Plaintiff/s Brief, Dallal v. New York Times (Relevant passage on P.17)
Updated Editorial Photographers Business Forms
NPPA Independent Photographers Toolkit
Advertising Photographers of America Resource page
Common Cents Column On The Cost of Doing Business
Editorial Photographers Cost of Doing Business Calculator
Editorial Photographers Yahoo! Group
NPPA Online Discussion Group Instructions
Portions of this column were originally written for the June 2006 edition of News Photographer Magazine.
Mark Loundy is a media producer and consultant based in San Jose, California. Full bio.
The opinions in this article are those of the author alone and do not necessarily represent the official views of the National Press Photographers Association.
By Mark Loundy
"No degree of knowledge attainable by man is able to set him above the want of hourly assistance"
— Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
At the risk of repeating myself, knowing your Cost of Doing Business (CDB) is the single-most important thing any independent businessperson can know. Washington, DC-based photographer John Harrington recently did the math for shooters who may be tempted to work for one of the spec companies like Brightroom, etc. where you shoot major running races and blast away for hours-on-end shooting every single runner.
| Typical Fee | $250 |
| Minus | |
| Wear and tear on camera body | $50 |
| Mileage/Travel | $10 |
| General Overhead* | $20 |
| Taxes | $80 |
| Remainder | $80 |
| *Insurance (car, health, equipment, etc), equipment depreciation, etc. | |
The above assumes that you're using a top-end camera like a D2x where it's economically practical to replace a blown shutter. If you use a lower-tier camera such as a D70 or 30D you would replace the entire camera when the shutter dies. That increases the camera wear and tear figure to $150. That would leave you with a remainder of about minus $10 after taxes. That can't be good.
After charging yourself $10 per hour, you would then have to turn yourself in to the authorities for violating the laws against slavery.
You can create your own "Good" by adapting the updated business forms presented by the good folks at Editorial Photographers.
The Lewiston (ME) Sun Journal for its clumsily constructed rights-grabbing contract.
Maxim Magazine's zero-fee-for-all-rights agreement for its "Hometown Hottie" feature.
Please let me know of any particularly good, bad or ugly dealings that you have had with clients recently. I will use the client's name, but I won't use your name if you don't want me to. Anonymous submissions will not be considered. Please include contact information for yourself and for the client.
LeftoversCourt filings also show that the Times destroyed relevant records in the case after Dallal requested that they be preserved. More to come.