Unpaid Work

The purpose of unpaid work is to (a) book paid work in the future, (b) get paid later for that work, or (c) both!

I do “personal work” – what I refer to as “unpaid sessions” for several reasons, and something that I’ve learned [through failure] is to combine as many of these things as possible together for a single shoot:

Altruism: give back to the community/person/rescue/non-profit, etc.

Personal Mission: a personal project meant to inspire or fulfill me creatively. Check out my “horse that built me” project from 2016.

Product: companies sent me products to photograph to trade for images.

Gear: if I have any new gear or want to rent/test something new, I practice on models.

 Portfolio Building: there is someone I want to photograph to add to my portfolio.

Marketing: there is someone I want to photograph to leverage the shoot for marketing collateral.

Delayed Payment: it may be an unpaid shoot upfront, but I might try to license/sell the images later to commercial or editorial clients, add to my stock photography library, or add to my shop to sell as artwork.

Every gap in my schedule is filled with unpaid work! I keep a running list of ideas, locations, people, horses, and concepts that I want to photograph and as soon as I have the time I will make it happen!

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