The Freelance Photographer and Working for Free
Posted by Tim Gruber Tags: business, freelance, photography | Filed under business, career, freelance
As more and more of us enter the realm of freelance photography you’ll undoubtedly come across people who absolutely love your work. All is good until they introduce the catch. They can’t afford to pay for it.
A credit line doesn’t pay the rent.
This post entitled When to Work for Nothing on the Shifting Careers blog on the NY Times sums it up nicely:
It doesn’t matter if you’re a dog walker, a Web designer or a tax preparer. When you agree to work free, you reinforce people’s misguided ideas that the self-employed are independently wealthy hobbyists. Don’t degrade your profession by letting a cheap client take advantage of you.
December 10th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
Timster,
This is my favorite image to date and probably the scariest one. Keep it up! By the way, did you change your site structure? Your blog no longer fits in my window. Size it to fit the browser which opens it. It is disturbing to scroll right. Nice job on the color change.
Cheers,
Jim