Well, you're reading this far, you might as well continue to the end of the page...
Photography, like many other arts, sports, trades, professions, and rackets, has any number of opportunities to climb the ladder. It also has a number of occasions when you can slip down the snake. The trick for success is to choose when you're going to say yes, and when you should say no.
Note: Positivity and negativity have enough books written about them to fill several shelves at any public library you go to. You'll also find them in regular book shops, but they'll cost you far more than the library. Read 'em and make what you will - but remember that a lot of what they advocate is aimed at your emotions - here we aim at your photography.
When to say " yes ":
- When someone offers you a job taking pictures for money.
- When someone offers you a job taking pictures for equipment, travel, accommodation.
- When someone asks for your assistance upon these same terms.
When to say " no ":
- When someone offers you a job taking pictures for "exposure ".
- When someone offers you a job taking pictures for "experience ".
- When someone asks for your assistance upon these same terms.
This may seem greedy - even venal. I assure you it is not - in all cases note that there is an offer made but in the good case it is for an even exchange of value - the bad case wants your work and obedience but offers nothing for it. You could've picked cotton in Mississippi under those terms before Lincoln but there is no need to return to them now.
You are in different position if the offer is of your own choosing -
genuinely proceeding from you, rather than being forced upon you. Then you are the captain of your own time, if not soul. If you deserve well from it all, you may get it - or not, as the case sometimes shows.
You, as a photographer, are a valuable human resource - to yourself, if not to others. Your time and effort should command a decent return in something - and if it is in a situation where money is being exchanged between other parties, some of that money should come to you. If not, you may find yourself with the photographic equivalent of a cotton sack. There are conventions of payment and they are not secret ones - you can find out what your attendance time and images are worth. Do not try to undercut others in this - because there is no bottom to undercutting; it can be taken as far down as physics will allow.
