The Misunderstood Photographer
As most of my readers know, I am a photographer. I have been doing photography commercially for less than a year and there is a lot I have learned from charging people for my work.
A lot of people do not see photography as a valuable art. They expect photographers to snap photos of them and send the photos for free. You can’t imagine how many times I have been begged to send photos to people who haven’t paid a dime for them. Since most of them are usually my friends, I understand why they would think I was going to give them free photos. It gets worse after they send back photos for free edits.
People need to understand that photography is not as easy as it seems on the surface. As photographers, we dedicate a lot of time in getting the perfect shot. Most of this time is spent in front of a screen watching tutorials on YouTube University or for some in some very costly photography lecture rooms. That is how we manage to take such nice shots while the rest of you can go an entire day with a camera and capture nothing pleasing to look at apart from a few lucky shots where you get the composition right.
The tools used by photographers do not come cheap either. A beginner’s camera will cost somewhere from R 4000 to R6000. The photographer will then have to purchase lenses, camera bags, extra batteries, lights and a ton of other stuff. Apart from the gear, photographers use software such as Adobe’s Photoshop and Lightroom for which they must pay for monthly/yearly to keep on using. As photographers, we see these tools as an investment and I hardly doubt whether our investments will pay off if we keep giving out photos for free. Some of you try to beguile us with promises of free publicity or payment for the next set of photos.
Another thing people should understand is that photographers are not magicians. I have had clients that started demanding I send them their photos barely 30 minutes after we were finished with a shoot. How do expect me to have 20 edited photos in 30 minutes! Photo editing takes time and some photos can take more than 7 hours each to edit. So when I tell you to chill, then you should chill and know when the photos are ready I will send them to you — unless you want shitty photos.
Originally published at newtonthemaker.wordpress.com on March 18, 2018.
