How I’m Getting Scammed by Photographers
➡️ UPDATE - Paying a Photographer's Worth
My story Making a Living with an Instagram Famous Cat got a lot of exposure. Now photographers are now trying to charge me more money than they charge others because of it. They also feel entitled for me to give them exposure as a photographer in Albert’s Instagram because he has over 550,000 followers.
We scheduled a shoot this afternoon with another photographer we found on Craigslist. Tarek Richy Photography advertises “Pay what you can photography” on Craigslist where he doesn’t set a price.
His listing says:
“I believe in offering a fair priced service where I allow my clients to pay what they can. I do not depend on a set price for my service but instead ask customers to pay what they feel the product/service is worth to them.”
The Tarek Richey Facebook page profile photo LITERALLY displays “Pay What You Can”
=
He leaves me stranded without a photographer at the last minute…
Then after he reads my article he thinks it’s okay to charge me $100/hr for the rescheduled shoot.
I get it. Photographers think they’re the ones doing all the hard work and providing the costly equipment. And they think I just have to spend a minute or two posting it on Instagram.
Let me break it down.
Influencer campaign pay ≠ (1) 45 minute photo shoot with Lightroom batch edit sent afterwards
Influencer campaign pay =
- Continuous work and financial investment in marketing campaigns over the years to get Albert to over 550,000 Instagram followers.
- Hunting for a good photographer
- (1) 45 minute photo shoot where either I or my husband, usually both, have to assist the photographer for the entire duration of the shoot. Sometimes we even have to guide the photographer on what angles and lighting is better. As well as provide the shooting venue.
- Combing through the bulk of batch edited photos sent afterwards to select the usable ones. Reediting the selected photos because they are over contrasted, too dark, etc. Resizing to fit ideal crop for Instagram post or Instagram story.
- Reviewing sometimes 2–3 pages of client requirements of what talking points hashtags are required for the post captions before writing the captions.
- Submitting the photos and additional videos (that we take ourselves) with accompanying captions to the client.
- Rewriting the captions even after they’re approved because the client/agency decided they wanted to go a different direction with the captions.
- Setting up the application permissions for the client/agency.
- Scheduling the posts to go live during the different required days and times with the link in bio.
- Directly after 24 hours of the posts go live, downloading the individual segments with the campaign tags/hashtags and screenshots of the views of each one and uploading them to client/agency.
- After the campaign is completed, answering and sending any additional campaign materials.
Photography is an expensive and valuable craft. But so is marketing.
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Greed sets in really quickly when someone thinks they are more important then the talent (the cat...oh that is weird to say...lol). I would highly suggest looking into your local high school or community college for photographers that want to build their portfolio.
They will not only typically work for free or really cheap, but more importantly they will understand that you are actually doing them a favor by letting them work on a project like this. You might need to invest in a few lights yourself, but it will completely be worthwhile in the end.
Then if you find someone you really like start paying them a normal wage for their work and you will have the opportunity to mold them into the perfect photographer as you will be teaching them what you want each step of the way.
Extra bonus, it makes a great story. Take some behind the scenes shots with your cell phone (not professional looking ones) showing how you are helping give exposure and opportunity to local youth. A story within your story...people will eat it up!
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Damn cheaters... :-/
Maybe you should marry a photographer. :-D
PS: I've find your post because @chekohler featured you in his entry for the Pay It Forward Contest
I'd like to ask you to participate in my Art Curation Initiative #8
Oh woah, I didn't even realize goyanggy was on Steemit until I check my Insta Story just now.
Welcome to Steemit, and sorry to hear about this whole Photographer BS scene. Hopefully, you'll find a better photographer soon, send my love to Albert and Goyanggy!!
Personally I agree with the photographers. A decent camera can cost a bit, years of practice and skill are worth something, lighting, ect. You are profiting from your cats fame....pay for quality photos or the cats fame wont last. $100 an hour was very fair priced. Photographers rarely receive the recognition they deserve for providing profitable content. Dont be cheap...its an investment in your product
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Let me tell you one story. Couple of years ago I had photoshoot with a model who has 3mln subscribers in facebook (and whatever thousands in instagram). My name was well mentioned in all the post and brought me zero feedback. All the followers just following her boobs and nobody cares who actually taking the photos... guess your case is quite same, everybody mad for you cat, so why they have to notice who is a photographer? But, this attitude of a photographer which story you have posted is completely unacceptable as well. Hope you wil find a good one with mutual interests and for mutual benefit! And pass greets to Albert ;)
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People are crooked now a days.. It sickens me. I am sorry you have had to deal with this and hope you find someone at a far and reasonable price. Following 😃
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The instagram fame is a fickle thing and it seems money is being thrown into that market like theres no tomorrow. Clearly everyone wants to get a piece of the pie and ride that gravy train as long as they can
I didn't know it took that much time and effort into taking and curating photos, wow its actually insane lol. No wonder its a full time job for some people
FYI I've nominated this post as my @pifc curation selection of the week and you can find my submission here. If you would like to know more about the curation project you can find the orignal post here. Feel free to join us, help find more cool authors like yourself and earn some rewards in the process :)