Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/10/26

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Payment for photos
From: P2CON@aol.com
Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2000 15:13:01 EDT

One time about 25 years ago I found myself unemployed after sixteen years in 
my chosen field of aerospace engineering. No problem I thought, I will just 
write a magazine article and sell it, maybe change my career path forever. 
Two weeks of considerable  work, a couple of field trips to photograph what I 
was writing about and I had my article and four photos to send to a lucky 
publisher. A couple a days after sending it out I got a call from the editor 
wanting to know if I was a profesional writer and would I consider letting 
him publish my article in their annual under the byline of Robert Stack, (the 
movie/TV guy). I said Hell No, I wrote it and wanted my name on it. He said 
OK, our payment will be $150, if you want to send it to a larger magazine you 
might get $300 for it, but not much is given for the work of an unknown.

I decided right then that starvation and low paying work in the writing and 
photography business was not my cup of tea. You guys can have it and I will 
not spoil it for you. --  Regards,  Paul Connet


<< At _PHOTO Techniques_ I found that I could generally get covers and
 portfolios for free, because many photographers were willing to dispense
 with payment in return for getting their work featured so prominently in a
 photography magazine. But what kind of message does it send to photographers
 when a photography magazine won't pay for good photography? So we always,
 always paid, period. The same, unfortunately, cannot be said for some other
 photography magazines.
 
 --Mike >>