Have you ever heard someone say this?
“They’re not paying me enough to do my best work.” Possibly some variation of that?
What a terrible, awful, self-defeating way of doing anything. It’s an amazingly stupid, self-absorbed sense of entitlement that brings nothing but disappointment and failure.
When I hear someone saying that I can only feel a twinge of pity for them, and a sharp desire to smack them up side the head.
And fire them on the spot.
Why?
Because they agreed to do the job. At the rate that was offered.
The “job” is to deliver the best image possible. The rate was there to accept or deny and they accepted it.
Did they tell the client “Well, I will do it for $200, but I am only gonna give you 50% effort cause it is worth more than $200?”
No, of course not. They took the job and then did a crappy job because they felt entitled to more than they charged. And that is not only a deceitful, petty way of cheating the client, it is unethical and will lead to eventual failure of the photography business.
Look, no client wants a crappy job. They want the best they can get. That is what they are expecting when they hire a photographer to do the work.
The photographer wants to project an image of being the best available creative. They want to be seen as the solution to the problems and challenges that clients have.
So along comes a gig.
The client has a budget – sometimes as a matter of client expectations, and sometimes just pulled from their nether regions. And they need a solution.
You are the photographer that gets the call. It goes something like this;
“Hey, Don. How ya doin’… we got a gig for you.”
“Cool. What do you have in mind?”
“We have a client who needs four shots of their facilities over in Glendale. These are beauty shots of the buildings for a new facilities brochure.”
“Yeah, that sounds good. What are the particulars?”
“Well two of the buildings face East and two face West. We need to have them shot with great light and hopefully with a clear view of the entrances and new signage.”
“Cool, I can scout it later this week.”
“That’s great. We have a budget of $1000 for all the shots. I know it is worth more, but the client gave us this budget to work with.”
It is at this point we can go two different ways. And it is ALL on the photographer to make that choice.
VERSION ONE
“Well, OK. I can do that. I am a little concerned about the different directions they are facing.”
I go out for a quick scout and find that the parking lots are a mess of bad parking lines, oil puddles and cracks. I instantly adds a few hours of retouching because there is no way to shoot the facades without getting some foreground in and they look terrible. What was going to be a simple post process now has some extraordinary additional post processing.
Now I discover that my fears about the different facing facades was dead on. The renovated buildings are painted a dark, earthy maroon so whichever side is shot in the shade is going to look far different from the ones shot in the direct sunlight. This means that in order to do it right, I will have to shoot early in the morning for the East facing and late in the day on the West facing… so a two/three-hour shoot is now an all day shoot.
I note that there are some issues with the roofing on one of the buildings and will bring this up with the client in the call I have to make later.
“Siri – call client”
“Hey, how did the scouting go?”
“Good. I have some questions?”
I share the concerns about the parking lot, the roof, and the added time for getting the facades in the best light taking a lot longer than the fee worked for. The client takes the concerns to the client who says the budget stands.
I know I cannot do a good job with this budget, and am not interested in doing a full day so I say, no problem and do the gig without worrying about the parking lot, roof or super blown out sky on the shadow side of the building.
“Screw them”, I say, “they aren’t paying me enough to do it right.”
Those images are now MINE. Those terrible, ugly parking lots are MY product. As is the roof and the over exposed sky on the shadowed side of the buildings. The images as a group suck.
And my client and his client KNOW they are mine. They accept no responsibility for the crap that was created. Why should they.
And that is a terrible, awful way to build a reputation as an excellent photographer.
VERSON TWO
Scouting completed and I call the my agency contact.
“I have some concerns about the buildings facing opposite, and not matching in the final shots. Also, the roof on one of the buildings needs repair and the parking lots are a mess. I can shoot them as is, but with the budget there is no extra for retouching. In fact, I cannot do a good job on this assignment at the present budget. Adding in the retouching and the full day of shooting instead of a half day, the gig would have to be in the neighborhood of $1800 – $2000. Can your client make a new budget? I just emailed over some iPhone shots and a detailed list of concerns if you want to send them on to them.”
Client says he will… now we wait for one of two return calls:
Call A: Client agrees to budget increase and I shoot the gig.
Call B: Client does not agree to budget increases and I must make a decision. ME.
I will either not do the job, or I will do it right… eating the extra time, and doing the extra Photoshop work so that the job is EXCELLENT when delivered. I have no other option. Doing it poorly, or not doing what is needed for excellence is NOT an option. It is MY WORK.
The client has $1000 to spend and had to scrape to get it. It may be all they have, or they may be simply unaware and uncaring of the reality of the business.
They may not have much in the way of ethics.
But I do. And so should you.
So if I take the gig for $1000, I am saying that I will deliver the best possible images to the client that I am able to make. I will be ME and do the highest level work that is possible, and I AGREE to their pay rate of $1000.
I SAID I WOULD DO IT. AND THAT MEANS I WOULD DO IT WELL. PERIOD.
Look. I am not saying don’t do the gig for less money than it’s worth, and I am not saying that you should do the gig for less money than it is worth. That is your call, bucko.
What I am saying is that if you agree to do the job for ANY AMOUNT, you go all the way and do it as best you can. YOU MAKE IT ROCK. It has your name on it. It is YOUR work and no one else gives a damn what you got paid. It is YOUR work and it represents you.
Be proud of all you do… or don’t do it at all.
PHOTO INFO:
Sunset Point, I10 north of Pheonix.
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