New Photography Gig

Well I just got back from my meeting with the Publication Director & Lead Graphics Designer of the local newspaper (The Stockton Record). I've just been offered a freelance photographer gig for their special section publications. There are two publications that I will be mainly working on. "Home Life" which is a quarterly full color magazine glossy which deals with home and garden subjects and "Elegant Lifestyles" which is a bi-monthly full color glossy magazine which is labeled "The Central Valley's Luxury Magazine", it is a direct mail piece that is targeted to the high-end market. My work will entail taking pictures at "scene-and-be-seen" events and product/display shots of various business/people/homes/​items.

They have already started booking me for projects, this weekend I'm covering a "Pet Couture" boutique with dressed up doggies and the such. In a couple weeks I'll be working at the Gallo Art Center grand opening ($1,000+ plate black-tie charity event). They said that they should be able to keep me pretty busy.

The standard contract that I am looking over says that I will be paid $100/hr for the first hour and then $50/hour thereafter for all projects. All images will be joint copyrighted and I'll have an expense account to deal with gas/lodging/travel/etc​.

I'm pretty excited...wish me luck!!!

Heck yeah I will wish you luck and congradulate you on landing a decent sounding gig. If you don't already have some, get some cards printed up with your name. Who knows you may drum up some side work from some of the gigs.

Congratulations! Sounds like a variety of experiences (in other words: Never bored).

Thanks for all your well wishes!

I have plenty of business cards printed...side work would always be good!

sounds great matt, congrats, contract work always trumps freelance

Congrats, but one word of warning.

The thing that stands out at me is the "joint copyright" thing. Remember, if they own the copyright (even jointly) they can do whatever they want with the photo whenever they want. That means they can re-sell or license the image as they see fit and get paid for it.

I would hammer out a contract stating exactly what the joint copyright entails, so that you either have say it what is being done with the image and/or stating how you get paid for future uses and sales that the paper might arrange. They will be in a much stronger position to peddle your image around and you dont want them taking all the credit if you still are the partial owner of the image. In other words, you might as well not own the copyright at all imo.

Hammer out a contract stating what the joint thing means, who has what rights and who and how they'll be paid when/if the photo is used down the road.

Well I'm two gigs in and everything is running swimmingly! I did a scene-and-be-seen event one evening and the photo assignment for the pet couture article (7 billable hours total). They are more-than-happy with the images and will continue to give me first shot at all the assignments. Thanks again for all the well-wishes!