No more FREE!
Posted by satureyes | Filed under personal, rants and moans, tweets
More and more the use of ’social media’ is becoming some sort of ‘bargaining chip’ to get free work.
I’ve noticed this becoming more of a trend in the event & creatives industry. I’ve had chats with a few people and it seems it’s not just me who has experienced this. Basically each month I have a load of people asking me for something and and they don’t want to pay for it. It usually is followed by a ‘promise’ of something in return.. ‘I’ll twitter about you’ or ‘I’ll put you on my website’. You get the idea.
Then there’s the ’showcase’ events. We all know these.. ‘If you give us a load of free stuff you can come to the event’ Promises of ‘exposure to new clients’ is a favourite one.
I had a great offer last year – In return for photographic coverage of an event, I was offered ‘membership’ of this collective of venues. I asked if this would enable me to be a preferred supplier to the venues- no it wouldn’t. I was offered the membership which had the cost of 1500 quid..but in return for this I had to do 1500 quids worth of work over the year for these people NOT including the event I was asked to shoot! What tosh.
I am known to be a bit of a grumpy old man, but think about how ridiculous this is. Imagine going into Tesco and telling them that you only want to pay 2 quid for a 10 quid product, or buying a DVD and telling them in HMV that you’ll talk about them on your blog. It’s just stupid!
Yet.. here we are in the event industry and it seems to be becoming the norm that clients ask us for something for nothing.. I don’t mean a discount (which I often give) but totally free.. and worse of all they think its totally fine to ask.
‘Can you throw in another 2 days shooting within the budget?’
‘Can you do it for 50 quid and some tweets?’
‘Can you do 10 days edit and we’ll pay you for 5?’
‘You have a camera, so can we borrow it for a shoot? You don’t need to be there. We’ll pick it up and return it the next day.’
The worst thing is that we are made to feel guilty if we decline the ‘offer’. It becomes OUR issue that the event can’t be shot, or covered, or catered for within the budget that the client has.
Why has this madness not been stopped? We all seem to get suckered in time after time.
Recently I did a video piece for a client. TOTALLY for free. I was promised the world in returns of PR, exposure (no pun intended) and getting my company name around the internet. This was a video for a campaign that was going to go places.. people will love it.. it will be all over the web, you’ll get press coverage, loads of hits to your site.
What do you think happened?
In short – they got a free viral that would have cost several thousand in pre and post production.. squeezed every ounce of patience out of me, then complained when I raised the issue that their campaign was a pile of piss and no one cared enough to even watch the film. 200 views on YouTube doesn’t constitute a successful campaign. I’d have got more hits in a videoof me dangling my testicles over a fence.
So good people my new years resolution is that I’m done with free. Its time we took a stand and did the same, or we will be perpetually made to feel guilty for not doing everything for nothing.
Wishing you all great business for 2010.
Here’s a video that sums it up perfectly.Enjoy!
Tags: business, corporate, events, free, photography, rick bronks, satureyes, video, viral, work, youtube
Let it snow let it snow let it snow..
Posted by satureyes | Filed under personal
Just like everyone else – I’ve been out taking photos of lovely snow..
HAPPY FESTIVUS!
Posted by satureyes | Filed under personal
Happy holidays to all my readers- have a wonderful break and a fab new year!
The revolution will not be televised (but it will be photographed)
Posted by satureyes | Filed under personal, photos, tweets
This week has seen me move into the wonderful world of wedding photography.
The main issue for me not doing this years ago was that it’s an area of photography steeped in mystery – especially for the clients. There’s a whole bunch of wedding photographers out there that really should not be there.. and certainly not charging what they charge for what is quite average work. So I’ve set out to revolutionise this, and I really didn’t feel comfortable being labelled as ‘one of them’
However, over the last 12 months I’ve seen my portfolio grow substantially with work for magazines, interiors food, live events and travel, I believe that the wedding world is ready for my new ideas!
I actually thought that a new wave of young creative photographers would have emerged onto the wedding scene by now but it seems not. On a recent trip to a photo expo in Birmingham I wandered around and noticed a LOT of wedding snappers there they generally were older chaps with their wives, meandering from booth to booth drooling at kit they would like to buy but probably not be able to operate. It didnt seem like the industry has moved on in years.
It’s absurd how some photographers operate. Just because you live with someone you automatically have the ability to absorb a skill set. We’ve all seen them – these photogs who bring their wives along on a job who stand there snapping away – either its an amazing co-incidence that the couple are BOTH pro-photographers.. perhaps they met at a local photographic club.. or perhaps they didn’t. More like they are over-charging and not actually having the skills to do the job. Does the wife of a cardiac surgeon assist her husband in the operating theatre? Of course not, so why does the wife of a photographer become a professional by proxy?
Much of the wedding photo world still bases itself on the fact that people who are organising weddings have buckets of cash to spend and they are VERY anxious about their photos and choosing the right person for the job – and quite right they should. Some prices that are being banded about are insane. Much of this is based on the vulnerability of people at a time in their lives where they are about to embark on a massive adventure.
What also gets me is the ‘extras’ such as the additional prints.. It harks back to the days when getting prints made was a time consuming process that needed many days or weeks to finish, so charging a premium for prints and not releasing the negatives was another way for the photographer to make some cash and covering his time and costs of getting prints done. I think this model needs to change. Its out as out dated as the people taking the images.
YOU pay for the photographer and their time.. YOU have a right to those images.. they are YOURS.. its outrageous that some photogs keep them and then charge and charge again for the prints. Its unfair, and greedy but its almost universally accepted. Why? Well because people don’t challenge it.
Many of my clients are more than happy to get their prints done themselves or on a canvas or in a photo-book that they can order online. Of course I offer the usual trimmings.. albums, canvases and other items of memorabilia but I believe that the client can get it done cheaper and think it better value for money that they do. I want to concentrate on my work as a photographer, not as a money leech for vulnerable folk.
My rule is simple. I Charge a fair and competitive price for the work – and offer the finished images in all their glory on a disk for the client afterwards. I process every image, select and sort, putting care into each one.This is how it should be. My corporate work follows the same model and all my clients come back to me tim and time again.
So.. here’s the offer.. for £750 I will shoot the WHOLE wedding (none of this running away at the cake cutting) up and including a good stint of the dancing. I will then process every image and all the useable ones will be available in their highest quality on a disk for you to keep. No hidden charges.. just great photos!
Feel free to drop me a line for more information
click here to email me for more information
Tags: moans, photos, rant, rick bronks, satureyes, wedding photography
I LOVE THIS VIDEO!
Posted by satureyes | Filed under personal
social media.PAH! I LOVE this.. its utter GENUIS!
Social Networking or Ego Massage?
Posted by satureyes | Filed under personal, rants and moans
It’s been a while since I’ve had a jolly good whinge…
…So now winter looms, the evenings are drawing in darker and wetter and every single train seems to be delayed- I thought I’d pop up and spread some delicious and perhaps questionable debate about something that has been bothering me for a little while now.
I’m fast coming to the conclusion (after hours of highly scientific observation and research) that for many – the ability to boast a massive social network is a base for massaging their ego and ultimately use this network to brag to others about how big it is- possibly using it like a geeks penis extention or perhaps breast enlargement- or perhaps both.
I’ve been active on Twitter now for quite some time – I’d say I was pretty aware of the ins and outs of using it. I noticed st the start of my twourney that there was a handful of folk who were proclaiming to be ’social media gurus’ or ‘web evangelists’. I still don’t know what the crap that means but a fellow Twittee mentioned at the time that this was the equivalent of putting ‘creative imagineer’ on a business card in the early ’90s. Basically a load of old bunkum that serves nothing but to massage the ego of the so-called ‘imagineer’.
We’ve moved on from meaningless job titles on business cards to these new kings of the social networks.
They’ve got thousands of followers hanging off their every update – what do they do? What gives them the credentials to preach their new media evangelism over the Twairwaves, or the Facebook fan pages, or the Linkedin accounts..you get the idea. I dont know what their backgrounds are – and they are usually not so forthcoming to tell us. I actually don’t get it. I see people with a mysterious skillset telling us about how good social networks are – and posting endless links to other reports and not actually making that much constructive commentary themselves.
Perhaps it’s no coincidence of the closeness in spelling Twitter has to twatter- and way way too easy to think of countless puns for these ’social media gurus’ so I’ll avoid the trap of calling them Twatters. Or Twatterateri.
I actually don’t know what gives them the supremacy they seem to command. I observe lots of reverence but little knowledge imparted into the salivating mouths of their loyal fans. Sure- they use their network to organise events- a Moonwalk in London as a tribute to Jacko- but why? Perhaps they’ve been a devoted fan and this was the only way of consoling themselves following his death.
I’d wager this wasn’t the case though.
I actually asked the organiser why bother – no answer. I put it to him that it was because he siezed another opportunity to promote himself and his ego – but if he does have something to promote I don’t know what it is, so not a great campaign. Perhaps I’m too cynical and it was arranged purely for a bit of fun and and act of utter selflessness and that they wanted to harness their network power for the sake of others and that’s all it was. (cough)
So what is the secret? Well I think it’s down to the same old story – size. The more people you have in your network the more you can repeatedly tell them things that make you out to be a super-geek-online-hero-Jedi-Master. Keep telling people something and sooner or later they will believe you.
I have this image of these big-twitters sitting in a flat with no food, furniture, curtains or carpet. Just broadband and a laptop, yet the perception of these folk by their loyal fans is somewhat different. They seem to be accruing fans like sheep, and I just see lots of people blindly following folk like sheep because they think (and this is the key) they THINK that they will get a secret that will change their life in some way – be it through a way to ‘utilise the network’ to earn money or to get something for nothing. The reality is very different but once you’ve been trapped under their spell you can’t escape.
I was always a firm believer in quality over quantity, and to me this makes sense. Have a group of people that can directly affect your network and give you something that you don’t have. Share ideas with others and perhaps make friends, but its the quality of who you speak to, tweet to or chat online with that will help – not having an over-inflated ego and filling up their fans hard drives with bags of manure and drivel.
I once went to a ‘networking’ event hosted by a well known married couple who run a successful ‘networking’ website, and it was their birthday celebrations. It was like sitting in a scene from the Witches of Eastwick. I was fully expecting the audience to peel off their heads to reveal some hideous creatures beneath. Admittedly some didn’t need masks- but what I heard was absolute nonsense of the highest brainwashing order. It was 2 hours of self-indulgent back-slapping banter that was nothing more than to lay praise on the founders of this site. A couple of badly produced videos thrown in for good measure too- all making out these people to be ‘life changers’. Looking at the audience it didnt appear to have helped them – every single one there selling a service, and no one buying their service- but they again touted ‘the more people you have in your network the better.’ The only thing its better for is the membership fees of their website.
It was actually bizarre and horrifically scary how this audience were in awe of these folk. If they had commanded the audience to boil each others heads they probably would. It really was that weird.
Following the speeches there was a networking session. I was approached by a clearly demented man wearing a multi patterned tweed jacket who butted into a chat I was having with someone who only had one head and looked on the surface human – he butted in and I asked what he did. His reply? ‘I do whatever you want me to do.’
I then left.
Here’s my conclusion and final thoughts. The whole social media thing is certainly a more advanced networking but without people actually talking face to face. – Still this is based on the paranoia caused by the need to generate new business. Its a vicious cycle of desperation.. lack of work so out you go networking, you meet others who are also looking for work, who are also desperate, you leave feeling deflated and under-valued so you look to the social networks online – full people following people who don’t help either.
My advice? Handpick who you speak to. Don’t follow the crowd. Don’t be too pushy and be yourself. You may not win new business but at least you wont be following the herd.
Here’s a short I’ve just finished cutting…
Posted by satureyes | Filed under personal, video
Save the office party – have a lookiee see!
Tags: forcefed media, office, party, satureyes, save, viral campaign
Im determined to blog more..
Posted by satureyes | Filed under personal, rants and moans
Just testing to see if this tweets and posts 
Tags: testing
London from above
Posted by satureyes | Filed under personal, phone camera, phone photos
Here’s some iPhone shots of the view from my office today
I’m shooting a live teleconference tonight. Ages away but at least the view is good.
Brazil Brazil!
Posted by satureyes | Filed under personal, photos
I really need to blog more!
I’m gonna make more of a resolution to post more blogs. It’s very lazy of me and I should be more active on here.
By way of an apology- here’s a quick snap from my work the other night. More to come but right now here’s a taster
Tags: canon 50D, dancing, ladies, wawaweeewaaa