Lovely craigslist

on Apr 20, 2012  

Today's Craigslist post of the day:

'We need a photographer who wants to do a highly creative series of shots that are advertising based. This would be a TF project but we would credit you in any postings that the images appear on.' Followed by a description of about a dozen shots.

So let me get this right...you want someone to do a full commercial shoot for your product which you will use to make money yet you don't want to pay for it? I think people really to understand the meaning of trade and the idea of portfolio. A photographer trades time and skill with a model so that they can do a personal project and the model can have another shot to show themselves off. Both sides win. A restaurant does trade with a photographer for food (and hopefully cash). The photographer eats well and the restaurant gets more business. Another mutually beneficial trade. Now when a business says 'hey, I'll give you a hope and a dream that somewhere down the line someone might notice who took this shot for many hours of your hard work (does anyone ever look at a credit line? especially when it comes to products?) that's just not right. I mean seriously, is there no shame anymore?

There's a difference between work to break into the business and just being taken by a business.

Thus endith the rant...