Beyond the obvious

Mr Hewitt, a traveler, rests his horses on the way to a fair in Yorkshire. These images are from a series I recently shot with a group of travelers encountered on one of our road trips. We were made to feel very welcome and it was easy to come away with a series of interesting portraits. Jimbo. Looking after the horses. The Hewitts. Young Hewitt with his tattoos. Resting in the bow top. More can be seen on my Flickr account . Till soon... Paul www.indigo2photography.co.uk

Working out how much you should charge is one of the questions most frequently asked when setting up as a professional photographer. I’ll endeavour to answer the question but it may not be the answer you expect. I have a view that breaks with industry tradition. Traditionally photographers charge for a shoot by applying half day or full day rates. The rate is the same, no matter how their images are being used or what value their images add to the client’s business. I think this is wrong. We are expected to charge by a fairly arbitrary system based loosely on the time we spend at a photo-shoot. It’s a pretty archaic way of working things out which originates from a mass production factory mentality. As photographers we’re not cogs in a machine. Our uniqueness, our approach and the value we can add through our creativity and ability to solve problems should be reflected in the amount we charge. I live and breathe to deliver the best possible work. I use my insight, creativity, u...