Best Business Practices for Photographers [153]
Whatever the circumstances surrounding a lost assignment, I encourage you to make a point of learning why each one was lost and what steps could be taken to avoid that outcome in the future.
Case Study: Science Competition
Several years ago, I was contracted to photograph an event in Washington—the awarding of a science medal to two students during a competition. The license was my standard one for events, and it expired after a year. On the reverse of the photographs was my copyright notice, phone number, and roll and frame numbers. A science book publisher, obtaining those proofs, wanted photographs of the students for a textbook on science and contacted me by telephone.
The initial inquiry came into my office while I was out on an all-day assignment. My office manager called to give me the details of the inquiry. I asked her to research pricing through the software resources we have, and I reached the conclusion that for the use they initially stated they were looking for pricing on, I'd quote $275 per image, or $550 total. The back and forth begins below, and note how when we provide a quote based upon the expanded usage, the media buyer for the organization steps in to attempt to negotiate downward. The end result that they wanted to spend was between $450 and $500. In the end, for both, they ended up paying just over $1,900.
Recommended Reading
Cohen, Herb. You Can Negotiate Anything (Jaico Publishing House, 2004).
Steinberg, Leigh. Winning with Integrity: Getting What You Want without Selling Your Soul—A Guide to Negotiating (Three Rivers Press, 1999).
Weisgrau, Richard. The Photographer"s Guide to Negotiating (Allworth Press, 2005).
Ziglar, Zig. Secrets of Closing the Sale (Revell; Updated Edition, 2004).
Chapter 17 Protecting Your Work: How and Why
The thing about copyright is that it's your right. Hence "copy" and "right." You have been given a limited monopoly over your creative endeavors to give you the incentive to create more. After you're gone, and then after 75 years, your work belongs to your family or estate, and they can continue to benefit from your genius. Later, it becomes wholly owned by the public, and anyone can do whatever they want with your endeavors.
I think this is pretty great. I have been given the incentive to be a photographer. And I own my work. I can recall with great detail the environment surrounding most of the photos I've made. Often I can recall the weather, the challenges of the client, the lighting setup, and who was on that shoot, whether colleagues or assistants. That means the shoot is a piece of me, and I feel protective about these little pieces of me and how someone might use them.
It's the Principle of the Thing for Me
Don't confuse my incentive to be a photographer with greed or anything of the sort. I'd make images without being paid—although it's work, it's definitely not a job. However, when someone wants to exploit my work—pieces of me—for their own gain, I expect to be compensated for their use of my work.
For most editorial magazines, if they have 30 pages of advertising and 30 pages of editorial content, it's those 30 editorial pages that the subscriber/reader wants to see. They've agreed to page through the 30 pages of ads because the value of the editorial content is enough for them to do so. In some cases, such as a fall fashion magazine or an annual automotive magazine with the next year's line of cars, the ads may be a draw; however, these circumstances are the exception rather than the rule. So, if I have contributed a full-page image from an assignment, I have directly contributed to the value of the publication, and thus I should be compensated. If the magazine sells ad space at a rate of $18,000 for a full page, that means they earn $540,000 per issue from advertising. It's fair for me to be appropriately compensated for my contribution. In the circumstance of a corporate/commercial shoot, I am directly contributing to the sale of their product or the public perception of their company, and, again,