axisdj.com

Freelance writing or Photography, which will be your chosen career path. If you love to write it is a cinch to take the accompanying photographs, and if photography is your passion why not write about the things that you are photographing.

As a freelance writer you will get paid a lot more if you include original photographs from your travel assignment. Be sure that your client is willing to pay extra for any photographs attached to your assignment, you don’t want to go to the added expense and risk of carrying an expensive and heavy camera with you if you aren’t going to be paid for the photos.

Adding photographs to your articles adds value, and therefore you should get paid accordingly. Both you and your client will want to be sure that your agreement is in writing and covers all of the contingencies.

Never trust a handshake deal, when you begin to freelance as a writer you are in a business. Trust nothing to memory, only trust a contract, then you can’t go wrong. Time and money are too important to throw away, abide by your contractual constraints, and if your client asks you to do something or go somewhere that isn’t covered in your contract get him to redo your contract before you comply with his wishes.

Location, subject, theme, time span and especially dollars, all this should be set out in writing before you go buying your own ticket for the travel. Sending off an email advising the editor of your fees and conditions won’t do the job, you have to get an email from the client agreeing to your conditions, or offering his own conditions.

If it isn’t in the contract and your client doesn’t like the final outcome he may refuse to pay up simply because it wasn’t in your contract. As a freelance writer you are a self employed contractor, you are a businessman, so be business-like.

Business people get paid for what they do, so if you are going to travel, write about and photograph your subject you have to get paid for it. Freelance writing and photography can have residual benefits, your articles and photos can be sold over and over again, if you keep the copyright. Don’t give your copyright away, it may be worth something in the future.

All professional photographers take lots of photos of the same subject, this is to eliminate the possibility of any mistakes or flaws that may show up when you have left the scene. Why spend unnecessary money going back to the location of the photo shoot just because the pic isn’t quite the way you would like it.

Use a digital camera. With a digital camera you can take as many photographs as you like, you can select the perfect picture when you get home, at your leisure, and discard the rest if you like. But why discard them when you can store them on a disc and keep them for the future.