#value your work

"Not saying this in a negative way, but models and photographers really do come a time a dozen..."

In the wake of my potential and impending move, I have been looking on craigslist for photography work. I frequent the craigslist pages and FAR too often come across people looking for FREE or CHEAP work. I never really thought much of it but have come to learn that this type of post is ENTIRELY insulting. The posters of these ads, constantly search for "talented photographers" with "experience" and "strong portfolios" and minimum requirements for what "gear" the photographer uses...typically cameras that range in the $1500+ area not even including lenses that ALSO typically cost $1500 or more. And you want me to use this $3,000+ worth of equipment to produce something for you for FREE?!?

I don't come to your work and say "Oh, hey, I see you are just getting into the business Mr. and Mrs. Coffee shop owner, how about I hire you to open up another shop in my neighborhood and I'll pay you none of the profits (or any money for that matter) but it will really get your name out there and provide you with invaluable experience in running coffee shops!!!"

It's utterly ridiculous. I only just recently realized the consequences of offering free or cheap work, and they are dire. If you value your work that little you will never make any money, plain and simple. By offering cheap prices people come to expect that as the norm and complain if others are charging more...this makes bad business for everyone. To simplify the idea, let's equate it to gas prices. If one gas station sold gasoline for lets say 1/4 the price (~ $0.93/gal), everyone would go there and stop paying $3.75/gal down the street. One of two things can happen in this situation - either the expensive gas stations go out of business, or they drop their prices to match. Since this is not the case and most gas stations would like to stay in business (and not cut everyones pay and essentially end up going out of business anyway by lowering prices) they keep their prices stable in comparison to one another. Sure it changes state by state and even just by city, but the prices remain similar and everyone fluctuates from time to time to stay in business. Same is true for photography, and many businesses really.

If I constantly give my work away for free I gain nothing...except a bunch of people interested in also getting stuff for free. Not only do I hurt myself but any other photographers in the area will lose business as well if I charge nothing and they charge pretty much anything.

It also pains me that corporate photography studios that offer free sittings and cheap services, dupe parents into thinking what they pay for is actually high quality. I worked in a portrait studio like that and I bet most parents don't realize that probably 75% of the staff has no prior photography experience and that the cheap cost of their "beautiful" (hardly) images is paid for by the overworked and severely underpaid staff. Hence, the reason no actual photographer that realizes their worth and respects themselves, will work there for minimum wage. It's unfortunate. Big businesses ruin the small, quality businesses by exploiting workers and cutting corners to provide cheaper products, which 9 times out of 10 are simply much poorer in quality. It happens in SO MANY MARKETS - art, entertainment, even the food industry.... and we LET them. The reason they do it is because all of us consumers EXPECT to pay less. We let this happen. We offer OUR services at a steal, making no money and undercutting ourselves, then since we made no money, purchase poor quality cheaply made things so we don't go bankrupt and in turn end up supporting the bad guys buy expecting/buying cheap.

Anyways, I went on a bit of a tangent but think it over (if you made it this far).