A Coupla Dollars For Your FIlm

Have you heard that one lately? I haven't - I suppose the gradual change to digital capture has changed the terminology. I wonder if acquaintances who want to avoid paying correct professional price for their event photography will be be offering a coupla dollars for my digits?

I hope they do. It will make the maths so much simpler. A dollar a digit. You can have one or two - you choose.

Of course when your relatives engage you all thought of monetary reward should be shelved. You will do the engagement party, 3 year-old's birthday party, wedding, or 50th anniversary celebration for free - your only reward will be the chance to escape at the end of the evening and the possibility of your card corrupting. Accept your fate gracefully - Batch edit the 500 pictures and burn a handful of disks and tell everyone that they are welcome to the copyright. Pray fervently they don't remember that you have a large-format printer, lest you be condemned to a month of printing...

But what to do when someone tells you that the event they want illustrated is for "charity" and they would either pay a desultory amount or nothing at all? What can you say - it is for "charity".

What you can ask is who will be exercising the act of charity and upon what premise. If your work directly feeds the hungry and clothes the naked, then you are being charitable and will be blessed for it. If your work is a tool for someone else to garner that blessing then you are merely in the business of being a tool supplier, and like Sidchrome or Snap-on, you are entitled to a correct financial reward. And in today's market, that is more than a coupla dollars for your film.

Uncle Dick