Getting experience - offering services for free.

FlyTVR

FlyTVR

Messages
4,234
Edit My Images
No
Eventually I'd like to base my career around photography.

I appreciate that this could be a long rocky road!

My current contract (I.T) ends in a week and I was pondering what to do with my time. I have backdrops, a few flash heads, shoot through brolly, soft boxes etc etc. I have shot an amateur fashion show and a charity ball before.

So I'm considering offering my services for free to local events coming up to Xmas e.g. office parties etc.

Hopefully this will allow me to further my experience! It will also allow me to fill my time (personal stuff going on!).

Thoughts?
 
Go for it! What is the worst that can happen?

You will learn loads and might even sell a few pics or get some bookings.

Sprat to catch a Mackerel and all that.

Good luck.
 
If you do do it, try and get some business cards made up. Get some stickers with your name and (business) address (*+ working telephone number) made up to stick on the back of any photographs you do sell, and get a price range set (for the future).
Sounds like it could be good experience, and a good way of getting your name out there, but make sure that you have thought out the details (address, price, types of shooting), so you are not um-ing and ah-ing should someone actually like what you do.
You might not want to offer digital images, unless this is something that you are expecting to do in the future.

(* tried to contact a photographer for another print/session on their telephone number on the back of one of our photos, didn't work)
 
why offer it for free? Offer free attendance and £10 a print or something... set up a backdrop and lights, record names and addresses, pay on the night, and a few weeks later recieve a 10*8 in the post, done. For an event with 100ish people, you should be able to make it pretty worth your while being there too.

As a sweetener, you could offer the organisers a few reportage style shots once you've closed your photo booth, for their ad purposes or something, or offer them 5% of takings or something.

Working this kind of event won't really get you much porfolio-quality shots, a couple of groups on white or whatever are useful to have to demonstrate that you can do this kind of thing, but it's hardly the greatest show of your photographic skill - though it is good experience in terms of organisation, sales etc. Charging will give you a much better experience than giving away the photos, from this organisation perspective, and also 'encouraging' you to take better photos all the time...

but please, please don't work for absolutely free, with the sole exception of genuine charitable causes that you feel strongly for, or fun photos of family and friends, it devalues photography as a whole...
 
itsdavedotnet said:
why offer it for free? Offer free attendance and £10 a print or something... set up a backdrop and lights, record names and addresses, pay on the night, and a few weeks later recieve a 10*8 in the post, done. For an event with 100ish people, you should be able to make it pretty worth your while being there too.

--

but please, please don't work for absolutely free, with the sole exception of genuine charitable causes that you feel strongly for, or fun photos of family and friends, it devalues photography as a whole...
Click to expand...

My assumption was that it would be working for cost of materials, rather than time. As a sort of free advertisement. Rather than loose money on the materials. As a 'special' in the run up to Christmas. You are right, if you loose money then it does devaluate the 'art'
 
coldpenguin said:
My assumption was that it would be working for cost of materials, rather than time. As a sort of free advertisement. Rather than loose money on the materials. As a 'special' in the run up to Christmas. You are right, if you loose money then it does devaluate the 'art'
Click to expand...

no, I meant it more not as devaluing the 'art', but more as in, it devalues photography and commercial photographers in the public's eyes, and why pay for something (provided by someone who's got to make a living) when you can get uncle bob to do it for free because he's got a 'big camera'...the photos will be worse, yes, but that won't matter because you didn't pay everything...meanwhile the professional photographer is forced to sell photos for 50p a piece on istock to afford the electricity bill...

OP, charge something, it will be a better learning experience for you in every way :)

and have business cards / flyers / websites ready for when you do it :)
 
I was thinking along the lines of doing the shoot for free, but charging (at least cost) for any requested prints.

I'm glad all the responses so far seem to be positive. THANKS :-)

Cheers

TeaVR
 
quite a few commercial event photographers work on a free attendance (though often with a deposit that's repaid with a certain number of print orders) but charge for prints basis - but of course don't supply jpegs of the images they're selling, unless paid a lot extra :P :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top