• Home
  • Reviews Index
  • Best Gear
  • Inspiration
  • Learn
  • Disclaimer
  • Staff/Contact Info
  • Media Kit
  • Membership
Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
News

This Photographer is Looking For Others to Do Their Jobs for Free

Chris Gampat
No Comments
10/31/2017
3 Mins read
Photographer Job for Free

Last Updated on 10/31/2017 by Chris Gampat

How many of you do your jobs as photographers for free?

If you’ve ever been told you should be doing a job for free, then this is an absolutely special ad just for you. When you’re starting out, or even later on in your career, it’s not uncommon that someone may ask you to do a photography job for free. It’s also fairly common that folks will do it for free and will most of the time do nowhere near as good of a job as you would. And so this special ad recently shared on Writing on Writing’s Facebook wall will relate to photographers oh so much.

The ad, which was shared via JPEGMini, shows off the words of a photographer who makes it very clear: if everyone expects me to do my job for free then it’s safe to assume that everyone else does their for free too. I mean just think about that:

  • Trading photographic services for doctor’s fees
  • Trading for food
  • Trading for a cabbie dropping you off somewhere
  • Trading for a delivery man to bring you a sandwich from the local deli
  • Trading photos for a mechanic to repair your car

The more and more you think about it, the more this all sounds absurd. And I think that behind it all is a bigger and more inherent problem. For starters, let’s relate this to other art forms: painting, sculpting, performing arts, etc are all seen as much more complicated. But why?

And now, for a rant:

You see, at least here in the United States, people don’t really understand the arts due to a lack of solid arts education. Combine this with every manufacturer saying you can capture the moment with any DSLR on Auto, Instagram, etc. and people will absolutely devalue what you do–which essentially is capturing. But if you’re a photographer who is carrying themselves with every bit of professionalism and typically tends to create images vs capturing them, then you’re doing something the average person without an artistic vision can’t do. In the past few years, I’ve been emphasizing this more and more, especially in the world of street photography. Every photographer and their mother thinks they can shoot street but when you go to collectives and look at the work of many, you more or less get work that all looks similar. There’s only so many times you can see the same expression and people over and over again.

Before street photography, it was with weddings. Cheap weddings should really only be shot in JPEG if you want to maximize the value for the money. Of course, go ahead and shoot in RAW if you wish and then simply export the images with a preset. At least that’s my belief; if you’re getting paid only $250 for a wedding you shouldn’t spend an entire week editing the photos because that means you spent an entire day shooting and a week editing. That makes absolutely no sense and is pretty much working for a slave wage.

If you’re creating images though, then you’re doing something most other people can’t do at all. No amount of Instagram or Apple trying to create a portrait lighting look can do that. And so we as photographers need to step our game up and educate common folk about what we do. Heck, there are AI algorithms that think they can help you take a better picture.

capturing the moment craigslist creating free gigs images instagram jobs photographer
Shares
Written by

Chris Gampat

Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
Previous Post

Fujifilm Instax Wide Monochrome is Guaranteed to Be Gorgeous

Next Post

Review: Rokinon 14mm f2.4 SP Lens (Canon EF)

The Phoblographer © 2023 ——Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
  • Home
  • Our Staff
  • Editorial Policies
  • Media Kit
  • Membership
  • App Debug