Political Campaign Photography and what to charge

[brianbattenfeld]

Hey guys, I've been asked to shoot a session(about 4 hours, and 4 locations) for a politician running for State Senate. The photos will be used solely in a direct mail campaign(brochure), with the largest being possibly a full 8.5x11 they claim. I've done a bit of commercial stuff, but not a ton, so licensing fees are still tough for me to come up with. I've heard that using Getty's licensing calculator is usually a good start, but at that rate I may end up charging like $10,000+ to license a few images at which point I'm thinking they'll walk. Does anyone have experience with this sort of thing, and if so how do you handle it. Do you hand everything over for a large fee or license the specific images they request. Any input would be great guys.

 

[Paul Farace]

I did considerable shooting in the 80s for senate and even some VP and presidential visits... National Senatorial Finance Committee stuff... what you want to do is develop a relationship with the client... more work in the future as it were... but with four hours and multiple locations it sounds like some of my shoots back in the day... what you need to do is establish a day rate and factor in travel expenses... this is like a big wedding, so charge accordingly. As for copywrite... give it to them with the expectation that you can use them in the future as well. Most of them will be grip-and-grins with locals... but you don't want to kill the goose with the golden eggs over a potential issue with copywrite. You'd be suprised how little interest folks will have in just a few months in the pictures you shoot! Unless something earth shattering occurs and you capture it !!! (God forbid)...
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Holding a camera, any camera, reduces my blood pressure, calms my nerves, and gives me a sense of opportunity!

 

[jimbo68]

A political shoot? Let's see. Put the shoe on the other foot. Charge them $1M, screw up the pictures, blame it on the global situation, then ask them for another $1M. Lastly, never, and I mean never deliver any pictures.

 

[robert214]

lol, and make him stand in front of your desk for hours waiting for service and then inform him he doesn't have the proper paperwork and will have to go get the proper paperwork and return. when he does repeat cycle...........

A political shoot? Let's see. Put the shoe on the other foot. Charge them $1M, screw up the pictures, blame it on the global situation, then ask them for another $1M. Lastly, never, and I mean never deliver any pictures.

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http://rob214.smugmug.com/

 

[Just Some Geek]

In my experience, a really well-funded candidate for State Senate will have a total budget (for mailers, palm cards, signs, media spots, voter data, of about $100k unless the race has national attention; e.g., a highly competitive district in a battleground state, or a hot-button race like the recent ones in Wisconsin. My three state legislators together have about $100k in this cycle. This may vary from state to state, but in most states there are limits on individual and/or PAC contributions.

So when you ask $10k for some headshots and campaign photos, unless there's a union involved somewhere, you can be pretty sure the candidate will walk and find a volunteer who has a DSLR and would love to do something to help other than walking precincts and making phone calls.