I'm not sure if I'm posting this in the right place. If I got it wrong, please redirect me.
I've been approached by someone who saw my photography at the last art festival I did. He would like to know if I am interested in doing some commission work for him. I've never done this sort of thing, so I have some questions.
He's interested in landscape shots of two locations on the other side of the state from where I live. He wants one shot from each season taken from the same location. It would be 700 miles round trip for me to hit both locations on one trip. I would obviously need to make at least 4 trips to hit all 4 seasons. I figure at least a couple of days at each location per trip to ensure I have a chance at getting good lighting.
We have a phone call set up later in the week to discuss more details. I'm not sure if he would want to purchase prints, framed prints, digital files, etc. He did say he has no issue with me selling the photos as part of my business to other clients.
I know there is a lot to consider in terms of whether this is a good job to take. I'm not a full time photographer. I have a day job, and have been selling at art festivals for a few years. But I'm not sure how to price something like this. Some questions:
1. Would you price it by the day to include all costs (gas, food, lodging, salary, etc.)?
2. What would a fair price per day be?
3. Do you write up a contract for something like this?
4. When do you take payment? For something like that where there is at least 4 trips, would you take a portion of the payment ahead of each trip, then final payment upon delivery of images?
5. Any advise? Pros/cons for doing this?
Any help you all can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Chris
Replies
Chris, the first thing I did when I read your scenario is looked at what I suppose is your website, chrissebastianphotography dot com. If that's yours, I can see how someone would ask you to do some work for them and that they'd be confident that you would be confident that you could deliver excellent results. You appear more than dedicated to the task as well as more than qualified to deliver excellent results. That person is responding to your particular style and ability.
Based upon seeing what I'm guessing is your work, I don't see why you can't work this into a project that will be profitable for you as well as please both of you. If you do have a doubt about your ability, by all means don't enter into an agreement to work and deliver.
I would need a signed agreement to proceed. I wouldn't make it too complicated, and I'd do a separate agreement for each season.
During my telephone talk I'd stipulate that "life happens," which is a way of saying that I might be sick and unable to proceed in the future, or that the client may be sick and unable to proceed, etc. You get my drift? The first idea is that I'll enter into this agreement with the intent to deliver four seasons, and that I'll get started as soon as we both agree it's time to start. But sometimes life happens, as I mentioned and we can't proceed with long-term situations.
I'd need to get paid for doing the ground work before delivering any finished prints. This kind of job would require at least billing for one day traveling and two days shooting. No ifs, ands or buts about it. Driving 350 miles will actually take you longer than a half-day, but you can be a little generous. You'll be devoting four days to the project, actually, for each season. You might even be able to start shooting on the day you arrive, and certainly you can on the day you leave. You'll have sunset and sunrise conditions on those travel days. Now, let's see, what's three days of my time worth? That's up to you to decide. High end pros would be upwards of 1K per day plus expenses.
You know your capabilities. Agree to deliver what you think is reasonable based upon your past experiences. You seem to have a number of them upon which to base your decisions. WOOHOO!
Yes Bernie, that is my website. Thank you for the vote of confidence. I do feel that I can get shots that will please him. The only question is can I do it in a single trip out there each season, or am I going to have to make multiple trips per season? Only time will tell, and I'll have to consider that in my pricing and my risk tolerance.
I think your points about laying the ground rules of "life happens" is a good suggestion. If I do go through with this, I'll certainly make a point to state something to the effect that this is a "best effort" at hitting all four seasons just right and that if some circumstance comes up preventing me from traveling it may be another year before I can hit that season again.
I did talk to the potential client today. He seems pretty reasonable. He has some ideas of what he wants, and some views in mind for which he is going to try and send me some snapshots to give me an idea of the view. He will be sending me a list of requirements that he would like for each shot and the typical window of opportunity for catching the 4 seasons at the right time. From that I will write up my proposal and we'll go from there.
So, we'll see what I come up with, and see how he responds to it. I just keep thinking this is going to be a pretty pricey set of images for him as it is a lot of mileage, and a lot of days shooting. He also wants to purchase the digital files as he expects to give these as gifts to family members and have other family members want them too. So I need to figure out the pricing of the digital files (8 of them) for personal non-commercial use. Hmm... not sure where to start on that.
Chris
Unless you're already familiar with doing commission work and get paid a non refundable amount in advance that covers all your expenses plus a comfortable profit.....
I suggest that if you're really interested in doing it. Give Michael Brown a call. He's photographed locations at multiple times of the year and he can probably give you a few tips. Look up optical art by Michael Brown to get his contact information.
Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com
Larry,
Thanks for the insight. I am not familiar with doing commission work, so I definitely have that going against me. And this isn't exactly the most straight forward one to start with given the long distance and needing to capture 4 seasons.
The thing I do have going for me is that this commission is to shoot two family farms in the palouse area of Eastern Washington. I've been wanting to go shoot the palouse, just haven't made it out there yet as I wasn't sure what time of year to go or where to go. This would give me an excuse to get out there at least 4 times, and give me a couple places to shoot that aren't the same views everyone has from Steptoe Butte.
thanks for the tip on Michael Brown's work. I checked out his website. Pretty cool looking work. I'll look int o contacting him.
Chris