April 26th, 2013
By Bill Cramer
I recently was approached by a regional fashion magazine needing some advice on their photographer and photo director contracts. They had encountered some push-back on them and they wanted to know what they could do to make the agreements a little more palatable. The documents have three parts, an Independent Contractor Agreement (which would be for all vendors, like …
March 21st, 2013
by Bill Cramer
Ditlo is an innovative stock photography company that collaborates with photographers and up-and-coming celebrities to create content that they then license to commercial and editorial clients. It may be too soon to say whether this is a viable business model, but I admire them for trying it. Ditlo (which stands for Day In The Life Of) is the brain child of Bruce Kramer of …
February 21st, 2013
by Maria Luci
(Read Austin Diary, Part I here )
Bill and Jess’s Austin adventure continued bright and early on Friday with Texas Photo Roundup ‘s Negotiating 2.0 Panel, held at The Blanton Museum of Art . Jess sat on the panel, moderated by Allegra Wilde of Eyeist, which also included WM photographer Adam Voorhes , PhotoShelter Co-founder Allen Murabayashi, rep David Laidler, and JWT …
February 11th, 2013
by Bill Cramer
Introduction. Photographers often feel overwhelmed at the thought of putting together an estimate for a new client. But it doesn’t have to be that way. And unless you have an agent or an office manager handling that process for you, your choice is simple – learn and thrive or resist and suffer! This article will introduce you the information you’ll need to create a …
February 4th, 2013
By Bill Cramer
The following is actual email correspondence between a U.K.-based graphic designer (whom I’ll call Dennis) and an experienced Florida-based photographer (whom I’ll call Phil), concerning an annual report shoot in Orlando for a Connecticut-based medium-sized corporation. My comments are in italics.
Hi there Phil,
I found you on Google. I wonder if you could confirm …
January 21st, 2013
By Craig Oppenheimer
Shoot Concept : Environmental portraits of cast members from a television show, including landscape images of the town featured in the show
Licensing : Work Made for Hire
Location : A small city in the Southwest
Shoot Days : 1
Photographer : Up-and-coming conceptual portrait specialist
Agency : None (in-house creative team for TV channel)
Client : …
January 8th, 2013
by Jess Dudley
Shoot Concept: Lifestyle, chef portraits and plated food images to promote a resort
Licensing: Three years of regional Advertising, Collateral and Publicity use of 20 images, in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee only
Location: Resort in Georgia
Shoot Days: Two
Photographer: Southeastern hospitality and lifestyle specialist
Agency: Client Direct
…
December 10th, 2012
by Jess Dudley
Concept : Lifestyle images of guests enjoying a new hotel concept and Architectural images 0f the property itself
Licensing : Advertising, Collateral and Publicity Use of 17 images, US Only
Location : Hotel property in Northern California
Shoot Days : Two
Photographer : Up-and-coming architectural, hospitality and lifestyle specialist
Agency : Mid-Size …
November 1st, 2012
by Sean Stone
After our otherwise terrific trip to Toronto ended in a 20-hour delay, I was a bit hesitant to get on a plane again with Craig. But since I couldn’t convince him to take a 30-hour road trip, we once again headed to the Philadelphia airport, car loaded with portfolios. Oddly enough, check-in was smooth and quick, security was easy and our plane was on time… maybe Craig isn’t …
October 20th, 2012
by Bill Cramer
Last weekend, I attended the first annual Colorado Photo Review , which was held in Golden, CO – home of Coors Beer ! ASMP Colorado hosted, and it was organized by René Pirolt , Trish McGinity and Rich Douglas .
The event kicked off with a speakers’ dinner on Friday night at the Table Mountain Inn where I rubbed elbows with all the local photo dignitaries …
October 18th, 2012
By Jess Dudley
Shoot Concept: Individual environmental portraits/lifestyle images of two sponsored athletes
Licensing: 3 images for North American Point of Purchase, Online, Out of Home, Print Advertising and Print Collateral
Location: One residential location and a practice facility (both provided by the client)
Shoot Days: 2
Photographer: Established portrait and …
October 3rd, 2012
by Bill Cramer
I got a call a little while back from Maggie Soladay, photo editor at The American Lawyer magazine. She had an assignment to photograph a pair of attorneys who were trying to keep the city of Harrisburg, PA out of bankruptcy. She needed a portrait of them in a setting that would give the viewer a sense of the city. She expected to use one photo with the article.
Maggie …
August 29th, 2012
By Craig Oppenheimer
Shoot Concept: 13 images of plated food and restaurant environments
Licensing: Web collateral and web advertising use of 13 images for 3 years
Location: Actual restaurant (local to the photographer)
Shoot Days: 1
Photographer: Midwest food and lifestyle specialist
Agency: Medium-sized Midwest agency specializing in digital advertising and marketing …
August 18th, 2012
by Bill Cramer
Last Saturday, I had the pleasure of speaking to a group of photographers as part of An ASMP Workshop: Contemporary Answers For Working In The New Economy which was held, aptly enough, at the Contemporary Art Center in New Orleans. The impetus for the event was the latest round of layoffs from The Times-Picayune which has left many staff photographers contemplating …
August 3rd, 2012
by Jess Dudley
In the interest of sharing Pricing & Negotiating articles at more frequent intervals, we’ve developed a more concise nuts-and-bolts format that covers the essential points of an estimate without a lengthy breakdown of every last detail. Here’s our first “abridged” review of an estimate:
Shoot Concept : table-top product shots of 4 product packages and 8 food …
July 6th, 2012
by Jess Dudley
Unlike a lot of commercial assignments, magazines tend to know in advance what they want to spend on a shoot. But even so, when assigning editorial projects, photo editors will sometimes leave the budget out of the initial conversation with the photographer. Many photo editors are so accustomed to working within the same editorial budgets that they sometimes forget to bring it …
June 16th, 2012
by Bill Cramer
Earlier this week, I hopped a plane to Chicago to participate in the Phase One IQ Conference . This was the second conference we’ve done with Phase One and I was pleased to be invited back. Doug Sperling from ProGear sponsored the event which was held at Harrington College of Design , and Dan Cuny from MacGroup was there demonstrating all sorts of cameras and …
June 13th, 2012
by Kayleen Kauffman
The Magenta Foundation invited us back this year for their annual Flash Forward Festival and since we’d be in Boston for the event, we decided to schedule some portfolio events as well. Even though the summertime is notoriously tough for scheduling meetings, we were able to fill our schedule right up. So, last month, we loaded up our hand truck with portfolios and WM …
May 29th, 2012
by Kayleen Kauffman
This month’s portfolio events took Craig Oppenheimer and me to the Rockies! With five reviews and a Phase One presentation lined up, we loaded four Tenba cases with books, promos and WM swag, and started our journey to Denver, Colorado.
We landed safely at the Denver International late Tuesday afternoon. After passing some suspicious looking murals, we hurried off to …
May 18th, 2012
by Craig Oppenheimer
I was contacted recently by an East Coast photographer to help quote on a project for a well-known clothing retailer. The retailer’s mid-sized ad agency had approached the photographer and shared layouts for a catalog promoting the following season’s clothing line. The catalog would feature a combination of fashion portraits and still life pictures on seamless …
May 3rd, 2012
by Jess Dudley
Most of the estimates we work on specify a finite number of photos and for limited licensing. But sometimes a big client needs to produce a wide range of images that might be used by many different departments within their company. These pictures typically become part of a corporate image library.
Earlier this year, an up-and-coming photographer asked me to help him quote on a …
April 10th, 2012
By Craig Oppenheimer
One of our photographers recently contacted me to help him quote on some advertising photographs for a prominent international corportion. He had recently completed a self-assigned fashion shoot, and a promotional mailer from that project caught the attention of the client’s ad agency. Over the past few years, the ad agency had helped the client completely revamp their …
March 24th, 2012
by Bill Cramer
As we reported in our member newsletter earlier this month, Wonderful Machine is working with Phase One to bring some of our expertise to their events around the country and to their website . Last Tuesday, Jess Dudley and I spoke at the Phase One IQ Conference at Milk Studios in New York. Digital Transitions , one of Phase One’s biggest distributors, co-hosted the …
March 5th, 2012
by Jess Dudley
Public Service Announcements ( PSA s) are advertisements intended to raise awareness of a topic and to change public attitudes (rather than sell a product), often advocating better health practices or safety. The typical patron of a PSA is a government agency or non-profit aimed at improving public welfare.
Recently, one of our photographers was asked to submit a cost estimate …
March 5th, 2012
By Craig Oppenheimer
Our February portfolio event kicked off with an early call time at Wonderful Machine headquarters. Enjoying the unusually warm weather, Jess and I arrived in New York City and unloaded our gear for meetings in the SoHo and Tribeca neighborhoods.
Our first meeting was at Bartle Bogle Hegarty (otherwise known as BBH), whose clients currently include Google, Sprite, …
February 1st, 2012
by Jess Dudley
One of our Midwestern photographers recently asked me to prepare a cost estimate for one of his custom publication clients. Custom pubs look very similar to regular magazines, but they’re commissioned by a single sponsor and they’re designed to reach a targeted audience of customers, users, members or employees. Custom publications can be produced in-house, by custom …
February 1st, 2012
I’m happy to announce that Wonderful Machine has mentions in not one, but two articles out in current popular photography magazines. The first article, written by consultant Suzanne Sease , appears in the latest Resource Magazine . Resource is a quarterly publication covering a plethora of photography related issues—and most recently, video production. Their pages are filled with helpful …
January 10th, 2012
by Jess Dudley
A well-known publisher recently commissioned one of our New York photographers to shoot the exterior of a building for the cover of a non-fiction book. The publisher initially agreed with the photographer on a price just to execute the shoot with the understanding that if they decided to use one of the images, they would then negotiate a separate licensing fee.
It’s somewhat …
December 9th, 2011
by Bill Cramer
For about six years now, I’ve been shooting assignments for AARP. I’ve mostly worked for their member newsletter, AARP Bulletin. And more recently, I’ve shot a few things for their website. They also have a nice magazine called AARP The Magazine, which has a paid circulation of over 22 million according to Audit Bureau of Circulations . The subjects they have me shoot …
November 12th, 2011
For October, we decided to keep it local and visit a couple Philadelphia ad agencies. So we called up our friends at Red Tettemer + Partners and Tierney and arranged to stop by.
Our first visit was to the self proclaimed “indie” ad agency, Red Tettemer + Partners. Red Tettemer—known for their quirky, fun creative style—has been steadily growing and recently acquired the equally …
November 9th, 2011
by Jess Dudley
I recently helped one of our industrial photographers quote on an annual report for a New York graphic design firm. The client was a large, US-based oil company. The design firm described the basic elements of the project to the photographer—4 shoot days creating photojournalistic (including aerial) pictures of oil rigs and refineries in the Gulf of Mexico and southeast Texas. …
October 7th, 2011
by Jess Dudley
Recently, an ad agency contacted one of our photographers about an estimate to shoot a series of still photographs for a campaign for a popular sporting goods manufacturer. A year earlier, the photographer had quoted on a similar project for the same agency, but the two of them couldn’t come to terms on it (the photographer wasn’t comfortable delivering extensive licensing …
October 3rd, 2011
To round out our series of interviews with art buyers/art directors turned photographers, I caught up with our LA-based animal photographer, Grace Chon . Grace has followed a somewhat unique career path that has taken her from science, to art direction and finally to photography. She was kind enough to answer my questions and share some insight on the worlds of art directors and commercial …
September 12th, 2011
by Craig Oppenheimer
As we’ve discussed in a previous post, structuring photographic fees on the basis of a day rate vs, space is customary for many national magazines and is generally the most equitable for both the photographer and the client. But we’re increasingly seeing publications prefer to pay flat fees for photo shoots. While working this way can keep the costs predictable for …
August 9th, 2011
by Jess Dudley
Most magazine assignments don’t have big budgets on the front end, but if you play your cards right, you can help make up for it on the back end. One way to do that is to be savvy about article reprint licensing.
After a CEO or hedge fund manager lands on the cover of a publication or in a feature spread, they will usually hear from the reprint department of the magazine …
July 19th, 2011
by Bill Cramer
It seems like everywhere I turn lately I’m finding people giving “incentives” for others to do business with them. On more than one occasion, I’ve seen stock agencies offering iPods to art buyers who spend a certain amount of money with them. And recently, I’ve even run across an individual photographer offering an iPad to anyone who hires him for a shoot. One says,
…
June 3rd, 2011
by Jess Dudley
I recently worked with one of our photographers to produce a quote for an mid-sized ad agency for a series of brochure portraits plus video of some of the same subjects for use on a website. The client was a foundation that was raising money to build a community park. Though construction was already about half finished, the foundation was short about 10 million dollars to …
April 29th, 2011
by Bill Cramer
A few months ago, I got my first assignment from Fast Company . I was happy to hear from Assistant Photo Editor Lisa Parisi, who asked me to photograph a computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh for a story they were doing on robots. Fast Company tends to use great photography, so I was glad to have the opportunity to try to impress them.
Lisa was very …
April 1st, 2011
by Jess Dudley
One of the biggest projects I’ve worked on, both in terms of production expenses and licensing fees, was a shoot that I estimated and produced recently for one of our Midwest photographers. Though he’s mostly known for his phenomenal portrait photography, he was asked by a major ad agency to submit a quote to shoot the print campaign for a newly rejuvenated sports car brand. …
March 29th, 2011
by Maria Luci
On Thursday Jess and I met up bright and early for a DC portfolio adventure. The trip down was a smooth one, and we arrived with time to spare at our first review, AARP The Magazine . As we walked through the chilly streets pushing our cart of portfolios, a woman stopped us and asked what we were carrying. It turns out she was the Director of Photography at VIVA , AARP’s …
February 8th, 2011
by Bill Cramer
Here’s a project that began seven years ago and just wrapped up last month. Back in 2004, I got a call from an art director at a landscape architecture firm that was completing a $7 million renovation of a 70 acre piece of land, transforming it into a nature preserve for a non-profit. They had replaced alien plants with species indigenous to the area and they created beautiful …
January 12th, 2011
by Jess Dudley
Recently, one of our East Coast photographers was contacted by a multicultural ad agency asking him to bid on a print campaign for a major airline. After the photographer got an idea of the concept and the picture requirements from the art buyer, he passed the comps, shot list and contact info on to me to work out the details of the estimate.
Interestingly, the photographer …
December 8th, 2010
by Jess Dudley
We recently helped one of our food/people photographers quote on an ad shoot for an agency that specializes in reaching Hispanic audiences. The ad agency’s client was a major food brand, and the product they were promoting was a household name. The campaign was aimed at Hispanics and was to be used only in Spanish language media (primarily grocery store point-of-purchase). The …
November 3rd, 2010
by Jess Dudley
One of our still-life photographers was approached recently by a major brand to quote on a series of product photographs to promote a low-cost line of glassware that they sell through a big-box store. The client needed pictures showing several variations of each of the bowls, plates, and cups so that they’d have different options for use on packaging, point of purchase …
November 2nd, 2010
by Jess Dudley
After posting our September Real World Estimate , I received an email from Chip Mitchell, a board member of the Central Virginia ASMP . Chip had been following our monthly posts for some time, and he asked me if I could give a presentation on negotiating and pricing at one of their chapter meetings in Richmond. As luck would have it, I would be passing through Richmond on my …
October 4th, 2010
by Jess Dudley
Corporations tend to use photography in two main ways: to illustrate their internal communications (like company newsletters whose audience is primarily employees) and in external communications (like annual reports, capabilities brochures, sales brochures and press kits whose audience is shareholders, clients, vendors or the general public). Before the advent of digital …
September 10th, 2010
by Jess Dudley
I recently helped two different photographers quote on two very similar projects, so I thought it would be interesting to present them together (see estimates below).
Shoot A was a series of simple, tightly-cropped portraits on a plain background, with no props and minimal wardrobe needs, depicting “everyday” people. Shoot B entailed a series of pictures of people engaged …
August 3rd, 2010
by Bill Cramer
Though we now work with nearly 500 photographers around the world, Wonderful Machine started out as a small cooperative of photographers in Philadelphia—sharing equipment, facilities, staff, supplies, insurance and know-how. Sharing those overhead costs is great, but it’s even better when we can develop client relationships that we couldn’t tackle individually. (Here’s …
July 21st, 2010
by Jess Dudley
Lately, I’ve noticed more and more corporations and ad agencies are requesting that photographers quote on producing “image libraries”. An image library is a pool of pictures that a client will commission, where they’ll license rights to use the photographs from a shoot in a variety of different ways, and they’ll often make them available over an intranet to different …
June 21st, 2010
by Jess Dudley
A typical magazine assignment generates a modest fee, a couple of portfolio pictures, a little notoriety – and if you’re lucky, it can also provide an opportunity to make valuable connections with people who can give you work. Follow-up is key to capitalizing on those connections.
Though your subject or the contact person on the shoot might not be the ones who hire …
May 10th, 2010
by Bill Cramer
Many magazines have contracts with rates and terms that they offer to photographers (which are generally negotiable). Others don’t have their own contracts and instead work on a case-by-case basis with individual photographers. For those situations, it’s good for photographers to have a contract template on hand. We tend to structure our editorial fees based on a day rate …
April 8th, 2010
by Jess Dudley
I recently helped one of our photographers estimate, negotiate and produce an architectural interior/product shoot. The client was a high-end furniture manufacturer in the northeastern U.S. working with a mid-sized ad agency in the southeastern U.S. And the project was to create a series of ads showing entertainment centers in beautiful residential settings.
Though this …
March 18th, 2010
Rob Haggart at Aphotoeditor.com just did the first post in a monthly series about our estimating and negotiating process:
In his words:
I’m super excited about this new monthly column entitled “Pricing & Negotiating” coming in from the fine folks at Wonderful Machine. Since they price and negotiate for so many photographers they’re in a unique position to show us nearly any …
March 15th, 2010
by Jess Dudley
I recently quoted a job for one of our photographers to shoot a number of environmental portraits of real people, for a major New York ad agency and their pharmaceutical client. Each of the subjects was a patient using the drug made by the client. The pictures were going to be used in print ads and collateral material, to help illustrate the improvement in the patients’ …
February 5th, 2010
by Bill Cramer
I recently had an interesting experience negotiating the terms of a contract with a new magazine client for a cover shoot. I’ve had hundreds of these conversations over the years, and they can be tricky. Sometimes I get stuck working with someone who doesn’t really have the authority to negotiate changes, or with someone who has no stake in the process, and doesn’t care if …
Christian Brecheis New York City
March 21 - May 31
Darren Hendrix Los Angeles
May 20-25
Susan Seubert Maui
May 1-24
Jason Myers Nashville
May 6-31
Kara Fox Phnom Penh
May 10 - November 10
Ben Miller China
May 10-17
Jared Soares New York City
May 12-17
Matt Dutile Greek Islands
May 14-18
Cristina Candel Antwerp
May 15-18
Matt Jones Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico
May 17-24
Adam Hester Japan
May 19 - June 1
Matt Dutile Austria
May 19-26
Ben Pipe New York
May 19-23
Dom Romney Vienna
May 20-21
Dom Romney Monaco
May 21-27
Christopher Shane Asheville, NC
May 22-23
Chris Sorensen Japan
May 24 - June 2
Ben Miller Dallas
May 25 - June 3
Matt Dutile The Netherlands
May 27-29
Leah Fasten Boston
May 28-29
Matt Dutile Ireland
May 30 - June 5
Ben Miller Nashville
June 4-10
Dom Romney Germany
July 16-22
Ben Miller New York City
June 18-21
Ben Miller Sonoma / San Francisco
June 21-28
Joel Collins Tanzania
June 25 - July 10
Dom Romney Hungary
July 24-28
Cheryl Zibisky Seattle & Olympia
August 8-18
Dom Romney Belgium
August 28 - September 2
Alfonso Calero Spain
September
Dom Romney Japan
October 1-8
Dom Romney Korea
October 9-15
Dom Romney Abu Dhabi
October 29 - November 5
Alfonso Calero Japan
November - December
Ben Miller Hawaii
November 11-18
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