Thank you for stopping by and if this is your first visit how the hell are you? The topic of today’s post is simple don’t give your work or knowledge away for free and know your worth. Time is the one thing that we cannot just give away and your time is worth so much more than what people think. We all have done it and that is the biggest issue with being a photographer/artist in today’s world. You see you can download an image and use it so easy today and it almost makes sharing the work that you do not worth it. The reason for this is people have this thought that because you put it out there on social media its free to take. I was guilty of that in my early days on the net so I get I understand it.
Then when I became a photographer I learned real fast that a lot of time and money is spent learning how to take an image that is worth something to others and they want to buy your work. When this happens to you for the first time the joy that runs through you cannot be described. Then you have to figure out what you are worth as an artist and that is the hard part. Knowing what you are worth is not as easy and just spitting out a price. You have to take into account how much you spent to get that photo. I.E. the amount of money that you spent on the gear that you use. Then you have the gas money it took to get to the location to get that image. The cost of hotels or camping spots that is spent to get those images.
Is the cost so high that you just want to give it away for free? That is what you have to ask yourself when you get that call from a client that wants so much for free and is not willing to pay the prices that you have set. The only thing that I can tell you is have your prices set and do not give in just to help a person out. They are not thinking about all the time and money that you the artist has spent in order to get that image they are lusting after. You have to set your terms and not give into his or her needs. You have needs too and in order to pay for more adventures you have to keep the cost of your work to a place where people can buy it and you can make a little something as well.
Do you have to give away advice for free? This question I have asked myself so many times and in the past I have just told other photographers who are just starting out how to get that image of yours that they like. I never once asked another photographer how they got that shot or where was that shot at so I could go get that photo for myself. I did the leg work figured out how to break down a photo to the point that I knew how they shot the image and then I would go shoot that image for myself. Getting handed the location is great but you have to know how to shoot the shot once you get there. I study other photographers work in order to figure out how they shoot so I can go get a similar image as what they got. The work that is put into studying photos is hard and it takes a lot of time to understand how they shot the image.
To just give away that knowledge is not something that can be appreciated by the person that is just asking for the quick fix. I will give you two examples of what it takes to break down another work to the point that you can figure out how they shot the image. The first step is learning all that you can about depth of field and how it affects an image. You also have to be able to look at an image and guess what focal length they have taken the image at. You then have to study the light in the image and how it was shaped to create that image. I did this for one of my favorite photographers and it took me two years of looking at his work for me to break down how he shot certain images.
I could have taken the time to make a phone call and just ask him and he would have given me the info but for me it was so gratifying to study his work and then create an image like his. You see I grew as a photographer because it taught me how to break down an image to get what I wanted. The joy that I had when I talked to him in person and told him that I figured out how he shot his images was so worth it. The look on his face and his words of your are correct made my heart sing with joy. Then it was on like donkey kong for me getting images that I lusted after for myself.
The second example was just a single image of the Tetons that I wanted for myself. I seen this image and I wanted that location but I didn’t want the photographer to just give me that location. That would have taken all the fun out of getting the shot. I studied that image for a year trying to figure it out. I also had to figure out the focal length that was used for it. I knew that it was going be a longer focal length due to the compression in his image. So it hit me one day where the location was and sure enough I found it and shot the same shot tagged him in it and the same joy came across when he asked how I figured it out. I told him the process and I got more respect from him due to me working it out without asking.
The whole point of this post is simple you will enjoy the craft more if you take the time to learn it on your own. Take the time to study the images that you love and break them down to the point that you understand the light that was used the focal length used and where they shot that image. Yes, it takes a lot of time to get there but its worth it in the end. Time is money and giving that time away is something you will never get back.
LocalNavy433 Photography 
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