Today’s Questions with a Pro features Buffalo, NY based ASMP member Scott Gable. Scott is an industrial, travel, and documentary photographer whose projects have recently taken him to Alaska to document the Salmon fishing industry, Asia to document the Rice Harvest, and Johnsontown PA for his project “FACTORYTOWN”
You can take a look at more of Scott’s work on his website.
We Asked: What advice would you give a photographer who is preparing for their first long-term out of country project?
Scott Says: My advice would be to read, research and plan as much as you can. With that said, any plan is going to go massively sideways at some point.
You should have a solid course of action, but also be prepared for logistics breakdowns. Be ready to miss flights and trains and buses. Be flexible enough to make smart decisions about the future of the project based on these unavoidable incidents. Be adaptable and make what happens to you while travelling work for you and the project.
We Asked: What strategies have you implemented to leverage your personal projects to the benefit of your commercial and industrial work?
Scott Says: This changes quite a bit from project to project. Lately, as I am actually in the field I have been sending out ‘updates’ to a very small, personal email list of past clients/contacts that I think enjoy this kind of thing. Once the project is finished I will typically do a larger email blast, blog posts, and some unique print mailers. I will try to squeeze out any juice left in the project until its stale. Then it gets put away for whatever is next. Promoting old/tired content is possibly worse than just laying low.
We Asked: Many emerging photographers are hesitant to say no to a bad deal – when was the last time you had to say no to a potential client – how did you do it?
Scott Says: I will be honest and say that this has changed over the years. It is true that its hard to say no to a bad deal at the beginning of a career, but skills can improve, clients can be educated and your fees can go up.
As far as turning down jobs for low pay or rights grabs; I try the ‘lowered expectations’ route first. I will give the client a kind of counter offer that allows me to do the amount of work I feel is appropriate for their budget. This will sometimes work and at the least it shows the client that their budget/expectations are out of whack.
If the potential client and I are really far apart I will recommend colleagues that I think could be interested.
We Asked: How has the ASMP benefited your career?
Scott Says: I think my casual interactions with the local ASMP chapter and the more formal education seminars have really informed my outlook on this profession. It’s changed my attitude(for the better) on everything from pricing to interactions with clients to marketing myself.
If you enjoyed reading this article, then check out some of the other posts in the Questions with a Pro and Questions with an Educator series.