Are freelancers a dying breed

[retrognome]

MSA Accreditation, insurance, hours of learning, expensive lenses, travel costs, hotels and advertising. What's the point? Anybody can get a florescent jacket nowadays and then they give away their images for free. problem is, magazines take advantage. End of an era?

[grantp]

Originally Posted by retrognome

MSA Accreditation, insurance, hours of learning, expensive lenses, travel costs, hotels and advertising. What's the point? Anybody can get a florescent jacket nowadays and then they give away their images for free. problem is, magazines take advantage. End of an era?

Likely to be the end of an era I think.

Partly because the digital age has made snapping and processing far easier and less time consuming than ever before and distribution expectations so very different from the past.

I suspect that the magazines, of they are to survive in print, have little choice but to cut payments. I hear that some of the biggest MSM players - The Guardian for instance as I recall - is slashing per image payments and repeat usage fees to its non-employed freelancers on a take-it-or-leave-it basis.

What are the options?

On-line media? Probably not but I expect you would know better than I.

Video? Maybe but to do it properly is a big step and hardly likely to be acceptable from a one man band (at least in the motor sport market) for long. People will quickly expect a more comprehensive coverage requiring a team of people when video takes off.

The question is - what would make 'image creation' work (a business sense) for the next few years and how does one identify and create a market and a business model that will recover the costs AND provide a proper income? If you don't seek that result the only options you, as a photographer, have are;

1. To shoot and share for your own pleasure and the odd beer and BBQ now and again. (It's a question of knowing when introductory promotion mode needs to end knowing full well that there are others coming through on that path.)

2. To set out to at least recover the costs of the hobby - but don't think of it as a business.

3. Only do work on a commission basis or with some form of 'deal' in place that provides a guaranteed line of revenue for a known period for one or more clients, individually or as a group. To do this you need to be able to differentiate your service wihtin your target markets and make it obviously attractive in some way to the prospective clients

Whichever approach one takes I think something 'new' will be required. As someone said to me earlier in the year - "I have a limited amount of wall space and can only justify a small number of almost identical pictures of me driving my car over the years".

Of course all of this may change in the next few years if economic circumstances move in the direction they appear to be heading.

[marc sproule]

With the dwindling supply of big sponsorships, the death of so many real publications and the willingness of young wannabes who give their work away for virtually nothing, I'm glad that I'm not longer trying to make money in motorsports.

I can count on one hand the number of friends who are still shooting on a regular basis.

Makes me very glad I was where I was when I was.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/46681980@N03/sets/

[David Stallard]

I shoot mainly for the Classic Sports Car Club, I have all but given up with pushing for 'print' as even offering images for free with an accreditation below / beside the shot is getting almost impossible.

As mentioned above there are now so many people with high end DSLR's and mega glass that just about anyone can get a few good shots and they give them away for free, so what chance is there of making a living from it? next to none!

I cover all the UK event's for an entrance ticket, I fund myself 'just about' with the few sales I get off my website, it won't cover equipment replacement / upgrade but it does get me to and fro from the circuit and it helps towards room cost's if it's too far for home and back.

I do it because I enjoy it - simple as that! As for the future, who knows? why worry about it? there really is nothing you or I can do to change it, we just have to go with the flow

.DAVID.

[retrognome]

I'm glad I'm not the only one. I do wonder why organisers allow non accredited photographers trackside and inside pit garages without insurance. As I understand it, this public liability insurance is only available to professionals and only MSV insist on evidence. Our photographers at Retro-Speed are all MSA accredited, three are Guild of Motoring Writers press card holders and all have relevant insurance. Together we also waste a lot of time sending people image copies for approval before purchase, never to hear from them again. Guess why?

There exists channels where amateurs can undertake genuine journalistic training (Coventry Unniversity for example) after which they can not only take pictures but also do reports, and that's what we need, well written reports. But, of course, that's hard work.

[Moosehead]

From the Spa thread that instigated this thread...

Has anybody asked the question that for every image given free another free- lance bits the dust. just thought it worth a mention.

Retrognome, maybe I'm reading this wrong or are you saying that (amateur)photographers should not be giving their pictures away (to drivers)?

[Tim Falce]

This all sounds like sour grapes, if I take a photo then I should be able to do with it what I want and lets be fair a lot of the amateur taken photos on here are far better than a lot of the pro shots, part of the reason I rarely buy photos any more.
I've not heard of any circuit allowing unaccredited photographers trackside, where does this happen, certainly not in the UK I bet?

Originally Posted by retrognome

There exists channels where amateurs can undertake genuine journalistic training (Coventry Unniversity for example) after which they can not only take pictures but also do reports, and that's what we need, well written reports. But, of course, that's hard work.

Have you read Autosport or MSN? If that's the standard of university educated writing god help us all, anyone can write a dozen word race report.

[GORDON STREETER]

Originally Posted by Tim Falce

Have you read Autosport or MSN? If that's the standard of university educated writing god help us all, anyone can write a dozen word race report.

Not "anyone" Tim, a few people (no names) can hardly spell their own name !
The Digi age has put a stop to lots of other specialized trades in the world and made a lot of people redundant.
The printing trade was probably the first to be hit hard with the advent of desktop publishing and emailing instead of writing letters.
As for filming, whether in movie or stills the Digi age killed of cameras/projectors and all of the ancillary sides linked to it in a very short space of time.
I haven't the heart to throw away my top of the range 35mm film cameras but last weekend I took my colour enlarger that would do 20 x 16 on the baseboard down the tip as I hadn't used it for 15-20 years !

[retrognome]

Hi Tim I'm not sure there is such a thing as an unaccredited photographer, they are more likely to be non accredited. Taking pictures is so much easier.

[MikeHoyer]

It's still possible to make money. However I think you need to devote a lot of time to it, and be prepared to do the less "glamorous" jobs as well.

It's easy for people to give away pictures for a pass when the have another job and don't need the money. Whether you agree with it or not, I doubt you're going to convince those people to stop. The key is to do what they can't or won't do.

[bella]

Originally Posted by MikeHoyer

It's easy for people to give away pictures for a pass when the have another job and don't need the money. Whether you agree with it or not, I doubt you're going to convince those people to stop. The key is to do what they can't or won't do.

i think that depends on which side of the balance you're looking at the situation from. the guys who work a "normal" job as well as having a weekend job in photography and/or pr can either simply be aware that it's not financially sustainable to be doing it full time. if you're on the other side of it they don't "need" that money because you assume it's the main job that's paying the bills.

things change. and everything is a business - you provide the service that has a market, and if you're smart and on the ball you find the market that doesn't have any competitors. too many people in the market? diversify, or offer a totally different service to anyone else. you can't just turn up in a marketplace and expect it to want what you provide. you have to tailor your services to what it wants.

[GORDON STREETER]

Originally Posted by bella

things change. and everything is a business - you provide the service that has a market, and if you're smart and on the ball you find the market that doesn't have any competitors. too many people in the market? diversify, or offer a totally different service to anyone else. you can't just turn up in a marketplace and expect it to want what you provide. you have to tailor your services to what it wants.

I couldn't have put it better, I just think of the people that were moaning in the the Lloyds of London "disaster"
They never moaned when they were getting 30 -100K for old rope each year !
A personal friend of mine lost about 3 million through that but put it behind him after loosing his big house and land and started a successful business from scratch.

[midgetman]

Yeah, we're all being hit by the digital age, witness the rise of the "5 - to - 9" economy. People selling racewear from their back bedroom challenges my business, just as I challenged the established MG spares companies thanks to eBay.

Photographers as a whole could be a dying breed, going the way of lamplighters and ferry boat men. Even telephones take adequate pictures for the most popular sharing media - FB/Flickr/etc!

We're all having to adapt to the new market, the world is changing.

The same conversation is just being had on the radio ref journalists being sidelined by bloggers and Tweeters.

[Al Weyman]

I must say I have been thinking this for some time, its sad but there you go. A lot of things I do here have been taken over by non vat registered people working from home and selling via ebay how can I compete? Maybe I shouldnt bother and sell up and join them.

Going video wouldnt work IMHO. I mean the tracks have even (quite rightly) taken that silly form you had to sign to stop you broadcasting your incar stuff so there is reams of video on line to be had.

I will also ask just how many photos do you want of your car anyhow?

[Tim Falce]

Originally Posted by midgetman

Yeah, we're all being hit by the digital age, witness the rise of the "5 - to - 9" economy. People selling racewear from their back bedroom challenges my business

Max, you're forgetting your roots.