Business for Photographers 2 of 2: When to walk away

There are lots of reasons to walk away from an assignment or a stock sale. Bob Krist outlines a stock deal to stay away from (Frommer's) here. Personally I just walked away from an assignment that I really wanted to do because the Director of Photography wouldn't sign and return my estimate but still wanted me to front the travel expenses. Something else came up so I took the other job.

But how does a photographer know when to turn something down?

There is a great discussion of $200 assignments at Aphoto Editor (here). Young photographers are likely to take ANY assignment no matter the pay. It is easy for me to say 'walk away from $200 assignments' but, almost everyone that I know has worked cheap early in their career. The photographer gains experience and the client gets bargain basement prices. On my second assignment for Outside Magazine I was paid $2000 for a month's shooting. I took the assignment because ultimately I wanted to work at National Geographic and knew I needed more international experience. I can't fault someone for working cheap. 

However, photographers can't be oblivious to what CONTINUING to work cheap does to their career. I'm not talking about what it does to the business as a whole, but to their personal career. If you continue to work cheap after a couple years you become the cheap photographer, the go to guy when low price is the most important thing. The Dollar Store of assignment photography. Face facts here, you get hired for what you have done, not what you can do. If you want a short career that ends in debt stay on the cheap route.

One key to being a good photographer is knowing what assignments to accept. Take the assignments that move your career in the direction you want to go. If you are an aspiring fashion photographer and the NYT Sunday Magazine offers you a fashion assignment you would be a fool to turn it down no matter what the day rate. That same photographer would be an idiot to accept the NYT's $250 day rate to cover a news event. The money that the photographer is going to loose on the day (trust me you loose money at $250/day) would be better spent making pictures that are important to them. For an aspiring news photographer the situations would be reversed. 

What to take and what not to is always a judgment call. The decision will be influenced by what the assignment is, how busy you are and what the rights/fees are. This is always a moving target. But remember this, careers are not made on individual assignments. There is no such thing as a big break. Photographers who do well consistently work hard and have long term relationships with their clients. I've never been able to establish a relationship with someone who thought my photography was worth $200 a day.

Now for stock it is easy. Repeat after me "stock photography is about money, nothing else." Stock does nothing for a photographer's career. If the money is not right for the rights the client wants WALK AWAY. Let them get a photo off of Flickr. Volume pricing works well when you have a million pictures in file. None of us do. 

-Stephen Alvarez