03/11/2024
"You charge too much"
"Would you do it for exposure?"
"I can find it cheaper"
"Can we use your work to make money for our business"
"Can you do friends and family?"
There is a reason we are called starving artists. Because the world wants to feast on our work and not leave us a crumb.
The value of our work is priceless, but no one wants to pay a price. We create profit, but they want to take ours.
Brands want free pictures, friends want free pictures, photographers want free education from other photographers.
How many brands have asked me for free pictures? The very pictures that sell their products? Too many to name, small names, big names... other artists with small businesses.....
How many photographers have complained about other photographer's education prices? The same ones who complain about their clients haggling for lower prices.....
Pictures create profit. Who asks others to pay for their advertising? It's tacky.
No one pays for our ads. No one pays for our equipment. No one is volunteering to compensate us for our 12-15 hour days.
No one goes to their Doctor and says "Hey, will you do this visit for free if I tag you in a post?" Stop asking us.
It gets old. We are tired and we are hungry.
If you don't want to pay the price, that's perfectly fine. Stop trying to negotiate other people's value. Don't comment on it. Don't message about it. Move along.
Let us eat.
