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Pay Me, and I Won’t Shoot!

The recent kerfuffle between Mike Sorrentino, (aka “The Situation” on the Jersey Shore) and Abercrombie and Fitch, whereby the company offered New Jersey’s second-most-famous Guido (sorry, Mike, but Tony Soprano would never forgive me) money NOT to wear its clothes, got me to thinking.

I’m from New Jersey, I’m obnoxious, and I can often be seen with a six-pack (although I usually carry mine in a brown paper bag). What if I offer my clients the opportunity NOT to shoot for them….for a nice fee?

It’s a brilliant marketing strategy for the new photographic economy. Think about it….It’s pretty much a given that publications, clients, and websites do not want to pay the going rates for experienced content producers…in fact, they’d like to not pay for content at all.

So, if you’re unfashionable enough, how much will they pay you NOT to use your content?

Most publications are desperate for ways to put old-timers out to pasture with the minimum of fuss (and this fall, from what I hear, the pasture stands a good chance of becoming rather full).

Rather than the usual; i.e. letting us drift into obscurity by simply pretending we don’t exist, not returning emails and phone calls, and ignoring story proposals, and then getting lambasted in the photo blogosphere, let’s put a positive spin on it.

Just send the checks, and we’ll promise not to shoot a thing.

In fact, make those checks big enough, and we will deny ever having wielded a camera in the name of any given publication or client.

I know what you’re thinking: this is nuts. It may well be, but it makes about as much sense as shooting for links, sweatin’ your SEO, creating your brand, and all the other career advice I read lately.

So you heard it here first. From another Jersey boy.  If it’s good enough for The Situation, and agri-business, it should be good enough for photographers. Just pay us, and we’ll promise not to shoot for you……

This Post Has 17 Comments

  1. Ian spanier

    19 Aug 2011 Reply

    There’s one way to get my photo of The Situation out there. I shot that in Italy this summer.

    1. Bob Krist

      19 Aug 2011 Reply

      Very cool, Ian!

  2. David G.

    25 Aug 2011 Reply

    I wish someone would pay me not to take thier photo, or not wear their clothes or whatever else they didn’t want me to do. Quite a profit could be made there!

  3. mario

    1 Sep 2011 Reply

    Nice to see your old blog’s back in new clothes, Bob.

  5. Will

    1 Nov 2011 Reply

    Hi Bob, Great to see your blog again! Just having a hard time figuring out how to subscribe…. is there an RSS or something?

    Thanks,

    Will

    1. Bob Krist

      2 Nov 2011 Reply

      Will: I’ll have to look into it. My blog was on that Pixiq site for a while and I really drifted from it. The old one was RSS subscribeable, and I’m sure this one is too…I have to check for you though.

      1. Will

        7 Nov 2011 Reply

        Thanks Bob, glad you ditched Pixiq too.

  6. Shawn

    16 Nov 2011 Reply

    I hope all is well. I miss your regular blog posts.

    1. Bob Krist

      17 Nov 2011 Reply

      Hi Shawn: All is well, but I’ve been really wrapped up with some video projects. Not sure if I’m going to take up the blog seriously again…it’s a lot of work. But if I do, it’ll probably have a more “this is what I’m learning in HDSLR video” tone to it. Thanks for your concern and comment! Bob

      1. Shawn

        21 Nov 2011 Reply

        That is understandable, I could see where a blog could turn into a full time job. Look what happened to Mr. Hobby You are putting out high level content and that takes time. If you have time, it would be nice to know if you make any major gear changes or if you have any books coming out. Thanks Bob, Happy Holidays!
        Shawn.

  7. eugene

    21 Jan 2012 Reply

    Can you give me your opinion on the nikon d 7000 as a pro camera?

  8. Eduardo S

    11 Feb 2012 Reply

    Hi Bob, just write to say I really like your blog, I´ve beeing visiting before you joined pixiq, it was nice to see how you work and all you had to say. Hope you keep up make great stuff.

  9. Mike

    14 Feb 2012 Reply

    Getting paid not to wear something. What a great concept! Still waiting for my 15 minutes so I can land deals like that.

  10. les wollam

    6 Mar 2012 Reply

    bob–
    sure, i’d like to be paid for not shooting, but i have a different view on going for search engine placement. i’m a photographer in dallas, and over half of my business, money-wise, comes from companies outside of dallas who are looking for a shooter in north texas. without good search engine placement, they would never find me, and much of my business would evaporate. it’s been bad enough that google has recently decided that when people are searching for ‘dallas photographer’, which i used to rank #1 on p.1, those people are really searching for a wedding photographer. hence my now being p.3 #1. an unfindable place. fortunately, i still rank high for ‘dallas architectural photographer’ and the like. but with little access to ny, search engines are a major source of business for me and i have to pay attention to them.
    thanks for hearing me out.
    Dallas Photographer Les Wollam

  11. Kevin

    2 Sep 2012 Reply

    Mr Krist . I always enjoy reading your post and listening to interviews with you . This post is GREAT and made me laugh like crazy on a day I really needed.

    Thanks Happy shooting

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