An old high school friend recently got in touch with me via Facebook about a potential partnership.

He runs his own little business specializing mostly in baptisms among the Greek community, with a few weddings here and there too. His company handles pretty much everything, from the invitations to the photography/video, to the bonbonnieres. He comes from a graphic design background.

He basically partners himself with a few photographers/videographers that go out to these events, snap a buttload of photos, and bring them back to him. He handles all the processing. Pay rate comes to about $40-50 an hour, which works for me since I don't have to deal with processing.

A couple of things bother me about this, so I want your opinions.

1. It's fine for me to use photos in a print portfolio, but online will probably not be okay -- apparently many of his clients are really uncomfortable with their kids being posted on random websites or Facebook or whatever. Wedding photography would probably be okay.

2. He doesn't have a general model release built into his contracts. This makes me nervous.

3. He charges rock-bottom prices. While I feel like I'll come out okay on the financial side, part of me feels a little loathe to associate my work with a low-budget outfit. The other part of me feels like I'm being a little bit of a pompous ass about this. Thing is, going off what he told me (most of his photographers are complete n00bs) and the photos I've seen so far, I know my work will bring up the quality of the photography, and I'm not sure I want my work to be associated with cut-rate prices. Then again, this would be side work that I wouldn't really pimp much anyhow -- more of a means to my own photographic ends.

How would you folks approach this?


-A

There's nothing that says you need to advertise yourself as being associated with him - take the money, the experience and (maybe) some great shots for your portfolio and run! I don't see a downside here.

1. I get the first thing, the last bit I don't. I'd clarify by what it means "probably". Two clients of mine requested that their pictures be kept private, and I respect their wishes. But unless they specifically request images not being displayed, I use them for my port if I want to (Print and online). Your friend would need to be more specific with that, with a simple question to the clients with it being stated in the contract,

2. Ask him if he can add it

3. Idk what to advise about that. I started with an entire wedding for $100, and moved up there. Came up to $7/hr once I factored in processing the images. But that was me brand new, with insufficient gear. If it were me a year ago, I might have gone for this, stayed for a while, at which time I'd experiment with different styles and techniques. But you did pretty well on your own in Tanya and Neil's wedding. $50/hr is pretty decent money though.

Thanks for the input so far. Still a little put off by the idea that I can't use photos for an online portfolio; to your question, Saad, he was pretty clear that it was a rarity for parents to allow their kids' photos to be put up online. That's too bad, because I think I'm most interested in portraiture, and I think baby photography could be a lot of fun.

The money does sound pretty good (although actually for weddings I think it begins to come to much less than that, since he doesn't state a start and end time), and I guess the experience will be interesting.

I guess I still have some questions for him; I'll send him an e-mail and get some stuff finalized and check back in.


-A


PS: Mods - I actually meant to post this in Hidden Business, think you could move it?

Originally Posted by QJ

For $40-$50/hour just to shoot I'd say go for it.

Up the quality of his business and maybe he will be convinced he can charge more in the future.

Although, if he's paying $40-$50/hour to a shooter then how rock bottom are his prices, really?

+123

Anytime I second shoot for my friend Rachel (I have shown some of the photos here in PiP), I can't show those photos online. It's not even about the clients being uncomfortable in some cases (though that's part of it)--it's how the studio is represented--you are shooting under contract in their name, so you are effectively an embodiment of the studio. That's a pretty normal thing.

I'd use this as an opportunity to get paid experience. As others have said, I wouldn't advertise the fact that I'm shooting for this guy, or draw any obvious connections between the two, but it rarely hurts to build portfolio or real-world experience. And, I don't see anything ethically objectionable, so I don't see much of a downside.

Originally Posted by Markitos

Anytime I second shoot for my friend Rachel (I have shown some of the photos here in PiP), I can't show those photos online. It's not even about the clients being uncomfortable in some cases (though that's part of it)--it's how the studio is represented--you are shooting under contract in their name, so you are effectively an embodiment of the studio. That's a pretty normal thing.

Yup, and I wouldn't ever market myself when I'm working on contract for someone else.

Originally Posted by Markitos

I'd use this as an opportunity to get paid experience. As others have said, I wouldn't advertise the fact that I'm shooting for this guy, or draw any obvious connections between the two, but it rarely hurts to build portfolio or real-world experience. And, I don't see anything ethically objectionable, so I don't see much of a downside.

No, absolutely no ethical objections. Guess I'm just a little nervous about setting up my first business partnership.


-A

Originally Posted by MoLS

There's nothing that says you need to advertise yourself as being associated with him - take the money, the experience and (maybe) some great shots for your portfolio and run! I don't see a downside here.

+1

why do you need a release if it's their kids and they're paying you? To use on your OWN site? Then yeah, but as you said that won't happen. Use what you can for your site, use the money in your pocket. For that price it'll get you more experience with clients which is great. Once you get all the details down on your own you can start selling yourself independently for more easily...