Toronto Photography Meetup Group

can you take my old school VW Jetta's pics for a lunch. lol (hey i'm not asking it for free, right?)
I'll make sure I'll use the pics on "MY" Flickr and on "MY" website and give you a credit. )



I second that. you gotta get paid for your work.
I loved the Bimmer shots...

IF I were you, I wouldnt close the doors with them, but i'll make sure my work is a lot more valuable than what they can get it for free from other people.

That's rather mean spirited. They're just trying to get something for cheap. If you don't want to entertain their offer, then politely refuse. No need to waste your time and their time with a mean-spirited stunt like this. I imagine they'd be rather angry if you did that.
They have a right to lowball - you have a right to refuse. Maybe they'll come back with a better offer.

lowballers coming back with a better offer?

There are attempts to get something cheap, and then there are insults. Saying that there are plenty of people who'll do it for free, when trying to get someone to take your shots, is an insult.

I doubt they intend it as an insult. They are stating a fact. There ARE plenty of people who'll do it for free. You may suspect that is an intended insult.
You may be wrong.
You may lose a potential counter-offer.
And do you think for the price of a free lunch it is worth an hour of yours and others people's lives to generate a few crappy shots with a P&S on Auto? To what end? Would you do that just because you perceived you were insulted? I wouldn't. Personally, I'd politely refuse and move one.
I seriously doubt that would then cause a lowballer to up the ante and pay the wanted rate. In the end you'd have no contract, a few hours of wasted time and several pissed off people.

I would have to agree.

Most people don't know the price of photography. They know a lot of people with cameras and are amateurs who just want practice.

I wouldn't take it as an insult, rather as ignorance. It's the same situation for wedding photographers also.

I definitely second that!

Like to have more details. How many flyers are going out, how prominent would be your spot advertising your services be on the flyer and what is the likely that advertising on the flyer would get you business. Look at it as a business deal if the return is not worth the effort then tell them your price and move on.

definitely not worth to shoot for free even they print my name on their flyers.. they also want modeling shots too, eff that.. if they found a guy who can provide same quality of my work, i would love to shake their hands (and the photographer's hand as well)

Many people make statements that they don't perceive as being insulting due to their ignorance, and I don't mean ignorance in the 'good' way. There's "low ball" and there's "no ball."

I'm not the one who said that I would do a half-assed job if presented with that sort of ultimatum. I'm the one who said that he'd request the people involved lose my number. What sort of "counter offer" do you give to FREE? None. You move on, as you said, and let them find someone who will do it for their stated price.

I browsed through your flickr profile and the quality of the work is definitely worth more than "free".

But I understand from where they're coming from, car clubs don't have any sort of income, most of their events/meets are sponsored, so they have a pretty tight budget to work with, and commissioning a photographer might not be the first on their list.

Considering how much most car club members spend on customizing their vehicles, I'm sure if they got together and pooled some money they could easily afford the services of a photographer.

Having said that, they obviously don't value the photography high enough in their list of priorities to plunk down cash on it, which is fine. That's their perogative.

Agreed. Move on. No point in the negativity created by doing a half-arsed P&S shot.
Sorry, I know you didn't suggest doing a half-arsed job. I assumed you thought it was a good idea. My bad.

indeed, infact i do have clients who paid me decent money to get few shots of their customized vehicles...

No worries

With that said though, Itsaphoto has some very nice poster shots that he's done for people of their cars over the years, that he can sometimes be persuaded to bring out at meets. They were taken with an Olympus C8080 P&S. Well bridge camera, I suppose, but not a SLR.

A car group with a hundred members, each chipping in $5.00, could get some decent work done for a brochure or poster.