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Reasons Why Professional Photographers Cannot Work for Free

5/9/2015

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Dear potential photo buyer,

If you have been directed to this page, it is likely that you have requested the use of an image or images for free or minimal compensation.

As professional photographers, we receive requests for free images on a regular basis. In a perfect world, each of us would love to be able to respond in a positive manner and assist, especially with projects or efforts related to areas such as education, social issues, and conservation of natural resources. It is fair to say that in many cases, we wish we had the time and resources to do more to assist than just send photographs.

Unfortunately, such are the practicalities of life that we are often unable to respond, or that when we do, our replies are brief and do not convey an adequate sense of the reasons underlying our response.

Circumstances vary for each situation, but we have found that there are a number of recurring themes, which we have set out below with the objective of communicating more clearly with you, and hopefully avoiding misunderstandings or unintentionally engendering ill will.

Please take the following points in the constructive manner in which they are intended. We certainly hope that after you have had a chance to read this, we will be able to talk again and establish a mutually beneficial working relationship.

Photographs Are Our Livelihood
Creating compelling images is the way we make our living. If we give away our images for free, or spend too much time responding to requests for free images, we cannot make a living.

We Do Support Worthy Causes With Images
Most of us do contribute photographs, sometimes more, to support certain causes. In many cases, we may have participated directly in projects that we support with images, or we may have a pre-existing personal relationship with key people involved with the efforts concerned. In other words, each of us can and does provide images without compensation on a selective basis.

We Have Time Constraints
Making a leap from such selective support to responding positively to every request we get for free photographs, however, is impractical, if for no other reason than the substantial amount of time required to respond to requests, exchange correspondence, prepare and send files, and then follow-up to find out how our images were used and what objectives, if any, were achieved. It takes a lot of time to respond to requests, and time is always in short supply.

Pleas of “We Have No Money” Are Often Difficult to Fathom
The primary rationale provided in nearly all requests for free photographs is budgetary constraint, meaning that the requestor pleads a lack of funds.

Such requests frequently originate from organisations with a lot of cash on hand, whether they be publicly listed companies, government or quasi-government agencies, or even NGOs. Often, it is a simple matter of taking a look at a public filing or other similar disclosure document to see that the entity concerned has access to significant funding, certainly more than enough to pay photographers a reasonable fee should they choose to do so.

To make matters worse, it is apparent that all too often, of all the parties involved in a project or particular effort, photographers are the only ones being asked to work for free. Everyone else gets paid.

Given considerations like this, you can perhaps understand why we frequently feel slighted when we are told that: “We have no money.” Such claims can come across as a cynical ploy intended to take advantage of gullible individuals.

We Have Real Budget Constraints
With some exceptions, photography is not a highly remunerative profession. We have chosen this path in large part due to the passion we have for visual communication, visual art, and the subject matters in which we specialise.

The substantial increase in photographs available via the internet in recent years, coupled with reduced budgets of many photo buyers, means that our already meager incomes have come under additional strain.

Moreover, being a professional photographer involves significant monetary investment.

Our profession is by nature equipment-intensive. We need to buy cameras, lenses, computers, software, storage devices, and more on a regular basis. Things break and need to be repaired. We need back-ups of all our data, as one ill-placed cup of coffee could literally erase years of work. For all of us, investment in essential hardware and software entails thousands of dollars a year, as we need to stay current with new technology and best practices.

In addition, travel is a big part of many of our businesses. We must spend a lot of money on transportation, lodging and other travel-related costs.

And of course, perhaps most importantly, there is a substantial sum associated with the time and experience we have invested to become proficient at what we do, as well as the personal risks we often take. Taking snapshots may only involve pressing the camera shutter release, but creating images requires skill, experience and judgement.

So the bottom line is that although we certainly understand and can sympathise with budget constraints, from a practical point of view, we simply cannot afford to subsidise everyone who asks.

Getting “Credit” Doesn’t Mean Much
Part and parcel with requests for free images premised on budgetary constraints is often the promise of providing “credit” and “exposure”, in the form or a watermark, link, or perhaps even a specific mention, as a form of compensation in lieu of commercial remuneration.

There are two major problems with this.

First, getting credit isn’t compensation. We did, after all, create the images concerned, so credit is automatic. It is not something that we hope a third party will be kind enough to grant us.

Second, credit doesn’t pay bills. As we hopefully made clear above, we work hard to make the money required to reinvest in our photographic equipment and to cover related business expenses. On top of that, we need to make enough to pay for basic necessities like food, housing, transportation, etc.

In short, receiving credit for an image we created is a given, not compensation, and credit is not a substitute for payment.

“You Are The Only Photographer Being Unreasonable”
When we do have time to engage in correspondence with people and entities who request free photos, the dialogue sometimes degenerates into an agitated statement directed toward us, asserting in essence that all other photographers the person or entity has contacted are more than delighted to provide photos for free, and that somehow, we are “the only photographer being unreasonable”.

We know that is not true.

We also know that no reasonable and competent photographer would agree to unreasonable conditions. We do allow for the fact that some inexperienced photographers or people who happen to own cameras may indeed agree to work for free, but as the folk wisdom goes: “You get what you pay for.”

Please Follow-Up
One other experience we have in common is that when we do provide photographs for free, we often do not receive updates, feedback or any other form of follow-up letting us know how the event or project unfolded, what goals (if any) were achieved, and what good (if any) our photos did.

All too often, we don’t even get responses to emails we send to follow-up, until, of course, the next time that someone wants free photographs.

In instances where we do agree to work for free, please have the courtesy to follow-up and let us know how things went. A little consideration will go a long way in making us feel more inclined to take time to provide additional images in the future.

Wrap Up
We hope that the above points help elucidate why the relevant photographer listed below has sent you to this link. All of us are dedicated professionals, and we would be happy to work with you to move forward in a mutually beneficial manner.

(Original post ... https://photoprofessionals.wordpress.com/ , shared under the "Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License")
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"Emotional Creature" event photoshoot - Part 10

4/14/2014

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I continue highlights of my event photoshoot in this Part 10. I had the privilege of being hired by Poor-Box Productions (of "The Vagina Monologues" fame) to photograph the debuting theatre performance of Eve Ensler's globally acclaimed play "Emotional Creature", produced and directed by Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal & Kaizaad Kotwal, at the NCPA Mumbai on March 15, 2014. Reproduced here, with permission, are my those photos I believe do justice in capturing the intense emotion and vigour with which the nine-member cast brought out the strong messages in the play. And to do justice to them all, I need to break up my photo essay into multiple parts.

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"Emotional Creature" event photoshoot - Part 9

4/10/2014

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I continue highlights of my event photoshoot in this Part 9. I had the privilege of being hired by Poor-Box Productions (of "The Vagina Monologues" fame) to photograph the debuting theatre performance of Eve Ensler's globally acclaimed play "Emotional Creature", produced and directed by Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal & Kaizaad Kotwal, at the NCPA Mumbai on March 15, 2014. Reproduced here, with permission, are my those photos I believe do justice in capturing the intense emotion and vigour with which the nine-member cast brought out the strong messages in the play. And to do justice to them all, I need to break up my photo essay into multiple parts.

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"Emotional Creature" event photoshoot - Part 8

4/9/2014

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I continue highlights of my event photoshoot in this Part 8. I had the privilege of being hired by Poor-Box Productions (of "The Vagina Monologues" fame) to photograph the debuting theatre performance of Eve Ensler's globally acclaimed play "Emotional Creature", produced and directed by Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal & Kaizaad Kotwal, at the NCPA Mumbai on March 15, 2014. Reproduced here, with permission, are my those photos I believe do justice in capturing the intense emotion and vigour with which the nine-member cast brought out the strong messages in the play. And to do justice to them all, I need to break up my photo essay into multiple parts.

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DNA publishes my photos under "Emotional Creature - The Secret Life of Girls Around the World"

3/29/2014

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Here are the photos used in the article (see below).
http://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/report-emotional-creature-the-secret-life-of-girls-around-the-world-1973056

Emotional Creature — The Secret Life of Girls Around the World
Friday, 28 March 2014 - 6:21pm IST | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA

Girl power rules in this imaginative yet matter-of-fact portrayal of the prisons that girls around the world find themselves in
  • All Images: courtesy Sheriar Irani

If you're expecting a sob-fest starring girls whining about the sore deal that life has dealt them, you've walked into the wrong theatre. Poorbox Productions, which had us in splits for over ten years, with their rendition of Eve Ensler's Vagina Monologues has now set the stage for young girls to seize power, to expose reality in all its grotesqueness, to tell truths as unpalatable as they may be, to break free from the prisons of what is expected, and perhaps to change the world as women know it. Thoughtfully directed by Kaizaad Kotwal and Mahabanoo-Mody Kotwal, nine girls bring life to Eve Ensler's monologues, with non-sentimental acceptance of real-world scenarios. But they don't stop at acceptance...

From the Masai Girl (Kamalika Guha Thakurta) who walks miles, and miles, and miles, away from her home and genital mutilation to get herself an education, to the daring escape of a pregnant young girl (Karishma Mathur) who offers matter-of-fact instructions in A Teenage Girl's Guide to Surviving Sex Slavery, to a girl in a wedding dress (Priyanka Sethia) who has spent so much of her life blending in, that her only way out is to kill herself in On the White Rug—these are girls who take matters into their own hands.

Then there are the women unafraid to explore the dark recesses of their own minds and memories as It's Not a Baby, it's a Maybe, witnesses a teenager (Kallirroi Tziafeta) talk herself through a dilemma about a baby, that may very well not be, if she so decides. 35 Minutes, sees Swati Das in the skin of a girl speaking frankly about being sexually abused by her father's friend and subsequently sold to the sex trade. Pieces like The Joke About my Nose featuring Zaara Dastur and Hunger Blog featuring Uppekha Jain, draw attention to our image-obsessed culture. While Asking the Questions featuring Deena Mavji, does exactly what one might expect of a piece so titled. Then there is the ensemble My Short Skirt in which the girls assert their right to wear a short skirt without it being viewed an an announcement of lack of morality, an indication of sexual availability or an invitation for rape.

But perhaps the most memorable of the pieces, is a young Chinese girl assembling the heads of Barbies in a factory, trying to send young girls messages to be themselves by psyching her thoughts into the mind of each Barbie she assembles. “Free Barbie” is the message, she (Kathryn Tabone) is broadcasting through the telepathic messaging system she calls 'head-sent'—the only messaging system that will work in the sweatshop environs she is trapped.

As expected of an Eve Ensler script, all the pieces are rich in graphic (and emotional) detail, whether blood and guts flying all over the white rug and walls of a pristine room or the sheer guilt-free joy in a woman who escapes sex slavery, on learning that the father of her child is dead. The monologues are interspersed with dance sequences choreographed by Longinus Fernandes (of Slumdog Millionaire and Guzaarish fame) and snatches of music (that one wishes were woven in more smoothly).

The activistic message of the play outweighs it artistic merit. Will it encourage the girls of our world to find solidarity in an expression of their individuality, uncowed down by societal expectations? I certainly hope so. This is a play that should be staged out in the streets, where it can float into the ears of everyone with ears. Or perhaps, like the little Chinese girl, who makes the heads of Barbie dolls, the realities that this play highlights can be telepathically “head-sent” to every brain that's still open to ideas unadulterated by commercial revaluations.
@AverilNunes
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"Emotional Creature" event photoshoot - Part 7

3/28/2014

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I continue highlights of my event photoshoot in this Part 7. I had the privilege of being hired by Poor-Box Productions (of "The Vagina Monologues" fame) to photograph the debuting theatre performance of Eve Ensler's globally acclaimed play "Emotional Creature", produced and directed by Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal & Kaizaad Kotwal, at the NCPA Mumbai on March 15, 2014. Reproduced here, with permission, are my those photos I believe do justice in capturing the intense emotion and vigour with which the nine-member cast brought out the strong messages in the play. And to do justice to them all, I need to break up my photo essay into multiple parts.

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"Emotional Creature" event photoshoot - Part 6

3/26/2014

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I continue highlights of my event photoshoot in this Part 6. I had the privilege of being hired by Poor-Box Productions (of "The Vagina Monologues" fame) to photograph the debuting theatre performance of Eve Ensler's globally acclaimed play "Emotional Creature", produced and directed by Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal & Kaizaad Kotwal, at the NCPA Mumbai on March 15, 2014. Reproduced here, with permission, are my those photos I believe do justice in capturing the intense emotion and vigour with which the nine-member cast brought out the strong messages in the play. And to do justice to them all, I need to break up my photo essay into multiple parts.

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Press publication of one of my photos from "Emotional Creature"

3/26/2014

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Picture
http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/arts/echo-of-a-battle-cry

Echo of a Battle Cry

Eve Ensler’s new play Emotional Creature calls on women to reclaim their emotions, but lacks the power of her classic Vagina Monologues 

By Richa Kaul-Padte

Tagged Under | theatre | Eve Ensler | Emotional Creature

SPEAK UP Eve Ensler’s new play, based on a book of the same name, calls for an end to silence (Photo: SHERIAR IRANI)

Chang Yin, a young girl from ...


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"Emotional Creature" event photoshoot - Part 5

3/25/2014

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I continue highlights of my event photoshoot in this Part 5. I had the privilege of being hired by Poor-Box Productions (of "The Vagina Monologues" fame) to photograph the debuting theatre performance of Eve Ensler's globally acclaimed play "Emotional Creature", produced and directed by Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal & Kaizaad Kotwal, at the NCPA Mumbai on March 15, 2014. Reproduced here, with permission, are my those photos I believe do justice in capturing the intense emotion and vigour with which the nine-member cast brought out the strong messages in the play. And to do justice to them all, I need to break up my photo essay into multiple parts.

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"Emotional Creature" event photoshoot - Part 4

3/24/2014

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I continue highlights of my event photoshoot in this Part 4. I had the privilege of being hired by Poor-Box Productions (of "The Vagina Monologues" fame) to photograph the debuting theatre performance of Eve Ensler's globally acclaimed play "Emotional Creature", produced and directed by Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal & Kaizaad Kotwal, at the NCPA Mumbai on March 15, 2014. Reproduced here, with permission, are my those photos I believe do justice in capturing the intense emotion and vigour with which the nine-member cast brought out the strong messages in the play. And to do justice to them all, I need to break up my photo essay into multiple parts.

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"Emotional Creature" event photoshoot - Part 3

3/23/2014

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I continue highlights of my event photoshoot in this Part 3. I had the privilege of being hired by Poor-Box Productions (of "The Vagina Monologues" fame) to photograph the debuting theatre performance of Eve Ensler's globally acclaimed play "Emotional Creature", produced and directed by Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal & Kaizaad Kotwal, at the NCPA Mumbai on March 15, 2014. Reproduced here, with permission, are my those photos I believe do justice in capturing the intense emotion and vigour with which the nine-member cast brought out the strong messages in the play. And to do justice to them all, I need to break up my photo essay into multiple parts.

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"Emotional Creature" event photoshoot - Part 2

3/21/2014

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I continue highlights of my event photoshoot in this Part 2. I had the privilege of being hired by Poor-Box Productions (of "The Vagina Monologues" fame) to photograph the debuting theatre performance of Eve Ensler's globally acclaimed play "Emotional Creature", produced and directed by Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal & Kaizaad Kotwal, at the NCPA Mumbai on March 15, 2014. Reproduced here, with permission, are my those photos I believe do justice in capturing the intense emotion and vigour with which the nine-member cast brought out the strong messages in the play. And to do justice to them all, I need to break up my photo essay into multiple parts.

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"Emotional Creature" photoshoot - Part 1

3/19/2014

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I had the privilege of being hired by Poor-Box Productions (of "The Vagina Monologues" fame) to photograph the debuting theatre performance of Eve Ensler's globally acclaimed play "Emotional Creature", produced and directed by Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal & Kaizaad Kotwal, at the NCPA Mumbai on March 15, 2014. Reproduced here, with permission, are my those photos I believe do justice in capturing the intense emotion and vigour with which the nine-member cast brought out the strong messages in the play. And to do justice to them all, I need to break up my photo essay into multiple parts, this being the 1st.

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Kit lens - give the devil its due

3/10/2014

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PictureShot with my kit lens (Nikon 18-55mm VR DX)
Kit lenses (those plastic ones that are sold as part of an inter-changeable lens dslr camera body) are often looked down upon. In reality I have found them far more useful than people give them credit for. The truth really lies in knowing your equipment, something I have addressed in some detail in my previous blog ... "Know thy photography equipment - Part 2  ... how it saved by backside".

There are pluses and minuses to using kit lenses. So don't get me wrong, they cannot substitute professional lenses. But they can do a lot.

Lens performance is looked at from a very wide range of criteria. Some can be measured, others are more a matter of taste. The key ones are (not necessarily in this order) - build, speed (or how wide the aperture opens), distortion, centre sharpness, peripheral sharpness, sharpness at different apertures, colour rendition, ability to handle flare, chromatic aberration, bokeh, image stabilisation, zoom range, filter size, smoothness of movement, focus shift, focus breathing, and many others. Also, if you have a fetish for gadget looks then add finish and feel as well to my list above. And last but not the least, price.

Here I shall limit myself to my experiences with the key criteria.


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Know thy photography equipment - Part 2  ... how it saved by backside

3/6/2014

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PicturePhoto by: Sheriar Irani
In Part 1 I talked about the buyer's perspective. But what I discuss here - from the User's perspective - is equally important, even more so for professionals. This is why - you spend all this time and money to buy the camera/lens/accessory just right for you and then the last thing you want is to not use it to it's rated potential (and even beyond, if you are savvy enough). Of course if you have bought something expensive just for snob value, you may want to skip this write-up entirely.

Every gadget you acquire can do far more than you will ever use. It is thus not necessary that you have to know its every function in detail. But it Is necessary that you know very well the functions or features that are important to you. Learning curves are no fun but - Trust me - you never know when it will save your backside - like it did for me (see below).


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Know thy equipment - Part 1  ... "and All my cars came 1st!"

3/5/2014

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PictureKnow thy photography equipment
I can't stress this enough ... Know thy camera equipment; especially in this rapidly changing technological world and mis-directed publicity. Cameras, lenses and accessories now come in all shapes, sizes, specifications and tall claims.

I have approached this from two perspectives 
  1. from a buyer's and 
  2. from a user's (while citing here how my own experience once saved my backside!).

This part 1 of my write-up looks at the buyer's perspective.


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    Author

    A self-taught photographer, Sheriar decided to pursue his passion,  photography, professionally over half a decade ago - giving up a successful career in investment banking - and never looked back since.

    Sheriar is a Mumbai based freelance photogapher who not only commercially shoots all kinds of events (weddings, plays, concerts, etc.), property interiors and exteriors, outdoor shoots and product shoots; but also portraits and portfolios - outdoors as well as in-studio. Sheriar focuses on capturing emotions and decisive moments; and delivering High Quality results. He also undertakes videography.


    Sheriar also shares his expertise through photography Workshops (classes) that he conducts. His workshops (classes) are designed to enable beginners/ enthusiasts to move up from the auto-modes of their cameras to the manual modes - to take control and thus dramatically improve upon their artistic skills.

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Contact Details: Sheriar Irani (Mumbai, India), [email protected], +91 98192 90860, www.sheriarirani.com