A Visuals Editor in NYC: $120k

I work at a mid-sized NYC-based news outlet with a national distributed staff. Most of us work remotely.

My company offers 100% match on our retirement fund up to 5% of your base salary and the money vests immediately so it’s yours, even if you leave the company. I also have about $30k in a Roth IRA from my freelance days. Getting a retirement account with a company contribution was a big factor in me taking a staff job. I didn’t see a way to save enough for retirement as a freelancer.

I work about 315 days a year. We get 6 weeks of PTO (including sick days) + company holidays. It’s very difficult to take time off without falling behind on work but my manager and company try really hard to encourage everyone to use all their PTO.

I’ve aggressively negotiated to raise my salary more than 20% over the past few years at my current company. I love to see colleagues at other outlets being paid more than me because it gives me a data point to bring back to my managers to ask for more. Rising tides lift all boats. My income was no where close to what it is now when I was a freelancer living off maxed out credit cards and taking out loans to cover basic living expenses.

I still do a little freelancing on the side that brings in $5-30k/year depending on the year.

We pay photographers $500/day + $250/day for travel + meals and expenses. If days are longer than 8 hours, we will pay extra. We’ve paid as much as a triple day rate for a super long day. I try really hard to be humane to our people by proactively communicating what I can do (like booking their travel expenses on my corporate credit card if the expenses are a burden) and reminding people to invoice as soon as they file (we don’t require people wait for stories to publish before they invoice).

Photo editing is a really gratifying job if you love it, but it’s very different from being a photographer. I think a lot of photographers consider photo editing to be just a plan b photo job but if you got into photo because you want to be outside in the world, ask yourself if you’d really be happy with a corporate desk job being stuck behind a computer and in meetings all day. There’s a LOT of office politics to navigate and the work is really difficult. You have to look at a very high volume of really distressing content and there’s a lot of pressure being responsible for the wellbeing and safety of the freelancers you hire. But if you love telling stories in pictures and love supporting photographers and coaching people to create something special it might be a really good job for you.

Whether you decide it’s the right fit for you or not, be generous because everything in this industry is about relationships. The more you’re willing to give of yourself to others, the more others will want to return the favor when you are in need. For photo editing specifically, good relationships will get you in the door but you also need good relationships to be effective in the job. So much of setting photographers up for success comes down to photo editors having good personal relationships with reporters and word editors and colleagues across the newsroom so we can get the information and resources you need (soon enough) to do your best work.

Best Advice: The best professional opportunities of my career have been totally unexpected but they came about because I was headed in a particular direction. Work hard in the direction that feels right to you but be open to pivoting when something unexpectedly wonderful comes up along the way.

I also heard Bill Cramer say at an NPPA conference years ago that you are not entitled to make a living doing what you love. It’s so true. If you’re able to making a living doing what you love you need to consider yourself immensely privileged (as I do). My immigrant ancestors didn’t have that luxury and most workers in America don’t either. I think photography (news photography especially) is very important to society but passion is not enough for success if the market conditions are not right. I don’t know any photojournalists anymore who make a living 100% from editorial. So you have to take a cold hard look at yourself and your situation and if it’s not working, something needs to change. I see a lot of very miserable (mostly older white male) photographers who lament that the industry isn’t what it once was, walking around with a chip on their shoulders as though in a ruthless capitalist industry, they should be entitled to more than they currently have. The photographers I see who are happiest are the ones who have embraced learning new skills and reinventing themselves, subsidizing their editorial work with other sources of income. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that these tend to be people whose identities were excluded in the “good old days”.

Worst: I was raised to believe that working hard and following your passion is enough and that it’s crass to pursue money. That’s not true. I got into a lot of debt working very hard for many years doing work I was very passionate about without valuing money sufficiently. I wish I had learned earlier in my career that money buys you choices. Not making or having enough money can trap you in bad, sometimes dangerous, relationships and work situations. The easiest way to save enough for retirement without being a super high earner is to leverage compound interest by starting to save and invest a little bit of money as early as you possibly can. If you’re in your 20s, start now. Max out your Roth IRA if you can. And invest as much as you can so your money can start earning interest, and your interest can earn interest.

I prefer photographers reach out to me by email or in person at conferences or gatherings but I also know it’s hard out there and I don’t think it’s fair or reasonable for editors to expect photographers to cater to each of our individual communication preferences. However you reach out, please remember that I am a human and be kind. It feels gross to be approached in a transactional or extractive way. I really encourage you to find ways to connect with editors beyond “I’m a photographer and I want you to hire me”. I like to get to know photographers as people because a lot of my hiring decisions are about more than just what your pictures look like. I’m looking to know what you are passionate about and how you would handle different situations. And I’m always looking for people I can trust to be kind and sensitive to the people I send you out to photograph so I need to see that energy from you in our interactions as well.

I find photographer anywhere and everywhere. Women photograph, diversify photo, indigenous photograph, instagram, other publications, portfolio reviews, word of mouth, at conferences and festivals.

Working in photo and journalism can brainwash us into a scarcity mindset but there are a lot of flourishing industries with higher pay, more job security, and more room for growth. If you absolutely love what you do and are finding a way to make it work, that’s a beautiful thing. But if you’re not, know that you’re not a failure. You’re a victim of a collapsing industry. And there’s no shame in closing the door on one chapter and moving onto another chapter of your career. There are many ways besides photo or journalism to contribute meaningfully to this world.

The Daily Edit – Trails Magazine

 
Trails Magazine
Editor-in-Chief: Ryan Wichelns

Cover Photographer: Sarah Attar

Heidi: Now that you’re 4 issues in and poised for 8, what has been your biggest creative challenge as a team?
Ryan: We’re definitely continuously trying to innovate. I feel like a lot of corporate magazines can get a little bit stagnant. It’s more difficult for them to switch things up. I like the fact that we can take advantage of our size and nimbleness to try new things and deliver new things to our readers. So I’m definitely trying to encourage new ideas from our contributors. 

Your team is fully remote across four time zones, with a distributed workforce what are some of the benefits and challenges?
Yeah, it’s easily the most geographically diverse team I’ve ever worked on. Our photo editor is on Alaska time, I’m on Pacific time, our managing editor is on Mountain time, our designer on Central, and our marketing director on the East. Scheduling obviously has its challenges but I like that we all get out to experience different places and different mountain ranges. We all have a little bit of geographic “expertise” I think. I grew up back East and used to think the big magazines had a little bit of a Rocky Mountain bias. Having our team spread out makes it harder to focus too hard on one spot.

You were funded via Kickstarter initially, what are your plans to keep the presses humming? (I enjoyed your ASMR of the printing press)
Our Kickstarter definitely got the ball moving and funded Issue 1, but every issue since then has been funded by our subscribers. Advertising is a very small part of our business, so we really rely on our subscribers and readers to keep the ship afloat.

How would define the editorial and photo direction of the magazine?
That’s an interesting question. I try not to pigeonhole our content too much, but I do think we try to put an emphasis on bigger, more research-intensive, more immersive, and frankly more important stories. Longform stuff. So much of journalism these days is quick-hit: Listicles, short reads, etc. We’re trying to fill the magazine with the kind of journalism that takes real work.  

You’ve spent your career as an outdoor journalist, so why start your own magazine?
I loved Backpacker. It was the first magazine I ever read as a kid—It was really important to me. Before Backpacker shut down, starting a magazine frankly wasn’t on my radar at all. But once they shut it down, it felt obvious. The backpacking community really didn’t have anything else and it felt like an important hole to fill. After a long time behind the scenes, I felt pretty confident that there was a way to do it better, so here we are.

What words of advice do you have for others considering independent journalism?
Trust your readers. If you make a product for them and make it something that’s easy to like (good content, quality, etc.) they will read it. Print isn’t dead, it’s only that cheap, mass-produced brands of print not thriving. Readers are willing to support good print.

Can you share the backstory for this cover image?
We made our way up and over McGee Pass in early September, on day two of our five-day backpacking trip through California’s High Sierra. On our way up to 11,895 feet, the lingering late-summer snowfields and still-thawing lakes were evidence of the record-breaking winter prior. I appreciated the rhythm and pace of moving among the mountains, allowing for quiet and continuous observation of the landscape, of the lines and the light and the colors, a moving meditation with each step.
 How did you get connected with Trails Magazine?
Sarah: I came across Trails Mag when it first emerged and was immediately intrigued and keen to submit work. I’ve always loved independent, photo-focused, magazines and was excited to see another pop onto the scene. Seeing my work printed is incredibly special, especially amongst some lovely storytelling and other incredible work. I try to engage with it in that way as much as I can, whether that’s through print sales, publications, or my own personal photo cards, it’s so special to bring the digital world into a tangible space. It’s also been a really fun way to build community in the outdoor photo industry. I started submitting some favorite images to Trails Mag and had one featured as a “Vantage Point” in the issue prior, and was incredibly excited and grateful to hear that this photo landed the Issue 4 cover.

How has nature and being human-powered shaped your photography?
Sarah: Photography and movement in nature have evolved symbiotically together in my life. They feel totally interwoven and inform each other constantly. It was over 10 years ago that I ran my first marathon and brought a disposable camera along with me to document it, one exposure for every mile. It was when I was training full-time and living in Mammoth Lakes, CA that I really started to develop my photographic style. I would spend miles running, observing the light, the mountains, the colors, the trails, and then return to these places to photograph them. This felt like a very intimate study and experience of the land. These two very natural and effortless ways of engaging continually inform and inspire the other. A lot of my initial work during this time was very landscape-focused, and that’s still one of my favorite areas to work in. Since diving into photography full-time, it has naturally evolved into documenting people moving through these landscapes. I love photographing people in their element, finding their flow, working hard, and going after their goals in these big beautiful spaces; capturing human-powered movement in the places that move us, while physically exploring the earth and our connection to it. Photography and movement in nature are the ways that I find most presence. They both turn my attention to the world around me. And I’d say a majority of my favorite images have involved some form of time and movement getting out into the mountains.

How can photographers get involved?
Anyone interested in contributing can find out more at trailsmag.net/contribute.
Subscribers can just go to trailsmag.net
Images for the blog post:  Lauren Danilek

 

The Art of the Personal Project: Annabelle Breakey

The Art of the Personal Project is a crucial element to let potential buyers see how you think creatively on your own.  I am drawn to personal projects that have an interesting vision or that show something I have never seen before.  In this thread, I’ll include a link to each personal project with the artist statement so you can see more of the project. Please note: This thread is not affiliated with any company; I’m just featuring projects that I find.  Please DO NOT send me your work.  I do not take submissions.

Today’s featured artist:  Annabelle Breakey

This is a body of work that focuses on a world that we all secretly have, but don’t really talk about: Guilty Pleasures. Guilt oftentimes is deeply intertwined with our relationship with food. Those tantalizing, excessive, and undoubtedly indulgent yummy experiences that we all pine for – to gorge, swig, smoke, stuff, dip, indulge, just over your fill. This work is not to be a guilt trip; It’s meant to be a guilty pleasure and to be enjoyed and explored with your own sense of wanting and to have a giggle over your own experiences. No judgement, all fun.

The reason why the subject is so appealing is that 38 percent of Americans confess they’re at least a little ashamed of their guilty pleasures, with 39 percent admitting to lying about them and 22 percent hiding one from their partner.

Whether the food is expensive, like indulging in a Tomahawk steak and bottle of red wine, by yourself, or excessive such as ordering way too much Chinese takeout and reading trashy novels in bed while eating by yourself, the goal of this work is to have a playful poke at our inner selves. We’ve all wanted what’s in the pictures to some degree.

Through this project, I want to free viewers to enjoy their own culinary guilty pleasures. In other words, go there and not be shy, within reason. We’re all human. Your love for food should be a sign of self-care, not weakness. Sometimes we just need a little fun with our relationship with food and not feel bad about it. Live a little.

To see more of this project, click here

Instagram

APE contributor Suzanne Sease currently works as a consultant for photographers and illustrators around the world.  She has been involved in the photography and illustration advertising and in-house corporate industry for decades.  After establishing the art-buying department at The Martin Agency, then working for Kaplan-Thaler, Capital One, Best Buy and numerous smaller agencies and companies, she decided to be a consultant in 1999.  Follow her at @SuzanneSease.  Instagram

Pricing & Negotiating: Trade Show Photos For Healthcare Client

By Andrew Souders, Wonderful Machine

Concept: Multi-day photo shoot of a branded trade show booth with accompanying product photography
Licensing: Unlimited use of up to 110 images in perpetuity
Photographer: Brand Narrative, Still Life/Product Specialist
Agency: Mid-size US-based branding & design agency with multiple international offices
Client: Mid-sized Global Diagnostic Healthcare Product Manufacturer

Summary

I recently helped a photographer build an estimate for a West Coast-based healthcare product manufacturer. The brief described capturing the brand’s large, high-end trade show/product display booth during an event at a convention center in the southwestern US. The images needed to showcase the branded booth design and the products it featured. It also included a shot list of individual products on white in a studio set-up at the same venue. The creative plan was for single-day coverage of the booth during the event and an additional 2 days of product photography in an on-site studio. The final use of the images would be for web and print ads as well as collateral purposes, including the client’s website, social media, and marketing/publicity for other industry events.

After reviewing the creative brief and a few revisions to the estimate based on feedback from the agency the client was working with, we landed on a budget to provide up to 110 images over 3 shoot days. This was comprised of 20 final selects of the booth at the trade show and up to 90 images of an anticipated 18 individual products, which would include multiple angles and close-up details of each.

We included a note that the client would be responsible for location coordination at the venue, providing, transporting, and styling for all of the products (some of the products were noted as quite large, and would require extra attention and coordination when moving and preparing them for photographing). Also, the client would be responsible for providing meals for the crew during shoot days.

Fees

We initially suggested Unlimited use for up to 2 years. The client returned requesting to see pricing for a “full buyout.” We tend to avoid this term because it is vague and can mean different things to different people. After clarifying with the client, we landed a license for Unlimited use in perpetuity for up to 110 selected images. I estimated $27k would be an agreeable combined creative/licensing fee for 3 shoot days and the intended use. In this scenario, the size of the client and the amount of content put upward pressure on the fee. However, the niche market of this brand and the smaller audience it would appeal to applied downward pressure. You can read our guide about our lists of vertical markets and more about what vertical markets are in this article.

Air travel would be required for the photographer to reach the venue. We budgeted for the photographer to travel to the location for 1 day to photograph the trade show booth. Then return a few days later after the client had time to transport and prep the products in a separate room at the venue for the 2 days of product shots. Since this would require 2 trips to and from the venue city, I included 4 travel days at $750 each. Aside from that, I added 2 days for the photographer’s pre-production and prep time at $1000 each.

Crew

Since there was a need for a large amount of imagery over the 2 product shoot days, we included a budget for a local producer to aid in coordination. We also included a secondary stills photographer during the days that the product photography occurred. Our aim would be to run 2 individual sets to cover as much product content as possible over the 2 shoot days available for this part of the job.

We added a first assistant for all 3 shoot days at $550/day. They would help with lighting and camera equipment management during the trade show as well as the product days. We also budgeted 2 days for a second assistant at $450/day to act as an extra set of hands on the product shoot days. In addition to the assistants, we budgeted for 2 digital techs (1 for each set). They would handle file management, cleanup, and adjustments during the product shoot portion.

Equipment

The photographer would be able to provide some of their own gear and we included a $6750 budget for the appropriate cameras, lighting, and grip equipment to accommodate the larger products that would need to be photographed, taking into consideration the anticipated 2 sets that would be running during the product shoot as well. I added a $4000 budget for both digital techs’ workstations for 2 days and $220 for portable hard drives and media backups.

Travel

The photographer planned to fly to and from the shoot location. Thus, I included $435 for flights and baggage and $1150 for 5 nights at a hotel. We also included $100 a day for car rentals/transportation and $75 per diem for the photographer. All other crew were intended to be hired locally and wouldn’t need a travel budget.

Miscellaneous

We decided to absorb the insurance costs for the shoot. This included $450 for miscellaneous expenses like production supplies, parking, extra meals, etc.

Post Production

The photographer would include a basic initial edit of the content for the client’s review and to make selections. We then included $7750 to cover up to 30 minutes on each selection for basic processing and file cleanup. We also included product background knockouts and delivery of the final assets to the client.

Results

The estimate was quickly approved, and the photographer was awarded the project. The photographer let us know that he was able to get an additional budget approved to include a DP/filmmaker colleague of his on the shoot. They would provide the client with some motion content of the trade show booth and products as well.

Follow our Consultants @wonderful_at_work.

An Action/Adventure Sports and Lifestyle photographer with 2 years experience based in Auckland, New Zealand: $NZ 20,879.49

My income is Action/adventure sports-70%, Video (growing)- 10%, Commercial-10%, Editorial-5%, Licensing/stock sales-5%

My clients are NZ based companies, Small/medium businesses and medium to large events companies but I’m looking to expand to the US market.

Major costs (NZD): $600/ year to for website hosting/platform, $175/ month for business insurance, $85/ month for an accountant, $100/ month for networking groups.

My retirement is a mixture of past life teaching retirement funds that are building passively with no new contributions and a personal stock portfolio, but no direct plan related to the photography business yet.

In 2022, I worked 92 days.

My first year I operated at a loss of nearly $5,000 NZD. I was only working $2-500 jobs with the occasional licensing deal and stock image sales, and had A LOT of startup costs (nearly $35,000 worth). So year 1 was difficult because I needed to accept a lot of those lower paying jobs to prove myself in the industry and build my portfolio. I was constantly pitching for jobs, and turned away because I didn’t have enough experience and I didn’t know how to price myself correctly, or near the market average.

By year 2, I had a much better portfolio, and was able to start charging the industry average rate, if not better. I had less expenses, earned more, and profited nearly $20,000. I was able to live primarily on small drawings from the business income.

I am a former teacher, so I have used a lot of my contacts in the industry and my own teaching experience to help gain some work from schools (rebuilding websites, new photo libraries etc). This has helped pad my bank account during the transition phase to full time photography and during the slow or shoulder seasons between adventure sports seasons.

I would also substitute teach 1 day a week when I needed it, and that would cover my bare minimum costs (food and gas). I still maintain my teaching license in year 2 of the business, but plan to phase that out soon.

Average adventure sports event shoot (editorial style):
It’s never just a ‘day rate’ for shooting adventure sports. There is always a pre production day/days, packing and planning gear. Event days can be 1 hour of travel or more (sometimes flying the day before). Average event is 6 hours and then post processing is faster for me then most. I can shoot an average of 5,000 photos per event, and cull and deliver a few hundred final edited images in a half a day. For editorial style events, I always keep licensing terms limited to ‘promotion of the event’ on social media or websites, and make extra money off of separate licensing deals with sponsors who want to use the image for something else. I charge out for travel and editing time and my gear on top of daily rate, so take home pay usually is pretty high. Probably take home an average of $1300 NZD per event shoot, but that usually covers 2 to 2 1/2 days of work.

My best shoot so far was 4 days worked for a large events company, shooting their “hero marketing images.” Had to deliver 5-10 images each of the 4 days within 3-4 of the event each day, and then 100+ overall final shots. Each day was about 6 hours on course, 3 hours editing post event day. So 9 hour days each day. I maintained copyright, images could only be used in event company portfolio in all promotions (digital and print) to promote the event. Sponsors of the event could only use the images to promote sponsorship, anything else would be separate negotiation per image. Travel covered between locations all 4 days, and back home (~$600). $30 for meals each day. $1490+ tax daily rate (included editing and admin time because I wanted to win the job). Overall pay $6,500 + tax, take home pay about $5,000.

lowest paying job was $150 +tax for 4 hour event photography. 2 of those jobs back to back earned me $300 for the day, but after expenses and taxes, maybe walked away with $200. Photos were to be used to promote the event on social media and company website. Sponsor had access to them as well, but only for event promotion.

I have started offering photo/video packages for small to medium businesses looking for higher quality imagery. The video work makes up maybe 5-10% of my work at the moment, but steadily growing.

I have chosen to mainly only shoot RAW clips as add-ons for businesses that want them. I have tried going for bigger projects, but normally have the help of a video production agency to assist in the planning and execution of shots.

I mainly market on Instagram, LinkedIn and my website. A lot of my potential customer base are athletes from races that want to buy photos of themselves and post it to social media, or they are small to medium businesses or agencies that live off of the LinkedIn atmosphere.

I chose to put thousands of hours into learning how to code and properly design my website, so that the experience was engaging, and many types of visitors to my site would engage. I built a portal for athletes to buy their photos, stock photos and prints to be sold, and for people with potential project ideas to contact me if they wanted.

Putting time and effort into a strong and visually appealing website has done more for my business than anything else.

Best advice. Do less. When things feel like they are getting hard and you have tried everything…just take a step back and do less. It is almost like the law of opposites will bring you what you were looking for the entire time…you just need to give it time and space and it will work out the way you originally intended.

Worst advice. Don’t bother fighting for your images.

Challenge yourself to speak up. Challenge yourself to become seen, find creative ways to get people’s attention. If you want something bad enough, then go after it and keep going after it.

Realise that in this digital age, your photos STILL have enormous value. Don’t ever let companies try to tell you they can’t pay you a certain amount for your images because they are ‘just using them for social media.”” For a lot of companies, digital is their ONLY way to market nowadays…so your photos mean a lot more to them then you might realise.

Make sure that you do your research on what your photos could potentially be worth. Learning about licensing is KEY to being able to stand up for what you and your photos are worth…so don’t underestimate that.

The Daily Edit – Patagonia Fall 23 Journal Cover: Brian Kelley



Brain Kelley
Gathering Growth

Heidi: The weather was both perfect and unforgettable for snowshoeing up nearly 5,000 vertical feet during a storm with a 4×5 camera and gear (45 lbs) on your back. What was going through your mind during the ascent?  
Brian: When I’m on a mission like the one going up the White Mountains with a specific goal in mind I sort of go into tunnel vision.  I just keep pushing even when I feel tired.  I’m used to hiking great distances with the heavy pack on but adding snow shoes, freezing temps and 3 feet of snow definitely pushed my limits.

Photos by Alex Turner.

Describe the setting and conditions that night.
We camped at 11,000 ft in -4 degree weather.
Getting to the summit in the dark during the storm was a really strange feeling… pushed to my physical limits I just wanted to crawl into a sleeping bag and crash but we had to set up camp and try to get some food into my system.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get my extra down layers on fast enough and the cold started to get to me and my body was shutting down.  But in those situations, you can’t just give up or think you’re going to wake up in a warm cozy bed.  Luckily Forrest has so much experience in these situations and got the tent set up quickly and started melting snow to fill Nalgenes with hot water to stick inside my bag, I was grateful that as a Patagonia ambassador and pro snowboarder, these conditions were familiar to him.  I felt so sick that night that I couldn’t even put food down. I went to bed that night not sure if I’d have the strength or desire to wake up at dawn to get the shot.  Luckily the -20 bag did the trick and I was able to get enough rest and core temp back to start feeling strong enough to go back out.  I definitely questioned whether any photograph is worth putting myself at that type of risk, especially since I have a family.
Forrest Shearer and the cover tree, a Great Basin bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva) in California’s Sierra Nevada.

Loading film in those conditions must have been a challenge, how many images did you manage to get of the majestic, twisted bristlecone?
Going into missions like this with film, I usually pre-load film in the car.  I had five film holders so ten shots total, not a lot but I felt confident. The big worry is condensation and snow getting to the film. I remember the night before shooting the tree just leaving my bag out in the elements… 20k worth of gear just chilled in a -4 snow storm shout out to Shimoda bags!  But while shooting the tree I was fumbling around on snowshoes trying to figure out angles and felt like snow was just going everywhere. Also, the storm kept going in and out during the shot.  Honestly, when I sent the film out to get developed I just thought to myself I hope at least one comes out.

What have trees taught you over the years and what other projects have grown out of your work for Gathering Growth?
 When I first started to photograph trees I was just chasing “Champion Trees” nominated as the largest of their species.  When I would go to these trees I tried to not treat them as a tourist destination or some sort of mark on a checklist.  Trees have taught me a lot about patience and respect.  In order to pay them respect and make a great image that represents the hundreds or even thousands of years they have been alive you have to spend time with them and see how the light interacts throughout the day.  After two years of photographing champion trees I started the Gathering Growth Foundation as a way to expand upon the archive and document more trees and old-growth forests, and to try to educate people about the important role trees play in our everyday lives.  I’m currently working towards Gathering Growths’ first book. The oldest and largest trees of NY state.

Photo assignments often offer new experiences, what did this present to you? 
This assignment with Patagonia put me into a world that was so foreign to me.  I had never been snowboarding or split boarding before but I knew I wanted to see these trees in the dead of winter, a time that most would never venture to see them or roads are closed down. Overall the assignment pushed me out of my comfort zone and made me a stronger more confident human.

What draws you to conservation work? 
My biggest motivation to work in the conservation world is to allow the future to know what we used to have.  I think we can save a lot and plant new trees but there’s something so depressing about knowing that wildland fires, invasive insects, and intense storms are wiping out some of our oldest and largest trees.  Some 2000-year-old trees might be irreplaceable or might not be seen in the future.

A female Picture Editor and Book Shop Owner in the UK outside of London: £40k (net)

I am self employed.

My clients are mostly editorial, online and print.

No retirement, the biggest worry of my life!

I work 3 days a week roughly (I have two young children).

Over the last few yeas my day rate has definitely gone up but because of maternity leave, covid, and having left London I have not been able to work as much. Now I have more childcare but work has definitely dried up. Never been so quiet If I’m honest and I’m trying different routes as I feel picture editing is more and more thought of as a luxury, not as something that is necessary.

I have an online bookshop. They are all picture books so I definitely use it as a kind of portfolio.

Work hard and be kind to people ;) Make sure that you are always on the side of the photographer, have their back.

I like to be approached by Email or Insta.

I find photographers on Insta, Arles, exhibitions, books, magazines, word of mouth. But mainly Insta.

To anyone wishing to get into my line of work I would say be a jack of all trades, I have had to learn how to design articles! Also learn basic photography skills, photo shop and In-design. Find your own style and stick to it. Learn how to master image research. Learn about AI. Be open to everything and fear nothing.

A Food Stylist based in Phoenix, AZ who is repped: $92,695 (net)

I specialize in technically challenging projects for TV and print.

My income is 70% commercial photography, 20% commercial video, 10% random. Mostly corporate clients who are based in Phoenix AZ.

I have 2 food styling assistants I hire, when needed for projects but otherwise very little overhead.

IRA & mutual funds make-up my retirement funds. This is something I need to plan out better.

I get about 72-90 days on-set or billed as day-rate a year roughly.

Over the last few years my income has increased steadily, even thru the pandemic surprisingly.

As a food Stylist I start a job with 1-2 hours worth of meetings with the client & photographer or video team. Then a few hours on pre-production working on shotlist and grocery lists. Then one-day for prep-work that includes grocery shopping and prepping any food. And lastly the day/s on-set working as a food stylist.

I charge $1000 for prep day/s and $1000 for day/s on-set as a food stylist. I also charge a small ($50-$100) kit fee + cost of groceries (I generally do not mark these up), + cost of assistant, if used. So on a 1 day shoot I make about $2050 apx.

I pay assistants 500-550 per day.

Recently I worked a 12-hour over-night shoot for a rate of $1500. I struggled to find resources to guide me on estimating this rate for the client. I wanted to give the client a good-fair price that had some industry guidlines but found none that apply to me as a food stylist.

Here is how I ended up calculating my rate for myself (I did not share my math with Client):
$1000 day rate (10hrs)
$300 over-time (2 hrs @ $150)
$200 over-night fee (kind of made this up)

I made the mistake of giving a repeat client a big discount on my day-rate. I was charging $1000 a day to all other clients, but this one client I gave a $750 day rate. I still work with this client and have steadily been raising my day-rate by $50 each year.

I don’t do any marketing but could use some tips tho.

Best Advice: Know your value and stick to it. It’s hard to put a $ on your time. I highly recommend taking the time to research your market and find a $ that you are content with. Then STICK with that number. As a freelancer you need to consider all of your life expenses when figuring out your day rate.

The Art of the Personal Project: Rob Gregory

The Art of the Personal Project is a crucial element to let potential buyers see how you think creatively on your own.  I am drawn to personal projects that have an interesting vision or that show something I have never seen before.  In this thread, I’ll include a link to each personal project with the artist statement so you can see more of the project. Please note: This thread is not affiliated with any company; I’m just featuring projects that I find.  Please DO NOT send me your work.  I do not take submissions.

 

Today’s featured artist:  Rob Gregory

I began photography in the mid 90’s as a freshman in high school. I was signing up for classes when my older brother, who was full of older-brotherly wisdom and advice, pulled me aside and said, “Hey! I know you need an art credit. You should take Photography. It’s an easy A.” Funny how one person’s passing grade can become another’s life-long passion.

 

Back then I was rolling my own film, developing it by hand and enlarging it in the dark room. For years, I shot black and white exclusively. Even later, when I moved into digital photography, and began my career, I still gravitated towards high contrast, dark, moody images.

One day, a few years into my career, a creative director was reviewing my portfolio and said something that ended up having a huge impact on my work. He said, “Man, I absolutely love this stuff. I just wish our clients would go for something like this.” I asked what his clients typically liked, and he explained that they tended to go for bright images with lots of color.

I mulled over what he said and knew I needed to push myself out of my comfort zone. I went back to my studio and started exploring a world full of light and color — and I absolutely fell in love with it.

This project is an example of work that fully embraces this bright world I have come to love. I used LED lighting with full RGB capabilities to create unique color combinations that complimented the wardrobe choices. In recent years, I’ve found myself shooting with continuous lights more often than strobes because I love the versatility they provide. They allow me to control color temperature and RGB with the touch of a button.

This project wasn’t all smooth sailing though. I often say that my job is mainly problem solving, and this was no exception. The biggest issue I ran into was that the camera port on my main camera had apparently become loose and my tethering cable wouldn’t hold a connection to my computer. I spent HOURS working on it the day before the shoot before finally giving up and moving over to my backup camera: my trusty old Nikon D800. So, for all the gear snobs out there, this project was shot with a DSLR and lens that were both purchased back in 2012.

No matter what challenges may arise, I believe that having a clear vision for the work you want to create is the most important aspect of photography. When you have that North Star, it’s easier to roll with the punches and adjust without losing your cool or direction for the shoot. When you know where you’re going, nothing can stand in your way.

Credits:

Wardrobe/Prop: Madeline Telford

HMUA: Viki Moon

Models: Eric Ntrakwa, Hailey Wilkins

To see more of this project, click here

Instagram

APE contributor Suzanne Sease currently works as a consultant for photographers and illustrators around the world.  She has been involved in the photography and illustration advertising and in-house corporate industry for decades.  After establishing the art-buying department at The Martin Agency, then working for Kaplan-Thaler, Capital One, Best Buy and numerous smaller agencies and companies, she decided to be a consultant in 1999.  Follow her at @SuzanneSease.  Instagram

A female Digital Capture Tech & Retoucher in Minneapolis: 2022: $200k (net), $242k (gross)

40% of my business income comes from renting equipment to productions (so in 2022 is was around $74,000).

In 2022 I had 3 months off on maternity leave.

80% of my days are for on set retouching, 10% working as a capture tech, 10% hourly rate retoucher.

Majority of my work is for a local Fortune 500 corporation which shoots 90% of their packaging and editorial content in town. On average I have around 4-5 smaller local clients which tend to have smaller projects or just retouching needs.

I have a home office so there is no need to rent space to store equipment. General overhead is fairly low but I do like to stay up to date on equipment so frequently update and replace gear. I spend and average of $24,000 on computers/monitors/accessories (think capture cables/hard drives/dongles/cases). Other expenses come from multiple seats of necessary software (~3,500/year) insurance (~1,000/year) and expenses for being a S-corp (~1,200/year). My partner covers health insurance so I’m lucky I don’t have that expense because I’m sure it’d be a lot.

For retirement I contribute to a SIMPLE plan with a 3% match from my business.

I worked 149 days in 2022 (31 jobs). 98 days so far as of 8/9/2023(21 jobs).

I also provide long term backup and file storage for a fee and charge a flat hourly rate for file retrieval if it becomes necessary.

Larger productions include sitting on on pre-pro calls to understand the scope of the project about a week in advance. Prep days I’ll drop gear and setup all the EQ. Most of my jobs require 2 workstations as well as one on set retoucher station. Make sure all crops/decks/sessions are set-up and ready to go for the shoot day. Once on set I work with the photographer to make sure filenames and crops are correct. Often I’ll do that while also retouching the files in real time for the client to approve. Normally the turn-around time is the Friday of the job so it’s important to stay on top of their needs and to make sure the photographer is being supported also.

Best jobs for me are multi-week packaging productions for our local major corporation. With equipment these jobs can average $10,000 per week.

I am pretty selective about which projects I’ll take on. My rate is mostly non-negotiable but some jobs do need more time than the client is willing to offer so there are times that I’ll have to squeeze in extra work after hours and overnight. I always bill an overtime rate but the physical toll can be a lot (12+ hours retouching for multiple days is hard).

When I first started out I made an effort to really get to know all the producers working in my market. Worked well to get into the last minute/small jobs other digi tech’s didn’t want to take and allowed me to get to know a lot of the photographers in town.

Be kind to everybody on set. You never know what role that person may step into later on in their career. Make it a point to know everything but don’t feel like you need be a know it all (that’s nuanced…. but important). Don’t gatekeep tips or tools that would help out fellow crew members. I think that the first and last points are the most important. It’s a team sport and we all need to be here for each other!

We are in in this together. I’ve found that the more collaborative a set is the better the deliverables look in the end.

The Daily Edit – Justin Bastien

  

Justin Bastien Photographer and Director

Heidi: You seem to balance work and your outdoor adventure life well. What was the biggest
surprises within that balance?
Justin: Balancing work and everything else you love in life is always a challenge, especially if you are
a curious person who likes to learn, explore, and try new things. Luckily, I really enjoy my
work, and it often takes me to incredible places around the world, meeting the most
interesting people from all walks of life. I have always tried to live a passion-based life,
following my interests and trying to align those interests with my work. The great thing about
photography and filmmaking is that it’s really endless in terms of where you can go with it.
What started out as a happy accident working with Patagonia years ago with my little 35mm
Yashica T4 point-and-shoot camera has really turned into an adventure of a lifetime. I never
would have imagined that I would get to go to every continent on Earth, explore remote
places where humans have never set foot, and take in all that beauty. The best part is actually
sharing the experiences through photography and films with others, hopefully inspiring people
and maybe making a small difference in the world in the process.
The biggest surprise to me has been that you actually can live a passion-based life. It’s
certainly not an easy path. It might look glamorous on Instagram, but trust me, it is not. It’s a
ton of work, filled with complete uncertainty at every turn and a huge learning curve with
endless ups and downs, but it’s so worth it. I couldn’t live any other way.

How did you get your start, or what was your biggest break?
I would say my start in photography was my biggest break. I was climbing almost full-time and
doing a wide variety of part-time jobs—geology, construction, web design, guiding, etc.—to
fund the next climbing trip. It was all about getting back out there to climb and see new
places. Work was just a means to an end. Along the way, I was fortunate enough to meet the
Photo Editor at Patagonia, Jane Sievert. She asked me to shoot photos on my climbing and
surfing trips. It was super low-key with no expectations. I would shoot these pretty bad
photos, and she would kindly review them, give me some encouraging feedback, and tell me
to keep shooting and working on certain things. Over time, she found a few photographs that
met her needs. It was a wonderful process, and I had no idea how lucky I was at the time and
how it would change my life. I am so grateful to her and Patagonia for leading me down this
incredible path.
From there, it was a long, slow road. I wasn’t a professional photographer yet and had to work
really hard to figure out how to shoot better images and also learn about the business side of
things—all of which is a never-ending process. One thing led to another, and I started getting
some interesting jobs outside of the work with Patagonia: commercial and editorial photo
shoots, and working as a specialty operator on TV commercials, TV shows, and films. The work
was really wide in scope, with a lot of travel, which was a lot of fun. I generally got hired for
strange jobs that required special skills, such as climbing, diving, shooting in remote locations, or where they needed someone who could take on a lot of different roles, such as directing, DPing, shooting still photographs, and VR.

During your career, how many hats have you worn to get to your level? 
I feel like I have worn every hat along the way, in one form or another, and continue to do so
to this day. I like to be involved in every aspect of the production and understand how it all
works. From technical capture and workflow to the business side of things, and most
importantly, the creative process. The more you know about each aspect of the process, the
better informed your decisions will be. I started out working by myself out of a backpack in
remote locations, so I had to know how to do everything. It’s still like that on small jobs, but as
they scale up in size, I step back—way back.
On the big shoots, we have so many talented people who are really good at their specific
roles. Every person on set really elevates the quality of the work to the next level. At that
point, it’s better to focus on the big picture and bring the vision to life. That usually means I am
just focusing on directing and shooting.

Do you shoot a range of big and small jobs?
Yes, I work on a variety of projects, from solo shoots to large-scale commercial productions with extensive crews, elaborate sets, and all kinds of equipment. I enjoy the opportunity to work across this broad spectrum of production scales. On smaller projects, where it is just me and the subject, the experience is rewarding because it allows me to form a genuine bond with the subject, discover their true selves, and capture those raw, authentic moments. On the other end of the scale, large projects are exhilarating because I’m surrounded by a ton of exceptional resources and talented individuals who collectively enhance the final product. It’s incredibly satisfying to dream up concepts in the pre-production phase of the project and then see them magically come to life. Stepping onto a set and seeing a large, skilled crew in action, all dedicated to realizing the initial vision is always an awe-inspiring moment.

I value both working styles for the distinct benefits they offer. Each approach enriches my skills and informs my practice in the other context. Sometimes, going light and fast while with minimal gear, relying on my instincts, and capturing a fleeting moment is the right call. Yet, even when I have access to an array of equipment, such as lighting trucks, multiple camera units, and cranes, the true essence of my job is to capture the perfect shot. In contrast, working solo allows me to slow down, delve deeper into the craft, and prepare to capture that perfect moment.

This past spring was a prime example. I was out filming some climbing and snowboarding in the backcountry for a few days. We were camping in the snow, lugging around heavy camera equipment, trying to keep batteries warm, all while trying to find a great angle on this rock wall 3,000 feet across the snow-covered valley. It was filmmaking stripped down to the bare essentials. Immediately following that, I headed into directing a big commercial shoot for Chevy that was going to launch the Major League Baseball season. Suddenly, I found myself on a set buzzing with 125 crew members, complete with stunts, performance drivers, and two camera units with incredible DPs leading each unit—a stark contrast to the huge packs we carried in the backcountry shoot a few days ago.

For location shoots, how are you tracking weather, and do you have two treatments you prep? 
Absolutely, our primary challenge was attempting to shoot a spring/summer-themed commercial amidst an ‘atmospheric river,’ a massive rainstorm that became one of the most intense to hit California in decades. This is when our adaptability and problem-solving skills truly came into play. Thankfully, I was part of a team where everyone was not only good at what they did but also collaborated well under pressure.

We encountered a significant setback when mudslides rendered one of our key locations inaccessible. The spot was set in a picturesque valley encircled by mountains—a pivotal scene for the commercial that we had to get. During our lunch break, I had a stunt driver take me in a four-wheel-drive vehicle to survey the damage. The roads were covered in deep mud, and it was immediately obvious that we weren’t going to make it up there. However, we’re in the business of making the impossible possible. We found a ranch hand with a tractor who helped us clear a path so that a pared-down crew could make it up the road. We skipped lunch and pushed our way up the hill. In the meantime, we dispatched the second unit and assistant director to find an alternative location and worked tirelessly to clear the mud. We trimmed the crew down from 125 to only the most essential personnel, who, along with a single Art Director from the agency, barely squeezed into two 4×4 trucks. Time was tight, and we had a lot to accomplish, I wanted to make sure we didn’t miss the epic lighting conditions I knew we were going to get around dusk. Luck was on our side that day, and we managed to capture some fantastic footage.

However, our luck didn’t hold the next day. The forecast warned of relentless rain throughout the day. Our location scout was on it, providing hourly weather updates, yet we had to brace ourselves for the possibility of filming in heavy rain.

That’s exactly the scenario we faced on our last day, where the boards called for a sunny homecoming scene with a BBQ, and instead, we had a river falling from the sky. We put the cast under the front porch of the house to keep them dry, lit the scene to make it look like a sunny, summer day, and constructed a 60-foot plastic tunnel for the truck to drive through to the set. We planned to use VFX to replace the background plates and simulate reflections on the body of the truck.

We adapted, hustled, and made the most of the challenging conditions. The dedication of every crew member, going the extra mile during the five-day shoot, was crucial to our success. Viewing the final broadcast spot you wouldn’t be able to tell that it was shot in a big downpour. And that is the magic of filmmaking!
https://vimeo.com/845713502

Who were your inspirations and mentors then and now?
I would say I am most inspired by the natural world and storytelling. I love how every place
and every person has such an interesting, unique story to be told. You can truly find art and
magic everywhere you look in the world. I think it’s a matter of finding that inspiration all
around you.
My biggest mentor has been my mom, who was a Special Education Teacher for 35 years
and a multidisciplinary artist. She was always working on different projects from painting and
Ikebana to quilting and interior design. She really encouraged me to be creative, brave, and
free. As I mentioned earlier, Jane Sievert at Patagonia set me on this wonderful path. My
good friend Ken Merfeld, a photography instructor from the Art Center College of Design, is a
passionate artist with a wicked eye that constantly pushes me to challenge myself as an artist
and take my work to the next level. I am so grateful for all these people and many more who
have been such an important part of this never-ending journey.

A 27 year old female Product, Lifestyle, Editorial, Commercial, Fashion, Events, Runway, Backstage, Street Style, E-commerce Photographer: 10k (net)

In 2022 my business was run as sole proprietorship and before expenses I made just under 40K (USD). However after expenses I only profited 10K and then roughly 30% of that was taxed. I ran/run my business under the 30/30/30/10 rule. Where I pay myself 30%, put 30% back into my business checking for bills/expenses to keep my business running, saved 30% for taxes and then put away 10% into business savings to cover myself for unforeseen expenses such as equipment failure.

My gross income has been steadily increasing year after year but could range anywhere from 10k-40k depending on the market. When I first started I only made 10k total and after taxes maybe profited $40 total. This was while working freelance (sole proprietor) AND as an in house photographer (W2) for a jewelry designer in Austin. Then in 2021 I became fully freelance and made 30k but only profited maybe 5K after expenses, and then $1,500 after taxes. In 2022 I was still structured as sole proprietor and made just under 40k but knew I needed to restructure into an LLC because the amount I was having to pay in taxes was becoming mind blowing.

Currently my business is structured as an LLC with an s-corp exemption. Which has been said that it should provide me way more tax benefits and save me money yearly; however I am not sure if it is beneficial yet. To be real and put this into perspective, as someone who lives in a less creative state, especially in the south, where I have to beg clients to pay me on time, makes under 40k a year and went from having to pay $300 for my CPA to now having to pay 2k in order to even file my taxes as an LLC I am not sure if it is worth it. But I guess that is the price of not having to ever work under someone else or be an employee of a company that spends their life to help their boss live a luxurious life.

I do everything myself like a psycho control freak. Literally everything; business wise, marketing, photography, creative and art direction, set styling, networking, financially, legally, website design, pricing sheets. You name it I am a one stop shop.

80% of my income comes from product photography, and then 3/4 of the 80 would be the fusion of products + models in the form of lifestyle/editorial/ecommerce; while the other 1/4 comes from just product photography in the sense of flatlays/ecommerce/shot in nature or at a venue/rental space/studio. The other 20% comes from random creative direction gigs and then events or videography. When I first started 90% of my income came from weddings/events/family/kids/senior pictures while the remaining 10% was fashion or product related.

The majority of my clients are local small-medium businesses with the exception of random fortune500 jobs in NY, Paris and LA. Typically the companies I work with are small in the sense of employees but structurally they pump out a lot of product and are on the rise into becoming big companies. I like to call myself the photographer who has an extensive collection of working with companies before they blow up.

I do not have any employees but occasionally I hire assistants when I am doing a bigger jobs or when companies hire me as both a photographer and creative director.

My overhead includes equipment upkeep/replacement/rentals/new equipment (anywhere from 5-15k), paying myself a barley livable income (20k ish and that is living modestly), taxes + paying a CPA (1-4k), then spending any extra income on doing creative shoots to build my portfolio or paying assistants (1-2k ish).

To be honest at this moment I am just trying to keep my head up after having to survive covid and then now entering a recession, which honestly may turn into a depression. I think most people under 30 are really struggling with what is going on in our country and older generations are not understanding that most of us will never even be able to afford to buy a home let alone really afford groceries. We are stuck between selling our souls to the corporate world or roughing it as freelance artists; and the worst part is that both options are not ideal when the cost of living at the moment is unbearable.

Ideally I will open a roth IRA for retirement and invest but that is going to take more time and energy having to research and teach myself how to do so and as someone who does literally everything by herself this is one thing that unfortunately will have to be on the back burner a little longer.

The hard thing with photography or being an artist/creative, is that jobs are very seasonal. Especially in Texas. Most freelance business’ or people I know, are either stupid busy where we work 7 days a week, 10-12 hour days, for months at a time or we are sitting at home twiddling our fingers staring at the wall wondering when the next job is going to come in. Especially in the south where life is generally more slow paced and laid back and not as highly creative or providing as much opportunity as other cities or states.

My income the last few year has steadily increased but with the current state of our economy I am fearful that there is going to be a huge collapse in income for all creative people. I am at the point where I either need to physically move out of Texas or mess around and start a movement for all photographers/artists/creatives to join in on the writers strike and stop providing services until the non creatives understand how imperative our work is. To me it is baffling to see photographers take images for companies, have to beg to either be paid/justify our prices, and be the ones struggling to pay rent or buy groceries-and yet somehow these companies are thriving. Can you imagine any company trying to run an business or sell a product without the use of imagery or videography or any of the creative services that make photoshoots possible?? It would be impossible yet we are still highly undervalued and underpaid.

I think there is a lot of time wasted in full day shoots and bigger productions so typically I hustle to keep my shoots under 4 hours at a time because I do not like wasting time. Typically I charge my client $150 per hour and this includes the photography services during the shoot, pre shoot consultations, mood board creation, and pre shoot preparation such as renting lighting equipment or booking studios/venues. Then I charge a per photo editing rate that ranges between $10-$50 per image and this compensates for the amount of editing and forces the clients to be mindful in their image selection. This price also includes the time spent post shoot sorting/proofing/uploading and exporting into an online gallery. Lastly I charge for commercial usage if the client intends to use the images outside of organic usage. All of my clients receive organic usage (simple insta and tiktok post-no ads, and website use) for 12 months; and if they want to use images commercially they have to pay either a per photo per month price or I offer a one time package price that includes usage of all images selected for editing to have commercial usage for 1 year. This is also dependent on the size of the company. For example most of the small business I work with only do 1-2 photoshoots a year so they are not using or needing new imagery very often. Then it increases as the business size increases and their intended usage increases.

My best paying shoot was not the shoot I made the most money on but the best experience. A company hired me to fly to LA 2 times during the summer and only shoot for 2 days, 4 hours each. They respected my hourly rates and even paid for my flights/accommodations while I was there. I think I roughly made 3k between both jobs and got to take home 1k for 2 1/2 days of work.

One of the worst paying shoots was with a small business who threatened to sue me because I would not release the images until they paid their invoice in full. They also wanted me to do creative direction, photography, and videography for a 6 hour shoot; receive 35 images, 96 videos and have commercial usage of all for 1 year. When I got sick with covid and had to reschedule the shoot they also tried to force me to pay for the airbnb they booked, even though I found a suitable photographer/viable options to keep the shoot going. Mind you the pay was only $2,300 for all of that.

My highest paying job was $5,600 for a fortune 500 company and while it was the coolest because I got to travel to France for a week, it was one of the worst experiences ever due to the guy that hired me for the job (not affiliated with the fortune 500 company or the media company they hired). The guy who hired me and the team told me I would make $5,600 for roughly 5 days of work (essentially following rich people around France and taking pictures of them experiencing the spoils of France) and that I would only need to take pictures and would not have to edit any images post trip. However he waited until we flew to Paris to bamboozle us and inform us that each team member would have to do photo and video, as well as edit the images; but would not compensate us for the extra work. He also told us that food would be entirely covered and then waited until we were there to tell us not all meals would be covered. Mind you it was an incredible experience to be in France but not worth the pay when the days ended up being from 7am-10pm at night and then having to deal with traveling for a week with a misogynistic egotistical male.

When I shot weddings and needed a second shooter I paid them $500 for 4-6 hours and then let them present their images to the bride/groom as their own business, in their own editing style. I did not use their imagery as my own work and viewed it as a way to help other photographers advance/get practice in their own career without having someone above them steal their work and pass it off as their own or underpay them/force them to adapt to my editing style.

When I moved into more product/fashion work I would pay assistants $100-$200 for roughly 2-5 hours of work during a shoot day. Their roles consist of helping with lighting, prop retrieval, checking in on hair and makeup or aid in helping finish those roles, using a timer and schedule to help keep me on time when shooting, backdrop set up, behind the scenes iphone videography etc.

Video makes up 10% of my income. I honestly hate video but people love BTS content or short clips to use for reels/tiktok so I often throw that into my services to make extra easy income. Most of the work I get is through word of mouth or through unpaid social media posts on insta and tiktok. I will be honest I am lazy when it comes to marketing but am a firm believer the best form of attracting clients is through word of mouth. It creates loyal relationships.

To be completely honest, being a female in this industry I have not received much worthy advice from anyone. It has shown to be very exclusive and secretive, and “I had to struggle so you will have to as well.”

The best advice I would give would be that in order to be successful or profitable, you need to differentiate yourself as a business owner and learn how to turn off the inner sensitive artist. I used to get so offended over my work and this caused me to undervalue myself and allow people to run over me and underpay as well as over work me.

The worst advice I have received was an old white man told me “keep your day job” and I did the exact opposite and am forever thankful that I did not listen to him.

You also will need to become more strict, obedient and consistent in standing up for yourself because most clients in this industry will try to take advantage of you. Especially if they see real talent, but undisciplined talent. Also remember that there are always going to be people who are far less talented than you but have more confidence and audacity and that is why they are more successful. The phrase fake it till you make it is real and talent doesn’t necessarily mean you will be successful. You have to be savvy and think as much technically, if not more than you do creatively.

This is also a highly dominated field for males and the best advice for women I can give is building a strong network between the girls, gays and theys and really focus on making meaningful connections with not only important people but more so the nobodies who grind as hard as you because; you never know who will become more powerful or influential later on. I have noticed the majority of the time when I help others out in an authentic organic way because I genuinely want to help others, people are more willing to pay it back tenfold and at the end of the day the way to advance further up career wise is getting to know the assistants, lighting crew, and anyone who is key in making photoshoots happen but may not be influential in any manner. Yet.

Become comfortable being uncomfortable and hearing no. Coming from someone who knew nothing about the industry besides watching America’s Next Top Model/Devil Wears Prada growing up, who knew nothing about running a business, who knew absolutely no one in the industry, who had no one to look up to or get help from; do not let anyone tell you you cannot do it. Also have more audacity in general. Most of the biggest moves of my career have been from being crazy and just throwing myself out there and not caring of looking stupid or being told no.

A full time salaried photographer at a New England based branding and design agency: $65k

I’m a full time salaried employee at a New England based branding and design agency. I am the only photographer at this company, I do photo and video work. I mostly interact with graphic designers and 3D artists.

We have our hand in a variety of industries and seem to be dipping into more every couple weeks/months.

Our clients are East Coast mostly ranging from start-ups to more national companies.

I have no employees under me, but as a company we range from 20-40 full-time.

I work the normal 5 days per week, year round with federal and local holidays off. Sometimes I work weekends. There is a lot of overtime and some weeks I work between 50-60 hours, but typically I’m 40-50.

I have occasional freelance work but that stays below $2K unless I do a wedding.

Too many variables to have a typical shoot, it can range from months shooting on the same property, to a 15 minute shot. It’s all over the place.

We pay assistants $250/half, $500/full day.

Video is 35% of my work.

Best Advice: Diversify your offerings.
Worst Advice: Shoot weddings.

Fight for your worth. I stayed at this company hoping for a raise each year, and each year I would have to broach the subject. No cost of living raise despite each year our profits going up. Agencies offer benefits and stability but demand long hours and in my experience less pay. I find the admin/marketing and customer service efforts of freelance tiresome so I opted for an agency job. I may rethink this in the next year or two if things don’t change given I can’t progress financially at this income with where I live.

The Art of the Personal Project: Rick Wenner

The Art of the Personal Project is a crucial element to let potential buyers see how you think creatively on your own.  I am drawn to personal projects that have an interesting vision or that show something I have never seen before.  In this thread, I’ll include a link to each personal project with the artist statement so you can see more of the project. Please note: This thread is not affiliated with any company; I’m just featuring projects that I find.  Please DO NOT send me your work.  I do not take submissions.

 

Today’s featured artist:  Rick Wenner

Wrongfully Incarcerated by Rick Wenner

 Bruce Bryan Video – www.vimeo.com/832297219

 

 

Throughout my career, I have been primarily known as a celebrity portrait photographer. While I truly love creating portraits in the entertainment industry, my personal work has been portraits focusing on inspirational people with powerful stories such as para-athletes and The Patriot Guard Riders. My latest personal project creating portraits of wrongfully incarcerated people and documenting their release from prison and wrongful incarceration rallies in NYC is a body of work that I am very proud to share with you. It is a work in progress, and I am committed to building this body of work to help tell these stories and hopefully inspire change in our judicial system.

In September 2022 I was commissioned to create portraits of Josh Dubin, a prominent civil rights attorney, and Derrick Hamilton, a former wrongfully incarcerated man of over 20 years, to announce their new leadership roles at The Perlmutter Center for Legal Justice at Cardozo Law in NYC. Little did I know that while I was creating with these two men, I’d be inspired to pursue a new project focusing on the wrongfully incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people who regained freedom through exoneration and clemency. Hamilton told me his story of how he was wrongfully incarcerated and getting himself exonerated by studying law and a relentless pursuit of justice. Dubin told me a few stories of clients that he worked with and helped regain their freedom. During my conversation with Josh, he told me of a photography series that could have potentially traumatized the subjects. Formerly incarcerated people were brought back to the location where their lives forever changed and were sometimes asked to pose in the exact location where they were arrested. Immediately, I felt inspired to create my own project and bring the same compassion, emotion, and integrity that’s seen in my work to tell the stories of the wrongfully incarcerated. The work you are about to view tells the story of Bruce.

The work you are about to view tells the story of Bruce Bryan’s wrongful incarceration. On October 30, 1993, Travis Lilley, an 11-year-old boy, had just returned home from a neighbor’s birthday party and brought his mother a slice of birthday cake while she worked at his grandmother’s beauty salon. Shortly after Travis arrived, a shooting took place between Travis’ stepfather, his accomplice, and a young boy they previously fired a gun at while robbing him of money and drugs. Tragically and sadly, Travis Lilley was struck by a stray bullet and succumbed to his injury.

Unfortunately, the criminal justice system produced a culmination of factors for Bruce Bryan to be wrongfully convicted. From the unethical tactics of the former Queens Prosecutor John Scarpa, who has a history of misconduct, to the biased and traumatized court-appointed attorney, Reginald Towe, who at the time of the trial was undergoing treatment for PTSD-related symptoms and later admitted to being unable to properly relate and create a defense for his clients.

While Bruce found himself in the dark and cold prison cells of Upstate New York, he made a conscious decision to not simply serve time, but rather to have time serve him. He began to embark upon his journey of transformation while simultaneously fighting for the truth to prevail. Bruce lived his life by the parable of The Dandelion & The Wild Orchard. “A dandelion can thrive in just about any environment. I decided that I had to be that dandelion. I was going to thrive despite where I was at.” Bruce Bryan earned an Associate’s degree in Humanities and a Bachelor of Science degree, participated and completed numerous certification programs, he presented a TEDx Talk, co-wrote a children’s workbook for children of incarcerated parents, he developed the first NYS prisoners gun buy-back program, and so much more, all while he was incarcerated for a crime that he did not commit.

In 2022 Bruce Bryan was granted executive clemency by New York State Governor Kathy Hochul and released from prison on April 24, 2023.

This project has been created in honor of Bruce’s story. I visited Bruce at Sing Sing Correctional Facility to create his black and white “Incarcerated Portrait”. The following week I went back to Sing Sing to document Bruce’s release from prison after close to 30 years of wrongful incarceration. Two months later I visited Bruce at his home in Jamaica, NY to create his “Freedom Portraits”. In September 2023 I documented the Wrongful Convicted Rally at City Hall in New York City.

My project is not limited to the wrongfully incarcerated though. I am building a full-length series that shows everyone involved in getting the wrongfully incarcerated out from behind bars, including attorneys, community leaders, and government officials.

These stories must be told, and I am committed to this work.

To see more of this project, click here  and Bryan’s story

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APE contributor Suzanne Sease currently works as a consultant for photographers and illustrators around the world.  She has been involved in the photography and illustration advertising and in-house corporate industry for decades.  After establishing the art-buying department at The Martin Agency, then working for Kaplan-Thaler, Capital One, Best Buy and numerous smaller agencies and companies, she decided to be a consultant in 1999.  Follow her at @SuzanneSease.  Instagram

We should talk about the barrier to entry for neurodivergent photographers

I received the following note:

I think it’s essential to talk about this amongst all the illustrious “35 year old male, net $500k/year”.

I am both autistic and very talented, and the former has made it INCREDIBLY difficult to keep my head above water. I am currently scraping by at the poverty line and am on Medicaid. I am so poor that I get free internet and subsidized electricity bills. I am incredibly good at what I do, and when I have a client, they are always thrilled with my work. But my brain just doesn’t grasp professional-speak, networking, corporate patterns of communication, or entrepreneurship. I feel as if I am working as hard as I can while watching people less skilled than I am make a killing.

I should clarify that I am not inappropriate with my clients, nor do I make anyone uncomfortable – if you met me, you’d have no idea I’m on the spectrum at first. But my brain is markedly different and provides very unique impediments, and the industry is simply not set up to accommodate people like me.

The industry as a whole is incredibly confusing, complex, and cutthroat, and highly ableist.

I have reached a tipping point in my career of realizing I cannot go another day accepting things the way they are, but I also recognize that, if people can’t identify with what I would reveal, it probably doesn’t make sense to torch the last gasping remnants of my fucked career and publicize this struggle for a bunch of people who would be like “…um, what?”. So, I’m going the anonymous route for now. I’m curious what people might say.

I also want to clarify that I think my situation in particular goes beyond a ‘dislike’ of the business part (although that’s a component as well). It’s more just that there are very specific unwritten rules of pitching and interaction that are prohibitively incomprehensible to someone on the spectrum. And it’s awful, because, as I mentioned, I have *never* had a dissatisfied client. People love my work. But presenting as an autistic person who doesn’t “look autistic” is incredibly off-putting for most people. They think they know what they’re working with, and then they get to know me a little more. I never intend to fuck anything up, but this is inevitably what happens, simply because I’m neurologically unable to follow certain (nonsensical???) structures of interaction and interlocution. It’s frustrating as hell.

I should also mention that this is also what caused me to lose a major camera sponsorship. I say the wrong thing, have no idea, and six months of complete radio silence later, I find out I’ve been blacklisted. I learned this from a friendly acquaintance on their PR team who had just gotten laid off, so he had no more secrets to keep. I mean, the industry is wild. Like, I have no idea what I did, I didn’t mean to offend, can we just talk about it first? Lol. People only like the flavors of disabled that make you meek and small and pitiable, not the ones that make you alienating (read: a confident autistic woman who occasionally makes gaffes and misreads social cues). So – I would very much love to talk more about the intersection of photography and disability. There’s a lot that needs to be said here, especially because many of the voices that should be amplified are instead squelched under the weight of industrywide ableism.

A male Commercial/Editorial photographer in the Adventure/Outdoor space with 2 years part-time experience: $5.9k

I decided to turn a photo hobby into a professional endeavor in late 2020/early 2021. For the last two years, my goals have been to build out a professional-level portfolio, supplement my income to cover all photography-related expenses, and work with people that I can learn from.

I maintain a full-time, corporate job (40-60hrs/wk; earning over $100k), so my photo endeavors have to work around the constraints of that commitment.

I generate jobs through pitching potential clients on trips/activities that I have planned (or want to plan) (e.g., a fishing trip to Canada or hunting in Texas). My hit rate is admittedly pretty low, so I usually treat these trips as spec shoots that I later send to clients as my proof of concept/capabilities. I am very lucky to be able to juggle my job with these activities, as my job offers a relatively flexible leave policy and allows me to run a side business. Since I don’t rely on photography for all of my income, I have the luxury of being very choosy about what I shoot, who I shoot with, and who I work for. This has allowed me to take on long-term personal projects (including documentary film making), as well as paid work.

My financial goal on a yearly basis is to cover all photography-related expenses, which I did not accomplish in 2021, but (barely) accomplished in 2022.

My income is 90% Commercial, 10% Editorial.

Clients are US-based, national brands in the outdoor space (outdoor technical apparel, fishing, hunting).

I have low overhead. Yearly expenses are the usual suspects — cloud storage, website, etc. The last two years I have done one gear upgrade/year (lens, camera body, etc) in order to build out my professional kit. $3-4k/year.

Its hard to say how many days/year I work, since I am only part time. Since starting my business, I have averaged 7 days of *paid* shoots per year. If I add on spec shoots, that number grows to 30-40 days/year. Its worth noting that I view the majority of my spec shoots as leisure/fun (hiking, fishing, hunting, etc).

My income grew by 29% in the last year, but income remains low as I continue to shoot professionally in a part-time capacity.

My full time job is both key to my success, but also a major constraint. It benefits me because it allows me to step away from photo when I feel burned out (without losing income) and pays for spec shoots. However, it also constrains me because I’m unable to accept last minute jobs and I’m unable to take on as many projects as I’d like to.

Average job: two full days of shooting (morning and evening, with downtime during midday). Average day rate is 1500/day, based on licensing for 2 years, social and web. Expenses are also covered. Take home pay would be around $2-2.5k.

Best paying shoot to date was actually my third paid gig. I charged 1500/day for 3 days of shooting and received an additional 200/day for lodging/travel/meals. Since it was just me (no second shooter) and very low expenses, I pocketed $3700.

Worst paying shoot (besides the ones that were free) was my first ever paid gig: $400 for a 1-day shoot. No expenses covered. 9 hours of work. Client was local tourism board. Licensing was for all mediums in perpetuity. My take home pay was -$100.

I have recently taken up video through my work on short documentaries. I haven’t generated any income from video/films.

I have never viewed Instagram/Social Media as a viable tool for me. I don’t have the patience/time/interest to put into the platforms for the purposes of gaining followers/interactions. Instead, I focus my efforts on using those tools to network with other photographers and the marketing managers of brands that I’d like to work with. At the end of the day, I’ve found the most success with in-person events (trade shows, speaking panels, etc) where I can get face time with the right people.

Worst advice: Licensing doesn’t matter.

Best advice: You’re at a delicate place in photography. You have all the technical things figured out, but what makes your photo different from anyone else who was there with that gear that day? If you want to move forward and come away with photos that stir emotion, you need to answer the following: Why are you shooting this? Why do you want to photograph this? What makes your photographing this unique? The process of answering these will help you find your voice.

If you’re new to this, don’t feel the need to jump into this as a full time job. There are a lot of benefits to a slow burn, including finding your voice. My skill and portfolio has increased dramatically since I first started out… and to think that I was considering jumping into this full time two years ago is truly laughable. I was not ready, and if I had attempted to do so, I believe I would have lost my love for the art. Keep that love and passion alive.

A female Associate Photo Editor on the East Coast: $67k Salary

I was based on the West Coast and had to relocate back home due to pay not being compensated by location and feeling inflation way too hard.

Photo feels like an afterthought. We’re told that it’s important, but then we don’t get any traction on being able to execute anything substantial that could elevate our company’s imagery. It seems like “good enough” is often, sadly, enough and we don’t often get to strive for excellence. When not using images from in-house staff we predominately use stock sites to source imagery. Benefits are good, but pay across the board is significantly lower than the standard.

I’ve needed to be paycheck to paycheck-ish a good bit of my entire career due to living in some expensive cities. I have some money squirreled away in savings. I know I can budget better, but I just find that my current wellness is more important until I can make more. I’ll probably get roasted for this in the comments. Financial gurus can drop their wisdom in the comments, pls.

I have unlimited PTO and probably take anywhere between 4-6 weeks off annually.

My income has dropped a lot recently: 72k – 2019, 79k – 2020, 83k – 2021, 90k – 2022, 67k – 2023.

I try to pick up freelance gigs, sell imagery, and for mostly my enjoyment, dog sit. As an introvert and neurodivergent person, it’s hard for me to find the energy to do the freelance thing after my 9-5. I’d love to have more freelance clients to work with, but the chasing leads, creating promos, and battling budgets has me pretty discouraged. I get a lot of, “your work is amazing!” but no money or work ever comes my way. My target industry is outdoor, travel, and some niche sports, and it often feels pretty saturated by the male gaze.

Sadly our budget is pretty dismal. I try to tell higher ups that a shoot is upwards 10k to get going and we’ll get a measly $3-4k thrown our way. Then we get questioned why the quality is piss-poor or why shots were missed. Our imagery comes from in-house staff and it’s often not great. My average work day is basically sourcing imagery and basic retouching work.

My advice for anyone looking to get into this line of work is don’t settle during the offer stage. HR is out to give you the hardest sales pitch of your life when trying to get you onboard. Fight for higher pay, more vacation, or other benefits if more pay isn’t available. Don’t hold your breath if they say raises and promotions will happen quickly – it’s their prerogative to get you signed on and they will say whatever they can to convince you. If you’re a woman, non-binary, and/or POC fight for your life to get the same pay as your male counterparts. Do your research and see what others in the role make and demand the exact same. I have had men on my team, doing the same exact job as me, make $5/hr more.

I started out my career scanning negatives and digitizing them while still in college on the East coast making $12/hr. When I saw that I wasn’t getting any traction from West coast companies, while still being on the East coast after graduating, I packed my trunk full of necessities in my car and drove out West. I worked part-time at a whatever e-commerce warehouse making $18/hr in Seattle while doing random photo shoots for $50/a shoot (I could get a shoot done in 30-60 min) shooting food for restaurants platforms like Caviar and UberEats. After 8 months drowning, making no money, I got a job as a photo editor at a tech company making $35/hr.

You can do it but you need to be persistent. For full transparency, I had help from my parents while in college and post college until I got the tech job. I wouldn’t say I’m totally happy with what I’m doing as a photo editor, but I appreciate the consistent paycheck. I see my friend’s who are constantly shooting either as in-house photographers, or freelance, and I am so envious that they’ve “lucked out” with those jobs. If you’re good with being behind a computer all day then I’d say photo editing and retouching is for you. Personally, for myself, I’d much rather be at a healthier 50/50 split with shooting or producing away from a computer half the time.

Worst advice: “Just keep shooting.” A local female photographer told me this once when I approached her asking if she needed a second shooter or could use an assistant on her shoots, unpaid. It just annoys me to this day. Giving people a chance, providing an experience even if you cant pay, is more worthwhile then just telling people to keep shooting. The experience folks get on shoots is not equal/the same as shooting themselves. I could have potentially learned a lot from that person, gained experience in assisting, and made a career out of it. But you know, I’ll just keep shooting.

Best advice: Fucking send it (me, I’m the best advice I’ve ever heard).

Reach out to photographers in your area to second shoot or assist, if that’s your jam. I found that any experience in the photo field was good experience, even if it wasn’t what I wanted to be doing long term. More than not, some photographer in your area knows someone else who is willing to have you help out or shadow them during a shoot. Assisting and second shooting for someone can lead to your photographer passing off gigs they don’t want to do to you and allowing you to build a clientele. I’ve had folks who didn’t need help at that very moment save my email and reach out months to a year later with a gig.”

I don’t promote my photo editor “status” on my Instagram, so most people don’t know where I work my 9-5; but the photographers that do know will reach out to me via DM, and I’m cool with that. Email is also preferred. Please, for all that is good and holy, do not reach out to me on LinkedIn. UNLESS, you are writing me an actual message that I can tell isn’t just some C+P’d laundry list of achievements.

I find photographers on Instagram, Getty, Cherrydeck. Women photograph. Diversify Photo. But as previous folks have said, just because I follow you, doesn’t mean I can hire you. In an ideal world, I’d hire each talented person I find but it’s sadly not the reality.

Pay your interns. It’s 2023. Eggs are $10. There’s no reason why interns should be second shooting or editing your work for you for zero pay. Give new photographers a chance; give women a chance. I get wanting to stick with “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it” mentality with some of your golden boy photographers, but there’s lots of new talent out there that deserves to see the light of day. Mine included, honestly.

A female Photo Director and Photographer working in the Outdoor Industry: $130k salary, plus bonus + stock and $50k freelance

I work with various domestic + international publications and in my salaried position I report to the Chief Brand Officer.

The most important thing I ever did was find a reliable accountant who has plenty of experience with creatives that do both salaried and freelance work. He has given me so much valuable financial advice over the years especially with taxes—all the important things we should’ve learned in school. I’m an LLC business elected as an S-corp, a move we made once my freelance income reached a certain point a few years ago (when I freelanced more than I do now). If you’re making over $30k in freelance income and you haven’t looked into converted to s-corp yet, I would highly recommend it.

I have a 401k with company match, and have about $100k. I also have a separate Roth IRA that I started this year and it has about $20k. I didn’t know what to do with my personal finances until very recently, unfortunately. THEY NEED TO TEACH THIS STUFF IN SCHOOL.

I work between 160-180 days a year. I work in an awesome company that has unlimited paid vacation and encourages everyone to take as much time off as possible. It’s been a weird transition for me to just be able to take time for myself as I please because I used to get cold sweats just thinking of the most polite and gentle way to ask for time off in my previous jobs. If I was sick, I had to act REALLY sick just so my boss would believe that I really needed a break. Now, I just peace out when I need to.

I doubled my income in taking this position. I used to be a photo editor in an international news organization that didn’t pay very well and gave very insignificant raises.

I still do freelance work on the side, but in the past couple years, I’ve finally given myself permission to say no to projects that I don’t necessarily feel excited about. I’m in an extremely privileged position to not have to take on shitty jobs for money.

I used to say yes to everything because I was living paycheck to paycheck. My mental and physical health suffered a lot in the beginning of my career. The weird thing is, looking back now, I had so much pride in my “hustle”. I was so proud of the fact that I worked almost all year long, even during holidays sometimes, as if I was doing world-changing work. I wasn’t. I was doing $450 assignments. And I would say my peers at the time felt the same too. And we were ALL quietly suffering, but none of us admitted it to each other.

I spend a lot of time working on art direction for future shoots, brainstorming with my team, and pitching projects. If I’m actively working on a project, I’m usually planning for shoots with my producers. We have a pool of freelancers we like to hire from, but I also spend a lot of time looking at Instagram accounts and websites. My team is made up of incredibly nice + high performing people, and we prefer the same when hiring freelancers.

If you want to get into my line of work be nice. You don’t have to be a saint, but just be a decent, nice person. I’ve unfortunately met a good amount of talented but not very nice folks. Because I’m a woman, I’ve had my fair share of mistreatment. I’ve been mansplained to by someone I’ve hired. I’ve been sent rude emails. And I always say, that’s totally fine. I’m just never hiring you again and if someone asks me about you, I will definitely share my experience.

This industry can be very stressful, but it doesn’t make it okay for anyone to be shitty to people they’re working with especially because photo editors + producers talk to each other. We all move around to different companies, but we stay in touch. If someone gave you an opportunity, at least try not to be a dick. Is it obvious I’ve had a lot of experience with this?

Best advice: set aside money for taxes!

Worst advice: go back to school and get a master’s degree.

I prefer photographers reach out via emails or Instagram DMs. I don’t really like LinkedIn messages. I use Instagram and emails to find photographers, and I like to look at people’s websites.

Please make sure your portfolio’s tightly edited. I always look at the cold emails I get and I’m often shocked at how poorly edited the websites are. First impressions are very important. Let your website reflect the kind of jobs you’re aiming for and learn to kill your favorite images. Some images you’re attached to won’t look the same to a stranger who doesn’t know the back story. Edit and re-edit, see how all the images blend together. Find an editor you can work with to look at your site and give you brutally honest feedback.

Depending on the scope of work, our photography rates start at $1500 plus expenses.