To: Bonarroo camera person.

I spend a lot of time on the internet. I’ve actually almost finished it. It’s good, it just falls off towards the end. Anyway, back to my point. I spend a lot of time on the internet. In doing this, I’ve come across a TON of bogus deals for designers and photographers. A few years ago, there was this program I went to that offered a free lunch. FUCK YEA I want a free lunch! I go, and it starts talking about schemes to make it big in online sales. Long story short, you pay them a few thousand bucks and they’ll give you a shopping cart ready to start making you millions!

Well, the latest thing I’ve come across is this dude that’s looking for a photographer for an event. He’s gonna pay $150 for 50 photos. The problem is the tickets to the show cost almost $300. Now, the deal doesn’t look so good. Now, I wouldn’t be writing this post if the story stopped there. Oh no…the rabbit hole goes much deeper here Neo.

Some like minded individual the posted a response on Craigslist. Saying how much of a rip off it was, and how the guy needed to get his head out of his ass….well that’s what I took from it anyway.

$ 125.00 for 50 pictures!!??? Only serious individuals apply….? I have Compact flash cards that cost more than $125.00. Get real. Serious individuals are looking for lot more than 125.00. Go hire some one with a point and shoot. Your not looking for quality work at that price.

Nothing too harsh I thought, so I wrote the guy telling him I agreed with him.

Well, later today, I go back in to check and see what’s new on there….and low and behold, the OP has gone and started himself a fight!  Here is what the guy wrote back.

the problem is, is that people like you pay to get your talent, I mean sure if I was in 6 figure debt due to student loans and paying 125 for a flash card I would feel working for 150 was pointless, fortunately my talent comes natural to
me I did not have to pay someone to teach me what depth of field was, or how to use NIK Software. I use a Sony Alpha A200 that I paid 400 for, did not have to re finance my house to get a camera and I am a artist not a photographer but I can certainly give 50 professional photos of $150. Guess when you know how to use your camera that 150 seems worth it for a half a days work!

So if your so hung up on your self that you won’t work for $150 stop complaining and let someone who has the talent feed there family with the money!

WHAT?!?!??!!? I was really pissed when I read this. It was like I was seeing a girl get punched or something. I just knew I had to step in.  So I decided to pen my own little response to the whole mess.

To the person that originally posted the ad for hiring a person for bonarroo. You lack a general understanding of both economics and how the industry works. I’ll explain.

First off, a ticket to the show along with parking costs about $300. You’re paying $150. “Oh cool, that’s 1/2 my ticket price.” Well not exactly. Figure you’re paying $300 to go to the show. You’re already planning on paying the $300 for a 4 day show. Split into 4th (4 days of the show) we’ll call it $70 a day, for the sake of easy math. So you’ve spent $280 to go to 4 days of shows. Now you’re only spending $130 after you pay. But, you’re also only getting to see half of the shows. Cause you need to take 50 photos. Taking 50 photos isn’t just pointing the camera and clicking.

It’s asking someone to take a photo, setting up the photo, taking a couple of pictures to make sure you get the best shot, then I assume you’re going to have some sort of release for them to sign right? So that can easily take 10 minutes to do. That adds up to 500 minutes or 8 hours of work. Working 8 hours as a photographer is a long day, and doing it in the sun, outside during the summer is even longer, so they’ll probably split that time up between a couple of days. Each day at the show is $70, and they split that up to 2 days…that’s $140 worth of show time. So they’re only getting 1/2 of the show they paid the full price for. You’re paying them $150. So, in the end, them spending time and effort in taking photos for you will come out to them making a whopping $10 or about $1.20 an hour!

Also, you’re not looking for a legit photographer. You’re looking for a person that owns a camera. As you are just a person that owns a camera. Owning a camera doesn’t make you a photographer. Just like owning a paintbrush doesn’t make you an artist. It’s stuff like this that drives me to insanity! This guy is trying to screw people out of money. That shit about “put food on your table”. How are you gonna put food on the table when you’re making that kind of money? You honestly don’t understand the first thing about how the creative industry works, and you’re in here trying to preach to people about it.

Good day sir!

So who knows, maybe my little not will make the guy understand that what he’s doing isn’t a good deal and maybe i’ll have changed the world a little bit. But I doubt it.

How about some of you guys help me pick up the fucking torch! It’s heavy and I’m tired of being the only one fighting the good fight!