Why should I hire a photographer? Can’t my cousin Bill with his fancy camera do an “ok” job shooting our family photos?

No offense to your cousin, but there is more to photography than having good camera equipment. Look at hiring a photographer like asking a knowledgeable friend their opinion. Good photographers are in a constant state of improving their art. They know that photos are captured memories and by far the most important valuable you may have.  Now if your cousin Bill is a photographer, then by all means use him.

What sort of photography do you do?

All sorts really. I don’t use a dedicated studio, so all photos are “on location.” I shoot sporting events, portraits, weddings, etc. Just about anyplace and any situation.

Shouldn’t I ask “What do I get and how much does it cost?”

That’s a good question and often the first that photographers have to answer. For that reason, I have taken the complication of this question out of the picture so to speak. There are no packages and minimums or sitting fees. The fee is a straight hourly charge plus expenses (when necessary.) On top of that you get everything. All photos and the rights to print and display them wherever you want.  As with anything there may be some limits, but unless you want commercial photography, the rights is pretty darn simple.

Are you trying to set a new standard for professional photography?

Maybe, I don’t know.  I doubt I’m the first to think this way. I never liked the concept of packages and getting people to pay by the print. I prefer to treat you like a friend that needs wants to benefit from my enthuasim for photography. That’s it.

What do I do with all of these images?

In a normal photo shoot you will get about 100 photos per 30 minutes. I will select the best and “set them aside” so you will have the 6 or so really great shots, but if by chance you decide that you really need to print that picture that had your Aunt Alice in, it will be there for you. You can print them at home or send them off to a service for printing. If you don’t want to have to worry about all of this and you want us to print and deliver them I will be happy to do so at the cost of the service I use and shipping.

Do you do model shoots?

Yes I do. If you want to consider doing a model shoot we will definitely be ready to do so.

What are proofs and why don’t you say anything about them here?

Proof images are small images generally printed out so you could see which ones you want to order. In my case, you get all the photos anyway, so there is no need for proofs.

Photos, pictures, images, snapshots… what’s the correct term?

This is a tricky bit of semantics. I try to refer to things in this fashion whenever possible:

Snapshot – A quick picture taken by the camera with little to no thought put into it’s creation.

Photo – A picture taken that was created, thought about and will truly be looked at.  Something worthy of hanging on the wall or posting to your friends online.  The sort of image that make you go “Wow.”

(Photo) Shoot - Is a time period when we work at making photos not taking snapshots.

Picture – It’s what a camera takes when you hit the shutter button.

Image – It’s what you see on the screen.

I’m not perfect and I may slip up from time to time.  But when we are out to work to create great photos for you we will be on a photo shoot to take pictures trying to capture the best images you will want to share with your friends and print photos to hang on your wall.

Now for the legal question, who owns the rights to the photos?

Technically speaking I retain the rights to the photos. Normally federal law prohibits copying or reproducing copyrighted material without permission from the owner of the copyright, i.e., the photographer. If you copy or scan your photos, the photographer should be paid just as if you were buying reprints. In my case however, I license the photos under the Creative Commons Attribution – Non Commercial license. This basically says that anyone can share, transmit, print, and sample the photos with the restriction that I’m attributed with the original work and it is for non-commercial use.  The photos are still copyrighted, I’m just giving you blanket permission to use them as you see fit as long as it’s not for commercial purposes.

So if the photos can’t be used in commercial projects, how do you handle model shoots?

I use a different license for those photos.  The license depends on the intent of the shoot.

Since you are giving me everything and I don’t have to come back to you for prints, aren’t you more expensive?

No, not really. In the past photographers have lived solely by sitting fees, packages and reprints. They try to figure out how much their time is worth, equipment costs, and other expensive and markup what you pay for a print to cover all of that. I prefer to just have a simple hourly charge just like you would have for the services of any other professional.

Ethics

A bit about my philosophy for this site:  I want to become a photographer that is know for vision beyond the image.  That’s why the bulk of this site is in part a podcast/blog.  I find that I learn so much more when I try to teach to other people what I have learned.  So I am constantly in a mode of teaching everyone about photography.  If in the future someone want’s to support that endeavor and sponsor my work, I will not complain and I don’t expect my clients and readers/listeners should either.  However, I really don’t want to sponsor a product or service I don’t use or admire.