Why You Shouldn't Work For Free

Matt Brown over at Sportsshooter.com has posted a great article on why you shouldn't work for free or give away photos.

Thanks to the rampant image stealing abilities of modern technology, people can just take whatever they want and post it on their sites. I know this, i don't like it and i realize that people are going to somehow try and take the 576 pixel deep photos on this site. (Yes, thats why they're so small)

That being said, If you want to use my photos and i actually have the rights to them (Non-newspaper shots), You will have to pay to use them on the web and anywhere else. Why you ask?

1 - Cost of cameras and lenses. These things are expensive. A Nikon D300 costs $1799 (body only), the nice 17-35/2.8 lens costs $1500 and so forth. The super-long glass that i shoot baseball with from the paper? That costs a used Ford Mustang.

2 - Experience. I have dedicated years of my life to learning how to make good sports action photos as well as how to manipulate lighting modifiers , studio lights, etc. It takes a lot of time and effort to learn how to use this equipment and get a good, daily image.

3 - Time. No, I cannot just send you a photo. I work on pressure deadlines. It takes time to download, tone and resize the photos and email it to you. My time is money. If i miss something, it takes money out of my pocket. Which leads to....

4 - Money. I'm a capitalist in this business. I'm in this to make money and enjoy what i do. Giving you something free doesn't put gas in my gas tank. Credit only doesn't pay the rent and put food on the table. "Getting my name out there" by giving things away doesn't actually lead to more (or any) business.

A car mechanic, a plumber, a house painter, an electrician, an airline pilot, a stock broker, a bus driver and lawyers certainly don't work for free. They don't just give stuff away or work in trade. And neither should you.

I implore any young shooter, especially those in college to listen and think. Giving photos away just hurts everyone and doesn't get your name out there as someone employable. It gets your name out there as someone who gives away free photos.

And don't get me started on the weekend shooter with the $90K a year job and the $100K Porsche who is just doing this for fun and just gives his stuff away because he wants to see his name somewhere. People like that are a lot more frequent then you'd think and they're taking money away from people who do this for a living. All it is doing is just teaching big corporations that they can always find it for free somewhere.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to.....