Where to Find Freelance Photo Work

In 2011, I was preparing for a year of traveling around the world and taking a sabbatical from the demands of my wedding photo business for a while.  Since I had to stop taking wedding clients 12 months in advance of traveling, I also had to create a plan to help me live a more freedom-based lifestyle while still being a photographer with professional recurring bills to take care of.

At first I was terrified to give up my security blanket of wedding clients who always planned well in advance, rarely ever cancelled their shoot, and were a very predictable source of income, however, after I'd paid off enough debt and saved up enough money, I had a little more courage to take some leaps of faith and try a more fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants style of booking and serving clients.  What I ended up finding was how much I really enjoyed short-assignment and easy-for-me work that I could pick up on the fly and turn-around in less than a week.

Disclaimer: if a lack of security or routine throws you into a stress ball of unhappiness, this may not be the road for you to travel, but it can be a chance to pick up some side jobs in your free time.  However, if you're zen like a surfer riding a tsunami, than the freelance lifestyle will actually serve you far better than a more predictable routine-and-commitment based type of work.

Bonus Tip: if you're overworked, these can also be great resources to find your ideal virtual assistant, retoucher, white-balancer, graphic designer, web coder, video editor, and more!

Craigslist

The most obvious and freely available resource for finding wanted requests as well as promoting your creative services is by far, the Craigslist job boards (mostly in the United States).  People get used to using the site for all sorts of things like apartments, furniture, tickets, etc, and because the board is so vast, they just use it to look for everything else they need as well.  The really nice thing about Craigslist for an in-person service business is that it's locally focused, so you're most likely to get local leads that are easy to serve rather than national or international leads.  Granted, there are a lot of people out there giving their work away, but that doesn't mean that a buyer can't recognize the difference and value of hiring a professional.

Thumbtack

This service has only emerged in the online marketplace in the last couple years, but has aimed to streamline the process of finding LOCAL creatives and services by allow people to create a posting with some guidelines for their request and a local area that they want to be served in and then the first 5 bids to respond are shown to the client.  This really streamlines the process for the person who's making the request so that they aren't overwhelmed with bids that are outside of their budget or from people who are unavailable.  It makes the process for service providers easy so that they only need to respond to a request if they have the time available to take the client.  It's free to create an account, but there is a small charge for each request you bid on.

Elance

One of the first and still most popular places really dedicated to connecting creatives with job opportunities.  Client billing and payment is managed entirely through the site, so if you need help with contracts or billing, they can help streamline that process for you.  You search for projects that fit your skills when you have time to apply, you make bids, and you're either accepted or not, but I believe the Elance cut is taken only when you're hired and paid through their system.

ODesk

Very similar to Elance, but also provides public profiles so that clients can seek you out directly by searching for available help rather than being directed to posting a job first and getting whatever comes in.  This freelancing article on FreshBooks shares some of the pros and cons of these similar systems.

The Creative Loft

Rather than a service that collects a commission or fees for transactions, this is a membership-based service for access to creating a profile and/or a listing for requests.  It seems to focus more on the community aspect of working as a freelancer, by providing forums and message boards for creatives to connect more easily and share.

Guru

This may be more ideal for commercial or studio work in which a product that needs to be photographed for a website can be shipped to the photographer.  Because the site doesn't easily filter by location, it's more ideal for someone who can provide their services virtually.

People Per Hour

Also ideal for people who prefer to work virtually, but this allows you to define a specific task that you're willing to perform at a very specific rate so that clients can hand-pick from services and prices like they would if they were in a grocery store.  There's also a bidding process that can help streamline inquiries, but they seem to do a great job of making the resource easy and user friendly.

Disclaimer:
Because I tend to stay busy on referrals alone, I've only tried two of the services above, the rest are things I found when I was looking for extra assignments to take on, so I'd love to hear about your experiences.  I used Craigslist while I was building my business from the ground up almost 10 years ago, but haven't used it for photo assignments since then.  I signed up for Thumbtack recently after moving to NYC, and there are many requests that come in too low or too far away for me to serve them professionally, however, there are a few gems in the rough and on a rare occasion I do actually respond to a request if it looks like it will fit my working style and schedule.

Are there other services or sites that you've tried and had success with?  Please share your experiences and thoughts in the comments.


Anne Ruthmann is an lifestyle & event photographer in New York City. She spent 10 years practicing marketing & management in corporate and non-profit businesses before pursuing her passion for photography in 2004 as an independent small business. She loves helping others find creative and smarter solutions to small business problems. Stay in touch on Twitter or Facebook.

Charging Travel Fees for Destination Clients

When estimating travel costs for out of town or destination work, it's important to take into consideration all of the costs associated with doing business away from home:

• Transportation- flight, taxis, car rental, gas, tolls, parking fees, insurance, emergency changes to transportation options, additional fees for handling of extra baggage or equipment
• Lodging- hotel, wifi fees, hotel parking or valet fees, shuttle service to/from airport
• Food- eating out, room service, groceries
• Travel Insurance- in case of cancellation, to refund booked flights and deposits placed with travel agencies or resorts (often less expensive than a refundable ticket) and possibly travel health insurance in case you end up in the hospital due to a local infection or encounter with poisonous material (hopefully you'll have researched this stuff in advance)
• Personal Travel Agent- who can help you deal with any last minute changes in travel plans without losing your head
• Discretionary Funds- in case you need some piece of equipment at the last minute, like a power adapter for a different country to charge your batteries, or a power strip because there aren't enough outlets in the room, or even a pre-paid phone to communicate with clients overseas because yours isn't working, or to pay for international roaming charges on your current cell phone to stay in touch with clients
• Working Time Lost During Travel- the most underestimated cost is the amount of working and communication time lost while in-transit.  Getting to and from a destination reduces your work week by at least 2 full days- putting you two days behind in your workload and preventing you from serving other clients during that time.

For these reasons, I don't recommend an itemized bill of travel costs, but rather a flat travel rate included in the contract up front.  By providing an all-inclusive flat travel rate up front rather than itemizing everything, a client is less likely to negotiate paying less or using their frequent flier miles to purchase any of your trip- which you need to retain full control over at all times in order to make any emergency changes to the itinerary.  Occasionally, I will allow a client to pay for my lodging, in the event that they get a better rate through their travel agent for a group booking, but will only take 30% off of my flat rate in order to make sure there is enough for the rest of the fees.

While you need to decide what distances and travel rate is reasonable for you based on your location and fees, I am happy to share what I do as an example of what works best for me as of this posting date in my East Coast location (note my fees and distances were different when I lived in the Midwest, and when prices were different for gas and airfare):

• Travel within 50 miles - Included (because I can drive there and back in the same day)
• Travel between 50-100 miles - $500 (2 hotel nights, driving expenses, eating out, and any emergency expenses for being too far away to get anything at the last minute if needed)
• Travel over 100 miles, within the continental US - $1000 (2-3 hotel nights depending on the scarcity of flights into remote areas, flight & car rental/shuttle/taxi expenses, eating out, emergency, travel insurance, travel agent, etc.)
• Overseas travel- Quote based on location (on top of all travel expenses mentioned above I always include 3 hotel nights minimum- one for the arrival day, one additional day for any emergency flight cancellations/reschedules and-or jet lag adjustment, one for the wedding night- and if I get lucky, a fourth night for myself to just enjoy the location.  It's also important to include costs for an additional shooter while working abroad in case you fall ill to some strange location based disease from accidentally brushing your teeth with bacteria laced water, or in case you need a local photographer who can help translate the local language.)

While many American photographers are often excited to travel abroad for international destinations, be advised that traveling for work is NOT the same as traveling for a vacation.  There are international working visa considerations for each country that need to be dealt with, potential immunization requirements for health reasons, as well as constantly being "on the clock," especially when staying in a resort with all of the guests from the wedding.  If you underestimate the costs of doing business internationally, you may travel a lot, but at the end of the year you could find yourself without enough in the bank to upgrade equipment or clean your camera out from all the sand, humidity, and wear and tear it's acquired from its travels.

Anne Ruthmann is a lifestyle & wedding photographer from Boston, MA. She spent 10 years practicing marketing & management in corporate and non-profit businesses before pursuing her passion for photography in 2004 as an independent small business. She loves helping others find creative and smart solutions to business problems. Follow her on Twitter to see her daily adventures and thoughts.

Not Getting Inquiries?

Have you noticed that your inbox isn't as full as it used to be? Are you slim on weddings for next season? Maybe you're just starting out and not getting the inquiries you are desiring. Whatever the reason, here are 5 quick things you can do (FOR FREE) to help ensure that traffic is flowing your way!

1. Contact Form: Make sure it is working!!! SO often I read online that such and such photographer didn't realize that their form wasn't working for xx amount of days (usually a large number) until someone called about the issue. If you aren't getting inquiries that's the first place to start!

2. Traffic: Pay attention to your traffic! Are people GETTING to your site? How long are they staying? Where did they come from? Are they in your market area? Knowing and understanding your traffic is a vital part to figuring out where you need to work to get more visibility to clients. Sign up for free site analytics (Google, Stat Counter etc.) and keep an eye on how people are coming to your site. See what is working and what isn't.

3. Pricing: To each their own when it comes to how much or what you list, but I can tell you from a past bride's point of view that if you don't list some sort of number there, the client is highly likely to keep on looking rather than taking the time to call. Many clients are looking for photographers online - and often during working hours - and often want to make sure they are spending their time on vendors that are going to be in their budget. You don't have to list the entire offerings on your site but trust me when I tell you that a starting number will help the inquiries rise up!

4. Portfolio: We are all guilty of this but how up-to-date is your portfolio online? I'm not talking about blogs - your gallery on your website. Often the galleries only get revamped when changing websites or at most once a year during your slow time. How often do you look at your gallery and gasp at how much you've grown since you used those images? Get those suckers out of there and keep it fresh! Try to make sure to add and delete things as you grow at least once every couple months.

5. Engaging: Are clients going to get emotionally attached to your photos? The first images a client sees of your work should be a a positive image, something that's going to make future clients want that feeling that's being emoted in the scene. Laughing, smiling, adoration. Save the stoic and serious images for after you capture the clients heart.

Corey Ann is a wedding & lifestyle photographer from North Canton, OH. She is a mix of everything - fashionista (runs Clothes for Pros, clothing suggestions for photographers), travel guru, deal hound and geek rolled into one. She's had a website online since 1997 and a blog since 1999. When not plotting world domination or her next trip, she can be found reading one of the 100+ books she reads a year. Follow her on Twitter.