| Dear
****,
A
couple of weeks ago I was approached by **** from
your art department, and asked to consider tendering
for a position of photographer on your tours,
with a view to providing photographs for use in
your brochures.
While
I was initially interested, further discussions
revealed that the budget for photography on each
tour was a mere $1200. I subsequently declined
the offer and that was that…until I thought
even more about the job.
I
now feel that I should write to you and explain
my thinking on the flaws in the proposal, as put
to me. The salient points are as follows,
-
Roughly 300 photos are required from each
tour.
-
The photographer has to work with limited
time as they are part of the tour.
- The
photographer has to pay for many of the meals
over the (nominal) 20-day period.
- It
is assumed that the photographer can supplement
their income by shooting personal stock images
while on the tour. These images however should
not be exact duplicates of those supplied
to Big Time Tours.
- Big
Time Tours will not pay for the photographer's
time scanning images from film, you expect
digital files.
Let
me address these points.
Point
#1. While I appreciate that the images in your
brochures do not have to be masterpieces, they
must be good. To produce 300 good photos at least
1000 should be taken, possibly a lot more depending
on the exact circumstances.
Point
#2. Working fast is no problem in itself , but
it severely limits both the quality and quantity
of images that can be produced. It almost totally
precludes the production of late afternoon and
early morning photos which, almost invariably,
are the best scenic photos.
Point
#3. Paying for meals is not a minimal expense,
especially as at many of the tour locations one
would be forced to use the nearest cafes/restaurants
which would have inflated "tourist"
prices, or to eat in the hotel due to a shortage
of time, at similarly inflated prices.
Point
#4. Let's skip the "exact duplicates"
part as there would be little time to hunt for
separate photos. If the photographer did shoot
exact, or similar, photos for his own use and
produced 300 for Scenic, we can assume that he
also got 300 good images for his own use. The
rule of thumb for earnings from stock images is
$1 per image per year. Therefore, each tour would,
in theory, produce another $300 pa. in earnings.
Point
#5. It's fair that clients don't usually care
whether the images are scanned or shot on a digital
camera. But either way the client will pay, either
for time spent scanning, or because the photographer
has to amortise $50,000 of new digital equipment.
A look at one of your current brochures shows
a very high percentage of aerial photos and photos
that are setup, with models and/or special lighting
and/or special circumstances that almost certainly
will not be available on most tours. These I assume
are currently purchased from stock libraries at
prices you may feel are expensive. However most
of them would cost several hundred to a thousand
dollars and more to produce, all costs considered.
Let's
roughly analyse the photographer's costs and time
spent. Firstly time,
-
20 days on tour actually taking photos.
- At
least 2 days before and 2 after in transit
to/from the tour start point.
- Therefore
24 days in the field unable to deal with day-to-day
business.
- Five
days scanning and producing catalogued CDs.
- Assume
8 hrs per day lost to this job, that's 232
hours, in fact it's a lot more than that as
few small business people work a mere eight
hours per day. Many jobs that are done after
hours would not be able to be performed while
on the tour.
And
costs,
-
1000 exposures = 28 rolls of film x $12 per
roll for purchase and processing = $336.
-
Travel and, in some cases, depending on the
country in question, extra medical insurance,
say $200.
- Meal
costs, over and above "normal",
due to being in the field, say $200.
- Long
distance phone calls, over and above "normal"
due to being in the field, say $200.
- Other
miscellaneous costs that occur just because
you're in the field, say $100 (very conservative,
a couple of taxi trips will eat this amount).
So,
in return for neglecting the normal operations
of his or her business, the hapless photographer
receives $1200 gross and nets $164. Even assuming
only eight hours a day on the job, that's 69c
an hour! If we include the $300 theoretical first-year
earnings from personal stock photos taken on the
tour, we are now up to $2 per hour. Still not
good.
A
professional photographer's rate is usually several
hundred dollars a half-day, plus expenses. Even
with a vastly reduced rate to allow for the large
amount of work on offer, the $1200 budget is,
in my opinion, just not viable.
Let's
look at it another way. You get 300 photos for
$1200, that's $4 per image. I believe there's
nowhere in the western world you will find someone
to produce professional photographs, specifically
for a client, for $4 a piece.
I
suggested to **** that a rate of around $5000
was closer to the mark, a highly discounted rate
because this is not just a one-off job but a continuing
relationship. Even at this rate that's only $16.66
per photo.
After all this you will still need to buy a lot
of images from libraries. For example, of the
11 Big Time Tours brochure covers I've seen, I
estimate that a photographer working on the tour
would only be reasonably certain of capturing
two of the cover photos, and possibly another
one or two if things fell into place on the day.
My
suggestion is to look for a student or unemployed/retired
person who is willing to commit the large amount
of time required in return for some free trips
and some pocket money. Another idea employed by
some companies is to ask their patrons to submit
their best photographs, either directly for sale
to the company, or in the form of a competition
in which you keep the rights to all photos "selected".
Most
tourists would be thrilled to have some of their
photos published in a travel brochure.
Please
accept this letter in a constructive light, that
is certainly the intent.
Regards
Rob
Gray
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