If you want me to work for trade I'll give you the phone numbers of  my mortgage company, my electric company, and my cable company.  If you can get them to accept your products for my bills then we have a deal!

The first, Refill My Milk, is copied from a message from SportsShooter.com member Michael Granse.  It relates buying product in a grocery store with buying a photograph.  Many times a photographer sells a photograph to a magazine or some other editorial publisher with 'one time use' publication rights.  That is, they are paying to USE your photo one time.  They are not buying the photograph outright.  However, many feel that by buying a photograph it gives them the right to copy and use it as many times as they like, for whatever they like.  Read on:

"I ran out of milk last night. I was thirsty for milk, so I went to the grocery store with my empty jug and asked to exchange it for a jug that had milk in it.

The customer service agent looked at me and said, "that will be $2.75 please."

I was in absolute shock. "I bought that jug last week," I replied, "and I would like to continue using it. I drank some with a cookie last night, used some to make alfredo sauce this afternoon, and tonight I just wanted to have a glass of milk and it was EMPTY! Just refill it please."

"I'm sorry, I can't do that," she answered, a bit irritated with me at this point. "This is a business, and we can not simply give milk away to people because they want to use it for various things."

I don't usualy do this, but when I heard that it was going to cost me MORE money for a SECOND use of a milk jug that I had ALREADY purchased, something in me just broke.

"YOU GUYS ARE HOLDING MILK HOSTAGE!!!!!!" I proclaimed, and was promptly tackled by two cashiers, an off-duty cop, and this old lady who hit me with her cane and said something to me that I never thought I would hear from a Grandmother.

The lesson I learned was that expecting payment for one's product is not the same thing as "holding the product hostage." I plan on pleading insanity to the disorderly conduct charge, and think that I have a good chance of beating it."

Second is a little more blunt and two the point:

"I would work for credit in the magazine.
Then for some reason my credit card companies started to want to get paid.

My family was hungry.

Now I will not give them away , I will work wih the publication to work something out but I need to be paid.

Trade is great if they have something I want.
But a credit in a magazine, is not trade."

And lastly, but certainly not least, something submitted by Charles Nardone:

In recent weeks, I've been asked twice to publish on credit.  Credit being 'credit for the photo'.  In both cases the editor contacted me with the usual 'we just don't have the budget for photos'.  Something that photographers discuss to death because we hear it so often.   If you have a budget to pay yourself, if you have a budget to pay for printing, distribution, etc....then you have a budget for photos. 

In a similar scenario I've been asked to 'lower your prices please'.  Let's break this down with an example

$$$ invested in gear to take sports action shots in less than ideal lighting situations = $3000+

# of years of experience learning skills and developing style = 20+

# of hours spent constantly glued to an eyepiece waiting for the shot = 2-3 hours

# of hours culling, cropping, tweaking, uploading photos after each game= 1-2 hours

To simplify: Most people think (price of photo)-(printing cost of photo)=profit

And since WallyWorld 4x6' costs 19 cents, my profit must be $4.80 for each one.

Ooops....forgot to add in those 3-5 hours of actually Making the photos.  Oh, and those years of experience, and the equipment.  What? You don't think you should be paying for my equipment?  Ok, when you hire a backhoe to move some earth for you aren't you paying for the use of equipment?

What it all boils down to is that it seems that people take advantage of the love for making pictures that most professional photographers have.  Find a job that you love and you'll never work a day in your life is what they say.  But, as stated above, we still have to feed our families, and pay our credit cards.

Photographers don't 'take' photos, we 'make' photos.