WHY SOMETIMES IT IS ACTUALLY OK TO WORK FOR FREE

The headline might have been “photographer takes a portrait of award-winning BBC Screenwriter for free, only to discover it being used without payment in the Hollywood Reporter.”

Then again, there is the old joke that the day the Titanic sank, a provincial Scottish newspaper ran the headline “Dundee man goes missing at sea."

The real story is that Sian and I were friends for years. Somehow we both found ourselves struggling with kids and money and career compromises and all the usual stuff that most people struggle with, the stuff that never makes the glamorous puff pieces of success-story PR profiles.

When I took this photo, we were both in that place, the place Dr Seuss calls “the waiting place”, the place where you really ought to have more, you really ought to be resting on your laurels and congratulating yourself that you got where you deserved. But life isnt really like that. Life for most of us is full of continued peaks and troughs.

At the time of this photo, I was trying to up my headshot game, trying out new techniques and styles, building part of my portfolio. Not something you should charge a full rate for, in my opinion. Sian had no money, I had no time. We were pals, so we went ahead and did a quick wee shoot.

At the time neither of us were entirely satisfied with the shots. There are all kinds of things “wrong” with this shot - the lighting, the lack of retouching.

But other people thought otherwise, and ten years on, this is still the shot that captures the essence of Sian, her fierce intelligence, her beauty, her sensitivity, her strength of character, her real self. And I’m very proud of it.

Should I care about payment? Should I care that I got that credit in the magazine?

No. I’m happy that I could help a friend at a time of need, and I’m happy that I got a credit when so often magazines and media outlets forget. Neither the money, nor the credit would have made a big difference to my life.

adam rowleyFebruary 22, 2023Comment

Mar 21, 2023

HOW MUCH DOES A CORPORATE VIDEO COST?

YOU KNOW WHAT YOU WANT TO SAY AND HOW YOU WANT TO SAY IT, BUT WHAT IS YOUR BUDGET?

How much will my film cost? Is inevitably our first question. The unhelpful answer is of course, how long is a piece of string? You may want a simple one-day, one-man shoot with a quick one-day edit, and you can probably get that for under a grand if you’re not too fussy and it really is just a one-day edit. Or you might want an ambitious creative concept, with lots of pre-production followed by a complex week-long shoot, filming on a RED camera, and lots of complicated compositing and animated graphics. And that could be £20 - £30 000. Or more.

Mar 20, 2023

WHY YOU HIRE A PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER

So here’s the cruel irony. Even though I know I possess the kind of staggering youthful good looks that make people catch their breath and drop their falafel when they meet me in real life, on camera I look like a laboratory experiment where the mad scientist has injected the DNA of Brendan Gleason and Charles Manson into a old potato

And being self-conscious - oh my crooked smile, oh my seventy-eight chins - means I forget that my delicious eyes are like limpid emerald pools you could drown in, and I project discomfort - In short, I don’t pose well. Maybe you do. Millions of others dont. And some of them work for you.

Mar 16, 2023

TESTIMONIAL VIDEOS, WHAT ARE THEY GOOD FOR?

WHY THE BEST WAY TO SELL YOUR PEOPLE IS TO USE YOUR PEOPLE

Back in the mists of time, every corporate video had an ambitious narrative, like a storyboarded long-form commercial, a piece of expensive, styled, authored creative in its own right. These films do still get made and they are great. I make them myself, though more usually I work in short form. Is this always how you want to disseminate your information, your brand, your company? Sometimes yes. Just as sometimes you want to Ronseal it, to say it like it is. But do you want to be that blunt? Again probably not.

WHY SPEND MONEY ON A PROFESSIONAL VIDEOGRAPHER?

WHAT VALUE DOES A PROFESSIONAL VIDEOGRAPHER ACTUALLY BRING TO THE PARTY?

Sure so this is where you get sold all the corporate and advertising cliches about brand identity and adding value to your message and blah blah blah. And you may not be thinking in those terms, but rather about just demonstrating something seemingly quite simple.

CAN ONE PERSON SHOOT PHOTOGRAPHY AND VIDEOGRAPHY AT AN EVENT?

YOU NEED A PHOTOGRAPHER , AND YOU ALSO WANT A CORPORATE VIDEOGRAPHER, BUT YOUR BUDGET PAYS FOR ONLY ONE OF THEM - WHAT DO YOU DO?

The short answer is of course some people can do both. The challenge is finding someone who is genuinely good at both, which is not as easy as it sounds. There are plenty of great photographers out there who can’t really shoot video. There are some good videographers out there, though they are no nearly so easy to find, and some of them are competent photographers too.

Mar 5, 2023

WHY EITHER EVERYONE OR NO ONE NEEDS TO WORRY ABOUT AI

With the announcement that China-based NetDragon Websoft says it is the first company in the world to appoint an AI as its CEO only to see stocks soar, naturally it isn’t just struggling bloggers and graphic designers who are worried about the implication of AI

This is where I’d like to reassure you that climate change ravaging the planet and making the lives of those few who survive the catastrophic flooding, wild fires and raging hurricanes that are predicted absolute hell.

WHY SOMETIMES IT IS ACTUALLY OK TO WORK FOR FREE

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