Best Business Practices for Photographers [140]
In a similar fashion, if a client hires multiple photographers for an event, they are all going to want to get the same angle/shot. Yet, if you're the photographer who subcontracts the others, you are in charge—you choose coverage perspectives, and as such, you can significantly enhance the event coverage. I have covered major news events as the photographer for the event organizers, and I have been responsible for directing multiple others. In those instances, I can assign someone to stick with the VIPs, someone to get crowd participation, someone to make sure to document corporate sponsorship logos/signage to validate that they had a major presence there, someone on the finish line of a foot race, and so on. For a multi-photographer wedding, you can direct someone in the balcony shooting head-ons and wides of the overview, someone in the front of the church at an angle getting the "cutaway" shot of the bride/groom when their backs are to the audience, and someone to get reaction shots of the family in the front pew, and so on.
The challenge is convincing the people hiring you—whether the bride and groom, parents (in the event of a wedding or other rite of passage), or others—to have you be in charge. Much of this is moot if you're the only person covering the event, but for large ceremonies, it's not uncommon to have multiple photographers. If you're not the one in charge, make certain that your role is specifically defined. When you are working for a fellow photographer verbal direction makes sense, but if you're working directly with the client, and they are then essentially directing each of the photographers, make sure your contract spells out these things. It may be that in the example of the kiss and walk down the aisle for a wedding, the bride wanted the insurance of two photographers in the back or wanted the feel of paparazzi as they exited the church. I would always try to be the one in charge so that I could choose the photographers I was comfortable working with and who I felt were best for the job.
Recommended Reading
Cantrell, Bambi and Skip Cohen. The Art of Digital Wedding Photography: Professional Techniques with Style (Amphoto Books, 2006).
Sint, Steve. Wedding Photography: Art, Business & Style (Lark Books; Second Edition, 2005).
Chapter 16 Negotiations: Signing Up or Saying No
Were it so that clients paid our stated rates with no haggling! Were it that car dealers didn't try to get you to pay extra for the superior underspray versus the standard underspray. During a college summer, I took a job for one day selling cars. I spent the day in training, learning how to convert a $6,000 car to an $11,000 sale and that the difference between the standard underspray and the superior underspray was that the aftermarket service the dealership paid a pittance to do the spray had a worker stand on one foot when spraying the superior spray. I kid you not. At the end of the day, I decided I could not stomach being a car salesman even for a summer during college, so I did not return for the remaining training days. However, I learned more about car sales than I ever thought I would—how they adjust your interest rate based upon the value of your trade-in and how they get you to pay overpriced charges. Car dealers make haggling over prices almost a requirement of buying a vehicle. But negotiating is a way of life, and, in truth, you can negotiate