge success, with perfect weather, awesome talent, and a thrilled client. It was a great day filled with lots of smiles.

Additional Licensing

After reviewing the photography, the client loved the work and requested an additional 37 images. They wanted 15 images for web collateral and web advertising use, and another 22 for the retailer’s catalog and web advertising. The client also requested that the photographer do some light retouching on the images. We invoiced an extra $2,250 for 6 months of use for the 15 web collateral and web advertising images ($150 per image), and $4,950 for 6 months of use for the 22 collateral (including client catalog) and web advertising images, at a rate of $225 an image.

The final invoice included a Creative/Licensing fee of $26,950, plus an additional $5,587.50 for the post-processing/light retouching.

Follow our Consultants @wonderful_at_work.

Charlotte Schreiber Breaks Up With Her Identity As A Photographer

by Angie Smith

Angie: How did you get started in your career as a photographer?

Charlotte: I’ve been a photographer for the past 15 years. I studied photography here in Germany. I had chemistry and art as majors before I finished high school. We had a photography assignment and there was a small dark room that we could work in. I know it sounds so cliche, but when you are in the darkroom and the image suddenly appears on paper, it’s this magic moment. I said to myself: ‘Oh, this is fun and I think I’m good at it. Is a photographer something that you can become? Let’s see how this plays out.’

Me and my father‘s first 6×6 camera, ca. 1989.

Sometime into studying, my father passed away and I had to get rid of his things. The attic was full of his photographs and Super 8 films. I remembered that he taught me a lot about photography. When we would go on holiday, he always had a camera. There are pictures of me as a 4-year-old trying to take pictures. Now looking back, I realize photography was such a big influence, it was always there. So the idea of becoming a photographer didn’t feel too far-fetched.

Angie: What was your first published photo?

My first proper assignment was for Nylon magazine.

I was interning with a photographer in New York and she had to travel to LA for work. She said: ‘I can’t take you with me on the shoot, but you’ll have time, so I’ll give you contacts. Why don’t you show your portfolio around?’

I said: ‘I don’t have a portfolio.’

She said: ‘Okay, when I’m back, you’ll create a portfolio and start showing your stuff around.’

She gave me all her contacts. I was very young and I had no fear. I would go everywhere and anywhere. I went to Nylon Magazine and asked for a meeting. I had my meeting and the next day, they called me with a small shoot. I got paid $50 for it, which I would never accept now, but I thought: ‘If I can do this in New York, I can definitely do it in Germany.’

After my time in New York, I photographed a cookbook with a friend. We sold the concept to the publishing company– that was the first book that I made and was the gateway into my next project, Makers of East London where I visited artists in their workshops across East London, documenting their workflow. That period of time was full of a lot of coincidences and luck and it was one of the most important times that prepared me for everything else because I was constantly producing photographs for my portfolio.

When people ask what kind of photography I do, I say that it’s everything that’s atmospheric.
I’m a very emotional person and I do emotional portraits, but what I’m good at is giving people space. My portraits are good because I can hold space for people to just be themselves. Which I find is important for the work I do.

Often, the person will see their image and say: ‘No one has ever photographed me like that. I feel like it’s the first time that somebody has seen me the way I really am.’ That is the biggest compliment you can probably get as a photographer.

Fashion editorial for Le Mile magazine, photogra- phed in my first studio in 2015.
Author Peter Høeg at his hideway place in Denmark, 2015.
Tokyo, 2016.
Tokyo Metropoliton Government Building, 2016.

I’ve been freelance for the past 15 years. The pandemic was quite good for me. I think it divided the people– some stopped working and for others, it fueled them.

I was successful because it’s just me and my camera. I don’t have much overhead, assistants and tons of equipment. During Covid, people knew I could be distant from the subject and shoot quickly. That was kind of my thing and editors knew they could get what they wanted.

I think a lot of photographers pushed through the pandemic and then it came to that point for me where it wasn’t working anymore. I didn’t get assigned to anything. People stopped reaching out. Financially it was really, really bad. In the beginning, I thought, well, it’s gonna pick up but it never really picked up.

In a way, I got lucky because I was dealing with an illness and I couldn’t do anything. I had to stay in bed for a really long time and I was constantly thinking about my career not working.

I had a lot of time and I was thinking about what else I’d be good at. I have experience with grief and death in my family. And it’s been something that I’ve had to deal with and do on my own. In Germany, no one talks about grief and death because you’re not taught how to.

I photographed a grief counselor once and the memory popped in my head again. I thought: this could be something. The second I said it out loud, I thought: This is what I’m going to do.

I applied to a program and it’s going to start in May. The training goes for about a year and then I’m a certified grief counselor. After that, I want to go into the funeral business.

I think what connects grief work and my photography is that I’m able to find beauty in whatever I see. Obviously death is not beautiful but it is natural, it’s part of life and it’s happening for all of us. To define the beauty in something makes it easier for people. And to be honest, we are all gonna die. It’s just something that’s part of life.

Anne Petersen for Mercedes, 2021.

Angie: What has the grieving process been like with your photo career changing? Have you let go slowly or made a sudden cut?

I do feel like I need to make a cut. I think I’ve just reached the point where I know I am good at what I do but I also have so many more talents and it’s just time for me to move on. Photographers put so much into their careers—it’s just so personal. Every time you get rejected, it’s hard to not take it personally.

Photography is something that I’ve been successful at and I’ve loved it. But I’ve been angry for so long. I’ve asked: ‘Why? I don’t want it to be over. It’s something that brought me so much joy. I met amazing people and I went to great places. Why is this ending?’

Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, photographed in 90 seconds for manager magazin, 2022.
Jens and Marc Brune for manager magazin, Norderney 2023.

I have a small studio and I have it for another couple of months. I made an offer to people who want to be photographed– that they can come to the studio and pay whatever they can afford for a portrait. This is me slowly saying goodbye to the studio.

I’m probably going to keep one small point and shoot. I don’t think I cannot take pictures. It’s something that I’ve done for the past 20 years– it’s a big part of my life. When I talk about it with people, I feel happy with the decision and that it’s the right decision but I’m also sad and I circle back to the same question: ‘Did I do something wrong? Is it my fault that my photography career isn’t working anymore?’

I’ve been breaking up with my identity of being a photographer and I have been going through all the stages of grief over that.

Angie: What a beautiful way to say goodbye. When did you know it was time to throw in the towel?

I think that’s everybody’s own personal decision. I’m slowly approaching 40 and I always want to know how to pay rent. I’m just tired of constantly being the person saying to the photo editor: ‘I need more money. I can give you what you want but you have to pay me properly because I’m good at what I do.’

I’m young enough to start over and feel like I can do so much more. And you know, I don’t want to be that person in 10 or 15 years when there’s no no other way. I am at peace with having made that decision and I’m excited to do something different. But I still ask myself: ‘Why did this not work? Is it my photography? Am I not at the right time in the right spot? Should I have done something differently?’

I am a hard worker and I gave it my all – but it just didn’t happen.

Lisa in the studio, 2024.
Sarah in the studio, 2024.

[Six months later…]

Angie: How did it go letting go of your studio? How did that feel and where are you in the process of changing careers?

I am still working on letting it go. I’m starting to slowly be okay. It’s still a dream that I had to give up. I have been crying a lot. When I went through images of my career for this interview, I was going through my archive, bawling my eyes out. This has been a great 10-15 years of lots of hard work. I did amazing things and I met amazing people. Sometimes I still ask ‘why do I have to stop doing this? I am really good at what I do’.

I just started the grief counseling program and I am in the middle of it now. Going through the training, we talk a lot about finding creative ways to make people feel comfortable and seen. Taking portraits of people is very similar– trying to empower people and have them look at themselves and make them feel good and seen and safe. I realized that they are trying to teach me something I have been doing for the last 15 years.

Angie: How does it feel to be on the other side of changing careers?

It’s been a really hard process with so many layers but I’ve finally come to a point where I am excited to reinvent myself. I am so free, it scares the shit out of me. I can be whoever I want, I can explore myself and different ways of living.

In the beginning I thought I wanted a hard cut from photography. But at this point, I am starting to be softer with myself about ending it. I have no clue where I will end up, I am just here trying my best to find myself and find new ways to explore my talents.

With photography, I have more boundaries than I used to have, which gives me the freedom to be more myself with making photography work. I am declining a lot of jobs because I don’t accept the terms or budget and it gives me the freedom to choose what I am the best at. I am making great work now because I don’t care as much about what I should do. I am excited for the first time in a very long time. I found my way back to why I got into the business in the first place. Sometimes I wake up and ask myself: ‘Who am I today?’ It’s so nice. I am trying to be gentle and give myself space and see where life takes me.

Pricing & Negotiating: Brand Narrative And Product Photography For A Consumer Health Client

By Bryan Sheffield, Wonderful Machine

Each month, we pick one of our recent estimates to write about in a Pricing & Negotiating article. Helping photographers build estimates is one of the primary functions of our producers. Redacting the names of the photographer and client allows us to share valuable and educational information that would otherwise be confidential.

Concept: Images of a Consumer Health brand’s products being used by talent in multiple scenarios
Licensing: Unlimited use of all content captured for 4 years
Photographer/Director: Brand Narrative and Portraiture specialist with a portfolio of similar content
Agency: Medium-sized
Client: Consumer Health Care & Product Manufacturing Client owned by a large global pharmaceutical brand

Summary

I recently helped a photographer/director quote on and negotiate a project for a client seeking brand narrative content of doctors, technicians, and patients using their products.

The agency brief described photo and minor video lifestyle content of talent performing procedures within exam rooms, bathroom and bedroom home locations. The agency initially asked for an estimate including all production needs and 4 unique talent. The final use of the content would be client web and social, as well as consumer and trade publication advertising. The agency requested a 4 year Unlimited use license. They also made it clear multiple times that this was a formality for the brand and that they did not plan to use the images for OOH, Broadcast, nor POP. The agency intended to handle all retouching and video editing and asked us not to include quotes.

We included a Client Provisions section within the Job Description to note who would be handling these items as well as all products to be photographed.

Here is the estimate:

Fees

The client didn’t have a prescribed shot list per se, but they did have an idea of the multiple scenarios they wanted to capture. The photographer/director and I sketched out an anticipated schedule for the talent and time needed for each scene. We anticipated 2 shoot days with the 4 talent on each day. Based on the agency, client, and how they intended content use, I suggested the fees should be in the range of $22-30k. The agency did not disclose a budget, but I felt that they might have a $110,000-120,000 project budget range and we placed the fees at $28,000 for the 2 day shoot.

I added $1,000/day for the photographer to tech scout the location in advance of the shoot and 4 pre-pro days needed.

Crew

We added a videographer at $1,500 per shoot day. We also added a first assistant at $550/day, including the tech scout. A second assistant on the shoot days to help with lighting and camera equipment management was also added. We included a digital tech/media manager at $700/day. We included a producer for 8 days to help with the crew booking needs, schedule coordination, on-site time management, and catering. These fees were consistent with previous rates the photographer had paid crew on past productions in this location.

Equipment

We included $3,800 for cameras, lighting, and grip rentals. The photographer would bring their own cameras, lenses, and would rent continuous lighting, modifiers, stands, and sandbags from a local rental house. We added $650/day for the digital workstation rental. Then, $700 was also added for hard drives to back up the content. We included $2,200 for any miscellaneous production supplies such as production book printing, tables and chairs for meals, equipment transport, hard drive shipping, etc.

Locations

The photographer/director had a local warehouse/studio in mind for the project. The studio already had some sets built that we could easily transform to suit our creative needs. We included the quoted $800/day for the studio for 4 days to cover the build days/pre-light, and 2 shoot days. A studio location manager and cleaning fees were also needed for the location, and we noted these lines separately for agency information.

Casting & Talent

We included $2,500 to cast the 4 talent, $3,360 for talent use fees, and 8 daily session fees at $600/day per talent. These fees were quoted by a casting director in that region.

Styling Crew

We Included a wardrobe stylist and assistant for 5 days each, plus an estimated $3,500 for wardrobe costs. A combo hair/makeup stylist and assistant was necessary and included. Last, we also included a prop stylist and assistant for 5 days each, plus $4,500 for anticipated prop costs.

Meals

We included $3,250 to cover meals and Craft Services for the anticipated folks on set.

Misc.

We included $1,400 for insurance to supplement the photographer’s liability and Workers’ Comp policies.

Post-Production

We added $1,000 for the photographer/director to perform a First Edit for Client Review and deliver all content to the agency on a hard drive.

Initial Results

We heard back from the agency about 2 weeks later that their client wanted to move ahead with the project but had a budget of roughly $95,000. The request was “Can you make this work for $95k? What do we need to sacrifice in order to reduce the estimate to $95k?”

I suggested that we could reduce the creative and talent fees if we reduced the duration of use to 2 years. The agency was receptive to this and asked to see those costs in an updated estimate. The agency also was kind enough to reduce their on-set headcount.

Revised Estimate

Fees

With the new use duration in mind, I suggested the fees should be in the range of $16-18k. The photographer agreed to place the fees at $16,000 for the 2 year use. Our estimate included a Licensing Options line stating the cost of extending the use to 4 years for an additional $12,000 + $1,800 per each talent. If you’re following the math, this would bring the photog’s fees to the same amount as the 4 year license estimate and increase the talent use fees a little bit.

Meals

We included $2,730 to cover meals and Craft Services for the updated headcount on set.

Everything else stayed the same on the revised estimate.

Results

The photographer/director was awarded the project, and the production was a big success. The photographer/director was very thankful for the help and just sent me a link to view their edit of the project. I’m always very appreciative when I get to see the final work that a photographer is proud of!


If you have any questions, or if you need help estimating or producing a project, please reach out. We’re available to help with any and all pricing and negotiating needs— from small stock sales to large ad campaigns.

Photographers On Dealing With Stolen Images

Here’s how photographers recommend dealing with stolen images.

Always register your images with the Copyright Office which will then allow you to collect a maximum of $150,000 for each infringement if it was willful.

Several software companies are recommended for tracking stolen images and getting settlements.

Ultimately a lawyer will get you the best settlement and take less for their fee.

Ideally you register your images within 3 months of publication. You can still register after the infringement which allows you to sue in federal court. Registration also gives you the ability to collect attorney fees which raises the stakes considerably when you consider the infringer paying for both attorneys and damages.

@cameron.davidson.photo
I use Visual Rights Group to track-down image theft and they have been very successful for me.

@scottseriophotos
ImageRights for me since 2015.

@catebrownphoto
There’s ImageRights, Visual Rights Group, and Copycat Legal to name a few

@charliornett
I’d recommend checking into Copyright Agency

and Pixsy:

@mscottbrauer
Pixsy has been ok, for me. Most settlements have been for a few grand, and a few have been between 10k and 20k. I register all my work, which helps get higher settlements

@tinacci
Pixsy has worked for me over the years though the process is definitely very slow.

Others report that pixsy drops cases regularly, settles for less, and if they use an outside attorney you get 25%.

Many recommend using pixsy to track infringement then engage a lawyer to settle:

@david_paul_larson
There’s been many of these companies over the years. You’re getting peanuts to what a real lawyer would get you. The max my lawyer takes is 40%. Usually about 30%

Here are recommendations for IP lawyers:

@toddspoth
Look up attorney David Deal and tell him I sent ya! Thank me later!

@laurengrabelle
Higbee & Associates is reputable

@meredith_bruner
@mad.ip.law @bmadanat as an intellectual property law recommendation.

@robertfreundlaw I believe handles this.

@chrismurrayproductions
@mpkelley_ Mike Kelley has a website called @apalmanac .
They are a treasure chest of information. If you reach out to AP Almanac they can refer you to the right attorneys. Super legit.

@sampson.photography.fl
Attorney Rachel Brenke (@thelawtog) handles this type of work

@brentdanielsphoto
Imagerights has a great IP lawyer in Australia

Photographers Report Hiding Their Pregnancy For Fear Of Losing Jobs

The Photo Industry Need To Do Better.

“This industry is unkind to mothers, there is no denying that.”

“Leading up to giving birth, I completely hid my pregnancy and never mentioned it to anyone. Even when I became so obviously pregnant, I just never talked about it to clients unless they brought it up.”

“I can’t tell you how many women shooters/assistants have felt they have to hide their pregnancy in order to keep working. The whole topic/concept is so difficult to navigate.”

“I didn’t share it on social media or tell anyone in person until I started to show. I hated it, I wanted to shout my exciting news from the rooftops but I knew the impact it would have on my work, which is incredibly sad”

Here are some comment from a post I made on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/C4yc-K6O-dq/

Leading up to giving birth, I completely hid my pregnancy and never mentioned it to anyone. Even when I became so obviously pregnant, I just never talked about it to clients unless they brought it up. I was terrified of losing a job if someone found out/like I’d be an undesirable person to work with. I did almost lose a job with a very large well known client who found out through word of mouth that I was in my 3rd trimester. They stopped emailing with me and instead called me to ask me very personal questions like when my due date was, if I was physically able to take on the job, etc. it was so sketchy that the woman did it all over the phone.

A week after my son was born, just home from the hospital, my editorial shoots and hustle paid off. I got a call from one of the big three agencies in Boston at the time. The Photo Buyer *gushed* over my work, the creative team loved it! They couldn’t wait to meet me. When can I come in? In my half awake new mom haze I said “I just got back from the hospital with my first baby. Let’s get something on the books in three weeks.” She hung up on me. I never heard from them again and still haven’t shot for them 20 years later.

DO NOT TELL A SOUL. I worked til 37 weeks but could have gone until the day I delivered. The main issue was being uncomfortable driving. I took 2 months “off” but it was extremely slow afterwards and no one hired me for an ad job for another year. If I did it again I’d keep it all a secret, unfortunately I lost a huge IUD pharma campaign because they found out I was pregnant. The irony! Obviously it’s illegal but what can you do?

Luckily I didn’t show and I hadn’t told anyone when Covid lockdowns started so I could kind of hide it through not being outside. Even after having my baby I didn’t really tell any clients or post about it. When my main client found out I had a kid the jobs dropped off dramatically.

During my first pregnancy which was 18 years ago, I had a photo editor tell me straight up when I went to the office after a shoot that she “wouldn’t have hired me if she knew how pregnant I was” – at about 32 weeks. In general I hid my pregnancy for fear I wouldn’t get work.

I kept my pregnancy to myself and did not share publicly or with clients. I just showed up to work pregnant and did my job just as well (sometimes better) than I did not pregnant.

Pregnancy is the easiest part of navigating life as a freelancer (I told clients on a need-to-know basis while pregnant 13 years ago, and happily worked until 39 weeks). The hard part of working in this field really happens once the child is born. I know many female photographers whose careers were sidetracked by the challenging logistics of balancing an unpredictable photo schedule and childcare.

I kept it very private. Nothing on the internet until my daughter was born. Almost 100% of the time, I only told clients once I was already on set because it was visible. I was soooo scared to lose work because I thought people might assume hiring me would be a risk.

I worked until I was 38 weeks pregnant but also didn’t tell any clients that I was pregnant for fear of not being hired. The part I found difficult was after I had the baby, trying to be 100% on shoots after little to no sleep some nights but the pumping was really difficult, having to take a break somewhere private every few hours was very tough.

Never told anyone but also wouldn’t lie if asked. Wore oversized clothes on set and worked up until a month before birth. Booked an extra assistant if needed just to have an extra person to have my back. Was back on set when baby was 8 weeks old which was a bit unnecessary/early in hindsight (for me – everyone’s different). A few clients didn’t book me because I was pregnant but I figured I don’t wanna work for them anyway – it’s my choice.

In my experience as a event and editorial shooter in LA at the time, not telling anyone i was pregnant until it was very obvious was a good choice for me, only because once the clients knew I was pregnant they were all very kind but many were also much more cautious and concerned about me, and acting as though i was much more delicate like I should be doing something at a desk LOL so I had to really reassure more people that i was absolutely fine and capable. And that women have done this since the dawn of humanity and i’d let them know if i was ever feeling not capable.

My boss and management was not supportive at all. I was scrutinized even if I only came in 30 minutes late due to doctors appointments and so I scheduled each doctors is the very first appointment of the day so I could rush to work

This is a really important topic to discuss as a lot of us feel we cannot tell people we are pregnant for fear of not getting booked. I was also one of those people. I didn’t share it on social media or tell anyone in person until I started to show. I hated it, I wanted to shout my exciting news from the rooftops but I knew the impact it would have on my work, which is incredibly sad. I would turn up to shoots and shock people not only because I was pregnant but because I was still very much capable. IMAGINE!? Once the news was out and baby arrived, I did have some clients presume that I wouldn’t want the work we had in the calendar for the coming months and THAT is the problem. The attitude towards pregnant people drastically needs to change

Book pregnant photographers and support them by booking them when they are back to work.

Let’s try and change this crappy narrative, we deserve better!

Shifting Perspectives: Kenny Hurtado Walks Away From Professional Photography

by Angie Smith

Angie Smith: When did you start taking pictures? And how did it turn into a profession?

Kenny Hurtado: I grew up as a surfer. When I graduated from High School, I bought a camera to document the surf when it was good.

It became very natural to me, so I took a couple of classes at a Junior College. From there, I interned for Surfing Magazine. They would give me free film, critique me and give me lessons.

Within a month of interning there, I started getting some really good pictures, and right away, they started publishing my work. They took me under their wing, and I interned there for seven months until one day they said, ‘Let’s test you out’– so they sent me to Mexico for two months. I did a road trip through Baja and Mainland Mexico and when I came back, I had shot sixty rolls of slide film. It ended up being a feature-length story in print. I was put on a retainer and lived a true dirtbag vagabond lifestyle, traveling the globe with an endless film budget. It was a dream come true. I stayed with the magazine for about 2 years until the recession started to hit. Budgets dropped, and I was let go.

I moved to San Francisco and studied the fine art side of photography at The San Francisco Art Institute. I knew nothing about fine art photography but found it exciting.

I crashed and burned a ton of times during my art school years. I spent that time just experimenting with different cameras and subject matter.

I moved back to Los Angeles, and from 2010-2013, I went back to shooting some ocean scape and surf portraits, trying to approach it from a fine art angle.

In 2013, a couple of surf brands started seeing my work, and I was put on retainer for companies to shoot their campaigns.

It was a great gig, but it didn’t pay well. With rent, my car payment, and insurance, I was barely scraping by. I felt so pigeonholed, and I didn’t really want to be a surf photographer anymore. At the same time, I was developing my own work outside of the surfing world. I was conflicted and knew it was time to move on.

In 2018, my partner Lindsay was offered a job in San Francisco. I put the word out that I was looking to move back to the Bay. A few days later, someone reached out and said AirBnB was hiring and wanted to offer me an interview for an in-house photo editor. I needed the income to live in the Bay Area, and I had some debts to clear. I ended up dropping my brand retainers in Southern California, and we both moved North to Sonoma County.

I was offered the AirBnB job, and at the same time, I was picked up by a photo agent based in LA the day before I left town. I joined the agency but wasn’t very active.

I slowed down my photography practice so I could focus on work while I had this consistent tech money coming in. After I got settled in and freed myself of debt, I started shooting again. I had a couple of projects that were catching on and from there, I started working for clients like the New York Times, The New Yorker, Outside, and NatGeo – people I really want to shoot for.

After about 1 year in the AirBnB offices, my contract was pulled. I said to myself: ‘OK, I’m going all in on freelance.’ I started to line up jobs back to back and felt I was finally on the path I wanted to be on – until March 2020 came around. I was back to being broke again.

A few months later, in May of 2020, I found out I was going to be a father. I was like: ‘Woah, woah, woah.’ I was scared as shit but very excited at the same time.

The whole time Lindsey was pregnant, I was still trying to find my way as a freelancer, which was going nowhere. Lindsay had a good job, enough to pay our rent in the Bay Area. I felt so bad because I was 37, an expectant dad, and had no means of income. I did the classic Covid lockdown fitness thing and got super into running. I guess I was truly running away from my worries.

I had to stop and think: ‘I’m gonna be dad, dude, what are you doing? You spend all day running, not bringing any income. You need to figure something out.’

A good photo job would pop up and make me really excited. I’d think: ‘This is gonna help me out for a couple months.’ Then it would disappear. That would happen again and again.

It was a month before Sage was born, and I literally had zero money in my bank account. I knew that I needed something that was gonna be stable and fast.

I was just pushing 40, and I thought: ‘I have a baby now. I don’t have a family that’s gonna bail me out. I have no backup plan; I have no savings. What am I going to do?’

I spent the first 9-10 months as a stay-at-home dad but felt worthless since I was not helping out at all financially.

In 2021, out of nowhere, Lindsey said: ‘Let’s move back to my hometown.’ She’s from Springfield, Missouri. I was like: ‘No freaking way, I’m not moving to Missouri.’ I’d always lived on the coast my entire life. I hated the idea of moving inland. Eventually, it just made sense because her whole family is here. And the cost of living is insanely affordable.

So we moved to Missouri, and I said: ‘I want to make a fresh start.’

Once we moved and settled, I took all my camera gear, and I stuck it in the back closet of my son’s room. In the very, very back. I said to myself: ‘I’m just not going to think about this; I’m not going to stress about it. I’m not gonna even touch my camera for one year.’

Right away, I enrolled in a local Community College, got into an EMT course, and knocked out my training. Then got a job at an EMS agency working the ambulance in rural America– talk about a culture shock.

I told myself: ‘I’m gonna go all in for one year and see where I end up.’

About six months into it, I almost sold all of my camera gear. I thought: ‘I don’t want to be a photographer anymore. I want to be done.’

I thought about that pretty seriously.

Self Portrait. Peru for Surfing Magazine. 2004
Peru for Surfing magazine. 2004
Mainland Mexico for Surfing Magazine 2003
John John, Hawaii for Outside magazine 2020
Shark attack victim. New York Times 2020

Kenny Hurtado: Maybe nine to ten months into my first year in EMS, I started bringing the camera back out. I went back to the 4×5 camera. It’s so healing for me to spend a full day in the forest and a rushing river under a dark cloth with ground glass – it puts me into a very meditative state.

Now that running is in my life and adding 4×5 landscape, my mindset is so relaxed now. I’m so calm.

Angie Smith: Did you struggle with grief around letting go of your old freelance life?

Kenny Hurtado: Yes, I really struggled with it, especially six months into committing to working on the ambulance. It was a lot of time away from my son and very low-paying– a bigger sacrifice than I had intended. Working in EMS is a very selfless job. First Responders don’t make that much money, but it pays in other ways. There were a few times where I would drive home from work and think: ‘I actually did something today. I was involved in saving a person’s life.’

Being a photographer my whole life was a selfish endeavor. It was just all about me, all the time. I struggled with being so self-involved and constantly worried about work. I had turned my mindset away from trying to be a working photographer. Before, I would think: ‘If I do this kind of work, it might get me this kind of job.’ But now I’m literally just shooting 4×5 pictures of rivers and streams. It’s so therapeutic for me.

Angie Smith: I saw that you started a YouTube channel about you shooting in nature. Tell me more about that.

Kenny Hurtado: Growing up as a surfer, we would always watch surf videos to get excited and motivated to go out and surf. I’d feel the same thing watching photographers on YouTube. During Covid, I’d watch videos of photographers shooting in the field and think: this is actually interesting. About 6 months ago, I started creating videos to show a day life of shooting landscape work in the Ozarks. My thought was: ‘Maybe someone will see this and go outside and get creative.” And it’s fun.

Angie Smith: Do you have FOMO when you look at Instagram and see other photographers on shoots?

Kenny Hurtado: Yes, definitely. Besides being a father, the best times in my life were being on the road, just stamping passports, and being creative. I lost my creative outlet when I stashed my camera away. It started to really bug me after a while.

In my heart, what makes me happiest is being in the field with photography. The other day, I spent 10 hours in the woods taking pictures. Obviously, I would like this to be my life, and I would love to still be doing commissions. But I love what I’m doing now, and I’m proud of myself for making that decision. Since I’m almost a year and a half into this process as an EMT/Paramedic in training, I’m asking myself: ‘Do I want to do this for the next 25 years?’ I don’t know the answer.

Angie Smith: So even though you’ve done the pivot, it’s not a clean break? Do you ask yourself if it was the right decision?

Kenny Hurtado: Yes, every day. As photographers, we spend so much time and energy doing the things that we do. It’s so hard to make the decision to pivot away entirely. I thought long and hard about it.

I had times where I said to myself: I just gave up on my path. I never thought I’d give up. Is what I’m doing NOW worth it?

Angie Smith: Did you talk to your agent about it?

Kenny Hurtado: Yes. I told her I was gonna go off and try to do the paramedic thing. She wants me to be out making fun portraits and lifestyle stuff, but I’ve just been out shooting leaves and streams. I’ve just been doing therapeutic photography.

Angie Smith: Yeah. Wow, that’s an amazing concept– therapeutic photography. That’s a whole new genre.

Kenny Hurtado: Yeah, it’s just all about being in nature. It’s just an excuse for me to spend an entire day in the woods. Yesterday, I was in the woods from sunrise until sunset.

Angie Smith: If there are people who are reading this interview and they were facing the same question, what advice would you give them?

Kenny Hurtado: To really think it through. Because if you put in 5, 10, 15, 20 years into pursuing photography, it’s so hard to get the courage to walk away from it. The identity part was the hardest for me. Everyone knew me as a vagabond photographer. That’s all I did from 21 until 36, and to just drop it was a really hard decision.

Think about your current situation– how are your bills stacking up? Are you falling behind? Do you have kids now? What’s changing in your life? Just think it through and pick a direction you actually might enjoy.

But you don’t have to walk away from it; you can still go off and pursue a different angle than what you were before. There are amazing photographers who have made a switch because they are now fathers or mothers– or their life circumstances have changed. Now, they’re practicing photography for love and making amazing work without the stress of this HAS to feed my family. If it wasn’t for me becoming a father, I probably would have stuck with it. Shit, kids really do change things.

Now, I’m back to working on photography. It’s all I can think about, and I am doing it because I love it. I have more peace in my heart.

I don’t feel stressed about my career and where it was or where it went. I’m not afraid to start over at 40.

If someone hears this and they’re 42, 43, or 50 even– and have pursued a creative life–you can always say fuck it and start over. Don’t be scared.

4×5 personal Landscape photography. Ozarks 2023
Personal landscape work. 2021
4×5 personal landscape work 2024

Digi Tech based in Australia: $57k AUD

Whenever I get paid, i set aside some funds for tax, for super (national retirement), for business growth and the rest goes into the family pot.

I moved to Australia about half way through my career.

My work is, 40% fashion, 30% e-commerce, 10% video and 20% advertising. Majority of the brands are very well known locally and internationally. It’s not rare to be driving around or walking through the shops and see images I’ve worked on. I get the odd local start up brand, but those jobs are pretty rare now. My partner always gets a kick out of it, she loves hearing about what went into getting the shot and what was happening just outside of frame.

I work full time, average 4 days a week. If it’s a slow, I’ll take a weekend gig or two, but make an effort not to. I like enjoying my weekends.

I don’t have a lot of overhead. Once a year I will invest a little into my kit; i’ll buy equipment that people often forget to bring on set, or equipment that is frequently hired. I typically leave it in the car so it’s always available in an emergency. This has saved the day a number of times over the years and I’m sure has led to more work.

Otherwise, my expenses are just what ever the ATO allows me to claim as a deduction. I always put away at least 10% into my Super fund, sometimes more if i have had a good week/month.

More and more agencies and clients are paying super; i wouldn’t say it’s common yet, but it’s becoming more popular. No one really knows what you should or shouldn’t be doing, and no one can decide if it’s supposed to be paid as part of your day rate or on top of your rate. I think a union like they have in America or Britain would help a lot in standardizing these kinds of things.

In 2021 i worked about 100 days, and in 2022 i worked over 150 days.

I think the pandemic (and last few years) has had a huge impact on the industry. For a number of reasons, rates have increased: A good portion of the assistants in town have either left the country, left the industry or have started shooting themselves. The cost of living has gone up significantly in our city, we were able to be selective as to who we work for because everyone kept wanting to shoot here. Also, I’m hearing that new assistants are charging nearly as much, if not more than seasoned pros. So in order to make up for it, we’ve raised our rates accordingly.

I think this last one hurts the industry as a whole. Why would anyone hire an assistant with 1 or 2 years experience when they can pay an extra $50 or $100 and get someone with 7-10 years behind them? I think this is bad for the industry as a whole because they don’t get on set, they don’t get experience and it’s a struggle on big/busy days.

My average day is about 9 hours. More and more jobs are going into OT though, which I typically don’t mind, but 11-12 hour days get tiresome really fast.

My day rate is $600 for 10hour day, Overtime after 2 hours, double time after that. I don’t do half days anymore, it’s not worth it. I might give a small discount if it’s a good or long term client and their desperate, but never for new clients.

I don’t do a lot of seasonal jobs. It’s warm here most of the year so we can shoot outdoors almost any day, provided it’s not raining. Bring some sunblock and you’ll be fine.

My terms are strict 28 days and it’s generally respected, i either get paid within 24 hours or on the 28 day mark. People who take longer don’t tend to stay clients of mine for long.

Best job was a multi week shoot for a major Australian brand. It was very relaxed, full day rates, lunch catered every day etc… It was outside the city so i should have charged for travel as well, but i just ate it in exchange for the cash. It was during the pandemic while some parts of the country were shut down so I was just counting my lucky stars I had income.

I think i came out with just shy of $10K. I had a hard time getting paid because it was flagged with the ATO (Aus Tax Office), so it took a while to get the cash cleared but made my year.

Worst paying job was a job with a new client that came from out of town. I thought we had agreed on rates, but turns out our city uses industry terms differently then they do, so there was a bit of back and forth after they received my bill; In the end, I was left with essentially a 50% pay cut for an extra long days work.

I work on a little bit of Video. Some of my clients shoot video, and it’s becoming more and more common to be on set with a videographer as well as a stills crew. I still charge my usual rates, and my roles vary from just general hands on deck to data wrangler.

Even though i’m less experienced on video than i am on stills, i feel i bring value on set because i know how they like to operate, how the like to light, how they like to run their days etc… only thing i can’t do (yet) is operate the camera or focus pull.

I market myself via instagram. I try and shoot personal work, or just shoot when I’m out and about doing stuff. I feel like my creative vision is a good marketing tool, people have told me they’re hire me because of the way i see certain things. Otherwise, it’s just word of mouth.

Worst Advice: they have more money, take it and run.
This is the worst advice because I’ve found success doing the exact opposite. I prefer to leave that $50 or $100 on the table in exchange for building trust or not charge for a quick short favour; I think karma has taken good care of me.

Best Advice: say no.
Say no and stick to it.. It could be a low ball offer, being asked for a discount just this one time or doing something way outside your comfort zone. You might lose that job, you might lose that client, but everyone will respect you and you won’t have to deal with that anymore.

Stop thinking about other assistants as your competition, and think of them as your peers. Talk to reach other other, be kind to each other, ask questions, share your rates and how you would charge x or y. We don’t have a union but we can still work together.

If someone isn’t paying you on time, isn’t treating you well on set, is being disrespectful, stop working for them. There’s so much work out there, people are getting flown in from other cities because there is such a shortage of good, qualified help. Just say no.

Learn how to use your tools. The amount of times i have someone hand me a camera or laptop and say “make it do x” is just incredible. For a while, i was in different people’s phone book as “John Smith – Phase 1”. Knowing those little obscure tricks and features has rally helped me gain the client base i have now.

A Commercial Lifestyle Photographer: $64k (gross)

In the years leading up to the pandemic, my gross income ranged from $115,000 to $230,000. Keep in mind, that this number is after my reps took their 30% cut, so the actual gross was higher. I became a full-time photographer around 2011. In those initial years, when I was solely focused on photography and not supplementing with assisting work, I was pulling in roughly $70,000 to $85,000 gross and steadily built my way up.

After college, I spent about four years as an intern, film production assistant, and photography assistant. To support myself during that time, I also worked at a supermarket.

I don’t currently have an agent, but I do work with one on a case-by-case basis if a project that comes in is substantial enough to warrant their involvement. In the past, I’ve been signed by three different agencies. One was a boutique agency, another was more mid-range, and the third was a well-known and prestigious agency. Each of these experiences was incredibly different from one another.

A couple of years ago, I decided to part ways with my last rep, and since then, I’ve been on the lookout for a new one, but it’s been a bit of a challenge finding the right fit for both parties. I have to admit, ego aside, that it’s been surprising how tough it’s been for an established commercial photographer, with over a decade of profitability, to even secure a meeting or a response from many agents.

Approximately 90% of my income is generated through commercial lifestyle projects. Editorial assignments have generally come my way only about two to three times a year.

In terms of workload, I typically handle bidding anywhere from 25 to 40 commercial project requests annually. During a successful year, I manage to secure around 5 to 7 of these projects, although it’s worth noting that there are no guarantees any year.

Most projects involve three, but up to six or more photographers bidding for them. There can be additional challenges like budget and scheduling problems that might lead to the project being canceled or postponed indefinitely. Even if you and the agency’s creative teams are on the same page, the final decision typically rests with the client. This client is usually someone you haven’t spoken to, and they often aren’t focused on creativity; they’re on the business side of things and have the ultimate say because they’re footing the bill.

I mainly work with Fortune 500 companies. I’ve collaborated with big advertising agencies and shot over two dozen global and national ad campaigns and also directed several TV commercials. My clients range from top tech companies and big sneaker brands to car ads, alcohol, healthcare, tourism, and pharmaceuticals.

I initially started with smaller “cool” brands, which eventually led to bigger projects. I still try to take on creatively interesting projects each year, even if the budget is tight.

I don’t have any employees that are on payroll. I hire assistants and techs on a freelance basis as well as professional services such as my accountant etc.

I keep my expenses low to survive in lean times. However, living costs have gone up significantly in recent years, while job opportunities and rates have not. I have substantial expenses like self-employment taxes, photography insurance, and health insurance. On top of that, I’ve managed to pay off my student loans, which were quite significant.

I work from my home office, which I can deduct as a business expense. I own just the essential equipment I need for smaller personal and editorial projects so I can work on them on without needing to rent extra gear.

I’ve never had a great retirement plan, just been trying to save up as much as I can and put a bit into an IRA. But these last couple of years, work’s been slow, and it’s taken a toll on my savings. If I decided to retire right now, I could probably get by for about two years in a more budget-friendly city without needing to work.

I’m pretty much “working” in some way every single day. In peak years, I used to work on a commercial project roughly every other month. These gigs could vary from quick 2-3 day shoots to those massive weeks-long projects that involved jetting off to different countries. Typically, each project would come with a couple weeks of prepro work and another couple weeks for post-production.

These days, it seems like most of my time is eaten up by bidding on projects, marketing my work, and all the research and outreach that goes into it. I also try to set up test shoots every couple of months and work on personal projects whenever I can.

Before the pandemic hit, my income was somewhat stable. There were some tougher years, but overall, I felt like my career was steadily growing and building each year.

In 2020, I got lucky because the year started well, and I managed to weather the storm with some government help.

Then came 2021, which turned out to be the kind of year every photographer dreads. I didn’t land a single profitable job. I was bidding on some good and high-paying creative projects, but none of them went my way. I did a few smaller shoots and personal projects, but they barely made any profit. My income mostly came from licensing images, government subsidies, and selling off old cameras and equipment. It was a really tough and eye-opening experience.

In 2022, things improved somewhat, but it still felt like the twilight zone.

Now, in 2023, it’s been more of a mixed bag. I’m getting more inquiries than in the past couple of years, but not a lot of success. It’s been one of the most frustrating years in my career, for sure, and is looking to not be a great one financially.

Photography is my sole source of income. In the last couple of years, I’ve really made a big push to find more stable work within the industry. I have been searching and applying for jobs that come with benefits, like 401(k)s, health insurance, stuff like in-house production or photo directing/editing jobs for big companies. But it turns out, those positions are just as competitive and hard to get into as being a freelance photographer.

There isn’t really a standard for an average shoot because projects vary quite a bit. Typically, a commercial shoot involves a tech day, two to three shoot days, and perhaps a post-production day. The day rate usually falls in the range of $2,500 to $7,500, and then usage fees are added on top of that. The usage fees are typically based on geographic terms and the duration of use. All in, I would ideally hope to take home between $20 – 30k per project, but it varies greatly. The best shoots have been the ones where it feels like the creative team is all in, and the terms are fair for everyone. I’ve come to realize that a good pricing strategy involves having a lower day rate, but with a usage agreement that’s likely to get renewed after the initial period. It also motivates me as a photographer to create images that are unique to the brand and will likely be renewed and won’t be easily replaced by stock photos.

I pay my assistants whatever rate they ask for. I think the going rate for a first in LA / NYC is about $700 – 800 for a 10 hour day. I will always go to bat for my assistants, they are the hardest working and most important people on a job in my opinion and I want them to feel comfortable and well compensated for their work.

The worst shoots have been the ones where they insist on a full buyout. Lately, I’ve noticed a troubling trend where art buyers require all bidding photographers to accept a buyout or else they won’t even be considered for the job. It’s like being turned into a content-producing machine for a big corporation. They walk away with thousands and thousands of your images that can be used indefinitely. This isn’t a fair or ethical way to work with commissioned artists, and the more considerate art buyers are aware of this issue and don’t abide by it.

I do both motion directing and still photography. My projects vary – sometimes I’m both directing and taking photos, other times I’m focused on shooting b-roll videos for social media. Occasionally, I work as a photographer alongside a broadcast film team. I’d say that in the past few years, about 75 percent of my shoots have had some motion element involved.

My marketing strategy has gone through significant changes in recent years. I can still recall a time when sending a single email blast would result in a dozen job offers. Over the years, I’ve also sent out hundreds of promo materials and made many in-person portfolio visits. However, the landscape shifted during the shutdown, and to be completely honest, I’m not sure what’s effective anymore. I do believe having a social media presence is beneficial, but it shouldn’t be the sole focus. Most of the jobs I’ve secured in the past couple of years have come through word of mouth – someone I’ve worked with in the past recommending me to others.

The best advice I’ve ever received is to “make photos that only YOU can make.” There are literally billions of photographers out there, and photography is a highly mechanized process, so you see countless people trying to imitate others or reproduce what they’ve seen before. With the rise of AI, this imitation problem is getting worse. When someone hires you, they’re not looking for a copycat (hopefully!); they want your unique perspective. Regardless of the subject, make it something that resonates with your personal view of the world and it will connect with others.

As for the worst advice, I’d say it came from my younger, more naive self. When I was younger, I thought I understood the industry better than I actually did. I didn’t think long-term and, like many artists, my ego sometimes clouded my judgment, especially during hot streaks that I believed would last forever. Being overly confident is great for creativity and taking risks, but it might not be the best approach when it comes to the business side or navigating industry politics.

I’m also a clinically diagnosed neurodivergent individual. While I don’t use my disability as an excuse or ever share this with potential clients, it has added significant challenges to my career in various ways.

This piece of advice is for those in gatekeeping positions in the industry, such as art buyers, photo editors, and producers. Let’s remember that kindness and compassion are choices we can all make. The culture in our industry can be demanding, cutthroat, often quite cynical, and plagued with cronyism and nepotism. We’re all out here doing our best, hustling to survive in this late-capitalist world.

Yes, we photographers are incredibly privileged to make a living through our work, but it’s a career that many of us have put a lot of effort into. And at the end of the day, it is a job. So, let’s not make it feel like we have to beg and bend over backwards for opportunities to do what we love and what also we depend on to keep the lights on and our families fed.

Unfortunately, there are no unions or standardized practices to adhere to in this industry. That means the gatekeepers hold a lot of power and control.

Please don’t forget the human aspect of your roles. We often problem-solve the budget on your projects, contribute to your creative vision, get on last-minute calls, and reschedule our lives completely, all of this is without any sort of compensation. Sometimes, a simple email response or a courteous notification when a project doesn’t work out is all that’s required, instead of ghosting someone and keeping them in a state of anxiety.

As many have pointed out, while photographers can show solidarity, there will always be someone willing to work for less – that’s the nature of capitalism in a creative field. So, photographers, we also have a responsibility to ourselves and each other to shape the way the industry treats us and those who collaborate with us.

So please…be excellent to each other.

A Commercial People in Environments and Automotive photographer: $400,000 – $900,000 (net)

I shoot almost all commercial work. Net income is a murky number. I pay myself $26,000/year and my wife $35,000/year through payroll. $5,000/month goes to our 401k accounts which leaves almost no cash in the actual paychecks. At the end of the year, the corporation doubles that contribution to our 401k accounts. The corporation also pays all of our healthcare and disability insurance for me (you need to have this if you are the bread winner in your house). One of our vehicles is owned by the corporation and it and every related expense is paid by the corporation. Cell phones, internet, etc.—all corporate expenses. I can also distribute profit as I see fit which being incorporated (S Corp.) is not subject to several W-2 taxes. In addition, I run a very lean ship with very little overhead—my office is on my personal residence property and I have no employees. My recurring expenses are accounting/tax advice, payroll, insurance, odds & ends and not much more. I don’t really count equipment as an expense but more as an investment—all my equipment is rented out to my own productions and after a year it pays for itself and then from there on generates real revenue. When I upgrade, I can usually recoup 50-75% of the initial investment. So, if you ask the IRS, the business net number is a very small number. In reality, it’s probably about 90% of gross as benefitted by me.

Gross income ranges from $500,000 to $1,000,000. The last few years have been at the lower range. 2023 I have only shot 6 jobs and I currently sit at about $400,000 and I would expect to have another job or two shot by the end of the year.

Reps are so key once you get to a certain level unless you could possibly keep up on all that they and their staff do. They have a pulse on the entire industry that you as a single artist probably could not really keep up on. Sometimes bidding on a job can be 2-4 weeks of back and forth—how could you possibly stay on top of that while shooting another job? Who would want to indulge in that? Not me. Most of your jobs are acquired by your reputation but I have booked several jobs by someone just calling my agent and asking, “Who do you have that can handle this job for us?” I would say half my work it is lifestyle/people and half automotive.

My clients are pretty much all national/international Fortune 500.

My general business expenses are close to nill. Of course, when we shoot a job, there are a lot of expenses but it all gets covered by the client. You have to bill for everything and you quickly learn to make line items in the estimate for everything just like an attorney. Don’t ever just chalk something up as an expense of doing business when it belongs to a job. I bill for everything the moment I walk out of my house to the moment I walk back in.

As touched on above, my wife and I are employees of the corporation and we pay ourselves a fair wage according to the tasks that we do. There are calculators out there that will tell you what your fair wage is—the IRS will like that you did this. My wife is actually paid more than me because I only spend half my time at this corporation. We pretty much put all our “wages” into our 401k accounts and then the corporation matches it at the end of the year. I like investing so I have no problem managing and having our retirement grow tax free until a later day in retirement when I can start withdrawing it in a much lower tax bracket. If you don’t like investing, hire a fee-based CFP but don’t hire someone from one of the companies you see in a commercial—those guys are paid to push products that benefit someone else.

I suppose that I am always “working” but in recent years I would say that I am only on shoots for about 30-45 days a year.

I feel like that I am semi-retired as there seems to be less jobs out there than there were just five years ago and the number of shoot days for each job are much less. Or maybe I am just becoming irrelevant? I shoot 5-10 jobs a year. All my jobs used to be 2-4 weeks long and now I think they are mostly about a week long. Commercial photography is extremely competitive to begin with and with what I feel like are fewer jobs out there, it becomes even more competitive. My income used to touch the $1,000,000 mark every couple years but now I barely cross the $500,000 threshold.

Photography has been good to me because in my early days I did fairly well. I am entrepreneurial so I was able to take those earnings and expand. Out of my 4 possible income streams, photography has now ranked 3rd for that past 5 years or so. It is my favorite hobby for sure.

I pour my heart and soul into a shoot. We usually don’t bid on something that I will not be able to pour some passion into. I will spend some considerable days prepping for a job even if my fees are not designated to cover those prep days—I feel my overall fee is there for me to nurture the creative vision from start to finish regardless of X days for prep, X for tech, X for shoot, etc.). So, prep days can add up quickly then travel, tech scouting, more prep, fittings, shooting and then traveling home—a job with 5 shoot days can easily consume 2 weeks of my time. Shoot days are usually 12-18 hours from portal to portal. Take-home pay is always fair to current industry rates (I hope) and the expenses are basically coming out of another budget (I almost never deal with expenses as they are taken care of by the producer). I would say I usually take home $50,000-$100,000 per job. Licensing terms are erratic as some agencies are fine with licensing and others basically want perpetuity for one fee.

I pay assistants $800/10hr day plus OT. Travel, tech and prep days are billed the same.

We don’t really have a “worst-paying shoot” unless we put it upon ourselves. And that would be if I want the creative but the budget is not there because it is pro-bono or a good cause. Even on a pro-bono shoot, they are going to cover expenses—I am just donating my creative and right index finger. If it’s a regular job and they don’t have the budget, we politely let them know we can’t do it.

I would say half my income is video as we have some stills only jobs, some hybrid jobs and some video only jobs.

With marketing I don’t think there is a silver bullet to getting everyone. I can’t tell you that a certain ad or email is the job monster. It’s a consistent culmination of all your efforts that gets you noticed. Basically people need to know you exist in order to bid you on jobs. So, the usual suspects: advertising in industry pubs, email blasts, sources books (mostly online now), Instagram and entering award shows (but don’t enter photo shows—most ad people don’t know what PDN, Rangefinder, etc. is). We used to do a lot of printed promos but Covid pretty much squashed that since I think the majority of all agency people are still working from home. Whenever I am on a job, I take a poll from the creatives if they actually go into the agency and some have actually not been in since before Covid. Also, on your Zoom calls you can see they are almost all still at home.

Best advice is you have to be fanatical about what you do. You have to love the art to become successful (except for the guy that picks up a camera once and then becomes the jewel of NYC without even trying). If it becomes a job, then it shows you are just there putting in the hours. After 20 years, I love every minute of being on set and creating. Even when I am done with this as a career, I will still be out making images.

Worst advice is “you have to specialize in one subject”. Maybe I have misinterpreted that and am too literal but some people will tell you, you have to be The Taco Guy or the The Car Guy. I feel better advice is to define yourself with a style, way of composing, lighting or ? The subject doesn’t really matter. But when someone sees your work in the wild, they should be able to know it is you that shot it (or have a pretty good idea). When they look at your body of work on your website, it should look like one person’s work. It doesn’t have to be a concise collection of butt plugs for someone to be able to define you. There was a point where I never shot a car but now half my jobs are car jobs. People like the way I compose subjects in environments and said, “OK, now do it with this piece of sheet metal.”

The world is changing everyday and right now is a really scary time for commercial photographers. You have to keep up and continue to evolve. Look at artists like Nadav Kander or John Huet—their work is not the exact same as 20 years ago but you can see the evolution of the artist in their new work that keeps them relevant. Keep an open mind as technology changes. Remember when people freaked out when Photoshop and retouching became a thing? Remember when people freaked out when CGI came along? I am sure those took some jobs away from photographers but not a significant portion. And now AI? You just have to evaluate and see where things fit in with your workflow. Erik Almas just did what he does best of merging backgrounds with talent that he shoots later in a studio except this time he made the backgrounds with AI and it looks pretty great. Everyone is so mad and afraid of AI right now. I could be wrong, but I don’t think AI as tool on it’s own is going to take all the jobs. There’s a great meme out there that says don’t worry about AI because there is no way a client is going to be able to concisely describe what they want to a prompt.

Digi Tech based in NYC: $148k

I’m a NY S-Corp and I’m the sole shareholder and only employee. I have a family and I’m the sole provider. My salary is based on the minimum we need to cover personal expenses and 2/5ths of our rent. We have health insurance through Obamacare so the less I payroll myself the higher the subsidy.

I have and will work on any kind of shoot, anywhere in the world. If the money is right, I’m there. As for my style of teching, I am adaptable and versatile with any situation or shoot able to be handled with grace and precision. I can be as hands-on or as hands-off as the photographer needs me to be. My main goal is to use all my skills to make it so the photographer has to only focus on taking the pictures. I work well with assistants and lighting directors to dial in the light and grade. I am a sounding board and problem solver for the photographer, and have many times been an art-director-whisperer if the photographer gets in a rut or the shoot goes off track.

⅓ of my income is rate and ⅔ is from equipment rentals. A small profit comes from reselling hard drives and charging for EQ transportation.

Photographers for whom I work are as varied as they come. Young and old, varied nationalities, male or female or non-binary. There are a few photographers I refuse to work with due to their personalities, but it’s a short list. Sometimes a photographer who is an agent of chaos is fun to work for! Flip that, and a perfectly nice person can be a miserable photographer to be on set with. I only have 1 legacy client I work for where I don’t rent my gear, but they make up for it in rate.

I don’t have any employees, but I hire techs to work with my equipment for my clients from time to time. I always slice them off a bit from the EQ fees, and pay as soon as the invoice is received.

I have a desk in our spare bedroom, store all my EQ at home and use my personal car to transport equipment. My overhead is equipment/rental insurance at about $3500/year, accountant for $2500/year, bookkeeper for $1200/year.

My main costs are upgrading equipment, but that has slowed down in the past year. I only own camera systems I shoot personal work with (No Sony, Canon or Fuji). I’m sticking with the M1 laptops until the M3 series come out next year, so that saved $10k.

I have a Roth IRA and a SEP IRA. I’m barely able to contribute to the Roth because my salary is so low. I can put 25% of my salary in the SEP so that was $15K in 2022 and $24k in 2023. I’ve got $78k in retirement, $10k in personal savings and about $2K in stocks.

I work 150-170 days a yearSteadily increased then took a hit from Covid. Now it’s the highest it’s been.

I think best paying job post-Covid was an 8 day job where the rate was $750 and $1K for EQ. Ended up taking home more than $14k after OT. Best single day job was about $3500 for the day. Rate was $800, EQ $1500 and camera rental was $1200.

Worst paying jobs post-Covid was $500/10, no EQ. It was for one of my favorite clients and it was a personal project so I gave them a deal. They prefaced the confirm saying I should bounce if a money job came in. Worst job of all-time was in 2015, a 21-hour editorial for $350. And, the pictures were terrible too!

I can media manage motion data but I do not bill myself as a DIT or Stills/Motion combo. Sometimes there’s extra money negotiated to manage motion data. Sometimes I volunteer to do it if the second AC or solo videographer is swamped.

I’m pretty much 100% word of mouth and referrals. It feels like, if you’re out there hustling for work, there’s a reason you’re not working.

I have a website I can direct people to that has tearsheets, lists of clients and owned equipment. That’s something I can send once someone reaches out. I don’t have a resume and if someone asks for a resume it’s kind of a red flag. I did an email blast when I first launched my website a few years ago but that drummed up zero business, and I haven’t done it since.

Best advice would probably be that being a full-time tech and not trying to shoot is a great career path. I have less stress and make more money than a lot of my contemporaries who are either trying to shoot or have been shooting for a few years. I don’t have to bust my ass to get clients and at the end of a shoot I never have to think about it again.

Worst advice, that comes to mind, is the importance of working for top-tier photographers. The system of working for a huge photographer as a stepping stone to a successful photography career doesn’t apply as much these days, unless you’re with the top of the top of the top.

For techs, my advice is, when starting out, take whatever comes your way as long as you feel okay about the money. Take non-EQ jobs to hone your skills. You never know who you’re going to meet on set who will recommend you, and help jump start a successful tech career. For photographers, my advice would be to listen to your tech and treat them as a kind of creative partner. Photographers focus so much on their own imagery and how they make pictures, never imagining how others approach creating images. Many don’t take into account that I evaluate, color grade and crop, literally, over a million of images a year, and I am a wealth of knowledge, tips, hacks, workflow improvements, technological advances, trends, culture and aesthetic values.

A Commercial Lifestyle, Fitness and Sports Photographer/Director based in LA: $181k (net)

My first actual biggish commercial job where I had a digital tech for the first time and a few assistants was in 2015.

2022: Gross $388,000, Tax (30%) $107,000, Agent (25%) $89,000, Take Home $181,000
2021: Gross $705,900, Tax (30%) $208,000, Agent (25%) $179,000, Take Home $309,900
2020: Gross $427,200, Tax (30%) $128,000, Agent (25%) $106,800, Take Home $307,600
2019: Gross $551,500, Tax (30%) $165,450, Agent (25%) $137,800, Take Home $248,250

Above, I listed out of my income for the past few years. It has my gross income from my fees. We set aside 30% for taxes. We never pay that whole amount for taxes, but it’s a good forced savings account. My Agent gets 25% of all fees.

My partner is in the creative industry but doesn’t work directly with me. We jointly own our S-Corp and bill our fees through the same company. We use a payroll company to pay ourselves $6,000 monthly to cover most of our personal expenses.

Our business expenses are around 10K per month. This accounts for general business expenses like insurance, online storage, and other essential things. It also accounts for those random months when we buy some new equipment, hard drives, send out promos, or do a test shoot.

Altogether, we want to make around 20K monthly ($240,000 per year) to live relatively carefree. That income would let me generally shoot any test shoot without worrying about the cost too much. We could go on a vacation or two, but nothing too lavish. We could buy some nice furniture for the house or something like that.

I know that sounds like a ton of money, and it definitely is, but running a photography business can be expensive. For instance, I’m writing this from my 2019 Macbook Pro on a laptop fan stand to help keep it cool. Work has been too slow for the past year for me to get a new computer comfortably. We spend money now only on what we have to, not want to.

I don’t own a studio or too much gear. Our expenses are general business expenses like insurance, online storage, and other essential things.

We put as many expenses on the business as possible. I always take photos while we’re out, so it’s easy to justify.

Photography is about 90% of my income. I do direct, but generally, we lump that into the shooting rate. I do my retouching sometimes for clients which we bill for.

My clients are Fortune 500 companies that span from sports, fitness, technology, and pharmaceutical. I like to say, if it’s got people in it, I’ll shoot it.

My partner and I have 401K, and we contribute each year. We don’t do individual stock buying or anything like that.

Shoot Days:
2022: 48
2021: 62
2020: 59
2019: 87

It has fluctuated a lot, as you can see. It felt like I hit a high point in 2021, and now I’m riding the rollercoaster downhill at the moment. A few of my big clients underwent some changes, and I’m no longer shooting with them. I felt a significant shift in the summer of 2022. That’s when I noticed a real slowdown. Personally, I don’t think it’s picked up to where it used to be. The economy scares hit the folks I usually work with. One big Fortune 200 company I’ve worked with a lot relicensed almost everything I’ve shot for them instead of creating new work. That has helped my bottom line this year and is a testament to not giving up usage rights for unlimited time. Of course, we do that on some jobs, but we obviously see the value in limiting that usage, so things like this can happen.

My partner works in the creative industry but not directly with me. They still bill through our company for their work. I’m the general breadwinner in the family at this moment.

It ranges all the time, as I’m sure everyone does. I’ll talk about those bigger jobs that require treatments and lots of prep time. So when those jobs come in, this is how it all breaks down time-wise and financially:

– We get approached about the project and have our first creative call with the client/agency.
– We bring on a production company to work on the bid with my agent while I work on the treatment.
– Before we submit, we align on the creative and production process we will take with the job. I don’t want to say we’ll shoot all with HMI’s, and production has a strobe package put into the budget. It’s important to tell your production company everything you plan to do creatively because that can affect the budget.
– We submit the budget and treatment, and sometimes we get to have a second call to review both, which is great.
– We get awarded the job and immediately start on casting, locations, and the rest of it.
– We’ll do in-person location scouting and sometimes in-person casting for talent.
– These jobs at this scale are generally at least 3-5 days.

Jobs at this scale financially are generally pretty great. Let’s take a job I did recently at this scale with the same prep work as stated above. It was for a Fortune 100 company. The shoot was four days. I worked on this project (including treatment) for around 15 days off and on.

Rate: $10,500.00 per day for four days
Tech Scout: $3,500
Pre-Production/Fitting: $1,500
Total Fees: $47,000

Usage
This license is strictly limited to the terms and conditions below, and governed by the Copyright laws of the United States, as specified in Title 17 of the United States Code:
Duration: 3 Years
Exclusivity: Exclusive
Region: Worldwide
Media: Unlimited Media
Photographer retains ownership and copyright.

I pay $750 for my first assistant, $650 for second and so on. My digital tech gets $750 for his rate and at least $1,500 for his equipment. Generally, it’s around $1,850-2K depending on what we need. These rates are for 10-hour days.

My best paying shoots over the years:

2019: $80,000 – This was an 11-day job in Spain for a Fortune 200 company. My fees would be over 100K when we won the job, but the company had to strike some shoot days for budget reasons.

2020: $61,000 – This was five shoot days with two tech scout days alongside motion for a Fortune 50 company. I shot with motion, but when they moved on, we set up our own lights and reshot other things.

2021: $75,000 – This was additional usage of a complete buyout of work I had done for a company that year. We shot the job with a one-year usage agreement for $53,000 in fees. The company returned to us later that year and requested to buy out the library of images for an unlimited time.

2022: $41,500 – This was for a sports/fitness company. It was a travel job with four shoot days.

Worst shoot:
There’s one I’m about to shoot tomorrow that’s pretty bad. It’s a one-day shoot with two years of unlimited usage for $2,000 that I spent three days creating a treatment for and have already been on two pre-production calls, and I’ll be leaving my house soon to go on a scout. The entire production of the shoot is $70,000.

But here’s the thing: the creative is good, and the work could lead to some much bigger players in the space. Of course, the company said that if this shoot goes well, they will be shooting a lot more, which we never really take as a solid offer.

If a job has great creative and could lead to more work in a sector, we jump on the opportunity. We never like to give away usage for that cheap, but sometimes, you have to play the long game in this industry. If they come back, we will not do the shoot again for 2K. We always bump our fees up higher because we’ve proved ourselves.

For personal projects, I shoot the video myself. It’s not a huge percentage of my income at this point. I’d like it to be higher, but currently, it’s primarily stills. All of my personal projects now have a motion component to them.

For marketing, there’s pre and post-COVID lol. Pre covid, I was creating books, newspaper promos, and things like that. In this new world, I make promo items for clients I know personally. I last did a newspaper promo a few years ago, but I send out other fun things to them that they like. It’s all branded with my logo and contains a lovely postcard of a favorite image of mine.

I haven’t seen anyone else do this, so I’m not going to dive too into specifics on what I’m sending and how I’m sending it. But mainly, I send something out a few times a year and make it very branded.

I’ve started sending out a newsletter, which has been fun. I’ll take meetings when I’m in different cities. I keep up with clients on Instagram.

My agent does most of the marketing. They send out newsletters all the time, and they take meetings constantly.

I don’t know about the worst advice, but I have heard of a way of running your business that I can’t entirely agree with. There are people out there who take a slice of the whole budget for themselves. By that, I mean they will tell their crew their rates are one thing, but they’ve actually budgeted more and will keep that difference. I run my business differently. I make decent money, and I love my crew and want them to thrive. I will always give them as much money as possible.

That said, if we do a shoot with a budget of 100K and come in at 95K, I will pad the final invoice to get closer to that 100K and keep that money for myself. If the client has already allocated that money, we’ll use it! Of course, I like the extra money, but it’s also suitable for the client. If we come in under, their bosses will think that’s what it will cost going forward. If you don’t use it, you’ll lose it.

As for best advice, god, I could go on and on about what I think is essential, and I’m learning new ones every day. I have a personal mantra: “I’ve just begun.” That allows me grace when I don’t love a shoot that I did, or I make a financial mistake. I’m constantly learning and trying to grow.

If I were to give advice, it would be the following:
– Always be creating personal projects.
– Treat every job like your last (I still need help to follow this).
– Shoot what the client wants and then try to find the time to shoot it the way you see it.
– Treat your crew well, and they will treat you well. I’ve heard so many horror stories from my assistants about photographers who are such assholes. How these photographers keep working, I’ll never understand.
– Figure out how to manage your money and do a personal budget.
– Figure out how to manage your money and do a personal budget.

Something like that. As I said, I’m still learning every day, but those are important.

I feel incredibly grateful for where I am in my career. When you read these numbers, I wonder what life you think I have. You might assume I’m rolling in cash and must not have a care in the world. I’m a represented photographer who works with some huge companies. I must feel like I’ve made it.

By no means is any of that true. Life can throw a bunch of crazy things at you at once, which will drain all your savings, which has happened to us. We were fortunate to survive, but we’ve been financially struggling for at least a year. Work has slowed down, and mixed with things that have happened in our life, it’s been pretty stressful. I have multiple photographers muted on Instagram because I swear every time I saw their posts, they were working. I couldn’t take it anymore. I constantly feel like my work isn’t good enough and strive to create work like I see on my feed every day. Sometimes, I feel like I’ve peaked in my career and taken those good times for granted. When the money was rolling in, I became complacent and stopped pushing myself as hard as I could. I’ve lived with this stress for years. I constantly think, what if the work stops, what am I going to do.

I am so grateful for where I am in my life, which are two opposite sides of the coin. I’m grateful that I can make a career out of photography, and I’m grateful for being this stressed about work and finances. I know it may seem funny to be grateful about stress, but it’s pushed me so much harder with creating new work, updating my website, starting a newsletter, and being more active on Instagram. I need to work on handling stress better as a human, but I’m going to try to hold onto that fear of it all going away. As a photographer, I’ve always been extremely hungry and pushed myself. Now, however, I’m pushing so much harder!

From this rambling part, if I were to instill one thing in anyone who reads this – next time you’re getting paid to shoot photos – STOP…for just a moment. Look around. You might be on a big shoot with tons of people or a small one. YOU are making money from photography! How fucking cool is that! Still, to this day, it amazes me! I absolutely love every second of it. From being on sets with tons of people and pressure to perform, to shooting personal projects with just me and an assistant. I love every second of it and wouldn’t trade it for the world.

So just know, a photographer like me, who you might think had made it, is still just as hungry, full of self-doubt, ambitious, and passionate as when I started.

A Photo Assistant based in Northern California: $28,700 (net)

These numbers are mostly from assisting, but also includes some of the photography work I did.

Technically, 11 years as a photographer. 8 years as a photo assistant.

My income is Photo Assistant – 90%, Event Photography – 5%, Portrait – 3%, Food – 2% All of my clients are local. The pay range for assisting is anywhere from $350-600 depending on the type of shoot.

I don’t have a lot of overhead. Either I do work in my apartment, but I am mostly on location doing my own work though mostly assisting.

I have retirement accounts, but unfortunately, I’ve had to dip into them so I really don’t have much.

I really try to take on what I can within reason of course. I make sure to have boundaries so I don’t get burnout and try to stick to other obligations.

My income started off really low when I first started freelancing. 2019 was a good year and my goal for 2020 was to gain more income than the previous year. Of course, we know how that went. This year is kind of feeling more like when I first started. There’s a lot of uncertainty and not a lot of income coming in.

I’ve sort of taken on a temp job, which has been helpful when things are slow. And though there’s no income in it, I’ve been volunteering at a local organization when I can.

Most of the shoots I’m on average about 2 days. But they can range anywhere from 1 day to 8 days.

My best recent job was a 2 day shoot with talent and two different locations. This was for personal care products. We had 10 hour days, which included wardrobe and HMU. Licensing was only for social for 2 years, but later the client wanted to add for web to the existing license. The brands could only use the images for web as well as internal use. Take home after (including the addition to the license) was $19,400. This was in 2021.

I don’t shoot video, but this is something I want to start getting into.

I need to work on marketing. I’ve been focusing on building up my portfolio again as most of my work is kind of old. But I plan to reach out to potential clients about possible future work.

It’s okay to want to perceive yourself as not being on the same track as your peers. We all work at our own pace and deal with our own setbacks. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. Do what works for you. Try to set aside those feelings. Keep your focus on your work and the work your peers are doing so that you can better yourself as a person and an artist.