Opportunity
Written by John MacphersonHaving digested my previous posts about the ways that the photography business is going I thought you all might like to consider a new way of working. This has been prompted by witnessing the poorly considered and badly implemented STA Travel ‘opportunity’ to photograph Australia.
What is this new way of working?
It’s called ‘payment’.
Whoa, I know, I know, an odd concept. But hear me out…….
In my (humble) opinion STA Travel screwed up big style with this. This was a gift horse, and they shot it in the head. Dead.
What they COULD have done, and I commend this idea to ANY and EVERY business needing photography undertaken, is say:
We want a young and aspiring pro photographer to undertake a once-in-a-lifetime photographic commission for us. We think this will allow you to put yourself on the professional map. And we think you’ll be so chuffed you’ll work your butt off to please us. In return for undertaking this important task for us we’ll pay all your travel and accommodation expenses, and pay you a good day rate. This will be in line with a reasonable professional photographer’s day rate, but slightly reduced in light of the fact that we will allow you to retain the joint rights in the work (with us) and give us a 12 months first-use window so we have exclusivity. After this you may use the work in any way you wish providing you ensure a joint ©STATravel/photographer credit is given wherever images are used. We will also insist that you travel and use accommodation that meets our ‘green’ corporate code, and we will plant the appropriate number of trees to offset your carbon footprint as we believe that sustainable travel and environmental responsibility go hand-in-hand. As prime users of compelling imagery we feel privileged to sustainably support the next generation of emerging photographers. In addition we feel that the environmentally responsible manner in which these images will have been obtained will be a unique selling point, raising both the profiles of STA Travel and the successful photographer.
Now whats wrong with that?
Bugger all.
How many organisations could do this?
Loads of them.
What could STA Travel have obtained by adopting this novel method, apart from utterly marvellous photographs?
Massive publicity, huge love from colleges and universities, the applaud of a shedload of students, and pro-photographers, as well as a good chunk of the environmentally and socially responsible general public who think about where and how they spend their money (sometimes on their kids). The value of the publicity this would generate will most likely far outweigh the relatively small amount they’d have to pay the photographer.
So having had this opportunity, what did STA Travel do bearing in mind their target market is actually intelligent and environmentally-minded young people – the very people they should be appealing to – they publicly proclaimed themselves to be a bunch of……..well fill in the blanks yourself (but I’d say ‘opportunity wasters’).
So there you go. Want to make your business more successful? Then reward your service providers in exactly the same way as your customers reward you to obtain a good service. (Hint – they pay for it.)
Author — John Macpherson
John MacPherson was born and lives in the Scottish Highlands. He trained as a welder in the Glasgow shipyards, before completing an apprenticeship as a carpenter, and then qualified as a Social Worker in Disability Services. Along the way he has cooked on canal barges, trained as an Alpine Ski Leader & worked as an Instructor for Skiers with disabilities, been a canoe instructor, and tutor of night classes in carpentry, stained glass design and manufacture, and archery. He has travelled extensively on various continents, undertaking solo trips by bicycle, or motorcycle. He has had narrow escapes from an ambush by terrorists, been hit by lightning, caught in an erupting volcano, trapped in a mobile home by a tornado, kidnapped by a dog's hairdresser, rammed by a basking shark and was once bitten by a wild otter. He has combined all this with professional photography, which he has practised for over 35 years. He teaches photography and acts as a photography guide & tutor in the UK and abroad. His biggest challenge is keeping his 30 year old Land Rover 110 on the road. He loves telling and hearing stories.
Discussion (12 Comments)
Ah, don’t complain so much! It’s “…not only a career-boosting experience and professional portfolio to start your professional journey with, but also two weeks free travel around Australia!”
Free travel.
Free.
I do not think that word means what they think it means.
I think you could be right Thomas!
Hey John.
I’m Reuben – the OP of the original ad/post over at Flickr. I shouldn’t need to point out to you that I work for STA.
First of all, thanks for your feedback – it’s been insightful and useful, and I’ll be taking it back to the decision makers to show them.
In the interests of fairness though, you went out with a pretty one-sided version of that post! I notice you quoted only the parts of it that you felt supported your own agenda (‘STA is unfair’) and none of the supporting voices that agree this is a great opportunity. User silvermiketrate made some valid points about ‘access’ for one. I know, this is a blog, and I guess I have no right to expect professional journalistic balance in a blog post, so I’ll wear that one.
Second, I just wanted to clear up a couple of things. The reference to ‘hostel style accommodation’ is overemphasised by you/other knockers – the statement is there because *some* parts of the itinerary may be *remote*. There will likely not be a range of plush accommodations available! This is Australia. It’s still a pretty wild place. Also, the photgrapher is and always was going to be paid a day rate – the choice not to go out with this info was not mine, and I agree, was misleading.
Further, though I don’t make my living from photography (you all know my dayjob now), I have shot plenty of freelance stuff over the years myself – for companies running national campaigns like IKEA etc, and I have been an ongoing and regular contributor to a national monthly glossy in Australia for some years. I know what it’s like to be treated both well and poorly under contract. I have offered my personal vouchsafe in the Flickr post because I thought this might help with message cut-through.
Also, the point about brochures not being for revenue? They are a sales support tool; they help us inspire customers and often lead to revenue. But we don’t sell them – they’re free, so my statement was accurate. The brochures themselves are not a revenue source.
Finally, if you want to know what it’s like to work with us on a content contract, don’t take my word for it – have a look at this (20 million plus have):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BrDlrytgm8
The guys who made it are Tim White and Rick Mereki (easy to find online, try Vimeo, Twitter and elsewhere). They were freelance film-makers who did this assignment for us, irrevocably altering their careers – they’ve been inundated with offers since. Yes, the terms were different to this contract; my point is they are an accessible point of contact.
You don’t have to take my word for it. Our track record is solid with content, we pay, OR compensate with travel and like benefits, as appropriate to the industry we work in.
We may sometimes disappoint our customers (nobody’s perfect) but we’ve NEVER had a bad word from a creative collaborator.
I think it would’ve been fairer for you to blog about our offer, and spread the link to your original blog, after making sure you had all the facts. I concede that the confusion was our own fault, for lack of coordation with the link on our main website.
Anyway, I hope this clears the situation up, settles some of your concerns about our operating practices etc.
Genuinely grateful for your input on the discussion. Would love to chat with you about this stuff sometime without my company hat on…
Cheers
Reuben
Ah, nice of you to vet my comment – no ‘right of reply’, hey? Sounds… fair.
Hi Reuben – that’ll be good morning then.
Well it certainly is here. So whilst you were penning your rather mean ‘no right of reply’ comment I was sleeping. Hmmm – a travel company that does not realise there are different time zones in the world? (I’m assuming you are in Australia – I’m not). Is this how STA Travel conducts its business all the time? If it is you have a lot to learn about international business relations.
I think before you lob out accusations of one-sidedness and a lack of “professional journalistic balance” you might do well to actually read the posts I’ve written, but also read the comments on the Flickr STA Travel discussion. You might notice my voice is absent there (on Flickr) – so including me in your “reference to ‘hostel style accommodation’ is overemphasised by you/other knockers” is err dare I say it – journalistically unprofessional?
The fact that many people raise and are critical of the accommodation simply reveals their lack of understanding of what’s involved in your offer. Their ignorance, not mine. And that gets to the heart of the matter – the people commenting and giving opinions are simply people with something to say, but do you know how many of them are professional photographers with an understanding of the complexity and logistical difficulties of undertaking the ‘job’ you have offered? I dont know how many are for certain, but I know I am one. And I know from my own experience, and that’s as a traveler, a photographer, and running a business, just how difficult a job this is to do properly (by my standards).
Want a recent example? A five/six day mobile shoot I undertook with 10 models, logistically difficult, technically demanding, away from ‘facilities’ for most of that time, camping, in all sorts of weather conditions, some of this water-based so challenging protecting equipment and keeping people safe (handled by safety assistants/logistics manager), resulting in images being taken from 7am (at dawn) until midnight (by campfire). Over 1000 images a day for five days (over 5500 images edited down to 4800 keepers). Thats a lot of memory cards, backing up to laptop and separate hard drives, note-taking, and afterwards several solid days of editing. Thats the reality of the gig you’re offering for ‘free’ – and added to it is the additional burden for your photographers of also having to obtain model-releases for everyone they photograph (otherwise you’ll potentially have difficulty using the work for advertising) and cross-referencing all these releases to the images to ensure no mess-ups which impact STA Travel legally. I have no illusions about the challenge of doing work like this. And none of that is reflected in the details of your ‘job’ offer.
So I’ve only commented on what I know. And I know enough about all that ‘stuff’ after almost 40 years of doing it to have some strong opinions about what your offer represents.
Of course they are. But they are your shop window and as such have direct role in projecting, supporting and selling your product. In that respect they are absolutely vital. Free or not, they generate your business. Which is why they need to be good, with compelling and fresh imagery.
So does that mean that the successful photographers will get an additional two weeks free travel to go around after doing your gig and shoot for their own portfolios? If it’s not then any notion of you offering ‘free’ travel is disingenuous.
Of course I did. I disagree that its a great opportunity (in its current form). It has the potential to be a great opportunity, but it needs a bit more investment from you.
Which leads me to the main thrust of your comment – that I’m somehow one-sided and have an agenda. Ok hands-up you got me dead on that one. I have an agenda, yes it’s one-sided. I’ll confess that up front – I have a fundamental expectation that young people should receive a decent day’s pay for a decent day’s work. Thats it. That simple.
The only ‘facts’ I had at my disposal were the ones furnished in your original advert and in the comments you posted on Flickr. Like everyone else I have had to make judgments based on what information you offered us. And to be fair I finished my original piece with the comment “Opportunity or not? Only you can decide.” Which is the truth – other people’s perceptions will be different from mine, and some may judge your offer a winner.
Now, unlike the “knockers” with whom you lump me, rather than simply call you a bunch of losers, I was fairly considered in my responses, and took the time to offer what I consider to be genuinely constructive comments. I absolutely do think you have missed an opportunity with this, as I pointed out in this post there are other ways to obtain what you want whilst at the same time satisfying your own company’s agenda. We are in a new era with rapidly changing business models being required to keep your business ahead of others. I just gave you some very very useful free advice – I didn’t have to, but I did.
So your choice – treat that advice as the biased ranting of a knocker and ignore it, or take from it whats useful and help support an industry I value, but most importantly support young people enter a profession that’s too often parasitic when it need not be and when it could actually be supportive and genuinely responsible. There are other ways to work that help everyone, and that raise profiles for all the good reasons. As a company dealing primarily with young people there are a lot of ways you can creatively tap into the heart of that market.
I have to say you come over as very defensive and pretty aggressive, and that’s a real shame because in being like that you’re not really doing anything positive for the STA Travel brand. But, as a reasonable, if “journalistically unprofessional knocker”, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and offer the observation that this was an ill-planned venture, poorly thought-out, and not entirely formed in all your minds with terms and conditions still being formulated as you were trying to field critical comments about it on Flickr. I think it’s a real shame that it’s been left to you to try to sort it all out. I don’t envy you that task and the frustration you are experiencing is obvious in your comments.
Anyway, I’ll rest on my ‘agenda’ of fair pay and real ‘opportunity’ for young and aspiring photographers. I hope that whatever does manifest from all of this has perhaps helped STA Travel focus their brand aspirations more successfully, because I’m the sort of person you need to be appealing to – I buy tickets, for me, for other people, for my family, and I choose to do so in support of ethically, socially, and environmentally responsible businesses, and if that’s actually STA Travel’s brand qualities they’re currently being well hidden from me.
As an aside – duckrabbit only censor respondent’s comments if they are anonymous and offensive (trolls).
Thanks for taking the time to respond. I’ll wait for you to get up before I expect any feedback 🙂
Ps – meant to add – heartening to see that you do actually intend to pay a day rate. This could turn into a genuinely valuable job offer for someone!
Geez, when will the ill informed rush to villification stop? You’re making a mockery of professional photography and setting a moaning, ugly, ignorant standard for it at the same time. As the man from STA said there is plenty goodwill and respect in their offer but yr so self appointed you feel your word is somehow proof of a scandal.
Last week you claimed Brian Storm was the second coming of Christ for charging for his online stories and Maggie Steber was some charming, quiet rural gal who was sweeter than sugar. Is your editorial policy (silly to expect there is one in that cess pit you inhabit) to turn the world upside down and then complain that everyone except you is standing on their heads!
Jon – normally such a vitriolic anonymous post as this would be deleted, such is the rigour of duckrabbit’s “editorial policy” (which is that giving the oxygen of publicity to such rants only encourages them). However I’ve pushed to allow it through.
I think you eloquently underline all the reasons why a defence of the right of young and aspiring photographers to earn a decent wage should be fought for by those who care to do so.
So, to expect payment for hard creative work is “making a mockery of professional photography” is it? I disagree. Strongly.
And defending the rights of easily mistreated aspirant young photographers, and informing them that being ‘professional’ is commensurate with earning a proper wage, is somehow “setting a moaning ugly standard” ? Well then I am happy to moan and be considered ugly. Very very ugly.
In my world “goodwill and respect” don’t pay for equipment, and don’t put food on the table. They are nice to have, but so is money. And the important thing is they are not mutually exclusive. One flows from the other.
Nonsense such as you have penned ill deserves a public airing, but sometimes, just sometimes, it’s worth letting the photographers of tomorrow (that’ll be young people in case this is hard for you to follow) see what the ‘old guard’ think of them.
In the world I grew up in, and still inhabit, one’s labour was paid for, and goodwill and respect flowed from the quality of the work that resulted. It did not grow from agreeing to work for nothing in return for ‘exposure’ and all that other self-serving nonsense that ‘lovers of the free’ would have us believe matters.
The young people of today who will become the Maggie Steber’s of tomorrow deserve our support. You talk of “standing on their heads” – the problem is that there is a sector of this industry that believes that standing on the heads of the talent of others will somehow make them ‘taller’. Well sorry I don’t subscribe to that notion. In my opinion it only makes such people look silly.
The only crap in this “cess pit (we) inhabit” comes from the mouths of people like you. But keep it coming, please, because you let everyone see the short-sighted and ill-considered attitudes that young people (the professionals of tomorrow) will have to overcome to become a success in this corner of the ‘industry’ you seem to wish to defend.
There are many ways to earn respect, but speaking personally, I respect people who pay me, and in return I do a good day’s work for them. And in return? They respect me.
Pretty simple isn’t it?
The most glaring mess-up was not mentioning originally that they were, in fact, paying the photog a day rate — if there’s any truth to it, of course.
Well, from where I’m sitting, that is a u-turn because of the number of people who accused STA of taking advantage. If you were paying, you would say, right?
“Well, from where I’m sitting, that is a u-turn because of the number of people who accused STA of taking advantage. If you were paying, you would say, right?”
Um, sorry – was an authentic omission, I’m afraid. Harry – how old are you? There’s a certain kind of uneeducated/naive cynic that automatically assumes ‘big corporations lie’. While many certainly do, it’s far from axiomatic.
There has been no ‘outcry’ about how we’ve discussed this opportunity, as much as it sadly seems your followers/minions (yourself?) might like to confect one. The only people really talking about it are yourself and a few people seemingly with an axe to grind, for whatever reason. 10 Flickr posts and a dozen re-tweets does not consitute a revolutionary groundswell, despite your respectable reach/influence, sorry.
The overwhelming response to our ad has been positive, and the vagueness and imprecision with the original posting (to our main website page for the contract) has come from a too-many-cooks situation internally that, sadly, I had no control over.
Having said that, I am genuinely grateful for [Jon’s] insights on how we could’ve done this better and, as mentioned before, will communicate this internally and learn from it for future campaigns/promotions.
Reuben
Good morning Reuben, thanks for responding. You need not still be so defensive if all we’re discussing here is a company that means well but is unable to manifest that coherently because of internal pot-stirring.
‘Outcry’ is not a word I’ve used anywhere and a quick scan of the comments doesn’t reveal it. And accusing others of being “uneducated” and “naaive” and being “followers” and “minions” of some “revolutionary groundswell” with “axes to grind” all seem like attempts to divert attention from what you got wrong.
You just have to say “sorry we got it wrong we mean well and this WILL be a good opportunity for the successful applicants”.
And you know I think you might actually do that. Because I don’t personally believe that all “big corporations lie” they just fail to tell the truth coherently most of the time, for the very reason you articulated above, there are too many hands stirring the pot.
If I have any personal axe to grind it’s a simple one – there is too much image-misappropriation going on, by too many organisations that should know better and are taking advantage of (young) people who sadly don’t know better. I teach young people photography, and I teach them about self-worth, confidence and the value of their creative work. Why? Because I’ve learned the hard way about doing ‘creative business’ where too many people want too much for nothing because they perceive it ‘easy’ to just ‘press a button’ to make a photograph. Over the years I’ve been ripped off often enough to feel strongly about a proper (financial) reward for what is arguably a very very expensive business to enter and do well. I’d rather see people give their work away for nothing knowing full well the reasons why it might be a good career move, or a personally rewarding charitable gesture, and doing it with confidence, rather than because they see it as the norm in a sector of an industry they hope to carve a niche in and are afraid to say no. Free is not free, free costs, and free has a value, even after it’s been given away.
I find it rather ironic that standing up and saying ‘hey, pay young and aspiring photographers a decent day’s pay’ should elicit such knee-jerk reactions from people who seem to view such comments as evidence of the coming of the anti-christ. And you know what always makes me smile? Every time one of those knocking voices echoes it’s being produced by someone who earns a living on the back of ‘free’ stuff, and who has a salary, whose very income is being generated by the work of others. Ironic eh?
I am really glad you might have learned a little from this. It’s easy to knock, and easy to criticise, but I feel if one genuinely wants to make a difference there needs to be something given back, which is why I’m taking the time to write all this. If my suggestions give a young would-be photographer a better opportunity then it will have been worth my time. Will it turn the tide of ‘give us your stuff for free’? Of course not, but that’s not the point. If it only helps one or two people then it’s worth doing.
To conclude – it might also be a useful thing to offer the young photographer(s) who are the successful applicants, the opportunity to give us a post here that we can run on duckrabbit. Their personal observations on how they felt about the opportunity, what they experienced undertaking the work, what you (and they) got wrong and most importantly what you all got right, would be a very useful insight for many people. Please give that some thought.
Personally I think this could be a great opportunity if handled well, for STA Travel and the photographers. Thanks again for keeping the conversation going. And good luck with seeing this through to completion.