Thoughts

With today's digital age and rise of amateur and professional photographers there is an incredible amount of pressure on emerging photographers to stand out and be unique. An uncountable number of images are uploaded to the internet every second of the day and this makes it even harder to pinpoint originality, whether it even exists these days.

With all this in mind it is so important to know yourself as a photographer and where you stand. Not only do we have a professional responsibility to meet industry standards, but we also have a social responsibility to know where we stand on ethical values.

I have had a few encounters with clients already and have come to the conclusion that many clients a) expect too much and b) do not want to pay for that quality. The business side of photography is newer to me and I am too lenient when it comes to what I do for how much. Having said that though some rare clients have been wonderful, and I think it comes down to whether they respect me as a person and respect what I do as a profession. I want to move interstate to either Sydney or Melbourne to pursue a career in fashion photography a) because there is a much bigger market and b) because I do not wish to base my business solely on 'mates rates' which is a lot of my clients right now. I have allowed people to take advantage of me and I do not wish to 'burn out' before I even start in my career.

Also, I need to really clarify everything in regards to licensing and copyright and templates for a contract. I still need to join the AIPP so they probably have both types of contracts on their website but I would still like to have a better understanding of licensing, limited rights, copyright and all those terms and what they mean, and the basic costs for these rights. Are we learning these in business next semester?